Jump for the Moon

Jump for the Moon

Patricia Leitch

Patricia Leitch

The circus where Shantih came from is back in the area, and Jinny is convinced that somehow, they will demand her Arab mare back. Her family think she's being ridiculous, as usual. Jinny is torn apart by the very idea of losing Shantih to the circus. She can't understand why the new girl at school, Nick, doesn't seem to care that she has to sell her beloved jumping pony after her parents' divorce. Slowly, Jinny comes to understand that just because you can't see an emotion, it doesn't mean it isn't there. But in the end, it is not the circus that threatens what Jinny loves most.
Read online
  • 689
First Pony

First Pony

Patricia Leitch

Patricia Leitch

The pony was so poor that although she still had her thick winter coat Sandy could have counted all her ribs. The knobs of her backbone stuck up like a ridge and the bones of her quarters were huge and angular under her harsh skin. Sandy loves riding, even though she lives in a town and rides through the urban streets aren't the most thrilling thing she's ever done. Now she's moving to the country, and she's getting a present: at last, a pony. And she starts living the dream, trying out ponies, wondering if this one will be the one for her–but none of them are. Then she meets Tarka, skin and bone after a cold winter out. Sandy has to save her. She buys Tarka, but that's when the dream starts to go wrong. Tarka is very sick; so sick she might die. Can Sandy and Tarka win through? Hunting was legal when this book was written, and there is a hunting scene in it.
Read online
  • 656
Riding Course Summer

Riding Course Summer

Patricia Leitch

Patricia Leitch

All Ann wants is to ride. She does ride her friend Angy's pony, Ladybird, and has the occasional ride at Mr Winton's stables, but none of it has made her a good rider. Looking round at the people she knows, none of them are any good either. Ann and Angy decide to do something about it. They'll start a riding club. This is a reprint of the classic 1960s story. It's a brilliant feel-good read, and if you want transporting to a world where all you had to worry about was learning to ride better, this is the book for you.
Read online
  • 633
Night of the Red Horse

Night of the Red Horse

Patricia Leitch

Patricia Leitch

Secretly, Jinny was afraid of the Horse. There was a strangeness about it, a power. Something is happening to the red horse mural on Jinny's bedroom wall. At night it haunts Jinny. Terrified, too terrified to sleep, she tries to escape the stalking horror of the red horse, filling her life with anything that will stop her thinking about it. Sue and Pippen are back on the moors, and together they go to visit a dig. The archaeologists are searching for traces of a Celtic pony cult. Even the dig does not prove the distraction Jinny craves. The red horse is still there, and it wants something from Jinny. Can she find the answer to stop the terror of the red horse?
Read online
  • 588
Chestnut Gold

Chestnut Gold

Patricia Leitch

Patricia Leitch

The sides of the pass towered above the cavalcade of ponies and riders. Jinny, on Shantih, led the way. As a stir of wind cleared the path before them, Jinny felt her flesh clutch at her bones in fear. The man in black was walking ahead of them. He was only visible for a second and then the curtains of mist swept back again, hiding the figure from her sight. Jinny thought the holidays were going to be bliss, with her friend Sue coming to stay. The trek across the moors with Miss Tuke to take part in filming was supposed to be fun, a chance for Jinny and Sue to do what they like best: ride, and talk of horses. But Sue has changed, and she's interested in other things. The appearances of the man in black do not help. Jinny's Arab mare, Shantih, welcomes him, but Jinny wants nothing more than to gallop as far away from him as she can. It's clear there is something he wants to communicate to her. Jinny is far too terrified to listen.
Read online
  • 516
Ride Like the Wind

Ride Like the Wind

Patricia Leitch

Patricia Leitch

Nothing is easy for Jinny this summer. Her father's book has failed to sell, and Nell is shutting the shop where the family sells their pottery. Without a solid income, the Manders family might have to go back to Stopton. If that happens, Finmory must be sold, and Jinny's Arab mare, Shantih, will have to go too. Someone wants to buy Finmory: Mr Dalton, visiting the Highlands for the summer with his family. Jinny meets them when she's invited to learn cross country with Mr Dalton's step-daughter, Kat. Kat says she's keen to learn, but Jinny can see she's terrified, despite her wonderful horse. Jinny doesn't understand why Kat is so desperate to please her step-father, or why he's so cruel to Kat. Jinny is desperate to save Finmory and everything she loves, and as life changes, she comes to understand more about what makes people the way they are.
Read online
  • 445
Cross Country Pony

