Hollywood Hoofbeats

by Petrine Day Mitchum

  A gray Andalusian stallion named Jabonero carries Hugh Dancy, as Sir Galahad, into battle. Jabonero had previously worked in Gladiator with Russell Crowe. As Gawain, Joel Edgerton was mounted aboard a gray Andalusian gelding named Rusty. The Australian Edgerton had learned to ride as a child and brushed up his skills for his role in Ned Kelly (2003). According to Edgerton, however, the King Arthur riding boot camp “took everything to another level.” The only non-Spanish mount was Goliath, a big-boned French three-quarter crossbred black gelding with a white star. The handsome, husky horse was the perfect complement to actor Ray Stevenson’s character Dagonet, an awesome warrior with a tender side.

  One of Steve Dent’s Andalusians and his rider negotiate the flaming battlefield in 2000’s Roman epic Gladiator.

  For stunt coordinator Dent, the weeks of preparation paid off during the battle scenes, which often comprise many controlled shots. Surprisingly, according to Dent: “The hardest shot in the movie was when all seven of them [the knights] were galloping across a field with about five cameras on them. Of course, when they ride like this, all the horses are competing, and it is dangerous. But it worked, and it worked brilliantly.”

  Thematically, King Arthur pays great homage to the noble horse. When young Lancelot is brutally recruited into the Sarmatian cavalry at the beginning of the film, his father consoles him with the legend that every fallen knight returns as a great horse. It is implied that young Lancelot’s handsome black steed—an impressive Belgian named Hendrix—is one of these. At the end of the film, when Lancelot and two of his fellow knights have been slain by the Saxons, three magnificent riderless horses cavort together, symbolizing their fallen masters. It is a profoundly poetic image that underscores the absolute importance of the horse to the Arthurian legend.

  Far and Away

  Beginning in Ireland and ending up in America’s West, 1992’s Far and Away, directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, revisits the Oklahoma Land Rush depicted in the early Western Cimarron. Head wrangler Rudy Ugland and wrangler Rusty Hendrickson gathered 750 horses for the sequence, which was monitored by American Humane Association representatives every step of the way. The filmmakers employed an army of stuntmen to ride and drive breakaway wagons in carefully staged wrecks.

  Ugland furnished many of his own horses, including the veteran falling horse Twister, who performed his specialty, a spectacular combination rear and fall. Nicole Kidman was assigned to Ugland’s reliable movie horse 101. A more accomplished rider, Tom Cruise rode Whiskey, a beautiful black Quarter Horse with a white star. Like the Appaloosa Dear John, Whiskey was trained to buck on cue. When Cruise’s character, Joseph, arrives at the race site, the only available mounts are a placid old creature and a frisky young animal bucking in a corral. This was Whiskey, responding to Ugland’s off-screen whip cues. Joseph chooses the calm horse, who dies almost immediately on the blacksmith’s hitching rail. The real horse was tranquilized for close shots (a practice acceptable at the time but no longer condoned by the American Humane), and a fake horse was used for wider shots. Joseph is obliged to ride the fractious black, who promptly dumps his reluctant rider. Joseph is so fed up with the skittish horse that he punches him in the nose so he can mount. The punch was an illusion, of course, achieved by pulling Whiskey’s head away with a wire when the punch “connects.”

  Since working with them in his films, Tom Cruise has become hooked on horses and went home with two from the Far and Away production: not Whiskey though, who ended up at Ugland’s retirement ranch in Atascadero, California.

  The Civil War

  MGM and producer David O. Selznick conspired to create the sweeping Civil War-era romantic drama Gone With the Wind (1939), another winner of multiple Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Equines are everywhere in the movie, from the opening credit sequence over a pastoral scene to laboring mules, fancy mounts, and carriage and battle horses. A white horse introduces Scarlett O’Hara’s father, Gerald, as a zestful man, who makes his entrance jumping a series of fences. Diamond, an American Saddlebred jumping horse that Elizabeth Taylor trained on as a child, and another Saddlebred, Anacacho Revel, also appeared. This was the era of Charlie Flores’s stable, so many of the horses must have belonged to him. Others were specialty horses supplied by individual trainers.

