Kevin Costner and Baby, his favorite mount from Wyatt Earp, push cattle through a river in the 2003 film Open Range.
Remembering the Alamo
Back in 1960, John Wayne produced, directed, and starred as Davy Crockett in The Alamo, an epic Western about the historical battle for Texan independence that ends with the brutal massacre of the defenders of the Alamo fort by Mexican soldiers. The film is best remembered for its action sequences, with plenty of stunt horses.
Forty-four years later, director John Lee Hancock’s version of The Alamo (2004) was released. Starring Dennis Quaid as General Sam Houston, Billy Bob Thornton as Davy Crockett, and Jason Patric as James Bowie, the film had more than a million dollars budgeted for the horse unit. Wrangler Curtis Akin, a native Texan, was presented with the awesome challenge of finding all the main cast horses, stunt horses, and legions of army mounts. In all there were more than two hundred horses on the film, including more than fifty driving horses. Many were rodeo and ranch horses culled from spreads near the Texas location. Forty reenactors from the San Antonio Living History group were hired, along with their horses, as extras.
Curtis Akin had much of the period tack replicated for The Alamo. Carrico Leather in Kansas crafted thirty-two cavalry saddles, including a Santa Fe Hope saddle for General Houston (Quaid). Texas saddlemaker and reenactor Calvin Allen made a $12,000 replica of General Santa Anna’s gorgeous saddle, complete with a carved lion’s head saddle horn.
As General Houston, Dennis Quaid rode a registered American White named Paris. Trained to rear and fall, Paris is owned by the Anderson family of the Texas White Horse Ranch, which has more than thirty white horses. Ringo, an Arabian/Quarter Horse cross, doubled Paris. Jason Patric’s mount was a ranch horse called Gunsmoke, owned by Robert Blanford and world-champion barrel racer Kay Blanford. Mexican actor Emilio Echevarria, who plays General Santa Anna, rode the black Quarter Horse stallion, Ima Bed of Cash. The grandson of the famous racing Quarter Horse, Dash for Cash, the stallion had a brief racing career before being purchased by the Bonita Ranch in Stephenville, Texas. Curtis Akin tried him out at a youth rodeo and was impressed by the beautiful stallion’s quiet temperament. “He looks like a million dollars, and you can put your baby on him,” said Akin in a 2003 interview. “You need that kind of mentality. You want something that if a bomb blows up next to him he’s not going to go to pieces.” Cash only had to get used to having a camera crane overhead; once he stopped looking and snorting at the strange beast, he was ready for “Action!”
All the horses used in the battle sequences were equipped with earplugs to deaden the noise of cannon shots and gunfire. Since the temperatures on location often soared into the mid-90s, wranglers made sure the horses were well watered and kept on shaded picket lines when not on camera. The horses were quartered at “Wranglerville,” where Akin and his team of sixty, including several world champion rodeo stars, were housed during the filming. Akin and his crew ran what he calls a boot camp at Wranglerville, schooling the actors for two hours a day to fine-tune their riding skills.
Paris adds good guy charisma to Dennis Quaid’s General Houston.
A Woman’s Place Is in a Western
With some marvelous exceptions, such as Barbara Stanwyk as a lady rustler in 1955’s The Maverick Queen, women have usually been relegated to background or, at best, supporting roles in big-screen Westerns. However, Australian actress Cate Blanchett gives a tour-de-force lead performance as a stoic frontier doctor in The Missing (2003). Directed by Ron Howard, the film concerns the hunt for the kidnapped daughter of Maggie Gilkeson (Blanchett), who grudgingly joins forces with her long-estranged father, Samuel Jones, played by Tommy Lee Jones. The film is completely dependent on horses as Maggie and Samuel saddle up to track her daughter’s mounted abductors. Director Howard told head wrangler Tim Carroll that he wanted authentic-looking horses—not slickly groomed animals ready for the show ring. Carroll cast the lead mounts from his own movie-horse ranch in Abiquiu, New Mexico. The trainer is a big believer in taking his colts on film sets, even before they are weaned, to get them used to the commotion. By the time they are ready to be ridden, they are already movie horses.
