So, it turns out that Moondance is not the name of the horse starring in this movie, but rather belongs to our plucky young heroine? (Okay, I lied, I'm cracking one joke.) It’s the last day of school, and Moondance is all sad because she’s got no friends and nobody wants to sign her yearbook. One of the mean, popular girls sticks chewing gum inside Moondance’s yearbook, and Moondance embarrasses herself in front of the mean kids by knocking over a bin. Cue inspirational music and Moondance riding her bike across town. She stops by the cemetery to visit her father’s grave and give and speech about how she's totally got this.
While making deliveries for her boss, Mr. McClancy, Moondance is biking down an abandoned-looking trail when she gets the feeling she's being followed. Lucky for her, it's not a creepy stranger chasing her down, but a horse. Moondance is immediately enamoured with the handsome pinto, and, because this is a horse girl movie, immediately decides that the most logical next step is to bring him home with her. Moondance thinks the horse is neglected, despite him being a perfectly healthy weight and clearly wearing horseshoes. (Seriously. 'In need of a good grooming' and 'being neglected' are not the same thing!) She then hides him out in her mother's garden shed/cottage thingy, and names him Checkers and becomes super attached. Moondance's mother, Gelsey (played by pre-USC admissions scandal Lori Laughlin) is reasonable and explains that they can't just keep him, they have to try and find the horse's owners. Points for realism. Those points are deducted, however, because we then cut to Moondance attempting to canter on Checkers in the backyard (bad) bareback (very bad) using a DIY rope bridle (even badder) and not wearing a helmet (BAAAAD!) Moondance falls off and wants to jump right back on, but Gelsey intervenes by pointing out that they don't know a thing about the horse, and Moondance could've been injured. Both of which are very fair points to make! I do appreciate how fair and reasonable Gelsey is being.
Mr. McClancy arrives to take Checkers back home, which he tells Moondance is Tumbleweed Stables. Which is a pretty strange name, in my opinion. It's almost like the owner wanted people to think of their stables as old and run down. Moondance goes to the stables, where she runs into the crotchety owner, Dante Longpre. She convinces him to let her help out at the stables in exchange for riding Checkers, to which Dante agrees. (It also turns out the Checkers's real name is Tinkerbell, but Moondance later convinces Dante to change his name anyway, so I'm just going to call him Checkers for the sake of continuity.) We get a montage of Moondance helping out at the stables. Even when she messes up, she's determined to keep going, and Dante gives a small, proud smile. He's clearly impressed by her pluck. Turns out the grumpy old man has had a heart of gold this entire time. Who could've predicted it?
Because this is a horse girl movie, about halfway through we are informed that the Big Show is coming up. Despite the fact that she's only been riding for a couple of weeks maximum, Moondance is determined to enter, and convinces Dante that she should compete on Checkers so that everybody can see what a champion he is. Fiona and Megan, the local mean girls, are weirdly offended that Moondance wants to compete with Checkers, and make all these insults about how pintos aren't jumpers. Now it's been a long time since I've taken riding lessons, but I swear that wasn't a thing people said? Is it even really a thing? Moondance begins learning to jump and makes impossibly fast progress however, right before the show, Checkers come down with colic. Sigh. Is a horse girl movie even a horse girl movie without a colic episode? Thankfully, through Moondance's powers of love and determination, he makes a miraculous recovery just in time for the Big Show which, framing-wise, seems to happen the day after he recovers? Now, I'm no expert, but putting a horse through a competition right after they've recovered from colic seems like a bad idea.
Moondance and Checkers compete in the Big Show together. Initially, most of the crowd is disapproves of them because Checkers isn't a fancy show horse, but Checkers jumps a clear round and wins the audience over. The judges are all, 'What should we do?' because for some reason they're reluctant to let Checkers win. Thankfully, the judges decide that Moondance and Fiona will both tie in first place, so Moondance gets to win after all! Fiona's dad (or trainer? I'm not sure if it's entirely clear) compliments Dante on his win, and another competitor tells Moondance that she wants to start training with Dante, too. Seems like things are looking up for Tumbleweed Stables. Moondance takes Checkers out for a ride at sunset, and everyone gets their happily ever after.
I do have a couple of final thoughts. I like that the movie dodged a couple of the standard horse girl cliches - I like that Moondance ends up sharing her first place win, and I like that we don't get a 'Hey, kid, the horse is all yours now!' speech from Dante. It does feel a bit more realistic that way. Although we do veer into dead parent territory, the movie sidesteps the 'Your (father/mother) died in a horse riding accident so I forbid you from ever touching a horse!' trope, which I appreciate. That one gets old quickly. I do think the colic moment should've been cut entirely, it just felt unnecessary. I do think it's a bit strange that the beginning of the movie puts so much emphasis on Moondance having zero friends, and ends with her having zero friends. Who needs friends when you've got horses, I guess. There's also a whole B-plot about Gelsey dating one of her art students and Moondance freaking out about her mum dating again, but I really can't be bothered getting into detail about that. Overall, I'm putting this at a solid 3/5.
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