Sand — Luanne Armstrong

Fiction. Young Adult. SAND tells the story of a young girl, Willy Cameron, her horse named Sand, and her involvement with therapeutic riding. The novel begins when Willy is involved in a car accident and is paralyzed from the waist down. After the doctors tell her she may never walk again, Willy becomes depressed and self-pitying. She then meets a young boy, Ben, who is involved in therapeutic horseback riding for his juvenile arthritis. Ben persuades her to give it a try, and the riding gives Willy back the partial use of her legs. While still recovering, she takes on the training of Sand, a spirited rescue horse at the stable who was injured, and now spooks easily. When her friend Ben disappears after becoming depressed and involved in drugs, Willy secretly takes Sand from the stable -- against the orders of the stable owner -- to find Ben. But Ben is not in his right mind, and Sand is easily spooked. The fate of Willy, Ben and Sand all depends on what happens next.