Cate Blanchett—who had previously only ridden English, but proved to be an excellent western rider—was mounted on the brown gelding Magnum, a Quarter Horse type Carroll had raised from a colt. Magnum was doubled by his exact look-alike Jingles. The actress had difficulty telling them apart until she started riding: Magnum’s gaits were smoother. As Maggie, Blanchett is required to pony a packhorse. A mustang falling horse named Fred Red was used as he kept pace with the lead horse and would not put any stress on the actress’s arm. “If the actors worry about their horses,” reasons Carroll, “they can’t do their job, which is acting.”
Tommy Lee Jones rode the solid black eleven-year-old gelding Jamaica, a somewhat common-headed fellow Carroll calls simply a “good old horse.” As Maggie’s youngest daughter Dot, Jenna Boyd rode the bay Little Duke, a well-broke kids’ horse doubled by Josh. As the kidnapped Lily, Evan Rachel Wood rode another solid movie mount named Joe.
Although horses are treated without sentiment by the film’s characters, the filmmakers took great pains to ensure their safety in the many intense action scenes. In addition to trained stunt horses, many cinematic tricks were utilized to create suspense and drama. In one scene, a falling boulder spooks a horse during a flash flood. He rears and unseats his rider, a young girl, as the waters rise. Stunt double Julie Adair rode Carroll’s stunt horse, Ninja. A fake rock made of Styrofoam was used, and tanker trucks pumping water regulated the “flood” level so it never rose above the horses’ knees. In another scene, a flaming arrow hits a saddle during an Indian attack. The arrow, guided by a cable, never threatened the horse, and the computer-generated flame was added in the editing room: modern movie magic.
True Grit Rides Again
Joel and Ethan Coen’s 2010 remake of the John Wayne starrer True Grit features Jeff Bridges in the role of the one-eyed, alcoholic Federal Marshall Rooster Cogburn. Head wrangler Rusty Hendrickson’s Quarter Horse Apollo, a sorrel with a star and wide stripe and rear white stockings, is his mount. Similar in appearance to Wayne’s horse, Dollor, the handsome Apollo was bred to be a halter horse—one that competes in classes judged solely on good conformation and manners. Hendrickson originally purchased him for his son Scout, who is now a wrangler and stuntman on his father’s crew. Hendrickson describes Apollo simply as just a “big, quiet, gentle horse”—a perfect horse, in other words, to carry a movie star like Bridges in style. In a scene where Cogburn’s horse is shot, Apollo was doubled by Wonderbread, a trained falling horse owned by Monty Stuart who doubled Bridges for the stunt. Apollo did the lay down in the second part of the sequence, when Cogburn is pinned under the fallen horse.
Most of the horse action in True Grit is routine western fare, straightforward riding. In order to add visual interest, a red roan Appaloosa named Cowboy was chosen as the mount of Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (Matt Damon). The real horse star of the film is Little Blackie, the horse chosen by heroine Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) from a string of mustang ponies bought by her late father. Hendrickson’s black horses, Ribbon and Cimarron, portrayed Little Blackie. The more spirited and refined looking of the two, Ribbon previously starred in 2006’s Flicka. He is the horse in Little Blackie’s introductory scenes, when he is first chosen by Mattie. Cimarron, a quieter, sturdier Quarter Horse, was originally purchased to double Ribbon in 2007’s 3:10 to Yuma.
The most complicated horse work in the film comes early on, when Mattie, who has engaged Cogburn to pursue her father’s killer, swims Little Blackie across a wide river in pursuit of the Marshall, who has teamed up with LaBoeuf to collect a bounty on the murderer. Hendrickson and his crew originally attempted to prepare four horses for the challenging swim, but only two were willing and able swimmers: Ribbon and Cimarron.
The sequence took weeks of preparation. First, the river was cleared of any r
ocks and debris that could pose safety hazards. A ramp with cleats was built on the landing side as the underwater bank was too steep to allow purchase. Each horse swam back and forth across the river several times during filming as there was no other way across the water. Apollo and Cowboy who, along with Cogburn and LaBoeuf, appear to have made the trip across by ferry, were actually trucked four hours to the location on the opposite side of the river. Four safety boats were positioned near the action in case anything went wrong, but fortunately they were not needed. Stuntwoman Cassidy Vick-Hice doubled actress Hailee Steinfeld in the swimming scene. For close-ups with the young actress, a mechanical horse was used. Real horses move around quite a bit while swimming in such deep water, and the mechanical horse was much safer for the actress to hold on to during the close camera work.
