This is a good movie. Fourteen year old Connor Strong (Lucas Black) works after school to save money to buy a horse from a family that has fallen on hard times. His father's ego gets in the way, though, and Connor has to stop working.

Dad's job has come to an end, and there is little meaningful work in the town. He takes a job on a ship, requiring him to be out of town for five months. Before he goes, though, he uses his sign-up bonus and buys Flash, the horse Connor wanted, for his son.

While Dad's gone, the money he deposited in the bank is seized for back payments on the mortgage. Grandma has to go to work (Connor's mother is deceased) in the textile mill. She has a heart attack and dies.

In order to buy a nice casket for his grandmother, Connor sells various items, and eventually, his best friend, Flash.

The buyer is the wealthy Mr. Rutherford, who has numerous horses and a son Tad (Shawn Toovey) who's a bit fearful of horses. (Toovey, by the way, gives a very respectable performance as supporting actor.) Ultimately Connor teaches Tad to ride in return for Mr. Rutherford's promise not to whip Flash. In competition, though, the Tad "only" takes second place. The father derides his son as a coward, because he wouldn't whip Flash and ride him to first place.

To prove he is a man, Tad takes his riding crop and whips the horse. Later the boy goes to apologize to Flash. Unfortunately, Flash is scared and kicks the boy's arm, breaking it. The boy's father determines to kill the horse.

Connor, who has been working in the stable for room and board, takes Flash and heads from Georgia (or is it Alabama?) to meet his father's ship in New York City. Setting out with only a few dollars in their collective pockets, Connor and Flash head up the Atlantic coast.

The movie is almost mediocre. Lucas Black, as Connor, takes what would otherwise be a humdrum story and rescues it from obscurity with his easy, natural presence, and his love for the horse. Black may or may not have been a horse person before this role, but there's no doubt the young actor grew to love his co-star.

The end of the story is touching and satisfying. Both Lucas Black and the Shawn Toovey show how much they have grown up as they stand with and against their fathers.

En toto, the movie is good. If you like horses, Lucas Black, or Shawn Toovey, you will want to see this story.

My Movie Rating: 6 / 10

I think movie is good. Boy want to do good even though dad a long way away.

My Movie Rating: 7 / 10