Night of the Red Horse

Jinny #4

by Patricia Leitch

"Suddenly red light flashed over the metal sky, and above the rim of the marsh came the Red Horse. It stood braced for a moment, its head turning arrogantly as it surveyed the black landscape through its yellow eyes."
Something strange is happening at Finmory. Jinny is being plagued by nightmares and visions of the sinister Red Horse from the mural in her room. What does it want, and why won't it leave her alone? Jinny must delve deep into the past and the Celtic legends of the Pony Folk in her terrifying quest to find peace.

Genres: Horses, Childrens, Classics, Adventure

128 pages, Paperback

Published October 10, 1985

About the author

Patricia Leitch (July 13, 1933 - July 28, 2015) was a Scottish writer, best known for her series of children's books about a girl named Jinny Manders and her wild, traumatized Arabian horse Shantih, set in the Scottish Highlands.
The 12 books in the Jinny series were published between 1976 - 1988 by Armada. They are currently in reprint by Catnip Publishers.
Two more of her novels, Dream of Fair Horses (1975) and The Horse from Black Loch (1963) have been republished by Jane Badger Books.
Leitch has also written under the pseudonym Jane Eliot.

Reviews

[Cheyenne Blue · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was 10, I read every pony book I could get my hands on. My favourites were the Jill books and anything by the Pullein-Thompson sisters. I loved the tweediness and emphasis on being a Good Sport, and a Good Rider. Endless schooling, and circles, and cavaletti. I read a couple of the "Jinny" books back then but they never quite grabbed me the same. Jinny is a 12 year old wild child who would rather gallop over the Scottish Highland moors on her wild Arab mare than school with her solid friend, Sue. Jinny hates cavaletti. When I was 10 I wanted cavaletti.

However, I picked this up in the op shop on the weekend (as I do any pony book I find) and as an adult, I love it. Part of it is nostalgia -- when I was Jinny's age, I too would leave the house and my parents wouldn't know where I was or when I'd be home. I'd be off riding horses, working for my rides, and roaming around the countryside, and I'd get home, starving hungry, mostly well after dark. Jinny hitches into town alone, stays alone in the house overnight, nearly drowns in peat bogs, is encouraged by her parents to ride across the moors to visit an archeological dig and stay overnight with people she doesn't know, gets lost in the mist and falls off her wild horse with alarming regularity. Jinny is bloody marvelous! (She's also very self-centred and a bit whiny at times, but that makes her human).

As well as Jinny and her freedom, there's a decent story in this, involving Celtic mythology and spooky things. The writing is excellent, and the author's Scottish voice comes through beautifully with lovely Scots turn of phrases (that would probably be edited out of similar books nowadays, along with the references to a 12 year old hitching alone into town).

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best Jinny I've read so far and another case of wouldn't pass today's editorial muster and being so so so much the better for it. And I'm not talking about the typos of which there were a few in this edition...I'm talking about stories being allowed to be a bit rough around the edges and to really mean something. I'm talking about prose that is also allowed to be poetry but isn't polished perfect all the time. I guess I'm talking Leitch. I think I might be becoming somewhat of a fan.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first of the Jinny stories that contains a hint of the supernatural, thanks to the mystical power of the Red Horse. As always, stunning writing and a wonderful story.

[Daisy May Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's a point in the Jinny books where they step up into a whole new gear, and I rather suspect that it's here. The Night Of The Red Horse picks up the themes that have been within the series and flips them all over and over again and sees what happens. It results in something that's part pony story but part supernatural-timeslip-spooky-Other, and it's all the more spectacular for it.

But let me step back a little and talk about the series as a whole. Jinny Manders is twelve years old, and due to circumstance, her family now lives in Finmory House in Scotland where the landscape comes to function as practically another character within the books. The first book in the series For Love of a Horse tells of how Shantih - a chestnut Arab - comes into Jinny's life, and the two of them are inseparable from that book onwards. There are not many authors who get that desperate urge of the young girl for the universe to just help her out by giving her a horse, but Patricia Leitch gets it.

