YA scifi or fantasy

I read this about ten years ago when I was in 6th or 7th grade, and it's about a boy who's walking home from school in a storm, and suddenly he's in some other world, and he realizes that he can hear animals' thoughts. He befriends a tiny wyvern and ends up at a castle, where some guy is trying to get on a horse and the horse won't let him, and the boy (who can hear the horse's thoughts) knows that it's because the saddle is hurting it, so he fixes the saddle. I think that the castle noblemen let him be stableboy or something after that. And then there's a group of rebels trying to take over, and their leader is a young woman who is the rightful heir to the throne(?) and the boy joins them and helps them fight. I can't really remember much else. Does anyone recognize this?

That sounds interesting. Have you tried looking over in Whatsthatbook?

This sounds really, really familiar.... I'll think on it for awhile and see if I can remember it.

This sounds really familiar to me too, I hope someone remembers...

I'm sure I've read something where the boy knows that a horse is hurt because it's got a a pebble in it's hoof... I'll try and remember.

After thinking about this, I realized that the scene that was really resonating with me was the horse and saddle scene. Then I realized that I was recalling a similar scene from the Alanna books by Tamora Pierce and not a book about a young boy at all. Sorry I couldn't be more help.

This is Escape from Exile! I read this once, forgot the name, then found it again and memorized the name so I wouldn't forget, which is why I know it now.

That's it!! Thank you SO much, it was driving me crazy!