Review: JOSEPHINE - Six Ponies

Six Ponies is this week's book. It has a special place in many people's hearts: firstly it is Josephine's first book (published in 1946) and secondly it is the first in the ever popular West Barsetshire series, or more commonly known as the "Noel and Henry" series. For this reason I have labelled as both.

Six Ponies is a rather long book, and when Collins republished it under their Pony Library series, and also Armada and Swift, they cut it quite significantly. Consequently, until recently, a first edition with full text and original illustration had been quite hard and expensive. Fortunately, Fidra Books in 2007 in their wisdom have republished it in it's entirety. In 2019 Jane Badger also released it in it's entirety meaning that now everyone can have a full story at a reasonable price.

The edition I have used in this review is the Fidra one (the one with the blue border). If anyone is unfamiliar with Fidra's style, they always have some sort of introduction, where possible, it is written by the author. Sadly due to Josephine's ill health she could not complete one, although she has written one for Fidra's other works: We Met Our Cousins and London Pride (by their mother: Joanna Cannan). So before the main story there is a short biography by Vanessa Robertson (owner of Fidra) and an article about the "Noel and Henry" series by Jane Badger (of Jane Badger books).

I will deal with the article first, then the story.

The article begins with a bit of social history about riding in the 1920's and the 1930's, useful as most people reading any P-T books (and even some of Joanna Cannan's books) will be unfamiliar with "backwards" seat, as they have never seen it. This is often referred to in the P-T's early works, particularly Josephine's. It also details many influential books, particularly Equitation, a book by Henry Wynmalen (ironically enough they appeared an 1941 edition of Riding Magazine describing a pony called Cocktail which Henry Wynmalen also wrote an article comparing the car and the horse). This book greatly influenced the P-T sisters.

The article goes on to describe the book's characters, not only their riding but also their temperament. Not just in Six Ponies, but throughout the whole series.

It also compares other well known books, and also the schooling side of things: Josephine's books are (with a couple of exceptions) famous for being instructional. Jane comments:

"However, although pony books can easily turn into didactic tomes (J M Berrisford's A Pony In The Family bieng an example of the didactic unrelieved by either humour or plot) there is more than enough wit and character in the Noel and Henry books to make them eminently readable: we can appreciate Noel's improvement without understanding precisely how she does it."

The entire article can be found on Jane's website (link on the right if viewing this on a PC or tablet). 

The blurb reads (of the Fidra Books edition):-

When six members of the West Barsetshire Pony Club each take on the challenge of breaking in a New Forest Pony they have little idea of what they will encounter. They have to teach them to wear a saddle and bridle, to carry a rider, to jump fences and behave quietly in traffic. Then, they have to ride them in a competition to see who has done the best. Who will do the best? June Cresswell who has an expensive pony and rides in every competition: John who has no-one to help him; the Radcliffes who shout and quarrel and live in the whirl of their huge family; Susan who has a groom and hardly looks after her pony herself; or shy, dreamy Noel? The first book in Josephine Pullein-Thompson's series about the West Barsetshire Pony Club, Six Ponies introduces some of her most memorable characters and brilliantly captures the highs and lows of schooling a young pony.

and the Armada (second image) edition's blurb reads:-

Six New Forest ponies to break in and school with a year to do it in! The members of the Pony Club can hardly believe their luck when Major Holbrooke chooses them for the job.

Besides the excitement of gymkhanas, rallies and paperchases, this is an added challenge. Will they have enough spirit and determination to tackle it? Their enthusiasm sometimes wears think with bolting ponies, refusals and even broken bones.

Yet by the year's end, the children have gained the upper hand, and their six perfectly-schooled ponies are the envy of all!

The other books in the Noel and Henry/West Barsetshire Pony Club series are: The Radney Riding Club, Pony Club Team, One Day Event and Pony Club Camp. The books Pony Club Cup,
Pony Club Challenge and Pony Club Trek do not belong to this series: instead they belong to a different Pony Club (see Woodbury Pony Club tag).


This book was Josephine's first solo book and is widely regarded to be one of her best.
It's good that the publishers have decided to republish it again, this one is in it's entirety, as unfortunately all paperback editions prior to this were drastically cut. Who can argue when the only other way to get the full story, was to purchase a first edition, which is considerably more expensive than this one.
It's the story of 6 children who are given 6 young ponies to train, with a competition at the end to see who has trained them the best. The author is well known for combining training instructions, with stories about ponies, and this one does not disappoint. The trials and tribulations of training youngsters is a key part to the story, but there are some incidents there to give some humour (such as when the pony steals the apples off the greengrocer's cart).

That's not to say that the characters do not have their faults. The first Pony Club Rally (which sets the scene) the children are useless. When they are told that six ponies are to broken in by members of the Pony Club there is much criticism of each other (both by members and their mothers) over who is going to ruin their pony. This turns quite catty at times. It makes not the easiest of reading for some people. 

Although originally written over 50 years ago, it's appeal has not been lost, and should be on every pony mad girl's shelf, and every collector should have one on their shelf. Even if you aren't a pony mad girl (or a parent of one), it is written so wonderfully well that an adult who likes to train ponies should read this, although it is meant as a story the quality is so excellent it could be used as a training aid!
This book also has an introduction which covers the rest of the series, and details about the characters and the background to the book. An excellent read, and should be considered a great classic.

The ending is somewhat bittersweet but generally satisfying. I recommend getting an copy of this book, preferably the full text.