  Second unit director Breezy Eason handled the dramatic burning of Atlanta. Fortunately, no equine casualties occurred during the recreation of this horrific event—nor during any other part of movie—to tarnish the production. That is probably because the expert Yakima Canutt was on task. Canutt staged a sequence in which he drives a one-horse hack at a full run through the burning set and up an alley, where, as he is attacked by several ruffians, the horse rears and paws the air. Cowboy Tracy Lane owned the horse and had trained him to execute the action. The horse was cued to perform at the right moment by a small “hot shot” placed under the breast collar. According to Canutt: “The ‘hot shot,’ similar to the battery-powered electric prods used to herd cattle, had been weakened as it only takes a small shock to cue a horse into action and not hurt him.” As the camera rolled, the horse was cued to rear twice, but as he pawed the air, Canutt remembered, “his hind feet must have slipped because he sat down and came over on his back with all four legs sticking straight up between the shafts. I jumped out of the way and hollered, ‘Cut!’ We got the horse up just as Breezy walked over and asked me if I knew what picture I was working on. ‘Gone With the Wind,’ I said. Breezy snorted, ‘Oh yeah, looks more like a Mack Sennett comedy to me.’” After the laughter died down, the scene was reshot without a mishap.

  When Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh) escapes from Atlanta, it is aboard a cart pulled by Woebegone, an old nag on his last legs. A horse in poor condition was procured for the scene, but by the time the sequence was filmed, he had gained weight on the production’s steady rations and had to be made up to look like he was starving. He supposedly collapses from fatigue, but this gruesome action is implied rather than depicted.

  Scarlett O’Hara loses two of her closest loved ones to horse-jumping accidents. Her father, demented since the death of his wife, is killed jumping a horse over a pasture fence. Scarlett and Rhett Butler’s only child, Bonnie Blue (Cammie King), meets her untimely demise when her little pony refuses a jump as her horrified parents watch. The beautiful black pony was a registered Shetland named Bobby. Mark Smith of Burbank, California, taught the pony to balk at a jump and hurl his rider over his head. Smith displayed tremendous confidence in Bobby when he cast his own six-year-old son, Richard, as Cammie King’s stunt double. Young Richard learned to project himself into the fall and roll on impact.

  A modern look at the romantic trials of the Civil War hit movie screens in 2003 with the release of Cold Mountain, which, like Gone With the Wind, was based on a popular book. Steve Dent coordinated the horse unit and cast his veteran Spanish animals, George and Conyo, in key roles.

  The gray liberty-trained Andalusian Conyo is featured in an early battlefield scene. Having fallen when his rider was shot, he gets up riderless and trots off the field. The result is an eerie image of the symbolic “good” white horse leaving the field of death.

  Ray Winstone plays the self-serving Captain Teague, leader of a unit that shoots Confederate deserters and their supporters. He is mounted on George, the handsome black who has supported so many stars. With his silver-studded bridle and breastplate, George, often shot from low angles to look even more imposing, adds menace to Teague’s villainous persona.

  Yakima Canutt, doubling Clark Gable, drives Tracy Lane’s stunt horse through the flaming city of Atlanta (part of an old set for King Kong on a studio back lot in Culver City) in 1939’s Gone with the Wind.

  Bobby looks surprised as young Richard Smith, as Bonnie blue Butler, takes a header into a breakaway obstacle in Gone With The Wind

  The Last Samurai’s Honorable Horses

  Tom Cruise mounted up again for his role as Nathan Algren, a disillu
sioned Civil War hero who joins forces with Samurai warriors in The Last Samurai (2003). Director Ed Zwick is especially proud of the fact that no stuntmen or horses were injured in the stunning battle sequences and Samurai equestrian drills. “These were remarkable animals,” Zwick has stated of his equine actors, “so well trained and loved by everyone.” Horse master Peter White supervised the acquisition and training of the fifty horses in New Zealand, where the film was shot. None of the equines had previously done film work, and the seventy-five Japanese extras recruited from Auckland had never ridden. Amazingly, they were able to gallop downhill firing arrows, with no hands on the reins, after just two weeks of intensive training.

