Gypsy Colt (1954)

Lassie comes home (again) but this time as a horse. Eric Knight shouldn't have to had break a sweat writing this "original" with the only difference in the basic plot line (from "Lassie Comes Home") being that a horse, rather than a dog, has to make the arduous journey back to it's young master (a girl rather than a boy) and a locale change from England to the American West. It begins in a drought-stricken region where Frank and Em MacWade dread to tell their young daughter, Meg, that her beloved colt Gypsy has been sold, for financial reasons, as a potential race horse. The horse breaks away from its new owner twice, and is admonished by Meg each time, before the horse is transported 500 miles away to a race track. But Gypsy escapes again and begins his 500-mile trek back to his young mistress. On his trek back, he has encounters with a group of cowboys, a gang of wild motorcyclists and a young Mexican boy, in addition to the terrain problems. Gypsy one-ups Lassie as he also brings a drought-breaking rain with him when he gets back home.