Night Of The Red Horse is the fourth book in the series and in it, Jinny is required to deal with something strange. A mural of a Red Horse in her room haunts her dreams, and she's starting to experience things that she cannot understand in her everyday life. It looks like the archaeological dig over the moors may be connected - but how?

It sounds unusual, because it is. Leitch weaves in elements from Celtic legends and the Epona myth in particular. Jinny finds herself with one foot in the present and one in the past, and as she navigates the circumstances she finds herself in, Leitch does not skimp on the *atmosphere* of the moment. Seriously, there are parts of this that very much unnerved me as a younger reader and even now, I can feel their power.

(Also, upon rereading, certain of the spookier elements reminded me very much of Marianne Marianne Dreams and that might be an interesting reading to pair this with).

In many ways, this book is like a little capsule of everything that's perfect about good children's books. It gives you something strange, something beautiful, and something that makes your heart ache with longing, all of that, all at once.

[Assikatsum · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read this when I was 10 years old or something like that. Don't remember much of it, except it happened somewhere in Scotland? and involved Celtic mythology (horse-goddess Epona was mentioned) (and were there red horse statues with supernatural/mysterious powers? and a sandy beach???) which I found really interesting. The protagonist was a horse-girl but I don't remember more about her. Storyline had some adventure and mystery in it. I remember liking this book very much back then so I'm giving it 4 stars :) I'd like to re-read this now as an adult and see if it still has some "magic" like back then!

(re-reading this in finnish) This story has some magical elements to it: I really like the celtic mythology in this book and Jinny's journey to discover the secret of the Red Horse.

