Rainy Day Cowgirl Flicks

This time of the year, when the days are shorter, and more often wet and foggy over crisp and sunny, it's hard not to want to snuggle in on the couch with a mug of coffee and an old standby movie.

I am a bit of a sucker for the Hallmark Channel movies. The mostly low-budget western chick-lit romances. Here are a few that I actually purchased on DVD through Amazon.com. They won't win any academy awards, but the acting is decent and the settings are lovely. The horse scenes are many, although some of the authenticity of the horse and rider situations is a little hokey at times, for the most part, they are the perfect fall rainy day escape.

The Last Cowboy features one of my 1980's favorite actresses, Jennie Garth. She returns, after a long absence, to her family's Texas cattle ranch for her grandfather's funeral. Turns out she has a son and a great racehorse prospect, and a dream of opening a horse rehabilitation facility, and a father who can't afford the ranch anymore. There is a little romance but mostly a father and daughter sorting out their issues. Jennie Garth knows how to ride, she grew up on a Quarter Horse ranch I believe, so it is nice to see an actress comfortable around and on a horse!

Okay, I'm not sure if Melissa Gilbert has been in anything but Hallmark movies since her Little House on the Prairie Days. In this movie, she plays a wealthy woman from the city who visits a small town to track down the rodeo queen pictured in an old photo with her father. Meet Lindsay Wagner (my favorite Bionic Woman) who just might be related to this rodeo queen and the city girl, and is attempting to save a wild herd of mustangs by hauling them water every day. Never mind that the Mustangs look more like a band of AQHA breeding stock, the movie is fairly enjoyable and I think Melissa still smiles like Laura Ingalls.

A withdrawn and emotionally wounded cowboy widower, his match-making sister....and a New York city photographer who travels to Wyoming to meet this man. A love connection at first it is not, but you know how that goes. Throw in some bad guys trying to catch and do ill with wild horses....another romantic comedy and minor intrigue make this a fairly touching and enjoyable story.

Last but not least, the mystery movie of the bunch. This one is based on the book of the same title by author Nora Roberts. Ashley Williams plays a feisty cowgirl wrangler whose father dies, leaving the family ranch to not only herself, but two sisters she didn't know she had.They couldn't be any more different than herself and are not interested in the ranch, just the money it's worth. Throw in one of my favorite actors, John Corbett (Aidan from Sex and the City) and mysterious happenin's on the ranch, and you have a pretty good little movie.

Okay, so admit it, are there some movies out there that you enjoy too, even if their scripts aren't winning awards? That are worthy of an afternoon of escapism because they have a horse, a cowboy, or a cowgirl in them?

On that note, I'm taking my mug and hitting the couch!