  Animal lover Tom Cruise made sure that the film crew took the most sophisticated safety precautions and that American Humane monitors approved all the action. “American Humane wishes that every celebrity would be as proactive as Tom Cruise was regarding the treatment of the animals,” said the organization’s Film and Television Unit’s director Karen Rosa in a 2004 interview. “He was amazing.” At the end of production, the film’s trainers and wranglers had become so attached to the horses that they purchased about half of them. The remaining horses were returned to their original owners with acting added to their resumes. Tom Cruise, meanwhile, went home with his movie mount, Felix, a chestnut gelding with a star.

  The fiery Felix and humane advocate Tom Cruise forged a strong bond while working together on The Last Samurai.

  Fantasy Steeds

  Middle-earth. Mordor. Gondor. The realms of The Lord of the Rings trilogy exist only in the imagination of its creator—J. R. R. Tolkien—and millions of devoted fans, yet the films contain some very realistic, riveting horse action. The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002), and Return of the King (2003) were shot simultaneously in New Zealand over a period of nearly two years. A main unit and two separate second units, all under the masterful watch of director Peter Jackson, had the task of assembling, caring for, and training the equine cast.

  The Fellowship of the Ring

  The Fellowship of the Ring begins the trilogy and introduces the hobbit hero Frodo and his pals, Samwise, Merry, and Pippin (Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Dominic Monaghan, and Billy Boyd), as well as the wizard Gandalf the Grey (Sir Ian McKellen), the elf prince Legolas (Orlando Bloom), and the human warrior Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen). Frodo, who has inherited the evil Lord Sauron’s dangerous magic ring, is aided by all these characters in his quest to dispose of the ring at Mount Doom.

  Head wrangler Dave Johnson handled the more than two hundred horses used in the various battle and chase scenes. Stuntman Casey O’Neill coordinated the horse stunts.

  One of the most exciting scenes is a chase scene in which the elvish princess Arwen (Liv Tyler), mounted on her white horse Asfaloth, flees from the villainous Black Riders, or Ringwraiths. Asfaloth was played by a thirteen-year-old light gray Andalusian named Florian. He was used for beauty shots and stunt work and was doubled by two other grays, Hero and Odie. Hero did the running scenes. The well-behaved Odie was Liv Tyler’s riding mount.

  New Zealand horsewoman Jane Abbott doubled Liv Tyler in the galloping and rearing sequences. For close-ups in these action sequences, Tyler was astride a barrel rig mounted on a tracking vehicle. Covered with horsehide and mane purchased from a tanner, the horse-barrel looked surprisingly real. Devices such as these have been used for decades. In early Westerns, the hero was often filmed in tight shots on a horse-barrel in front of a screen showing the major action, a process known as rear projection.

  The carefully choreographed chase sequence featured five rearing horses, twenty-plus jumping horses, three falling horses, and five lay-down horses. The main horse actors playing the Ringwraiths’ mounts were Bob, Chico, and Zee, who had been trained in polo, cross-country, and dressage, respectively. The Ringwraith horses were dramatically decked in elaborate dark armor. This tack, though appearing to be metal, was actually leather specially fit to each horse. The riders rehearsed with the horses for months to acclimate the animals to the armor and the riders’ flapping black robes before shooting commenced. The final scene, in which a tidal wave sweeps away the Ringwaiths and their horses, was computer generated. In the course of filming the difficult sequence, Florian so endeared himself to Jane Abbott that she acquired him from the production company after they wrapped.

  Another equine character in the film is Bill the Pony, a hobbit-size horse adopted by Sam. Bill accompanies the hobbits to the Moria Mines gate, where Aragorn releases him to return home, as the mines are no place for a pony. Played by a horse named Shane, Bill helps carry the hobbits’ supplies. His pack, which appears heavy, was actually made from lightweight foam.

  As they climb treacherous mountain terrain, an avalanche besieges the heroes. Despite how it looks on film, Shane did not come into contact with actual snow. A pony costume worn by two human dancers replaced Shane in a scene shot in a mountain location accessible only by helicopter. Other scenes in the snow sequence were filmed on a set covered with processed potato flakes. Still others were shot against a blue screen in a studio. The snow and terrain were added in the editing room.