Cross Country Pony

Patricia Leitch

Patricia Leitch

Cynically Harold regarded me, a gleam in his wicked little eyes. I was absolutely at his mercy. It was merely a question of what he decided to do with me. Jinty and her sisters have set up a pets' holiday home. It's the only way they can think of to make enough money to buy their very own pony. When Harold turns up, they think their dreams have come true: a real life pony for them to look after, and they'll get paid for doing it. Harold bucks. He objects to traffic. He hates gymkhanas. He far prefers life in a nice green field. But there is one thing that Harold can do. Show him a cross country course and he is off. Can Jinty persuade Harold that he can do just as well at gymkhanas as he can cross country? This is a reprint of the 1960s original, and is one of Patricia Leitch's earlier books. If you like ponies with a mind of your own, then Harold is the pony for you.
Read online
  • 376


Dream of Fair Horses

Dream of Fair Horses

Patricia Leitch

Patricia Leitch

'In all my life, I had never seen anything as beautiful as this grey pony ... ' Gill Caridia and her family are on the move. Gill's father writes the sort of book that literary papers love, but which few people actually buy. And then he writes a detective story that sells so well he buys back the house in the countryside where he grew up. It means change for all the children, but for Gill it means the chance to find horses, and not just horses but to ride at Wembley. But Gill learns that no dream comes without cost. This passionate and vivid story, which takes Gill from the age of 11 to 13, looks at what it really means to own something.
Read online
  • 339
Running Wild

Running Wild

Patricia Leitch

Patricia Leitch

Shantih, Jinny's chestnut Arab mare, has to wait in a field until Jinny arrives back on the school bus and rides her back to Finmory. Fit and bored, she jumps out. What, thinks Jinny, can she do to keep her horse interested? And what can she do to try and save the Wilton museum, where she painted the mural of the glorious golden horses? It is to be demolished. Miss Tuke tells Jinny all about a long distance ride, ideally suited to Shantih, for Arabs are the best type of horse for endurance. But Clare Burnley, Jinny's nemesis from a few summers ago, is back in the area, with a brand new horse bought just to take part in the endurance event. Clare is just as dismissive of Jinny as she was when they first met; just as rude about Shantih. Jinny is determined to show Clare just how good Shantih is. And in the end, she finds a way to save the golden horses.
Read online
  • 287
Jump to the Top

Jump to the Top

Patricia Leitch

Patricia Leitch

Jacky knows that the ponies at Miss Henderson's riding school aren't much good. They're old, and they're underfed, but one is different. The black mare, Flicka, is ready to take on the world, and Jacky's dearest dream is to do it with her. But the riding school is to be sold, and all the ponies are going to auction. Jacky wants to buy Flicka more than she's ever wanted anything, but she has to find the money from somewhere first. And even if she does buy the pony, with Miss Henderson gone, how will Jacky manage to school Flicka?
Read online
  • 282
For Love of a Horse

For Love of a Horse

Patricia Leitch

Patricia Leitch

Horses, ponies and foals. Horses, ponies and foals. Jinny and her family are moving from inner city Stopton to the Scottish Highlands. Everything will be different. Jinny's father will make pots and write, and for Jinny there must be horses. 'Horses, ponies and foals' she writes on the steamed up window of their Stopton home. 'Horses, ponies and foals.' And then there is a horse. On the way up to their new house, the family go to a circus. Yasmin the Killer Horse is the star attraction, a terrified chestnut Arab mare, bullied by the ringmaster. Jinny flings herself into the ring to stop him, but the mare belongs to the circus, and not her. There seems nothing she can do to save the horse. After an accident lets the horse escape onto the moors. Jinny is desperate to catch her. The thin-skinned Arab cannot possibly survive the Highland winter, and it's getting ever closer. But Shantih, as Jinny calls her, does not want to be caught. She trusts no one and...
Read online
  • 256
Gallop to the Hills

Gallop to the Hills

Patricia Leitch

Patricia Leitch

Can Jinny save Kelly? Jinny finally gets to visit Lady Gilbert's Arab stud, and she's given a commission to paint some of the horses. There is something about Ralph Gilbert, Lady Gilbert's son, that spooks Jinny, and she's even more sure there's something odd about the strange dogs kept on the estate. There's something else Jinny is worried about – more than worried. Ken has gone to the Netherlands to learn pottery at the feet of a master, and his dog, Kelly, keeps going missing. Sheep are being savaged on the moors, and the local farmers are convinced it's Kelly. Can Jinny save Kelly from being destroyed? And solve the mystery of the strange creatures on the Gilbert estate?
Read online
  • 224
The Horse From Black Loch

The Horse From Black Loch

Patricia Leitch

Patricia Leitch

It was a being from a lost age, proud, powerful and alien ... Kay and her cousins are on their way to Deersmalen House in the Highlands of Scotland. It's the first time they've been to their ancestral home. Life there is like nothing they've ever known: Highland ponies, treks across the moors, and then The Horse. How could anyone want to trap something so wonderful? Set in 1960s Scotland, this swirling together of fantasy and adventure is one of Patricia Leitch's earliest books.
Read online
  • 129
155