Another exciting episode of Heartland is upon us. This time, we saw Amy teach Lyndy and Caleb how to barrel race. Logan’s dad also came to town. While Jessica and Lisa were figuring out what the next steps in their careers are.
Want to know more? Then keep on reading this recap of Heartland season 16 episode 8.
Enthusiasm and heart
The episode began with Amy, Lyndy, Tim, and Caleb watching a barrel racing event at the rodeo grounds when Lyndy expressed interest in becoming a barrel racer. So, Caleb and Amy took Lyndy to meet Sherri Wild, a legendary barrel racer who now runs her own barrel racing school, in hopes that Lyndy could take one of Sherri’s beginner classes. However, that’s when Sherri told the trio that she’s selling her school.
That got Caleb interested because he thought that buying Sherri’s school would be a great way to expand Tim’s rodeo school. Yet, Sherri assumed that since Caleb and Tim are hard-core cowboys they look at barrel racing as a lesser rodeo event and therefore didn’t even want to consider Tim and Caleb as potential buyers.
But that didn’t stop Caleb. He figured that he could prove to Sherri that he’s serious about taking over her barrel racing school by learning to barrel race himself. And to do that Caleb asked Amy to teach him how to do it.
So, now Amy had two newbies to teach – her daughter Lyndy and Caleb.
The next day their work began. Caleb picked up the basics quickly, however, he wasn’t quite a natural when it came to barrel racing. Therefore, when it came time to race Sherri for the school, even with the 5-second lead Sherri spotted Caleb, he lost.
Luckily, before their little race, Sherri saw how good Tim was with Lyndy. Couple that with Caleb’s barrel racing efforts and Sherri decided to sell Caleb and Tim the school after all.
This means that Tim and Caleb will be expanding their business and I’m excited to see how that works out for them.
The Fleming gene
As I mentioned before, Caleb wasn’t the only one who was learning to barrel race on Heartland season 16 episode 8. Lyndy was bitten by the barrel racing bug as well.
Yet, teaching Lyndy to barrel race wasn’t quite going as smoothly as Amy hoped it would.
The teaching process started out well, with Amy taking it slow and teaching Lyndy the basics on Harley in one of the pens at the ranch. But when Tim saw Lyndy practicing on Harley, he wasn’t happy.
Harley wasn’t a barrel horse and Tim wanted Lyndy to have the best of the best because, in his mind, if Lyndy has even a smidge of the Fleming rodeo genes, she’s going to pick up barrel racing quickly and Harley’s going to hold her back from getting good quickly.
So, Tim went out and got Lyndy a new horse – Willow.
Willow used to be a barrel-racing horse but now that he’s retired Tim figured that Willow would be the perfect starter horse for Lyndy.
Amy, of course, wasn’t convinced from the get-go. After all, Lyndy had her first barrel racing lesson just that morning. But Tim insisted that Lyndy try Willow out. Amy tried stalling for as long as she could under the disguise of making sure that Willow is safe for Lyndy to ride, however, Tim got impatient and convinced Amy to let Lyndy have her turn on Willow.
And it went terribly.
Willow quickly went from a slow trot to a full-on gallop and it scared Lyndy so much that she didn’t want to barrel race anymore.
Tim tried convincing Amy to make Lyndy get right back up on the horse. But Amy knew what’s best for her daughter and told Tim to take Willow back.
Fortunately, later that evening Amy and Tim had an honest conversation about what happened and the two were able to end the day on a good note.
Amy: “It’s just the way you show it.”
Tim: “What do you mean?”
Amy: “Do you remember when you bought me that fancy new jumping horse and all I really wanted to do was have fun at shows with Spartan?”
Tim: “Yeah. I get too invested.”
Amy: “Yeah, you do. And I don’t want Lyndy to have to deal with the same type of pressure that I had to deal with.”
Tim: “Was it that bad?”
Amy: “It’s not about being bad or good, it’s about being too much sometimes.”
Tim: “Should I back off?”
Amy: “No, I want you to be involved. I do. But just try not to be so…”
Tim: “So overbearing”
Amy: “Yes. Look, Lyndy is new at this, and can we not just enjoy that?”
So, the next day Tim apologized to Lyndy about buying her a horse that’s too fast for Lyndy and took her around the arena on Caleb’s horse to renew her interest in racing, staying by her side the whole time.
And the episode ended with Lyndy getting back in the saddle with Amy and Logan by her side and the rest of the family cheering her on from the sidelines.
Can we expect to see Lyndy grow into a serious barrel racer in the future? I mean she is a Fleming so it’s very likely. And I wouldn’t mind seeing Lyndy compete in rodeos in the future.
Surprises
This latest episode was a big one for Logan as well because his dad, Greg, was released on parole and now Logan had some big decisions to make about his future.
