Hollywood Hoofbeats

by Petrine Day Mitchum

  Joey is first seen in the film as a newborn foal. The sequences with baby Joey were actually filmed last, as production began after foaling season and no colt could be found. Actors often play younger characters, and in this case, a six-week-old Thoroughbred-cross foal played the newborn. A yearling and two different two-year-olds portrayed the growing bay. Working with such young equine actors is tricky as they mature so rapidly. According to Lovgren, “You don’t have a long time to train them.”

  Once Joey matures, he is called upon to perform a myriad of behaviors, including rearing at liberty, pulling a plow, and serving as a battlefield mount and beast of burden in a series of harrowing situations, culminating with a hair-raising sequence in “No Man’s Land,” where he is caught in a hellish tangle of barbed wire that nearly finishes him. For many of the key scenes, Lovgren relied on his utility stunt horse, Finder’s Key. Of all the horses that portrayed Joey, Finder was the only pure Thoroughbred and the only horse to be flown to the English location from America. Finder handled his maiden plane ride like a seasoned jet-setter. Lovgren points out that flying is “more comfortable than a horse trailer, less bumpy.”

  Lovgren first met Finder on the set of Seasbiscuit, where he served as one of the nine doubles of the famous racehorse. A grandson of 1972 Eclipse Award winner Key to the Mint, Finder’s own racing career was unimpressive. When shopping for Seabiscuit horses, wrangler Rusty Hendrickson found the 15.2 hand gelding in racing trainer Arthur “Curly” Ortiz’s barn and bought him for production as part of a package deal that included two other lackluster runners. Finder’s star turn in Seabiscuit came in a scene where he battled three handlers. His fiery temperament made him somewhat difficult to handle, but Bobby Lovgren recognized his untapped potential and bought him when the movie wrapped. He continued to work with Finder, patiently refining his liberty skills, and now proudly claims, “He is the best horse I’ve ever had. He’s truly amazing.”

  In an astonishing sequence in War Horse, Joey confronts an advancing tank, and instead of fleeing, counterintuitively runs straight at it and leaps atop and over it to escape. No computer-generated action was needed as Lovgren trained Finder to jump 3.5 feet up onto the tank and 4 feet down the other side. On landing he had to run 100 feet and hit his mark. The tank that Finder jumped was customized with rubber mats on top but otherwise was an authentic replica of a World War I machine, not a plastic prop. “I was astounded at how big the tanks were,” marvels Lovgren. “Very intimidating!” But Finder’s athletic ability and his confidence in his trainer carried him over the intimidating machine in a breathtaking leap.

  Joey (Finder’s Key) is confronted by a tank as many real conscripted horses undoubtably were in the brutal “war to end all wars.”

  “The wilder looking things he’s so very good at,” says Lovgren, including “the things that make you believe the horse is scared or panicked.” This unusual ability was further showcased in the climactic “No Man’s Land” sequence. For the more harrowingly graphic shots of the horse struggling in barbed wire in that sequence, special-effects supervisor Neil Corbould built a realistic life-size Joey. “He was fully animatronic,” explained Corbould. “We dug a 1.5-meter hole, and we had four or five puppeteers basically buried beneath the ground, operating the horse.” Finder was brought in for the close-ups of Joey’s face and laid patiently in the mud during the difficult night shoot. Even though the wire was a plastic prop, the terrified look on Finder’s face is convincing and exactly what Spielberg wanted to capture onscreen. “What is very difficult is getting an emotion from the horses that you can read,” said Lovgren. “I’m very lucky with Finder. He has a personality that connects emotionally with audiences. That’s not something you can teach—it’s all natural with him. He is particularly expressive.”

  One of the film’s most emotional scenes comes when Joey’s wartime buddy, Topthorn, meets his end. In that scene, the imposing black Topthorn was played by a specially trained horse named George. According to the American Humane Association’s on-set representative Barbara Carr, “George had to lay very still while Finder, who was playing Joey, had to come to his side. The horses were both so well trained and calm through all of this. Steven had the entire set quiet. He made everyone so aware of what was going on with the animals that they were never put in any stress at all. And yet, it was so emotional, the whole crew was crying.”

