Movie Review - A Sunday Horse

After a near-fatal accident, on a horse the experts thought was nothing special, a determined rider from the wrong side of the tracks defies all the odds to pursue her dreams of winning a national jumping championship.

If you are a horse lover, or animal lover in general, and if you like true stories you will probably love this movie.  Nikki Reed (of Twilight fame) stars as Debi Walden a girl who loves horses and recognizes that God has given her an amazing talent for riding them. She dreams of becoming an Olympic champion in the sport of show-jumping, but she lacks the funds to be able to buy her own horse. She perseveres by doing farm chores in exchange for training and finds a horse who has no experience in jumping.

Yet she believes the horse is meant for her and she is so dogmatic in her belief that God has called her to ride this horse and to pursue a calling in show-jumping, that she soon finds others who are willing to take a chance on her.

Her dreams of making it to the Olympics become a reality but during a training exhibition she suffers a near-fatal accident and is left in a coma and paralyzed. Her horse is given to another rider and he goes on to win a gold medal at the Olympics. But Debi is not a quitter, with months of rehabilitation she is able to walk again and sets her sights once again on the Olympics. But tragedy seems to stalk this young lady and it is only through her faith in God and her belief that He has called her to ride in the first place, that she is able to keep positive and persevere.

If this weren't a true story you would think this was one of those made up sappy Hollywood movies. But it isn't and that's what makes this movie so remarkable. It's true! A Sunday Horse shows what can happen with faith and a little perseverance.

Unfortunately, while the faith aspect was played up a lot at the beginning of the movie it was not the central focus of the movie, and so I was somewhat disappointed that this was not continued throughout, building to a climax or a crisis of faith in the main character. However, with a stellar cast, (William Shatner, Ving Rhames and Linda Hamilton also star), and the knowledge beforehand that the story was true, I still enjoyed the movie and recommend it with the caution that there is some bad language.

Movie has been provided courtesy of Mongrel Canada and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc