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Amy Fleming
Played by: Amber Marshall
- All Girls Like Ponies: She grew up on a horse ranch and started helping her mother take care of horses at a very young age, so she's pretty much spent her entire life loving horses.
- Bad Liar: Even when held back by an NDA, she cannot lie to save her life.
- Badass Adorable: Is willing to do anything to help horses.
- Good Parents: to her daughter, Lyndy
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Is a very kind girl who has blonde hair.
- Happily Married: to Ty Borden
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Is perfectly comfortable dressing up but is also willing to put in the hard work to help horses.
Lou Fleming
Played by: Michelle Morgan
- Brainy Brunette: Has a master's degree and (initially) works in a well-respected New York company while still in her early 20s.
- City Mouse: At first, but she is able to return to her country-girl roots relatively quickly.
- Daddy's Girl: Compared to her little sister, she's much closer to their father, especially early on.
- Girly Girl: Is much more outwardly feminine than her younger sister Amy.
- Glamorous Single Mother: Probably because she has so much extended family around to help her, her relationship with the girls doesn't change much when she and Peter get divorced.
- Good Parents: Even as a single parent, always makes time for both her daughters.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Primarily goes by Lou, a shortened form of her middle name, instead of her first name, Samantha.
- The Smart Guy: Runs the business side of the ranch while Jack, Amy, and (later) Ty, Mallory, and Caleb take care of the actual horses.
- Soapbox Sadie: Once she decides a cause is important to her, she is willing to sacrifice a lot of things for the cause.
Jack Barlett
Played by: Shaun Johnston
- Berserk Button: Hurting either of his granddaughters or changing anything on his range are huge no-nos.
- Consistent Clothing Style: Jack is a Creature of Habit about many things, including his wardrobe. His everyday uniform consists of faded jeans, a plaid or striped button-down shirt, a belt with a buckle he won a long time ago, and a comfortable old cowboy hat. He does own one suit for special occasions, but he often grumbles when he has to wear it.
- Deadpan Snarker: Is capable of surprising amounts of sarcasm.
- May–December Romance: Although the actors are similar in age, Jack is old enough to have grandchildren the same age as (and ten years older than) Lisa's nephew Ben, which suggests that there's a fairly large age difference between the two.
- Older Than They Look: Because the actor is about 20 years younger than the character he's playing.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Outlives his only daughter, Marion, by a considerable number of years, given that he's still alive and doing well in the most recent season, while his daughter died when one of her own daughters was still in high school.
- Second Love: In the form of Lisa Stillman, although he never forgets his first wife of many years, Lindy.
Tim Fleming
Played by: Chris Potter
- Abled in the Adaptation: In the original book series, he was paralyzed below the waist during his bad riding accident, whereas in the TV show, he developed an addition to prescription painkillers.
- The Alcoholic: Most of his alcoholism is far in the past (during the time when Amy and Lou were growing up), but it comes back somewhat in season 7.
- Berserk Button: Mistreating horses or trying to hurt either of his girls (and later any of his granddaughters) will lead to some very serious consequences.
- Disappeared Dad: A former example; he was not a part of his daughters' lives for about a decade prior to the start of the series before reconnecting with both girls at the start of the series.
- Doting Parent: Buys his younger daughter a showjumper for her sixteenth birthday and cosigns a loan with his older daughter at the same time.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: The only members of the main cast that are usually happy to see him are his younger two granddaughters; anyone older than about 12 (including his eldest granddaughter, Georgie) has much more difficulty getting along with him.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He ultimately does what he thinks is best for his family, even if they don't initially agree.
- Younger Than They Look: Once the actor went white-haired in later seasons, he sometimes looks older than his former father-in-law.
Marion Fleming
Played by: Lisa Langlois
- Deceased Parents Are the Best: Certainly in Amy's opinion, although Lou seems to have been less close to their mother.
- Friend to All Living Things: Loves all horses, at the very least, and isn't afraid to take chances on teen rebels who need a second chance (happens with both Scott and Ty).
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Just like her daughter, Amy.
- Like Parent, Like Child: Is very similar to her younger daughter, Amy, in both looks and horsemanship abilities.
Ty Borden
Played by: Graham Wardle
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Passes away in the season 14 opening.
- Former Teen Rebel: In the first episode, he had just been let out of juvie, but by the later episodes, he was a vet and a respectable adult.
- Freudian Excuse: The reason he was getting out of juvie in season 1 was that his stepfather was extremely abusive to both him and his mother.
- Happily Married: to Amy Fleming
- Nice Guy: Behind that sometimes rough exterior, he seems to be a genuinely good person and is the least snarky man in the Barlett-Fleming house.
- Smarter Than You Look: While he comes across as more of a punk, he is smart enough to pass through high school exclusively through online courses while keeping up with doing full-time work on a horse ranch, in the top 10% of his class. He also manages to later become a vet.
Scott Cardinal
- Former Teen Rebel: But smartened up by present-day to be a respectable member of society.
- Nice Guy: A really nice, sweet man who loves animals enough to make a career of it.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: When Ty asked for a day off to go visit his mom in rehab, Scott said yes immediately. He also turned down a lucrative offer to combine his clinic with another vet's when he found out he would have to fire both his veterinary assistants.
Ashley Stanton
Played by: Cindy Busby
- Adaptation Name Change: Her name is Ashley Grant in the books.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Ashley gets drunk after her mother sells her beloved horse in a moment of pettiness in Season 2.
- Lovable Alpha Bitch: Starts off a true Alpha Bitch in season one, but mellows out considerably.
- Put on a Bus: Ashley leaves town to attend college between seasons 4 and 5 and has only made one appearance since.
- Throwing the Fight: Ashley deliberately loses the Fall Finale at the end of Season 1 to get back at Val for attempting to take Spartan away from Amy.
- Uptown Girl: Downplayed. Ashley is the daughter of a stable owner and enters into a relationship with Heartland's ranch hand Caleb, later marrying him. At the time, though, Ashley is estranged from her wealthy mother, and she and Caleb eventually divorce.
Val Stanton
Played by: Wanda Cannon
- Abusive Parent: Sells her daughter's beloved showjumper, then cuts her off financially and even slaps her across the face when she protests.
- Like Parent, Like Child: Starts off very similar to her daughter Ashley, but while Ashley exhibits positive character development early on, Val does not.
- My Beloved Smother: When she's not emotionally abusing Ashley, she basically smothers her daughter in positive attention.
- Stage Mom: Is very emotionally invested in her daughter's showjumping career.
Georgie Fleming-Morris
- Friend to All Living Things: Is willing to go into a raging fire to rescue some miniature ponies that are in danger, and also bonds with such various creatures as lambs, llamas, and wolf cubs.
- Happily Adopted: by Peter Morris and Lou Fleming
- Phoneaholic Teenager: At least when she's in a relationship with Adam.
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Usually wears ranch clothes (blue jeans and work shirts) and does more trick riding than show-jumping, but also has no problem dressing up for dates and dances, especially as a teenager.
- Tomboyish Ponytail: Her general hairstyle.
Katie Fleming-Morris
- Adorably Precocious Child: When her goldfish dies, she reveals that she is already aware of death and has no problem with flushing her dead pet down the toilet.
- Cheerful Child: Basically since birth.
- Girly Girl: Especially compared to her older sister; she loves the color pink and loves her ballet lessons.