  Finder showed his versatility in an early scene, also lying down, as he portrayed Joey’s mother giving birth. Later, in a scene where Joey balks at the idea of donning the cumbersome collar of a plow horse, Finder displays his awesome rear, working in close quarters with actors Jeremy Irvine (Albert) and Peter Mullan (Albert’s father, Ted). A complete novice around horses before War Horse, Jeremy Irvine had to learn to be at ease with his equine costars, especially in such a seemingly risky scene. Fortunately, producer Kathleen Kennedy, with whom Lovgren worked on Seabiscuit, understands just how much preparation is needed for horses and actors. The young actor took his job very seriously and spent long days with Lovgren and his team of trainers, learning not only to ride but also to understand equine behavior.

  “The horses were so sensitive,” said Irvine. “It was a joy learning to ride with these magnificent creatures. And it’s incredible how quickly you can pick it all up when you’ve got the very best people teaching you.”

  Irvine’s aptitude for horsemanship may have been inherited. While preparing for his role of Albert, the actor made an uncanny discovery: his great-grandfather was a medic who became very attached to his horse during World War I. After the war, he bought the horse for the same amount of money that Albert tries to buy Joey for at auction in War Horse.

  While Finder performed many key scenes in War Horse, Irvine’s main riding mount and the horse featured in the poster image with Irvine against the sunset was Civilon, an Andalusian horse from Spain. With a heavier build than Finder, Civilon looked the part of a war horse, but his more docile temperament made him an easier horse for Irvine to ride. Abraham, a warmblood from England, was also a riding double and did close-up work with Irvine in scenes where Joey is nuzzling his young master or listening to his instructions and advice. Another Spanish Andalusian, Sueno, was a riding double and was used in the suspenseful sequence where Joey must plow a field in order to prove his worth. Civilon and another Spanish horse called Roger also toiled in the demanding plowing scenes. The Andalusians Generoso and Diego and the British warmbloods Lincoln and Sultan were also riding and stunt doubles.

  With so many horses portraying Joey, the makeup department was kept very busy as each horse had to have four white socks and a particular star with a snip on his forehead. It took approximately forty-five minutes to make up a Joey. “This job has taught me a lot of patience,” quipped Charlie Rogers, the equine make-up supervisor.

  Of course multiple doubles also meant that no horse ever had to work too hard, and production could keep moving and yet be compliant with the stringent safety guidelines of the American Humane Association. AHA representative Barbara Carr was on set at all times, making sure that no horses were harmed during the making of War Horse. “The thing that I kept emphasizing from the very outset was that the horses have to be safe,” said Spielberg, “I love horses and even though there is a lot of violence in the picture directed toward horses—and man—I didn’t want any of the horses to be in harm’s way.” The director was so adamant that the horses’ safety come first that he told Carr, “If you ever see an animal under any kind of duress, you can say ‘Cut.’” Spielberg continued, “I gave her the chance to stop a take or to even stop a take from ever being taken. It was a vital collaboration between me, Bobby, and Barbara.” With this kind of dedication from the director, producer Kathleen Kennedy, and Bobby Lovgren and his team of trainers and handlers working with Carr to ensure the well-being of each horse, even the most harrowing scenes in War Horse went smoothly.

  Nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, War Horse did not take home
Oscar gold in 2012 but did pick up several other coveted film-industry prizes, including the American Film Institute’s Movie of the Year. Bobby Lovgren’s horse Finder’s Key was recognized by the American Humane Association with a special Pawscar Award for Best Perception vs. Reality. In bestowing the honor, AHA noted that Finder’s excellent work in the “No Man’s Land” sequence “is a perfect example of the audience perceiving Joey is in danger while the reality is that no animals were harmed. Finder did an amazing acting job.”

  In working with Finder’s Key and his fellow equine thespians, Spielberg’s admiration for horses deepened during the making of War Horse. “There were times in the movie when I wouldn’t even tell the horses what to do and they’d be reacting in the scene in ways I couldn’t imagine a horse would be able to react,” marveled the director. “There are times you just have to sit back and thank your lucky stars that the horses were somehow cognizant that something was required of them that none of us could tell them, but they were intuitively able to give it to the moment.”

  “That,” said Lovgren “is movie magic.”