Near the end of the movie, Mattie is bitten by a rattlesnake. Cogburn saves her life by hoisting her across his saddle on Little Blackie and galloping through the night to the nearest outpost. It is a gut-wrenching sequence, with Little Blackie literally galloping his heart out, until he can run no longer and drops to the ground. To spare the horse a prolonged death, Cogburn finishes him with a shot before carrying Mattie the rest of the way. The sequence was filmed with both hero horses over a period of three months in various locations with different terrains. The horses were sprayed with a mixture of water and horse shampoo to appear sweat-soaked, and their breathing was enhanced to sound labored on the soundtrack. A mechanical horse attached to a camera car was ridden by the actors during their close-ups.
Filmed in separate phases, both Ribbon and Cimarron convincingly portray the valiant Little Blackie as he drops to the ground. The final portion of the sequence, when Rooster Cogburn puts the suffering horse out of his misery, was filmed on a soundstage. In reality, no horses were harmed, and Ed Lish, the American Humane Association’s representative on the set, gives the production a “Ten, absolutely a ten,” for the great care taken to protect the horses in True Grit.
Cinematographer Roger Deakins focuses on actress Hailee Steinfeld as she swims the river on a mechanical horse in the Coen brothers’ version of True Grit.
Cut to: Hailee Steinfeld’s stunt double Cassidy Vick-Hice coming out of the river on Ribbon, one of the two horses who played Little Blackie.
Tarantino Pays Tribute in Django Unchained
Quentin Tarantino won 2013’s Academy Award for his original screenplay of Django Unchained, a rollicking, blood-soaked indictment of slavery presented as a spoof of spaghetti Westerns set in the pre-Civil War American South, circa 1858. Known for referencing classic films both verbally and visually in his movies, Tarantino worked in some wonderfully fun and sly references involving horses to delight diehard aficionados.
Dentist-turned-bounty-hunter King Shultz (Christoph Waltz) liberates a slave named Django (Jamie Foxx)—a reference to the spaghetti-Western character made famous by Franco Nero—and teaches him the trade of killing wanted men for money. Shultz first appears on screen in his rickety wagon topped by a bobbling oversized replica of a molar. The wagon is pulled by a little black horse he introduces to slave traders as “Fritz.” Fritz obligingly responds to his name with a nod and a snort, a trick he repeats in the film when, teamed up with Django, Shultz introduces both their horses as “Tony” and “Fritz.” The reference is to the two most famous horses of the early silent film era, rugged cowboy star William S. Hart’s Fritz and the flamboyant Tom Mix’s Tony.
Jamie FoxX, left, as Django on his mare Cheetah, who plays Tony, and Christopher Waltz as King Shultz on Ribbon who plays Fritz, in Django Unchained.
The original Fritz was a distinctive Paint so the similarity of Shultz’s Fritz to Hart’s horse is in name only. Two of head wrangler Rusty Hendrickson’s seasoned movie horses portrayed Fritz: Cimarron, who mostly pulled the wagon, and Ribbon, who served as Shultz’s riding horse once the wagon is dispatched. Ribbon previously worked as Little Blackie in the Coen brothers’ 2010 remake of True Grit and was Russell Crowe’s main mount in James Mangold’s 2007 remake of the 1957 Glenn Ford vehicle, 3:10 to Yuma. He also starred as Flicka, in the eponymously titled 2006 remake of 1943’s My Friend Flicka. Hendrickson originally rescued Ribbon from a trip to the slaughterhouse. The traumatized horse had a violent streak, which Hendrickson eradicated with patient training. His painstaking effort paid off as Ribbon would soon become one of the most versatile equine thespians.
Tom Mix’s Tony was chestnut with a white blaze and stockings. That Django’s Tony is similarly colored adds a bit of authenticity to the reference. Jamie Foxx mostly rode his own mare, a Quarter Horse named Cheetah, in the film. Described by Rusty Hendrickson as “very athletic,” with “good balance,” Cheetah had not worked on a movie before and needed to get used to all the unusual sights and sounds on the set. Wrangler Mark Warrack, who has been a part of Hendrickson’s team on multiple films, was charged with training the mare for her role as Tony. “Mark spent a lot of time getting her acclimated,” says Hendrickson who is quick to praise his crew, “He developed her a lot.” This included teaching Cheetah to execute a 360-degree reining spin and a showy Spanish walk. Both skills are displayed in the movie’s finale when Django and his wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) are joyfully reunited.
