Help me identify a pony book (80s/90s)

[stutter]

The book is fiction, would have been written in the 1980s/90s, and was set in the same time period, in the UK. A lonely kid/teenager befriends a horse/pony nearby and eventually runs away with the horse for a bit, I think over the school summer holidays. The horse's name may be in the book title. This is a standalone book with no sequels. The book is realistic (probably a bit gloomy) throughout and there are no fantasy elements.

The main character is lonely, doesn't really have friends, lives with mum and older brother and the family is quite poor - think they lived in a cramped flat. Older brother is talented at art and not very nice to his sibling, and I think the main character feels inferior to him. At one point the main character talks about the older brother having airbrushes.

It was aimed at maybe 8-10-year-olds - it was in the kids (not YA) section of my library. It was a paperback, similar in size and length to a Saddle Club book.

While the horse was a big part of the book, it is definitely not a standard horse book with lessons, Pony Club, competitions, big reveal where the main character becomes a star rider, etc. I think the horse was just in a field before the kid takes her, and the horse is a very ordinary horse and doesn't have a fancy name or wild tendencies.

Thank you, I'm completely stumped! I have tried looking through the author lists but none are ringing the right bells for me.

[Claire]

Hi Stutter thanks for posting here. It doesn't ring a bell straight out to me, probably because I am familiar with less books in the 80s/90s than earlier ones. However I'll do a bit of thinking / digging. Or perhaps one of the younger forum members may remember it. We usually get to the bottom of mystery pony books eventually!

[stutter]

Thank you! The closest thing I've seen so far is Thunderfoot but I don't think it's quite right as I don't recall the main character's dad being in the picture (and also not even certain if the main character is male or female).

By the way, I noticed Mallory's Dream Horse in the listings - it might be interesting to note that it's actually a Beecham and Hillgartner (aka Jahnna N Malcolm) ghostwritten book. Babysitters Club books have a "dedication" in the front which identifies their ghostwriter as only perhaps a third were really written by AM Martin, even if she's credited on the cover for all of them! I believe the Karen books listed were written by Stephanie Calmenson (Karen's Pony) and Gabrielle Charbonnet (the other two). Me and Katie the Pest likely isn't ghostwritten.

[Claire]

Hi again Stutter, don't think it was Thunderfoot, though I will dig out my copy and check up on the details. Now you mention the main character possibly being male, it does seem to be striking some sort of chord in the old brain. I will continue thinking upon it/digging...!