Top 7 Shows Like Heartland to Watch

List of shows like Heartland to binge-watch. Photo: Ranker

If you are a fan of Heartland then you are going to like this article. Because, although Heartland is still going strong, we thought that it was time to share some other shows about horses that might just be up your alley if you’re a fan of either horse in general or Heartland.

Some of the TV series that are featured on this list are older, some newer. There are both sitcoms and dramas on this list. But horses and people’s love for them play a big part in all of these horse TV shows.

So without further ado, here are 7 TV shows about horses that you will love if you like CBC’s Heartland.

1. Spirit Riding Free

Photo: TV Guide

The horse-meets-girl, the girl-falls-in-love-with-horse story is perhaps no better exemplified than in Dreamworks Animation's Spirit Riding Free, an eight-season, two spin-offs, two specials kids juggernaut for Netflix. Before you think you're too good for an animated show about girls and horses, think again. Loosely related to the Oscar-nominated animated film Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Riding Free instead focuses on Lucky, a 12-year-old girl from the big city who moves to a small frontier town and bonds with a wild mustang named Spirit. Over the course of the series, Lucky makes friends, competes against snooty rivals, and goes on many adventures. This is the gateway TV show for young girls to become horse girls.

2. Everwood

Photo: TV Guide

A horse only plays a small part in this family drama that ran on the WB from 2002 to 2006, but not every show on the list has to be about horses. (Or does it?) Everwood starts in a similar place as Heartland, with a husband mourning the loss of his wife and a family is shaken without its matriarch. A renowned New York surgeon (Treat Williams) moves his 9-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son to a small town in Colorado to rebuild all of their lives, leading to a lot of emotional drama for every member as they adjust to their new surroundings.

3. Free Rein

Photo: TV Guide

This totally "horsesome" (horse + awesome, according to one of Free Rein's plucky characters) show is aimed at younger audiences than Heartland, but the similarities with Heartland will cross all age boundaries. The series follows 15-year-old Zoe (Jaylen Barron), an American who spends a summer in her mother's hometown, a small, pastoral town in England that just so happens to include one of the best horse stables in the area. Like Amy, Zoe has a preternatural way with horses and bonds with a particularly rowdy but beautiful black horse named Raven, who only seems to be chill with her. Along the way, Zoe makes friends, competes against snooty rivals, and makes eyes at some of the cute British boys. I sense a theme here.

4. Yellowstone

Photo: TV Guide

If you love Heartland but don't watch for the horses, then first of all, are you sure you're OK? Second, you can still find the ranch family drama that's so key to the series in Paramount's Yellowstone. But I had better warn you right now that the drama is a bit more on the heavy side, with a lot more murder and deception at the root of the family's problems instead of unruly horses and stuck-up horse boys. Yellowstone stars Kevin Costner as John Dutton, a Montana rancher who is willing to do whatever it takes to keep his land from the greedy fingers of government, developers, and Indigenous tribes who claim the land as their own. But his real enemy might be members of his family, who have their own aspirations.

5. The Man From Snowy River

Photo: TV Guide

The Australian series The Man From Snowy River, also known as Banjo Paterson's The Man From Snowy River down under and Snowy River: The McGregor Saga in the United States, is a classic of pastoral television. The wildly popular award-winning modern Western was essentially a four-season soap opera set in the late 19th Century about a rancher in Australia whose life is upended when his old flame returns from England, while also following the romantic adventures of his son and the family's struggle to keep their land.

6. Wild fire

Photo: TV Guide

Maybe you love Heartland for Ty's storyline of redemption and second chances via horses. Horse girl, do I have the show for you. ABC Family's 2005 drama stars a pre-Padalecki Genevieve Cortese as a teen female convict who gets a conditional release after getting a job at Raintree Ranch when an employee notices her ability to soothe even the most bucking bronco. Her new life at the ranch brings her face-to-face with obstacles, including the ranch owner's two sons, forming a love triangle that's hotter than a horseshoe at high noon! (Is that a saying?) However, unlike Heartland, the horsies in Wildfire aren't being trained to become show horses, they're being saddled into horse racing. Still, horses!

7. Caitlin's Way

Photo: TV Guide

Like Wildfire, Caitlin's Way chooses to watch our heroine blossom from a troubled lawbreaker into a beautiful horse girl, but even further down the timeline. Caitlin is a 14-year-old punk rock girl from Philadelphia with a passion for photography who's in and out of foster homes, but like the Fresh Prince finds her life turned upside down when she leaves Philly to live with her distant family in Montana. There, she befriends and rescues a horse named Bandit and is welcomed by her incredibly kind mom's cousin, her husband, and their goofy son. Caitlin (and the show) takes a while to warm up to her surroundings, but she eventually learns that ranch life is a lot better than a juvenile hall. The Canadian series, which aired on Nickelodeon from 2000 to 2002, was a few years behind its time, as it's dripping with goofy mid-'90s teen angst. Whereas Heartland feels timeless, Caitlin's Way is definitely a time warp back to the '90s. It's not available to stream on any major services -- curse you, streaming gods! -- but the episodes are available on YouTube.