  The nine stunt horses it took to portray Joey, from left to right: Generoso, Lincoln, Sultan, Diego, Finder, Abraham, Sueno and Civilon, with their handlers. That’s Horse Master Bobby Lovgren, in the black T-shirt and shades, with his star stunt horse, Finder’s Key.

  Trainer Zelie Bullen steadies a “Joey” while equine makeup artist Sarah Nuth paints out a white marking on his muzzle.

  Finder shows costars Jeremy Irvine and Peter Mullan what Joey thinks of becoming a plow horse.

  Avatar: Hoofbeats in the Future

  James Cameron’s epic science-fiction adventure Avatar (2009) is resplendent with exotic creatures that share the planet Pandora with the humanoid blue Na’vi. Fierce hunters with a mystical connection to all life on Pandora, the Na’vi have a particularly strong bond with the direhorses, equinelike creatures that they ride bareback through the heavily forested terrain.

  Avatar producer Jon Landau explains Cameron’s decision behind the creation of the direhorses: “Throughout history there have been profound connections between indigenous cultures and horses, so it seemed natural that the Na’vi would also have a deep connection with a creature inspired by the horse.”

  Direhorses are larger than even the largest earthly horses and have six legs instead of four. They have graceful necks with stand-up manes and long slender heads, reminiscent of seahorses. Two long antennae emanate from each side of their skulls, near their ears, and have feathery tips that can connect to the antennae of other direhorses to communicate. In order to ride a direhorse, a Na’vi warrior must plug his or her own antennae— or neural queue, at the end of a long pigtail— into that of the animal. Once this connection is made, the Na’vi can communicate with the direhorse effortlessly, thus freeing the rider to use a bow and arrow for hunting.

  In the film, direhorses are ridden at all gaits over challenging terrain. In battle sequences, they jump and rear just as real horses do. In order to create such lifelike behaviors, the same performance-capture technology that was used to transform human actors into the Na’vi was employed to create direhorses from equine actors.

  All the horses used for the motion captures were seasoned performers of various breeds, owned by the Gentle Jungle motion-picture livestock company and chosen by head wrangler Titus Reynolds for their calm temperaments and athletic abilities. They included the black Friesian, Casey, who starred as Tornado in The Mask of Zorro (1998); his longtime double and veteran performer in his own right, the Quarter Horse gelding Voodoo; two sorrel Quarter Horses, Cricket and Scooter; and the unusual buckskin Andalusian gelding Ivan.

  With motion-capture technology, performers are rigged with tiny computerized motion sensors near joints and on muscles to capture realistic movement and expression. Recorded in a specially designed studio, the data is then mapped onto a 3D computerized model. Humans wear special bodysuits for the process, but horses required different methods. First, the areas where the motion sensors would be attached had to be shaved. Then Velcro was attached to these areas with surgical glue, a nontoxic silicone adhesive. Light reflective balls were then attached to the Velcro to capture the motion data. The horses’ tails, however, were not shaved but wrapped in a special material embedded with sensors.

  The sensor-rigged horses were ridden up and down ramps and over jumps, either by the actors or stunt men and women. All of the action was safely recorded inside the motion-capture studio, with representatives from the American Humane Association monitoring the proceedings.

  Over a hundred and twenty years since Eadweard Muybridge first photographed the horse in his groundbreaking motion studies, James Cameron and his award-winning team of special-effects wizards have taken capturing motion to a new frontier, yet the basic mechanics of the moving horse remain a vital component of the creation of exciting visual entertainment.

  Rigged with motion sensors along with his mount, Voodoo, Avatar star Sam Worthington ascends to new level of movie magic.

  A champion bull rider, stuntman Ryan Russell Brown—seen here as a Na’vi—leaps into the future aboard Ivan, the buckskin Andalusian, who is covered with motion sensors to create a direhorse in Avatar. Director James Cameron in the jeans and black sweater is sitting on the far right.

  9. Off to the Races

  You know, everybody thinks we found this broken down horse and fixed him, but we didn’t. He fixed us.

  —Red Pollard, voiceover, Seabiscuit, (Screenplay by Gary Ross, based on the book by Laura Hillenbrand)

  Red Pollard (Tobey Maguire) works out with Seabiscuit (Fighting Furrari).

