In Lake Luzerne, New York, teenager Grace MacLean and her best friend Judith go out early one winter's morning to ride their horses, Pilgrim and Gulliver.
Desperate for a way to heal both Grace and Pilgrim, Annie tracks down a "horse whisperer", Tom Booker, in the remote Montana mountains.
As Pilgrim and Grace slowly overcome their trauma, Annie and Tom begin to develop a mutual attraction.
However, they are both reluctant to act on these feelings – Annie is married and Tom had his heart broken before (his wife left him because she belonged in the city).
[4] The main character, according to writer Nicholas Evans,[5] is modeled after horse whisperers Tom Dorrance, Ray Hunt and, in particular, their younger disciple Buck Brannaman.
Nicholas Evans writes: "I spent many weeks traveling across the West and met three amazing horsemen: Tom Dorrance, Ray Hunt and Buck Brannaman.
The constraints of film-making required several sequences showing horse training methods to be edited for length.
Horses may have a strong reaction to an incident or there were elements that preceded the trauma that had been repeated (for example, Pilgrim developed a fear of vehicles, crossing roads, or steep slopes from past experience).
He pointed out that the film made the rehabilitation of the horse appear to be a one-session event when in reality it would take considerable time for such a change to occur.
However, Lyons' critique also recognized the limitations of Hollywood film-making, stating, "In order to tell a story, things are often done that would be imprudent for horse owners to attempt.
The website's critics consensus reads: "It might be a bit too eager to tug the heartstrings, but The Horse Whisperer is typically graceful, well-crafted Redford—on both sides of the camera.
"[9] At Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 65 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
In his movie guide, Leonard Maltin gave the film 3+1⁄2 out of 4 stars, calling it "an exquisite rendering of Evans' novel".