Paige and her father, Jim (Matt McCoy) are quite close after the death of Paige's mother. Although they can not afford a horse, Jim sees that Paige gets to ride and compete in the competitions she loves. One day, Paige falls from her horse at a show and is paralysed from the waist down. More important, she is psychologically so affected that she can not speak or take care of herself. Enter Susan (Mel Harris). She is a no-nonsense therapist who is hired to bring Paige back, maybe even to the point of her being able to walk once more. But, Susan is a tough cookie who Jim describes as a "Ma Barker without the gun." Can Jim let Susan run the show to Paige's recovery? And, will moving Paige to a ranch with horses and animals help her? This is a good movie with outstanding messages. Certainly, horse lovers will embrace the movie as Wind Dancer, the horse, is a beautiful creature with fire and spirit. But, more importantly, this is a good look at the old adage of never give up. Paige is heart broken over her injuries, to the point of retreating from life, until Susan makes her look at things in a different way, with tough love. All of the actors here give fine performances and the ranch setting is also quite welcome to those who will never have the chance to visit one. In short, this is a good family film that has enough action and important messages to please both parents and children. Locating it at the video store or library will translate into an evening of most diverting fare for your loved ones.

Now this movie was ok, considering it had a beautiful horse (Lacy) that played Wind Dancer. But I just have one complaint. They kept switching the horse's gender back and forth. First she was a filly, then it was "Good boy!" And I seem to recall at one time during the movie, a character said "She's been this way ever since she was a COLT." Well, anyway, it was a good movie except for that. The horses are beautiful!

This is an excellent movie to watch, because it is about a family,the daughter gets hurt. They go to a ranch,where the girl gets help by learning to do things on her own,without help. She takes care of a horse,and they decided to help other kids to be independent.

As a horse-obsessed kid just learning to ride, I was desperate to see any and all horse movies I could get my hands on. I found this at a dodgy VHS stall when I was about 10, but the quality was unwatchable and I took it back. So when I found it on YouTube last year, I jumped at the chance to finally see it.

However, having been riding horses for 25 years, and being disabled for 7 years, I have to say that the people who made this movie clearly know nothing about either topic.

The acting is stilted and melodramatic, the dialogue is worse than a high school drama class assignment, the characters are barely cardboard cutouts, and the overall plot is the standard 'horse movie' fare we've been getting since the '60s: horse and/or ranch is in danger of being sold to/by a stereotypical bad guy, and generic teenage girl must save it somehow, because all adults are uncaring or incompetent.

The horses are gorgeous, of course, but they're not nearly enough to make the movie worth watching. There is very little riding in this film and what interactions there are with horses are painfully awkward, as if none of the actors had even met a horse before filming began. Wind Dancer her/himself (a paint, or pinto, NOT a palomino) even changes gender at least twice. I know this film is low budget, but seriously, did /nobody/ catch this glaring error the whole time?

Aaand then there's Paige's 'disability'. She's dumped out of the hospital with apparently zero attempt at rehabilitation, either phyisically or mentally. Her wheelchair is several sizes too small for her, which makes it many times harder to push, and would cause pressure sores and pain. She can't speak, or even take care of her own basic needs, but from the beginning the rhetoric is that Paige MUST GET BETTER. She MUST BE NORMAL AGAIN. And in order to, er, snap her out of her disability? Her father brings in a 'therapist' who clearly has no knowledge of trauma or basic psychology and whose method involves mocking and deriding Paige and denying her any assistance until Paige gets fed up and starts doing things for herself, because apparently she was just having one big tantrum the whole time.

Then, in order to get Paige riding again, they tie her to the saddle. Sweet freakin' jesus, she'd be dead before the end of the credits.

So if you like teaching your kids questionable family values about 'overcoming the odds' and perpetuating ignorant stereotypes about disability, by all means, grab this movie.

It you want a movie with similar themes that is actually well-acted and somewhat enjoyable, find yourself a copy of 1992's Dark Horse instead.

If I had to sum up Wind Dancer in one word, it'd be PICARDFACEPALM.GIF

I like the movie " Wind Dancer " , The young girl Raeanin Simpson is very remarkable ! She play very good this role , probably not easy to play ! The story is original and moving, and particularly realistic ..... And the actor Matt McMacoy is talented !!! The end is pleasant , when the family decide to help other kids to be independent. Horses are beautiful ....

Please , someone know what is the sound who was diffuse on this movie ? This is a girl, with a child voice for the chorus .... thanks ! (I'm sorry , but my English is very very bad ! I hope that you understand me ! )

This story is well written and well acted! It's a low budget production but well filmed. The plot is a using animals to heal story but realistically portrayed to a point. Riding at the end was a little unrealistic but feel good. No extreme violence except horse being whipped and dog getting hit by cougar. This is a story you can let kids watch unsupervised.

This message movie that plays like a "Very Special 'Blossom'" is suitable kiddie fare for parents who want to inspire some spunk in their Nintendo DS-obsessed kids, but grownups will really only appreciate it for the performance of Brian Keith, who plays the good-hearted curmudgeon role he built his career on.

To sum up, a remarkably Blossom-looking teen ends up in a wheelchair after taking a bad spill off her horse, so her dad brings her and a kid shrink to Keith's ranch, where she predictably becomes attached to a palomino named Wind Dancer.

While faux-Blossom's relationship with Wind Dancer helps her heal, some conniving horse thieves – played more broadly and terribly than Jason Alexander and Renee Russo did "Boris and Natasha" – have their own plans for the horse.

Faux-Blossom is a good little actress, and it's sad what happened to her later in life (Google it). It's also sad what happened to Brian Keith a couple years later (Google that, too), but his fans know that and are happy he left understated little performances like this in his legacy.

Regardless, "Wind Dancer" is cut from the same cloth as a "Hallmark Hall of Fame" flick, and those are always good for a Family Movie Night, for those of you who use DVDs to spark poignant family discussion instead of a tool to leave the kids drooling in front of SpongeBob while you do whatever it is you consider more important than spending time with your kids.

"Wind Dancer" is part of a 15-movie set from Echo Bridge that costs a fin at K-Mart, and it's a standout on a DVD that's not worth much more than that. I recommend buying it, especially because that set also includes the sweet Africa-set movie "Askari," which hearkens back to Disney's early 1970s live-action films, and is worth all five bucks on its own.

Don't go Netflixing "Wind Dancer" otherwise, unless you have kids for whom you're looking to teach a Very Valuable Lesson that you don't have the parenting skills to teach without a movie nobody's ever heard of.

But if you do decide to talk to your kids about "Wind Dancer," I recommend including the life story of the lead actress as a cautionary tale.

This movie is so bad. It has no acting what so ever. The story is about a girl who does rodeo tournaments and becomes sick then learns to teach and help children through working with animals. `Rain Man' without Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise. That equals no story worth wasting time watching.