Former equestrienne ringing in. The whole story screams “tall tale” to me, and barring extensive corroboration, I’ll treat it as not only fiction, but wildly improbable fiction. I plan on watching it only for MST3k purposes.
I really hate seeing “based on a true story” used to advertise complete fiction. Just because 100% accuracy isn’t achieveable in non-fiction doesn’t mean the term is completely up for grabs.