  Before Hollywood opened the starting gate on its long run of horse-racing films, motion-picture pioneer Thomas Edison turned his camera on a race at Sheepshead Bay, New York. The year was 1897. In 1904, The Great Train Robbery director Edwin S. Porter made Two Rubes at a Country Fair, featuring a horse race with female jockeys. Director Reginald Barker established a soon-to-be-clichéd plotline in The Thoroughbred (1916), a comedic tale of a man struggling to get out of debt by entering his horse in a big race. A New York Times critic praised The Thoroughbred and commented, “It is a wonder horse racing has not been used oftener for movie purposes.” Yet Hollywood was still slow to place its bets on a winner.

  Although the pageantry, win/lose suspense, and hoof-pounding excitement of a good horse race inspired dozens of British films in the early 1900s, Hollywood lagged behind until a big red Thoroughbred stallion named Man O’War brought “the sport of kings” to the common American. Beaten only once in his career—and that by a nose in a race he began by facing the wrong way—Man O’War was a national sports hero by 1919. Fans who couldn’t make it to the track at Saratoga or Belmont could cheer Man O’War while listening to his races on the radio. America’s fervor for horse racing had been ignited, and the motion-picture industry jumped on the bandwagon.

  Man O’War led the cast of illustrious racehorses in this 1925 blue-grass romance.

  From the 1920s to the present, the colorful characters of the racetrack milieu—from wealthy owners, gifted trainers, weight-battling jockeys, unscrupulous competitors, and touts to low-heelers hoping to hit the jackpot—have provided inspiration for screenwriters. Common themes, the winning racehorse bailing out a desperate owner, a long shot coming from behind, a former champion making a comeback after an injury, have all been worked and reworked over the decades.

  Kentucky, the home state of Thoroughbred racing, became a popular setting for films such as Kentucky Derby (1922), My Old Kentucky Home (1922), Kentucky Pride (1925), and Kentucky Handicap (1926). These were followed in the 1930s and ’40s by movies such as Old Kentucky (1936), which featured Will Rogers, Pride of the Bluegrass (1939), and Bluegrass of Kentucky (1944).

  Many stars have wagered on racehorse movies, from Clark Gable in Sporting Blood (1931) and Saratoga (1937), Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney in Thoroughbreds Don’t Cry (1937), the Marx Brothers in A Day at the Races (193
7), Abbott and Costello in It Ain’t Hay (1943), and Bob Hope and Lucille Ball in Sorrowful Jones (1949) to Sharon Stone, Nick Nolte, and Jeff Bridges in Simpatico (1999). Jeff Bridges made a better bet with Tobey Maguire and Chris Cooper in the Oscar-nominated Seabiscuit (2003). The gamble hasn’t always been successful, but the track continues to lure filmmakers. Movies about Thoroughbred racing are the most common, but Standardbred harness racing, Quarter Horse racing, and endurance racing with a variety of breeds have also provided fodder for a number of features.

  Casey’s Shadow

  Set in the world of Quarter Horse racing, Casey’s Shadow (1978) starred Walter Matthau as Cajun horse trainer Lloyd Bourdelle. The film, directed by Martin Ritt, was inspired by the success of a small-time trainer, Lloyd Romero, who made it big when his long shot won the million-dollar purse at the All-American Futurity, at Ruidoso Downs, New Mexico. A Time magazine review said the film “accurately recreates the arduous rituals of training, the sweaty romance of jockeying, and the cracker-barrel humor of the eccentrics who build their lives around long shots.”

  The film concerns an orphaned colt sired by a champion named Sure Hit. One of Bourdelle’s three sons acquires his dam in foal, and she dies soon after giving birth. Bourdelle is disappointed because the blaze-faced sorrel colt has white stockings and therefore white hooves, which are supposedly weaker than black ones. His youngest son, Casey (Michael Hershewe), refuses to let the colt die and coaxes him to suckle his lactating pony who has a weanling foal. The colt, named Casey’s Shadow for the way he bonds to his rescuer, grows into a strong, incredibly fast horse, and Bourdelle sees his chance at winning the coveted All-American. After the horse is injured, the usually principled Bourdelle is faced with the moral dilemma of realizing a lifelong dream at the risk of destroying the stallion. The tale of human frailty and greed ends on a redemptive note, but not before driving home the point that incredible stress is put on racehorses who as two-year-olds are pushed to perform before their leg bones have fully matured.