for young kids this is great fun, and I have to admit I'm really impressed by the horse riding controls.
barbie aside, the horse animation and riding effect combined with really very good wii controls make this a fun game. Sadly almost a guilty pleasure of mine (39 year old parent / software developer). I'm impressed with it, it's safe, educational, pretty easy (talking about 4 or 5 year olds here, obviously stupidly easy for anyone older but still fun).
I do think that it's a little slow moving in it's plot line due to how much walking/running you have to do to go between each step of the story, but then that's probably sort of like how it is to own a horse on a farm...
fun, my whole family likes it. PS - we own around 70 wii games, so it's quite a compliment that this one I keep coming back to with my kids (my choice as well as theirs). I know it's not going to be a problem game, something that drives everyone crazy with some irritating design flaw. There's nothign really wrong with this game, it does what it says it does and in a surprisingly believable way.