In a campfire sequence, even though the horses are seen in the background, Tony’s sex is quite obviously male. In that scene and in many of the riding scenes, Cheetah was doubled by Leroy, one of Rusty Hendrickson’s reliable cast horses.
Another horse that appears to be modeled on a historical equine is the white mount of plantation owner Big Daddy (Don Johnson), who is styled to resemble Buffalo Bill Cody. He rides a white horse reminiscent of Cody’s most famous mount, Isham. Rusty Hendrickson’s horse Coconut portrayed the Isham look-alike. Hendrickson originally bought Coconut as a potential Silver for the producers of 2013’s The Lone Ranger, long before that movie began shooting. Although Coconut was not chosen for the starring role, Hendrickson liked the young white horse so much that he bought him for his own string and began developing him for movie work. Wranglers working on films often bring young horses on location to acclimate them to the experience. Such was the case with Coconut, who was learning the ropes on the set of Django Unchained. When Quentin Tarantino saw Coconut, an unusual white Appaloosa without spots, he chose him as Big Daddy’s horse.
One of the film’s most visually effective sequences involves thirty-three mounted and hooded riders, galloping en masse at night. Many of the riders are carrying burning torches. Although the charge ends with a comic punch line, the initial image is frightening. It evokes the incendiary sequence in D.W. Griffith’s 1915 The Birth of a Nation, in which scores of Ku Klux Klansmen ride to avenge the death of a white girl, allegedly killed by a black man. The Klan had yet to be formed in 1858 and the mounted men in Django Unchained are a reference to their forebears, the Regulators. The impressive bit of staging was accomplished by all stunt riders and horses kept in check by offscreen fence panels. According to the American Humane Association, the horses were given twenty-minute rest periods between takes.
Later on in this sequence, the mounted vigilantes circle Dr. Shultz’s wagon and set it on fire. Such “circles of death” with riders circling their enemies have been staples of Westerns since D.W. Griffith first staged such action in his 1912 depiction of Custer’s Last Stand, The Massacre. In Django Unchained, the action is intensified by the wagon blowing up. All the horses in the scene were sprayed with fire retardant even though the stunt horses and riders were at a safe distance from the actual explosion. Fourteen trained falling horses were cued to fall simultaneously in the beautifully choreographed scene, and special effects were added in post-production to make it appear that some of the horses were hit by the explosives.
Although the sequence lasts only a few seconds on film, it took months of preparation to realize. Trained falling horses are in short supply since so few Westerns are made these days, and Hendrickson’s team had only one in their string, t
he sorrel gelding Wonderbread, owned by trainer Monty Stuart. Hendrickson scoured the country for more, and in the end he and his team developed half of the horses from scratch, going though the step-by-step process of teaching each horse to safely fall.
Reminiscent of a scene in D.W. Griffith’s The Birth Of A Nation, hooded vigilantes light up the night. Although this sequence ends with a laugh, the staging of horses galloping en masse with torch-bearing riders took serious planning.
Known for his often shocking staging of violence, Tarantino did not spare horses from the illusion of bloody mayhem. In the very first sequence, Shultz casually shoots the horse of a slave trader, trapping the villain underneath the corpse. A dummy horse was rigged with fake blood squibs, creating a graphic death that was pure movie magic. “If you’re making a movie, part of the whole aspect is it’s supposed to be make-believe,” reasons Tarantino. “I don’t want to see a real death when I watch a movie, that’s just not what it’s about.”
The intense action in Django Unchained was accomplished without harming a single horse. “We do wild stuff involving horses and it’s very exciting action,” says Tarantino, “but we did it all very safely. You can actually do really amazing, eye-popping things, you just need the time to train them. It’s ultimately safe in real life but it looks gnarly on screen.”
The stuntman playing a villain in this graphic sequence reacts by pulling back on his horse when the squib explodes. Moments later, he takes a planned fall.
The director is quick to praise the American Humane Association for being “a voice for the voiceless.” Tarantino proudly placed AHA’s “No horses were harmed” statement in the first position of the film’s end credits, instead of at the end where it usually appears. “It’s wonderful to have the American Humane sticker,” he explains, “That’s why I put it so early in the credits, to relieve audience members.” Of course, other animals that appear in the film such as dogs, chickens, and a rabbit were either trained performers or, in the case of “dead” animals, either fakes acquired by production or previously mounted specimens by a taxidermist. No animal of any kind was harmed during the making of Django Unchained.
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