A 1968 release, one of many I didn’t see then, as I had decided Disney live-action comedies were too silly for me, but I quite liked this one. It’s only on YouTube, I don’t know why, but I found a good-quality copy there with no commercials. Dean Jones has the lead as Fred Bolton, a highly stressed New York advertising executive who is the single parent of a daughter, Helen (Ellen Janov) who loves horses and is racking up expensive riding lessons at the stable of Suzie Clemens (Diane Baker). When Fred comes to the stable for the first time to complain, he is smitten by the lovely Suzie, and is hit with the news that his daughter is a good enough rider to be winning ribbons and medals if she had her own good horse. Later, desperate for a new gimmick to sell his client’s indigestion pills called Aspercel, he hits on the idea of combining his two problems. He arranges for Suzie to buy such a horse and names it Aspercel to create publicity for the product. Things move along in sometimes funny ways, such as when Aspercel the horse gets out, and Fred tries to catch it and ride it home, leading to the usual “animal makes a mess” bit, but this time it actually adds to the plot. The client is watching developments and when Helen begins to win, he’s happy, but Helen isn’t, she really doesn’t like to compete. Suzie and Fred work out a plan for Suzie to ride Aspercel all the way to the national jumping competition in Washington DC, but can they possibly win against the best professionals?

I thought this was Dean Jones’ best perfornance since That Darn Cat, he’s believable as both the ad exec and a loving father, and his interest in Suzie seems genuine and not forced. Daughter Helen also has a boyfriend played by Kurt Russell, though he doesn’t get a lot to do. Morey Amsterdam is funny as another ad exec. The horse is amazing both as an actor and a jumper. I had a great time watching this. Running time is 113 minutes and it made over three million dollars.