badly written notes of the story to remember it better:
- The painting (and the history of the painting: after the stone it was originally painted on, was destroyed, they painted it on the wall of the house Jinny's family now lives in). How old was the tradition of visiting and re-painting the stone to the gypsies? why paint it on the wall of the house? what was the purpose/meaning behind it? worship or ancient traditions?
- Jinny is about 12? she has a family (mom, dad, big sister 15, little brother 10, Ken 18 is the 'adopted' family member and his dog Kelly -fuzzy grey hair and yellow eyes; I pictured an Irish Wolfhound- and of course the arabianhorse Shantih. Jinny's father is an ex-social worker, he and Ken do pottery and Jinny's father is also trying to get his first book published; mom is a stay-at-home-mom?)
- Jinny is a determined, independent, stubborn, resilient, realistic, self-disciplined, adventurous and brave person. Skinny, red hair. She doesn't think she's anything like her big sister who plays the piano, is very clean and orderly and likes pink/pastel and 'girly things' I suppose. Jinny is also imaginative and artistic; she draws great pictures of Shantih and sells them to Nell who has a shop in the near village. Jinny's room is messy and a little un-organised. She likes her little brother because he's so easy to get along with. She likes Ken and his dog Kelly.
- when the book begins it's the summer vacation, Jinny is spending time practicing obstacle jumping? (estehyppy) with her friend Sue. They're making their own obstacles from discarder boxes and stacks of hay xD. Jinny loves riding her arabianhorse Shantih and jumping obstacles; it feels the most exciting thing she's ever done. Summer days are going great in Scotland, Jinny lives in idyllic scenery of scottish moores and there's a sea near-by.
- archeological excavations at a near-by village called Branach: some time ago (a few decades?), a statue of Epona was found there by a gypsy. The statue was given to a small private museum in the town, and the archeologists aren't happy about that; they'd like to see the statue on display in a bigger museum in London. The archeologists are hoping to find more celtic artefacts from the area. They come to see the painting on Jinny's wall and are disappointed that it's not ancient like they hoped :). The archeologist tells Jinny that celtic people worshipped mother Earth, and one of the chosen forms of mother Earth was Epona who was a goddess of ponies and foals. Other sacred creatures were wolfes, boars, deer?
- Jinny has always been a little afraid of the painting of the Red Horse in her room (Red Horse that is galloping towards the viewer through a colourful background of white flowers and green/blue branches, glowing yellow eyes, long legs and big head, and it's enigmatic and intense). After all, in the past when Jinny was rescuing Shantih she put a painting of Shantih on the opposite wall of the painting and then Shantih came to be hers - Jinny isn't sure if there's some magical connection there or not, and now it feels like the painting has a presense: after finding out about the history of the painting from old man McKenzie, and about the Epona statue in the small Wilson?museum and the on-going excavations to find celtic history at Branach, the painting begins to haunt her dreams and coming into her waking moments as well. She doesn't know what it means, and it scares her. Jinny seeing the Epona-worshipping ponypeople? (ponikansa) in their wolf-coats looking at her with sadness at the excavation site, later riding together with them on the moores (that disasterous pony riding day trip with Ms Tuke and the others) and being the only person who sees and experiences these things (although Shantih and Kelly seem to have an understanding of it as well) is quite a lot for a 12-year-old girl to handle!
- The dream of riding Shantih to Branach and to the east of the excavation site, finding the ancient worship site, the old woman with flowing white hair sitting before a fire with statues of Epona and the Red Horse with the worshippers present in their wolf-skin clothes and then the woman blowing herbs into the fire and the statues shifting their form and growing...into terrible and frightning beings
- Repeating nightmares of the Red Horse seeking Jinny and chasing her, Jinny and Shantih sinking into a swamp underneath a metallic orange sky and the flaming yellow eyes of the Red Horse seeking her... especially after Jinny has found the statue that the Red Horse wants her to do something with. Jinny wants to keep it for herself ('my preciouuuus' xD), but then understands she has to get rid of it or the nightmares will never end. She understands why the ponypeople were looking at her with sadness before, and knows what she has to do.
- The statue of the Red Horse represents the second half of the celtic horse goddess Epona. "Not one, but One". Jinny is meant to find the statue and bring it together with the Epona statue. If the archeologists had found it, the statues would have never been re-united but it would have been put on display on a big museum in London? When Jinny takes the statue to the museum, riding her horse with Sue and her pony Pippen, the owner of the museum (mr Wilson?) says that the guy who brought the Epona statue had said that the other statue would follow it sooner or later... and he also said that gypsies = ponypeople ;)
- things happening: the new school building not being ready after all ruins everything -> Jinny would have to leave Shantih to Ms Tuke (who would ruin the horse with her horrible training methods? no way!) and move away from home to a boarding school because of that? she's not going to accept that but how to arrange things so she doesn't have to give up her horse and move away to attend school? no one in the family wants to take care of Shantih for her; Ken gets an apprenticeship to become a master potter in Amsterdam and can't do it, her mother won't, her sister and brother don't have time, her father wants Ms Tuke to take Shantih to her pony stables so Shantih would be well cared-for. Things work out in the end 'magically' almost, the school building Jinny and other were suppose to live in wasn't in livable condition so she doesn't have to move away from home after all!
- enjoyable reading experience, nostalgic. This book was published in 1979! re-reading I had to remind myself of the times; back then there were no mobile phones, no social media, internet wasn't such a big thing, phones had cords xD etc.

[Joanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven't read this or any of the others in the series for the best part of 25 years.

I have been obsessed with horses since I can remember, and as a young teenager I came across the magic of fiction about horses and horse mad kids. I was a horse mad kid and I think I must have read every book there was. The Jinny series were always to my mind, the best. Jinny is a scruffy tomboy who falls in love with a loopy Arabian mare, and the series follows her serious scrapes which always revolve around her horse.

This one has the plot mixed with Celtic mythology and powers (for want of a better word). Yes it seems so young and naive reading it as an adult, but there is something endearing and real when Jinny is covered with mud or freezing on top of her bolting horse in the Scottish rain.

