Joan Houston wasn’t prolific, but her three titles are well known and loved in the USA. She wrote Jump Shy and its sequel Horse Show Hurdles and the stand alone Crofton Meadows, which was unusual in being a school story (not common in the US). Jump Shy was printed in the UK by Heinemann with illustrations by Sheila Rose. Its sequel, Horse Show Hurdles didn’t appear. I imagine if it did, it would have needed a title change!
Jump Shy is not easy to find in the UK, and expensive when it is, but it is still more reasonable than in its homeland, where all her titles are hard to find. Jump Shy and Horse Show Hurdles are illustrated by the most sought after of American equine illustrators, Paul Brown, which goes some way to explaining their high prices. Crofton Meadows, possibly because of the ineptness of its cover art, is the easiest of her titles to find.
There is some biographical information on the reverse of Crofton Meadows, which I’ll repeat here as it isn’t terribly easy to read on-screen.
“Joan Houston was born in New York City, and spent her summers in Vermont. It was here that she learned to love horses and to ride. She fell off her first horse, a black and white Shetland pony, when she was two years old. Soon, however, owner and pony were riding in local horse shows throughout New England. When she was nine she rode in the National Horse Show Finals in New York.
Miss Houston attended the Spence School and was graduated from Chatham Hall and Barnard College. She now lives in a suburban home with her husband and two children.”
Many thanks to Susan Bourgeau for her help with pictures and information, and to Fran Fignar for writing the summaries.
Above - reverse of
Crofton Meadows
Below - UK printing
of Jump Shy
Joan Houston: Bibliography
Jump-Shy
Thomas Y. Crowell, New York, 1956, 261 pp. illus Paul Brown
Horse Show Hurdles
Thomas Y. Crowell, New York, 1957, 243pp, illus Paul Brown
,
Crofton Meadows
Crowell, New York, 1961, 242pp, illus Isabel Dawson
Twelve-year-old Tamora Wade and her older sister, Cynthia, spend the summer in Vermont
with their Uncle Peter. Both want to go to Frank Wilby's rather dilapidated though
well-cared for riding stable. When Uncle Peter buys Cynnie a beautiful, well-schooled
saddle mare, Tamora only gets the promise of riding lessons as he feels she's too
young for horse ownership. Cynnie works her new horse, Pinwheel, for show competition
while Tam plugs along working on her riding on school mounts. Then Frank buys a black,
ex-show jumper named Merlin who, due to a serious accident, now refuses to jump.
Tam falls in love with Merlin and, with Frank's help, is determined to retrain the
black back to his former championship status - with no success. Then she decides
to meet with Merlin's former owner who rode him to so many victories. Meanwhile,
Frank is having competition from the classy Leroy Stables: his head groom goes to
them and Cynthia is tempted. Tam remains loyal, and makes contact with Miles Corey,
Merlin's former owner, who seems uninterested in the horse, and is crippled from
the show acciden. Merlin remembers Miles, and eventually Tam convinces Miles to help
her. She even tries to get Miles to ride again. After a really bad schooling session,
Tam finally does convince Miles to get on Merlin and a transformation begins for
both horse and rider. When Frank has to put Merlin up for auction for much needed
funds, Miles bids against Tam and her Uncle and gets the horse. He and Merlin do
compete for the cup and win, outjumping Leroy's classy jumper. As summer is ending,
Cynthia and Tam are about ready to leave for their New York home when Miles rides
up on Merlin to say goodbye. But he tells Tam Merlin won't be going to Virginia but
will be staying in Vermont. Merlin is hers as he, Miles, is going on to college and
he wants the horse to have a good home so all ends well for everyone.
Sequel to JUMP-SHY. Tam and Cynnie return to their Uncle Peter's for another summer,
but there are changes coming, with the Leroy Stable providing strong competition
for Frank Welby and his rather "backyard" stable operation. When Frank loses the
sale of a horse due to Leroy's talking it down and the prospective customer is sold
a horse by Leroy that is definitely beyond the rider's ability, Tam begins to smell
a rat. However, her Uncle Peter is impressed by Leroy, and his trainer Captain Bodreau,
and makes the girls move their horses to Leroy’s. Tam is still on Frank's side, however.
When a Ms. Armonk shows up wanting to start a girls’ summer camp, Tam hopes to convince
her to buy or lease Frank's reliable school horses but Ms. Armonk is impressed by
"history". Tam tries to impress her by by entering a parade float with Justin Morgan
as the theme, but it isn't very professional and a cat and dog fight put an end to
it, while Leroy's period stagecoach wins. Meanwhile, Leroy has talked Cynnie into
riding and jumping Rambler, a spooky horse he wants to sell to Ms Armonk. He wants
Cynnie to ride Rambler in the hunt team class with Tam and Merlin. When Cynnie finally
admits she's not comfortable on the horse, Leroy talks Grace, one of Cynnie's friends,
into riding Rambler . The final horse show is a disaster with Rambler panicking
and running out of control. When Tam and Merlin try to head Rambler off before he
races onto the highway, there is a bad pile up - though luckily everyone survives.
The result of this fiasco convinces Ms. Armonk of Leroy's deviousness and Uncle Peter
that maybe Frank's stable isn't such a bad place after all and everything comes out
right in the end, even a minor romance for Captain Bodreau and Tam's friendship with
Miles Corey, Merlin's former owner who was back for the summer, and was doing what
he could to help Frank's cause.
Sheila Michaelson is the daughter of the stable manager for Crofton Meadows, an exclusive
girls' school that offers riding instruction. She goes to the local high school,
having been turned down for a scholarship to Crofton. Sheila also is an accomplished
horsewoman and has raised and trained Jubilee, a chestnut mare belonging to the school.
When Sheila is suddenly offered a scholarship, she's not happy, feeling awkward with
the wealthy pupils, but in the end, accepts. She meets Lorraine Coxon, niece of
a neighboring stable owner. Everything she has is the best, and she is also an excellent
rider who quickly spots Jubilee’s potential, and starts riding her. The stable has
bought some horses from Lorraine's Aunt including a clutzy lop-earred blue roan who
can jump the moon - if you can get him up to the fence. Over the year, Sheila and
Lorraine develop a somewhat love-hate relationship as Lorraine takes command of every
activity, including Jubilee, whom she persuades her Aunt to buy. Sheila is crushed,
though as a school mount, Jubilee was available for sale. Sheila starts working with
Mohawk, the gifted though awkward roan. When the school show comes up, she enters
on him and competes with Lorraine in open jumping. Lorraine is pushing Jubilee as
the mare is young and Mohawk jumps the final round clean next to Jubilee having an
obvious touch on an obstacle. However, by some quirk, the class is avarwded to Lorraine
causing a split in loyalty among the students. Lorraine challenges Sheila to a cross-country
race over a course she has built on her Aunt's farm. If Sheila wins, Jubilee is to
be hers. Sheila takes the challenge and the resulting contest has disastrous results
when Jubilee falls, breaking a leg - though in the end, Sheila does get Jubilee to
use as a brood mare.
