Jill and the Steeplechaser

Jill Crewe is a young woman living in rural England during the early 1960s. In previous books her charmed childhood in Chatton with her two ponies Black Boy and Rapide, was described. In her spare time she wrote pony books about her real life. Teetering on the edge of adulthood she moved to the Scottish Highlands to live in a castle when her mother married Richard Micheldever. Moving on from ponies to horses she is now the owner of Balius, a magnificent thoroughbred cross Highland gelding, and a sweet chestnut mare, Copperplate.This is the fourth book in Jemma Spark's Jill series and our heroine goes back to Chatton to live in her original home, Pool Cottage. Her best friend Ann Derry is emotionally wrecked from a love affair gone wrong and goes to stay with her. Their life of horsey adventures, and sometimes misadventures continue. Jill acquires a steeplechaser and enters a point-to-point to try race riding. In order to qualify to enter the race Jill has to foxhunt and after her first enthusiasm she is forced to grapple with a moral dilemma when faced with anti-blood sport protests. A host of original characters parade through the pages including the Cholly-Sawcutt sisters, Jill's old enemy Susan Pyke, Wendy Mead the instructor at Mrs Darcy's riding school, James and Diana Bush, Jill's cousin Cecilia and many more.