The Long Shot

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PREVIOUSLY  RELEASED                                      CONTACT: Pam Slay, 818.755.2480March 1, 2004                                                               

INSPIRATION FOR TV MOVIE SEPARATES FACT FROM FICTION

Real-Life Horse Whisperer Says Her Life Isn’t a Hallmark Original –

“It’s a Soap Opera!”

            Her parents divorced when she was four or five years old.  She’s had back surgery, spinal meningitis, appendicitis and a broken leg.  She’s been separated from her husband and knows what it’s like to be a full-time mother of three struggling to make ends meet.  But perhaps the biggest challenge Amy Gaston has faced was the tragic loss of her horse, Tolo, whose story is the real-life inspiration for “The Long Shot” (Believe in Courage), a Hallmark Original Movie.

          Throughout her life, Gaston considered her Appaloosa “my one companion who was there for me the most.”  So when Tolo fell blind, the gifted equestrian was devastated. 

          “Somewhere in the years since I got married up until the last few years I had lost my way from my dreams,” says Gaston.  “When I met Mary Lou [her mentor, played in the movie by Marsha Mason] she reminded me what it was like to feel the passion for horses again.  She pushed a little and got me riding again.  She gave me positive things to think about when I was having the worst of days.  She saw me through my dark times and made sure that I rode again.”

          Not only did Gaston ride again, she rode her beloved – and blind – Tolo in a dressage competition, astounding the spectators and judges with a winning performance.  Calling her screenwriter-father from the arena, Gaston excitedly told him about the experience.  “That’s a movie!,” he declared.

            Gaston admits that they had to “Hollywoodize” some aspects of her story to create more drama.  “But  my life is quite a soap opera.  Actually,” she laughs, “I think my dad, if he wrote my whole life word for word, could do a miniseries.”

Hallmark Channel, owned and operated by Crown Media Holdings, Inc., is a 24-hour basic cable network that provides a diverse slate of high-quality entertainment programming to a national audience of over 75 million subscribers. The top tier program service is distributed through over 5,300 cable systems and communities as well as direct-to-home satellite services across the country. Hallmark Channel consistently ranks among the top 10 ad-supported cable networks in Total Day and Prime Time household ratings and is the nation’s leading network in providing quality family-friendly programming.  Crown Media also operates a second 24-hour linear channel, Hallmark Movie Channel.

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