SOLVED. Kids chapter book about girl who buys a sad-looking pony. Read in 1990s. [s]

[Jamie]

I could probably figure this out with enough Googling, but I know how much people like to solve these.

There was a book I read a bunch of times as a kid in the 90s. From the style of illustration I'd guess it was actually published in the 70s or 80s?

It was about a girl who desperately wanted her own pony/horse. Another girl she knew had a beautiful horse and was very snobbish about it. The main character came from a poorer family with a farm, and dreamed of having her own horse with "a flowing mane and tail" and she would draw pictures of this dream horse. One day they went to a livestock auction, and there was a ragged little pony that someone was going to buy as dog meat, which the girl couldn't stand so she bid on the pony and won. He was in bad shape with a wound on one leg. Her father made her a little cart that the pony could tow, which she felt embarrassed about compared to the other girl's beautiful riding pony.

Gradually, the pony got better and started looking really nice himself. (view spoiler)[One day she was out on the road with him, and a car stopped and a couple got out. They were excited to see the pony, and checked the tattoo in his ear. Turns out he was like a famous racing pony (maybe a Morgan? Maybe for sulky racing?) that had been stolen. They ended up letting her keep the pony, as long as they were allowed to breed from him sometimes. (hide spoiler)]

Any guesses?

[Jamie]

A Perfect Pony, perhaps?

[bookel]

A Horse Named Doodlebug by Irene Brady (Orig.: Doodlebug), a childhood fav. of mine ... only mentioning this from subject line and first few sentences. Yes love childhood horse books! Edit: read the rest minus spoiler and I think my immediate hunch was correct.
It's a free ebook on openlibrary https://openlibrary.org/search?q=Dood...
Or see bookfinder.com for print copies.

[Jamie]

bookel wrote: "A Horse Named Doodlebug by Irene Brady (Orig.: Doodlebug), a childhood fav. of mine ... only mentioning this from subject line and first few sentences. Yes love childhood horse book..."

Yes! This is it! I knew as soon as I heard the title it would click. Thank you!