Tilly’s Horse Magic: Team Training by Pippa Funnell Review

Reviewed by Amanda Hayes

Being a pony mad girl myself many years ago I was really pleased to review this book by Pippa Funnell. Team Training is the second in a series of 4 books based on Tilly’s horse; Magic and draws on Pippa’s many years’ experience in the saddle.

The series centres around Tilly, her horse, and their progression and this particular book, Team Training sees Tilly on her first training camp as a junior squad member. Tilly is very excited as she is chosen for week long training with Livvy an international event rider competing at the levels Tilly dreams of. Her arch enemy Kya, is also on the training and does all she can to make Tilly feel uncomfortable.

Tilly tries to ignore it, but Kya together with some bad news she gets about Magic, means she loses concentration and makes a silly mistake causing Magic to fall whilst Kya is riding him.

I’ll let you read the book to find out the ending but don’t worry Tilly will be back to tell another tale.

This book is really well written for the age group it’s aimed at, 6 or 7 year olds, but is also suitable for children both younger and older as most people into horses can relate to it. You can tell it’s written by someone who has in depth knowledge of horses and has just the right level of detail.

Pippa does a good job of bringing morals and good horsemanship into the stories and whilst bringing depth into the characters it remains light hearted and entertaining. My friend’s young daughters really enjoyed this book and my son enjoyed it as a bedtime story. I will definitely be looking into buying more in the series for Christmas presents as it went down so well.

Team Training is a must for any pony mad youngster, especially those who look to Pippa Funnell for their inspiration. I highly recommend this book and can only assume the rest of the series is of the same quality.

Rating: 5/5

RRP: £4.99 (paperback)

Available to buy from Amazon here.