Jinny isn't the typical upper/ middle class twee girl who's all jolly this and tally-ho that which were very common in other pony books written by Leitch's peers. She's actually a real kid in a dysfunctional family who lives and breathes her horse.

I love the Jinny books. Little wonder that the two Arab mares who I had the privilege to own many years ago, were both chestnut.

[Dark-Draco · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were four things that I read over and over again as a child that cemented my love of all things fantasy, SF and horror - the Chronicles of Prydain, the Tripod series, the Chronicles of Narnia ... and this. It used to scare the bejesus out of me, with the recurring nightmare of being chased by the ghostly red horse with the yellow horse. It inspired an interest in the Celts and a love of all things supernatural.

As an adult, I can't say that it had any where near the same effect on me, but it did manage to create a shiver of remembered fear. I loved the idea of a Celtic tribe worshiping an Arab horse and the imagination just plays with a hundred thoughts about how that could have happened in our pre-history.

A lovely trip down memory lane as well as a great read in its own right.

[Rachael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Patricia Leitch was one of the greatest writers for children, but because she wrote ‘pony books’ probably overlooked in the canon. Night of the Red Horse features moors, bogs, nightmares and Celtic magic, and the prose is at times beautiful (a boy is ‘bleakboned as if washed by the tides’) and terrifying. These books must have been a huge influence on my own horse/earthy magic book The Grimmelings. Like me, and like my Ella, Jinny is moody and messy, and can’t keep her room tidy. Like Jinny, I wanted to be an artist and endlessly drew horses. Also: standing stones! I likely read this at the same time I watched Children of the Stones & The Moon Stallion. I love being able to draw a line from these books & TV shows to how I see the world today and what I’m creating. Just in case anyone doubts the power of kids’ books.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a young, horse mad reader I loved this series and this was my favourite book out of them all. It combined everything I loved at that time - horses, ponies (foals, oh my!), supernatural elements, Scottish highlands at at turn, history and archaeology. I read my copy so many times the covers fell off! HOWEVER....as an adult re-reader, I'm not quite as enthusiastic although I still love the storytelling and the way Leitch uses descriptive copy to make you feel you're there with Jinny. The book is fast paced and of course has the ending you want for Jinny, but maybe misses some real depth or further explanation of the Pony Folk and the celtic mythology behind it.

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not sure why the author is different but this is by Patricia Leitch. I'd only read the first book (which I do every so often) of the Jinny series until this year. It's only recently I learned there were more than For Love of a Horse and The Summer Riders. The two after For Love of a Horse were pretty good but Night of the Red Horse comes closest to the admiration of the first book. It was a quick read and enjoyable. I'm so glad there are eight more books to go, but I do wish it was a bit easier to find the later titles in the US. Definitely recommend this series for horse lovers of any age.

[Iga · Rating 5 out of 5]

Książka jest bardzo ciekawa, ale najlepsze jest dopiero w połowie, co jeszcze bardziej zachęca do czytania. Opowiada o tym jak ludzie mogą nie dostrzegać piękna i dobra które ich otacza.
Przygoda Jinny zaczyna się od momentu przybycia archeologów, by obejrzeć malowidło na ścianie jej pokoju. Zapraszają dziewczynkę oraz jej koleżankę na wykopaliska. Opowiadają też historię bogini która zmienia się w konia z jej koszmarów.
Serdecznie polecam👍👍👍

[Elaine Doe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good read,once you get into it you can't put it down.

[Dominika · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite book from the series.

[Jackie Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember this particular instalment completely spooked me!

[Nikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite pony book series of all time - my favorite two from childhood are falling apart. So happy they've been reprinted.

[Debbie Tink · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a good story, Jinny is a wild selfish girl, but for all that's she's a fine child.

[Lena Lipiarz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Była ciekawa ale nie użekła mnie

[fee · Rating 5 out of 5]

found these with the Christmas decorations!!

[Maaz Amjad]

good book