SOLVED. a horse and a boy with polio save the day [s]

[Kristi]

Ok, this one I read in the 80's, it was an elementary school library book. It was about a boy with polio, who got a horse, and he had to care for it. One night there is a break in at his house and he sneaks out and rides his horse to get help, all the while the mother is alone at home with the burgler. I think they were a quaker family?? Any ideas?

[stormhawk]

If the main character was a girl, the book is Tall and Proud by Vian Smith.

It's set in England somewhere. If I remember properly, the girl once had a pony, but it died after eating a clipping of yew from someone's hedge. She becomes sick with polio, is hospitalized, and is left with a limp. When she returns home, she's not interested in much of anything, but is really horse crazy, drawing horses, writing stories about them, and so on. One day her dad buys a racehorse that's no longer fit for the track. The girl may have had a male friend who would come to see her and help care for the horse.

I think the horse's name was Sam?

[Kristi]

I think this is it...Thanks!!