Thank you for sharing your collection!!! I haven't seen (or read) many of the ones you show and now I'll be hunting/haunting some of the local as well as on-line book stores looking for some of them!
I've gone to collecting some that I remembered from when I was growing up. My mom was from Kiron, Iowa and when we stayed on the farm w/ our grandparents, I remember books and comic books (!!) that most have never heard of...
Most were not "children's' books" but were for teen or young adult readers. Some of the ones that I also remember were "B" styled westerns but were written all about the "horses". The Phantom Roan, Beyond Rope and Fence, The Valdez Horses (NOT a kids book in content and something like 500 pages), Hold the Rein Free, The Christmas Horse. There are others - many I don't have nor do I really remember except for fleeting thoughts/wisps of memory that I can't match to title or author. A lot of the authors of the above stories had others out, too, they just didn't become as popular as Louis La' Mour (spelling) or Zane Grey. Many were cowboys.
Mom got to keep those Comic Books and I had many hours of enjoyment - The Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry but even better were the comics w/ just their mounts! I LOVED those. In all my collecting, I've not found those. The pictures were often wonderful. Silver, Scout, Trigger and Champ had many exploits w/o their owner/riders and I shared many of those adventures. Mom has had these in storage for many years now and I hope that they are still able to be read... I don't know what she has left of her collection (s) - several times, the storage systems have been compromised over the years by weather and hauling/moving (military family and then following jobs).
I don't see any of the "Dragon" books in your post. I bet you'd LOVE those. They are based on the true story of Dragon, a little (pony) Spanish Mustang, that was one of the founding sires for the POA. There are 4 books in that series, which I didn't know when I started looking for the original - I now have all 4 in hardback!, written by Lynn Hall (who has many other wonderful horse/pony and dog stories!). Also The Year of the Black Pony (which became a movie that wasn't too badly done - tho by a different title). Also there are many by CW Anderson that are getting hard to find that were easy and wonderful reads w/ his great illustrations (expensive collectors items now). Afraid to Ride, Vickie and The Black Horse, Vickie and The Brown Mare are some of my favorites along w/ all the Billy and Blaze books.
Scholastic Books are great - but seem to have changed a lot over the years. I've been able to some of the ones I read to my collection along with the Golden Chapter books. Saddle Pals, Gypsy From Nowhere, Gypsy & Nimble Foot, The Golden Prize (short stories).
Getting hard to find now are some of the other original works by Marguerite Henry. I loved the one called Mustang - Wild Spirit of the West. The reprints don't have all the wonderful illustrations that the originals had. Pic attached -
*** Added*** I'd love to have the print from the front and back cover of this book to hang above the "mantel" (above our TV)!! Many of the original Walter Farley books (The Black Stallion series) had illustrations as well that none of the "new" reprints on "newsprint" type paper have! The illustrations and the wording in The Black Stallions' Ghost would make your hair stand up!!! (Maybe more so if you are sensitive or have other beliefs/abilities) ***
