Teenage Moondance Alexander (Kay Panabaker) lives in a small town in Colorado with her somewhat eccentric and widowed mother Gelsey (Lori Loughlin). Moondance doesn't fit in at school and is regularly taunted by the uppity girls lead by Fiona Hughes (Sasha Cohen) and Megan Montgomery (Whitney Sloan).
As summer begins, Moondance finds a stunning black and white pinto horse and tries to find his owner. The horse's owner is the terse and gruff Dante (Don Johnson) but Moondance is able to sway him over to allow her to do barn chores each day in exchange for riding the horse she has named Checkers.
Seeing talent in the young rider, Dante encourages her, coaches her, and urges her to enter a prestigous competition at the end of summer. Moondance works hard toward that goal even though she discovers that Fiona and Megan are also competing -- and Fiona had been the winner the previous year. Of course Fiona and Megan scoff at Moondance's pinto as their horses are sleek Thoroughbreds.
In the process of the training and competition, Dante helps Moondance overcome her lack of confidence and accept herself as the unique individual she is. Moondance, in discovering that Dante had been a high level equestrian at one time, helps him heal the old wounds that have caused him to isolate himself. Moondance also comes to terms with her beloved father's death and learns to accept her mother's new suitor (Joe Norman Shaw) and his teenage son (Aedan Tomney).
While the acting was rather sappy at times and I had some problems with some of the horse scenes and the thought that a girl can go from a non-rider to a skilled rider in less than three months, this is still a decent family film and one sure to be fun for horse crazy preteen girls.
Directed by Michael Damian who also wrote the script with his wife Janeen Damian.
My personal rating: C+
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