Me too - I absolutely LIVED for that win-a-pony competition, and I was absolutely sure one year that I must have won with my sparkling answer to the "I want to win a pony because...." question. I used to lie in bed and plan out the rides I would go on.

So, pony-book-loving readers, which of the Pullein-Thompson sisters wrote the best books?  Christine for me. Snaffles and stirrups all round...

which of the Pullein-Thompson sisters wrote the best books?

Oh dear - I'm afraid I haven't re-read many of theirs, and after so long I now have them totally mixed up. They were both good.

Dianna, Josephine and Christine? Haven't read the complete works by a long shot but the favorites are on my desk now would be Josephine's PonyClub series- the dinky love story with Noel and What's his name(?) and Christine's Phantom horse ones - I only have two by Dianna by the looks of it. Jane Badger has done a book in the last year or so about the genre which I treated self to and I enjoy- I have always loved the art work from the very early hard backs  as much as the stories so shelves are groaning a bit with very chunky old jobs like The Morland Mousie series and Midnight Steeple Chase which is excellent- I did once take my original mare across country at night to get to a milking on a farm a few miles away when my car broke down- no tack just the torch and a rope hc I didn't realise I even knew that poem 'Watch the wall my darling while the smugglers go by!' ( RKipling?) and tormented self with half remembered scenes from Moonfleet!  We didn't hang about! I was convinced someone would set dogs out on me! Still we did it and got the job done and then had to scramble home- no way would I have done that without reading that story till the pages came loose!
I think my all time 'by the bed' story is Bracken Horse by Gareth Dale which is probably a true story of him buying a remote Welsh hill farm and a bunch of wild cobs and breaking them a long time before any 'Natural Horsemanship' techniques came along and people and horses worked together- even before I got this place the solitude and the gritty task he set himself hugely appealed and in later years as I was fighting it out  with some pony or other and face down in the dirt or being bent nine ways to sunset trying to hang on- especially when I trained Fig to harness(Think Harry Potter car flying towards womping willow...) I would read Gareth's old book and 'regroup'! Now I get my Parelli or Monty Robert kit on and do it the easier way! How Dee pardner and all that jaz!
Blimey the sun is up- now you can see why I stopped following Jane's brilliant web site HUGELY distracting! Sadly my wretched neighbour collard us about helping with his blasted hedge and we were too dumb founded to say no so instead of riding one or both of my own hard won ponies today I shall be up a tree and tomorrow I start contract sheparding for a few weeks which I am really looking forward to probably as close to a holiday as I get!

I finished Sue Townsend's 'Public confessions of a middle-aged woman'.

Well, why not?

Dianna, Josephine and Christine?

Oh yes - there were three of them ... I remember now.

You know MC, you're really inspiring me to get back on a horse. I've been meaning to for ages.

Have fun if you do - don't let me inspire you though- I am  generally viewed as bonkers!