1990s children’s novel about Native horse tribe, sacred mountain trial, and stallion waiting at the end
I’m trying to identify a children’s historical fiction novel I read in elementary school in Austin, Texas around 1996–2001.
The story follows a young boy who is fishing beside a river when he witnesses a battle involving a tribe of horse people, possibly Native American or Native-inspired. A girl from the tribe notices sunlight reflecting off his fish on the fishing line, revealing his location, and the boy is captured and taken back to the tribe.
Once there, he learns that a young warrior from the tribe—only a few years older than he is—was responsible for killing his parents. According to the tribe’s customs, the warrior must now raise and train the boy. Though it began acrimoniously, over time, the relationship becomes almost brother-like.
The tribe’s culture revolves around horses and spiritual traditions. Each child must eventually undergo a dangerous coming-of-age trial inside a sacred mountain or cave system. If they survive, they emerge as adults and are chosen by a horse.
A major subplot involves the warrior’s physically disabled younger sister, who is around the same age as the boy. She enters the initiation trial around the same time he does. During his own journey through the mountain, the boy discovers her dead body somewhere inside the sacred passages after she fails the trial.
Another recurring element involves a small stone horse figurine or carving the boy finds near the beginning of the story. The artifact is spiritually important to the tribe and connected to the girl who first discovered him by the river.
Near the end of the novel, the boy remains inside the sacred mountain for much longer than expected. The tribe eventually assumes he has died and leaves the area.
When the boy finally emerges days later, exhausted but alive, he discovers the tribe is gone—except for a sacred stallion waiting alone for him outside the mountain. The horse is spiritually significant, and the fact that it chose to wait for him proves he has been accepted by the tribe and their spirits.
The book was written for children or middle-grade readers, probably published sometime in the late 1980s or 1990s, and felt like the kind of historical/spiritual fiction commonly found in Scholastic book fairs or elementary school libraries.