Mrs Van Cutler's opinion is worth having, says the Major to his nephew, Henry. But Mrs Van Cutler did not like Henry's dressage test, not at all. "Oh lord," said Henry. "Have you ever seen so many fours?" Major Holbrooke offers to do a course for Henry and the Pony Club to improve their generally dismal performances, but it will be an eventing course and not just dressage. And at the end, there will be a One Day Event.

Adonis was so beautiful he must surely be a prince among ponies... But he is not. At least, that's what Sara and Patrick are told when they go to visit the Merrimans, who own Adonis. The pony spends his life in a field, but Patrick and Sara are convinced that he is not the rogue he is painted. The only way they can think of to rehabilitate Adonis without horrifying every adult around is to ride him in secret, and that brings its own problems.

Major Holbrooke's friends challenge him to prove that the West Barsetshire Pony Club can improve. The only way of making sure that they do is by taking them back to basics and running a course for them: it's dressage all the way. Nothing runs smoothly, of course, and when the Major's nephew, Henry, arrives, sparks fly. Henry has good points, but he certainly keeps them well hidden.

"I don't want to spend the Easter holidays grooming a beastly muddy pony." When Christabel's father says "All right" to this, she doesn't expect that anything will happen. But it does. He sells her ponies. Christabel gets over it pretty quickly, but then she goes to stay with the Westlakes while her parents are away. It's never fun when you realise that people don't think very much of you, and the worst of it is, Christabel begins to agree with them. And she comes to bitterly regret selling her ponies. But will she ever be able to find them again? In a pre-internet age, it's not easy.

The Conways have lived at Charnworth all their lives, and they love it. They love the farm, and the estate where their father is the land agent. But now Lord Charnworth has died, and the estate has been sold to a Mr Smithson, a financier from the city. The family know that things can't possibly stay the same, but Mr Smithson seems determined to listen to strident modernising voices, and not their father, and the relationship between him and Mr Conway deteriorates by the day. But the Conways are determined to fight back, with the help of their mysterious new friend, Nick.

The last glorious swansong of the West Barsetshire Pony Club sees the Major run a camp for the Pony Club members. Noel and Henry have now left school and have returned as instructors to deal with the loose and the runaway, and that's just the ponies. The Pony Club members are even worse. Pony Club Camp is filled with extraordinarily vivid characters who will stay with you long after you finish the book. And it ends on a note that has tantalised readers ever since the book was published.

No one seems to like the Esmond family. "I've never known such a family of selfish, quarrelling, bad-mannered children," says their father. The Pony Club DC isn't a fan. "You don't seem to take any trouble over your riding, or your ponies," he says. "Do your parents make you ride?" They don't. The Esmonds love riding. They love their ponies, but somehow it's all gone wrong. They were nicer people when they didn't have much money, thinks Lewis, the oldest of the family. Now they have everything they ever wanted but it doesn't seem to have helped their characters. Surely it's not that hard not to quarrel? To put some effort into their riding? There are five Esmonds, and there are five different points of view on how they're going to improve. But somehow, despite icy accidents, flood, blizzards and some very bad riding, improve they do. This is a brilliant winter read. Be aware that hunting was legal when this book was written, and hunting does...

Henry is in despair. His new horse, Evening Echo, is not going well. It is cold comfort that none of the other local riders seem to be any better. Henry decides he'll start a riding club, and with the help of Noel, that's what he does. Josephine Pullein-Thompson gives us another cast of wonderful characters: Alex, cursed with a pony so terrible he seems to have no redeeming features; Christo, whose black mare is only rarely under control, Eric, whose cob, Princess is under such rigid control she barely breaks out of a canter, and Paulina, who prefers to waft about looking pretty than put any effort into riding well. Can the club manage to learn something and compete at a local one day event?

Everyone's heard about Black Beauty, probably the greatest horse that ever lived. But what about the rest of his family? Here we meet some of his other extraordinary relations, each with an amazing story to tell. There's his brother, Black Ebony, who is involved in a terrible mining accident; his great niece, Black Princess, a heroine in World War One; and then there's Black Velvet, a distant relation whose life as a show jumper is about to change dramatically.