Whether or not you agree in principle with the notion of racehorses, this is a moving documentary about a group of people in Wales who decide to finance one. They eventually succeed with the birth of their horse, Dream Alliance, a gangly youngster who grows up to be a solid jumper.

Through interviews and archive footage, we see the horse from birth straight through to many of his races, where he proved to be an unlikely champion. Of course, tragedy strikes during one of the races, and then the movie becomes the story of an amazing comeback. Or, depending on your point of view, it becomes the story of a bunch of strange folks in Wales pushing a beautiful animal well beyond the point of reason so it can keep jumping for their amusement and wallets.

There’s no denying that Dream Alliance is a beautiful animal, and his story is inspiring. The story of the horse is far more compelling than the story of the folks who owned him. There’s a turning point in this story where the owners probably should’ve put the horse in a field and let him enjoy life, but they keep pushing him. That’s a little bothersome. The end results are uplifting and happy, but they came perilously close to being extremely sad.

The documentary is entertaining, but it will definitely have you thinking about the treatment of animals for sport.