Early in the episode, we saw Logan’s dad surprise his son by showing up at the ranch out of the blue. Apparently, Greg’s parole hearing had been yesterday and he decided to not tell Logan about it so as not to get Logan’s hopes up. However, now that Greg was a free man, his first order of business was to see his son.
That, of course, caught Logan by surprise. And he seemed to not know what to do or how to act around his father.
At Jack’s invitation, Logan and Greg joined the family for dinner and later the family even offered Greg and Logan to stay at one of the Dude Ranch cabins for a few nights. That’s when Greg dropped his next surprise on Logan – Greg had jobs lined up for him and Logan back home in Nova Scotia.
Much like Greg’s arrival, that caught Logan by surprise. Especially, since in the last year or so Logan has made a good life for himself in Hudson. So, the next morning Logan talked to his dad about wanting to say in Hudson.
Greg: “Oh, yeah. That’s why we’re moving to the east coast, so we can start a new life.”
Logan: “I already have a life, here, working with the horses, with Amy. I’m learning so much.”
Greg: “Wait, You don’t wanna go?”
Logan: “I’m torn, dad. I wanna be with you but this place feels like home.”
That shocked Greg a little, so he started talking about how he imagined his life with his son once he made parole in Nova Scotia. But realizing his mistake later he apologized to Logan for being selfish and told his son that neither of them is going anywhere – Greg’s going to look for work around Hudson so he can stay near his son.
Yet, just as it seemed like things were falling into place for Logan, he saw his dad talking to one of his old buddies the next morning, the same man who’s at fault for Greg landing in prison. So, Logan felt like he had no other choice but to agree to move to Nova Scotia with his dad.
He even told Amy about his decision who understandably was not happy with it but couldn’t really do anything about it since it was Logan’s choice.
But just before Caleb and Sherry’s race Tim had a talk with Greg and luckily, that seemed to make Greg realize that maybe both of them moving to Nova Scotia wasn’t the right move.
Greg: “I can see that.”
Tim: “My daughter can see it, too. And she’s known as the miracle girl ’cause of her connection to horses.”
Greg: “Amazing what they grow up into. Especially when you haven’t been around to see it happen.”
Tim: “I know what you mean. I missed a lot of good years with my daughters. And then I made the same mistake with my son.”
Greg: “So, you’re back in his life now?”
Tim: “Still in repair mode. Trying to be patient. Give him his space. let him work it out on his own terms.”
So, the next day Greg told Amy that Logan isn’t moving after all. Logan’s going to go up to Nova Scotia for a week or so to help Greg get settled there but then will be back to Hudson to continue his work with Amy and at the Youth Center.
Sounds like things are finally looking up for Logan and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for him for the rest of the season.
I have gotta make some changes
Heartland season 16 episode 8 wasn’t so great for Lisa either because in this episode she was experiencing some unforeseen problems with her business.
At the beginning of the episode, we saw Lisa get out of the car all upset. Jack, of course, rushed to his wife’s side and that’s when Lisa told him what has happened.
Platinum Bow has gotten seriously hurt. Apparently, when Lisa and her team went to get him for training yesterday, Platinum Bow couldn’t put any weight on his leg. And Lisa’s vet didn’t know what’s up either – it could be a number of things including a fractured bone or a torn ligament which would mean the end of the horse’s racing career.
Lisa was seriously distraught about the possibility that Platinum Bow might not be able to race anymore. And it didn’t help that her investors were hounding her for updates which stressed Lisa out even more.
In the end, it ended up being a stone bruise which caused an abscess in the horse’s hoof. This meant that it won’t be long before Platinum Bow is back at the track keeping Lisa’s investors happy.
And one good thing came out of this whole deal with Platinum Bow as well – it seemed to make Lisa evaluate what’s important to her.
Since she’s away so much, Lisa misses a lot of important moments with her family. So, at the end of the episode, after all the stress that this situation with the horse and her investors caused her, Lisa told Jack that she wants to make some changes when it comes to her business.
What those changes will look like? I’m not sure but I hope it will mean that Lisa is home more spending her time with her husband instead of stressing about her business.
A big opportunity
On top of going over the books to see if the rodeo school expansion would be a good move and going overboard when it comes to Lyndy learning to barrel race, in this episode Tim also had to be a supportive husband because Jessica needed it more than ever.
Now that the two were back from New York, Jessica had to start figuring out what her next steps when it comes to her photography are. Because, as we saw in episode 1606, her art show was a bust, therefore she really had to choose whether to continue with her passion despite what critics say or to find a new career.
And at the start of the episode, it seemed like she might choose option two since she was helping Lou out by stepping up as the Dude Ranch manager and even thinking of pitching Lou a few ideas about how they could ramp up the marketing for the Duder Ranch.
But then Ezra called her and offered a new photography gig- to take photos for an advertising campaign for a big designer, Grayson Bolt.
