The film starts with a brief introduction in the 19th-century American West featuring a bald eagle gliding over the homeland of the mustangs, showing several western US National Parks. There is then a scene showing the birth of a dun Kiger Mustang, Spirit. Spirit soon grows into a stallion, and assumes the role of leader of the herd, whose duty it is to keep the herd safe, demonstrated when he saves two foals from a mountain lion. Spirit is a courageous leader, but has great curiosity. Spotting a strange light one night not far from his herd, the stallion is unable to control his curiosity and moves towards it. To Spirit's surprise, he finds restrained, docile horses, and two-legs (possibly wranglers) sleeping around a campfire. They wake up, and seeing him as a magnificent specimen, chase and capture him, then drag him to a US cavalry post.
Virginia (Letherman) is a 13-year-old girl living in Massachusetts (filmed in Nova Scotia) with her older sister Caroline (Skarsten) and her father Ford (Byrne). Her mother was killed 3 years earlier in a horse riding accident. Since then Ford has sold their horse, Twister, to a neighbor and forbidden his daughters to ride. Still, Virginia sneaks out at night to see her, and one night during her visit Twister delivers a foal in the middle of a terrible storm. Twister dies while giving birth and Virginia names the foal Stormy.
In 1949, young cowboy John Grady Cole's maternal grandfather dies. John had grown up on his grandfather's ranch, but it was put up for sale when the old man died. His mother has no ties to it anymore, and would rather have the money. With no home, John asks his best friend Lacey Rawlins to leave his family ranch in San Angelo, Texas and join him to travel on horseback to cross the border 150 miles south, to seek work in Mexico. They encounter a peculiar 13-year-old boy named Jimmy Blevins on the trail to Mexico, whom they befriend but from whom they then separate. Later on they meet a young aristocrat's daughter, Alejandra Villarreal, with whom Cole falls in love.
Ready to Run is the story of 14-year-old Corrie Ortiz, an energetic girl who dreams of becoming a jockey in the predominantly male sport of Thoroughbred horse racing. Although her father died in a racing-related accident, it's her spirited memory that drives her to try to achieve her goal, even though her mother is against it.
Running Free takes place primarily in German South-West Africa (Namibia) during World War I. An Arabian mare gives birth to a beautiful chestnut foal during a voyage to Swakopmund for work in the copper mines. The foal is separated from his mother upon arrival at an unidentified mining town and nearly expires from dehydration. He is subsequently saved from certain death by the sympathetic town stable boy, Richard.
Teenager Grace MacLean (Scarlett Johansson) and her best friend Judith (Kate Bosworth) go out early one winter's morning to ride their horses, Pilgrim and Gulliver. As they ride up an icy slope, Gulliver slips and hits Pilgrim. Both horses fall, dragging the girls onto a road and colliding with a truck. Judith and Gulliver are killed, while Grace and Pilgrim are both severely injured. Grace, left with a partially amputated right leg, is bitter and withdrawn after the accident. Meanwhile, Pilgrim is traumatized and uncontrollable to the extent that it is suggested he be put down. Grace's mother, Annie (Kristin Scott Thomas), a strong-minded and workaholic magazine editor, refuses to allow Pilgrim to be put down, sensing that somehow Grace's recovery is linked with Pilgrim's.
Connor Strong, un adolescent de quatorze ans, s'occupe habituellement d'un cheval dénommé Flash. Passionné par le monde de l'équitation, Connor aimerait bien posséder le poulain. Mais sa famille ne dispose pas des fonds nécessaires pour l'acheter. Au moment où le jeune garçon espère voir son rêve se réaliser, il découvre qu'un acheteur s'est empressé d'acquérir l'animal…
The movie opens in 1932 when World War I veterans are protesting and rallying in Washington D.C. for war bonuses they were promised but never received from the government, a true event known as the Bonus March. U.S. cavalry and infantry are present for crowd control. The mounted cavalry is ordered by Major John Hardesty (Bob Gunton), to present their sabers in order to hold back the protesters. First Sergeant John "Top" Libbey (Don Johnson), along with three fellow soldiers, refuse to draw their swords because the demonstrators were men they served with during the war. As a consequence, their military careers are tarnished and they are relegated to duty at a remote post in the American Southwest.
Black Beauty (voiced by Alan Cumming; played by Docs Keepin Time) narrates his story. He is born on a farm in the English countryside and remains by his mother's side until he is sent to Birtwick Park to serve Squire Gordon and his family.
A mother tells her daughter a fable about the prince of the brumbies, brumby being a term for the feral horses of Australia, who must find its place among its kind, while one man makes it his mission to capture it and tame it.
Based loosely on French painter Théodore Géricault's life who met the famous equestrian Antonio Franconi, the director of the Cirque Olympique. Gericault decided to stay and live with the circus and painted only horses to try and understand the mystery of this animal. Mazeppa embodies a man carried away by his passion.
Into the West is a film about two young boys, Tayto (Conroy) and Oisín (Fitzgerald), whose father "Papa" Reilly (Byrne) was "King of Irish Travellers" until his wife, Mary, died during the birth of their second son, Oisín. The boys' grandfather (David Kelly) is an old story-telling Traveller, who regales the children with Irish folk-tales and legends. When he is followed by a beautiful white horse called Tír na nÓg (meaning "Land of Eternal Youth" in Irish), from the sea to Dublin, where the boys and their father have now settled down in a grim tower block in Ballymun, the boys are overwhelmed with joy and dreams of becoming cowboys. The horse is stolen from them and they begin their adventure to get their mystical horse back. They escape the poverty of a north Dublin council estate, and ride "Into the West" where they find that Tír na nÓg is not just a horse.
Sonora Webster is an orphan living with her aunt during the Great Depression. Sonora learns that because of the family's financial difficulties, her treasured horse Lightning will be sold and she will be placed in an orphanage. Instead, Sonora slips out of the house during the night.
Jay Trotter drives a cab. His friend Looney, also a cab driver, has a secret microphone in his taxi to record his passengers' conversations. Looney has a tape of two men talking about a horse race and how one of the horses, due to some unethical practice by its owner, is a sure thing to win big. Jay goes to the track to place a bet—despite the fact that the day before, he told his wife Pam that he would quit betting and be home to "start their marriage over" at noon. In the restroom of the bar next door, he prays to God, "Just one day, that's all I'm asking for, one day, I'm due." A man exiting the bathrooms says "Ya? So's Jesus. Let it ride." Jay promptly places a $50 bet. The horse wins in a photo finish and pays $28.40 to win (earning him $710).