  Director Peter Jackson maintains that his crews worked hard to ensure that no horses were harmed during the making of The Lord of the Rings. Except for some reshoots in the second and third episodes, American Humane was not contracted to monitor the animal action in the trilogy. Representatives of the Animal Welfare Institute of New Zealand, AWINZ, were charged with overseeing most of the action.

  Brego (Uraeus) and Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) forged a bond that carried them beyond the battlefields.

  The Two Towers

  Horses are even more prominent in The Two Towers than they were in The Fellowship of the Ring. The men who join the fight to save Middle-earth are the Rohans, known for their expert horsemanship. Throughout the film, these humans battle Lord Sauron’s monstrous Orc armies, who are mounted on hyenalike creatures called Wargs.

  While horses are generally important in The Two Towers, two equine characters stand out with critical roles. The first is Shadowfax, the alabaster mount of the wizard Gandalf. Gandalf summons Shadowfax, Lord of the Horses, and the magnificent stallion comes running to him from over the hills. Gandalf mounts him without a bridle or saddle and gallops off to give warning of an impending attack on the remaining human stronghold, Gondor.

  Shadowfax was played by a fourteen-year-old Andalusian named Domero. He had one main double for the many galloping scenes, Blanco, an eight-year-old Andalusian stallion. Blanco was slightly smaller than Domero and had a skimpier mane so he required hair extensions to match the Andalusian’s luxurious locks. Domero was taught to work at liberty and come to a mark by head trainer Don Reynolds. It took seven takes to get the shot of Shadowfax responding to Gandalf’s whistle. The first time the horse cracked up the crew when he came flying up to Ian McKellen, put his nose on the actor’s shoulder, and looked directly into the camera. As Gandalf, McKellen rode Shadowfax using a loose white loop—undetectable on screen—around his neck. Since he was difficult to stop, Domero was controlled by a “V” of mounted wranglers who kept him from running past his designated stopping point at the end of a scene.

  Blanco was trained for liberty work by Graham Ware Jr. and was used extensively in the film as well. Domero and Blanco became fast friends, and according to producer Barrie Osborne, “We quickly learned that the best way to get Domero to run to any spot was to station Blanco there. Without fail, Domero would run to greet his buddy.”

  The other horse character in The Two Towers with a major scene is Brego, the mount of Aragorn. Brego was mainly played by Uraeus, a bay warmblood stallion from Wellington, New Zealand. His trick-trained double, Brownie, a Thoroughbred gelding, was a former polo pony. Uraeus was Viggo Mortensen’s main mount for the film, and the star developed a strong bond with the stallion, even riding him on his days off for fun. In the crucial scene, Brego awakens Aragorn after he is thrown into a river and washed a
shore unconscious. Once Aragorn is revived, Brego kneels so the wounded warrior can mount him.

  The brief scene, which shows the horse nuzzling Aragorn, rolling him over, and then kneeling at his side, took three weeks for training and was filmed during reshoots with trainer Graham Ware Jr., working under the supervision of an American Humane monitor. The complex series of behaviors were performed individually by the two horses and then edited together to appear as one action. Brownie did the kneel and was trained to be ridden without a saddle and bridle for the end of the scene. For the wake-up nuzzle, Mortensen wanted to use Uraeus. At first, Ware was concerned about training him to nuzzle as stallions are prone to nipping. Mortensen, however, felt the stallion could learn the trick safely. “I had known Uraeus for a couple of years,” he later reflected, “and felt he was more than smart enough to pick it up in short order.” He was right: it took Graham just six days to teach Uraeus to nuzzle gently. In the end, he agreed it was worth it as the bond between actor and stallion is visible on screen. “I knew Viggo had the utmost faith in the horse,” the trainer said later. The result is a heartwarming moment that relieves some of the film’s relentless tension.

  The most difficult task in The Two Towers for Graham Ware Jr. was training a horse to rear and land his front feet on a sheet of Plexiglas over a buried camera. The camera gives us the point of view of two hobbits, Merry and Pippin, hiding from the hideous Orcs. A jet black New Zealand Station Horse named Bobby was painstakingly taught to rear, walk forward while striking the air with his front hooves, and on cue, plant his feet squarely on the Plexiglas. On screen, the rearing horse seen from the perspective of the tiny hobbits is breathtaking.