After the disappointment in New York, Jessica’s first instinct was to turn it down. And even after Tim encouraged Jessica to take this big opportunity, she was still not interested in submitting her work to the designer.
So, Tim decided to take matters into his own hands and put together a portfolio of Jessica’s best photographs to remind her of how good she is and to try and convince her to try out for the photography job Ezra offered.
At first, Jessica wouldn’t even look at the photographs Tim printed. But the next morning curiosity got the better of her and she did take a peak which quickly reminded her why she wanted to pursue photography as her career.
And after she admitted to Tim that this opportunity feels just like New York – Ezra getting another one of his friends to validate Jessicas work – and Tim convinced her that this might be a legit opportunity to showcase her talent, Jessica reluctantly agreed to submit her work to the designer.
All the effort on Tim’s part ended up paying off because at the end of the episode we saw Jessica get the Grayson Bolt ad campaign since, apparently, Jessica’s work is just what the designer was looking for.
READ NEXT: Recap of Heartland season 16 episode 9
And based on the synopsis for the next episode (read it at the end of this article), we will see how this opportunity plays out in the next episode. Stay tuned!
Lies and apologies
Finally, Heartland season 16 episode 8 also saw a continuation of the storyline of Katie wanting to get her ears pierced that we saw in episode 1607.
All throughout this season, and even in the previous season as well, the relationship between Katie and Lou has been rocky. And that continued in this episode.
In the beginning portion of the episode, we saw Katie show Lisa the earrings she has picked out and ask Lou if they’re still going to get Katie’s ears pierced first thing tomorrow. Lou being the workaholic that she is said yes but it was really hard to tell if she knew what she was agreeing to again because Lou was so engrossed in her phone.
So, the next morning came and Katie was ready to go only to get blown off by Lou who had a mayoral meeting to attend. Lou, of course, promised to take Katie as soon as she’s done with the meeting but it ran long and Lou called to reschedule. Again.
So, Katie, being the rebellious teenager that she is, tricked Lisa into taking her to town telling Lisa that Lou had asked Katie to pick up a shift at Maggie’s, and got her ears pierced anyway.
The next morning Katie came downstairs in a beanie which seemed odd to Lou. And when Lou asked Katie to take it off so Katie doesn’t get a heat stroke (it is summer after all), it revealed Katie’s newly pierced ears.
That is when Lisa realized the real reason Katie asked her to take her to Hudson. So, Lou called Katie outside to give her daughter a good scolding.
Lou couldn’t believe that Katie lied to her. However, Katie had a good counter-argument, too – Lou did bale on their plans yesterday. And that quickly spiraled into Katie accusing Lou of paying more attention to Georgie than her and not being there for Katie.
Katie did have a point, though, because lately, Lou has been either working, spending time with Peter in Vancouver, or in Florida with Georgie. And Lou seemed to realize that, too, because later Lou apologized to Katie for not making time for her daughter.
The two hugged it out and hopefully, moving forward, Lou will make an effort to spend more time with Katie. Because really all the stunts Katie has pulled this season from going river rafting with Logan to now getting her ears pierced screams like she just wants her mom to pay her more attention.
Last thoughts on Heartland season 16 episode 8
Although there was no direct storyline when it came to Amy and Finn in this episode since in the last episode we saw Finn leave for Kindersley for an extended period of time, we did have a little bit of an indication of where things are heading.
After Jessica announced that she got the photography job, she told everyone that the picture of Amy and Finn was the one that sold the designer on hiring Jessica for the gig.
So, Amy took another look at that photo of Finn and her and decided to text Finn to see if he made it home safely. And Finn replied instantly, saying that he made it to town safe and thanking Amy for checking in.
Does this mean that Amy is willing to take a chance on a long-distance relationship?
I don’t know but the next episode does promise an argument between Amy and Jack over Finn so sounds like something is still going on between Finn and Amy.
And speaking of romances, this episode seemed to confirm a little that the boy Katie has a crush on might, indeed, be Logan.
During the episode, we saw Katie bake muffins with Lyndy and bring them to the Dude Ranch for Logan and his dad to enjoy. As well as blushing after Logan complimented her on getting her ears pierced.
I know that some people are wary of possible romance between the two because of the age difference but nothing’s confirmed. And even if the two end up just being good friends, I’m okay with it because I really like the friendly, supportive relationship that’s developing between the two teens.
First look at Heartland season 16 episode 9
While I don’t have a promo for the next episode, I do have a first-look clip and a description for episode 1609 to share with you:
Heartland season 16 episode 9, which is airing on November 27th will be called “True Colours, New Tricks” and it will see Amy and Jack go on an overnight trail ride for Jessica’s new photography job, and during the ride, Jack will express his displeasure about Amy’s relationship with Finn. While Rick will be upset about Lou’s latest mayoral event.