MovieChat Forums > The Long Shot (2004) Discussion > TRUE Story of Tolo

TRUE Story of Tolo

posted 13 years ago by bothpartiessuck
3 replies | jump to latest

Here is the story of Amy Gaston and Tolo, the Appaloosa this story is based on.

WHY Halmark decided to change the breed of the horse is mystifying. An App in the movie would have highlighted: (1) The versatility of Appaloosas -- they're NOT just for Western events. and (2) The tragedy that the rate of blindness amongst Appaloosas is at EPIDEMIC proportions -- for more info see http://www.blindappaloosas.org.

http://www.jdnews.com/news/gaston-9840-tolo-horse.html

[–] shayg 12 years ago

From the news article:

The original version didn’t have quite enough Hollywood pizzazz and needed a villain — in the movie that role falls to the main character’s husband — to spice it up a bit. Gaston’s husband, Marine Staff Sgt. Brian Gaston, is not a villain in real life, she said.

That might explain why the husband abandonment part of the movie seemed out of place and distracting from the main story of her overcoming adversity with hard work. It would have been better without that, as many good movies do fine with just adversity as the "villain".

[–] horsecoach4hire 12 years ago

Well THAT makes more sense!!

My mare was an appy and lost her sight in her left eye while I evented her, and finally was put down 6 years after losing full sight in her right eye.

Appies are sadly prone to moon blindness/uveitis and thankfully new information can now prevent the damage done to the eyes from this condition.

Thanks for the link!!!

[–] nkm56 10 years ago

Yup, one of our Appies was partially blind. She did very well, though, and lived many years after. I've been away from Apps for a long time, though, and was unaware that this was an issue with the breed. Thanks for the info.