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Please recommend books for horse-crazy daughter.


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She is particularly interested in books from the horse's perspective, although we'll take anything. We already know about Black Beauty. I never went through a horse phase myself, so I am at a loss.

 

We are probably looking for roughly 4th-6th grade reading level. Anything that isn't "teen" is probably okay.

 

Thanks!

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My Friend Flicka is part of a trilogy: My Friend Flicka, Thunderhead, and The Green Grass of Wyoming.

 

Dorothy Lyons wrote a bunch of horse books. They tend to be pretty romanticized, girl-and-her-horse books, but they weren't bad. They were written in the 50s and might be difficult to find in many libraries.

 

I read The Little White Horse the first time because of the title, but it really isn't a horse book, which doesn't matter, because it should be on the top of every person's must-read list, along with The Chestry Oak (which also has a horse in it, but it isn't really a horse book) and Understood Betsy (which doesn't really have a horse in it at all, but I digress...). Anyway, the first few pages of The Little White Horse are the most difficult to get through as a read-aloud, IMHO; it's worth it if you can stick with it.

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All the Margeurite Henry books - this could keep you busy for awhile - the Misty series, but King of the Wind too, definitely

 

The Black Stallion series - there are about 20+ of those, too.

 

The My Friend Flicka trilogy, yep.

 

A Horse Called Dragon

 

War Horse

 

She would probably love the WP Equine Science curriculum.

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In addition to the books listed, we've also enjoyed listening to Blood Red Horse by K.M Grant. It combines horses and history. It is not from the horse's perspective, but is about a horse named Hosanna who joins the Crusades with his owner William Granville during the age of Richard the Lionheart. We've listened to the first of the trilogy thus far. Interestingly it gets better reviews on Amazon.co.uk than on .com.

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If you don't mind that it isn't good literature (just easy reads), my girls can whip through the Pony Pals books pretty fast. They've read a few Saddle Club books, too, although I haven't pre-read any of them, so I don't know how 'teen' they are. (Note that in that link, there is at least one 'Saddle Club' book that is listed but is NOT part of the series.  :smilielol5: You'll see what I mean.)

 

They've read pretty much all the others on this thread & more . . . When they were younger (7-8), they liked the Magic Pony Carousel books. Again, not great literature . . . 

 

Mine two oldest are just as horse crazy as I was, so I understand. My dd#2 just got a horse-lovers-girl book, but I'll have to find it & add it later. I have no idea what it was called, only that it had crafts, book suggestions, horse terminology, and stuff for if-you-actually-have-a-horse as well as being just fine if you didn't. 

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Fly-by-Night is a wonderful horse story about a young girl who buys her own horse and learns how to take care of it.

My favorite is probably National Velvet, but there's dialect and lots of vocab in it. If you can help her with it, it's fantastic.

I'd say maybe fifth-seventh grade reading level.

 

The Horsemasters is also one of my favs. It's about a senior in high school who undergoes training to get her Horsemaster's cert in England, hoping to apply to college and work her way thru school. It's really nicely done.

Finally, Blaze is about a horse who goes thru several stages of life, almost like BBeauty. First, he's a fire horse, then gets sold after an accident to a neglectful/abusive flower cart driver, then gets rehabilitated. Wonderful story, Scholastic book, prob fourth grade RL.

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All the Margeurite Henry books - this could keep you busy for awhile - the Misty series, but King of the Wind too, definitely

 

The Black Stallion series - there are about 20+ of those, too.

 

The My Friend Flicka trilogy, yep.

 

A Horse Called Dragon

 

War Horse

 

She would probably love the WP Equine Science curriculum.

I'm not a big fan of War Horse, which struck me as overly sentimentalized (WWI is a passion at our house and I've visited many of the sites on the Western Front, so it's not just an issue with the period).

 

Billy and Blaze books are nice, but might be too easy.  The author/illustrator C. W. Anderson also illustrated a  collection of horse stories.

 

I remember really liking A Horse Called Dragon, but haven't seen a copy since elementary school in the 1970s.

 

Margeurite Henry's lesser known books really were good reads.  King of the Wind, Black Gold, White Stallion of Lipizza (did you know Patton had a hand in saving these horses after the war?), Gaudenzia: Pride of the Palio (I think this is also titled: The Wildest Horse Race in the World) were all favorite books of my childhood.

 

I read a lot of the Walter Farley books, but they do run together (and I think this is one of those series where the books were written by someone else after his death, so quality drops).

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The only recommendations I would make that I didn't notice already listed would be Ralph Moody's Little Britches series.  They're not from the horse's perspective but they're about ranching with horses.  His book about Sea Biscuit (not part of the Little Britches Series) is available on audio so we listened to it on a vacation driving all over our state.

 

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Horse Diaries series by Catherine Hapka and Ruth Sanderson.  These are written from the perspective of the horse and could be considered historical fiction!

 

Oldest read Bell's Star by Allison Hart a couple of years ago, which is one of the books in this series. At the time, however, I didn't realize there were more of them. Thanks for mentioning them!

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The second and third books in the My Friend Flicka series (Thunderhead and The Green Grass of Wyoming)  have more mature content. You might want to pre-read. 

I enjoyed them as a teen, but wouldn't give them to my 8yo dd. 

 

 

Great thread. Thanks for starting it! 

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Black Horses for the King

I Rode a Horse of Milk White Jade (both probably best read aloud)

almost every Marguerite Henry book (my personal favorite is King of the Wind)

National Velvet

Meet Felicity

Robert the Rose Horse (probably too young for her, but so cute. DD loved it when she was little)

Susan Jeffers has a couple of picture books about horses, My Pony and My Chincoteague Pony, which DD still likes

Smoky the Cowhorse (my mom's favorite when she was a kid, she was horse-crazy, too)

 

I haven't read the following, but they look good:

Riding Freedom

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (DD loves the movie)

Horse Tales

Meet Saige

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What IS it about girls and horses, anyway?

Even those of us who aren't lucky enough to have one, are still horse crazy...

 

Or think they are, anyway.   LOL!!   One of my dds thought she loved horses, wanted horse back riding lessons, the whole deal.    Then we went to a horse farm to check it out and she left there "unenchanted" with real deal, but still loved the distant relationship.  ;)

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- Mr. Revere and I (Lawson)

- Horse Heroes (Petty)

- The Black Stallion; Island Stallion (also involves a secret island!); Man O War (Farley)

 

 

These are also interesting, but may be too young of a reading level:

- Five True Horse Stories (Davison)

- Man O'War (Mckerly)

- Horse Named Seabiscuit (Duvowski)

 

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LOL, my dd was pretty "unenchanted the first time she had to swab down a muddy horse who'd been rolling in her very dirty paddock. Her 4-H horse leader figured if they survived grooming and stable-cleaning, THEN they were ready to commit to riding. DD thinks horse smell is the BEST perfume; I prefer mine from a distance!

 

Brilliant woman!!  ;)   Should be posted in every stable......mucking out stalls expertise is a prerequisite for all beginning lessons.  :)    Then you know it is true love.   :)

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