Hollywood Hoofbeats

by Petrine Day Mitchum

  Equine perfection, the exquisite Thee Cyclone in his natural bay color.

  Continuing the Tradition

  Riding on the success of the first two Black Stallion movies came 1984’s Sylvester, about a sixteen-year-old orphan who becomes a successful three-day-eventing Olympic rider after falling in love with a rodeo bronc she calls Sylvester.

  Starring Melissa Gilbert and Richard Farnsworth, the film was shot in part at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington and includes footage of the 1984 Rolex Kentucky three-day event. The horse who played Sylvester, Tis No Trouble, was a dapple gray grand prix jumper discovered by screenwriter Carol Sobieski at the Foxfield Riding Club in Thousand Oaks, California. Nicknamed Sylvester after his character, the gelding was well loved by those who worked with him on the film, including trainers Corky Randall and Rex Peterson. In 1986, Tis No Trouble picked up the last PATSY ever given by the AHA at the thirty-second annual awards.

  At the 1986 PATSY ceremony, actor Dennis Franz presented the award to Sylvester star Tis No Trouble, shown with his escort, Rex Peterson.

  Continuing the tradition of turning books into film, Columbia produced The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking (1988), adapted from the Swedish children’s book by Astrid Lindgren. The film features the antics of a sea captain’s daughter, Pippi Longstocking, her pet monkey, and her horse, Alphonso. In the Pippi Longstocking books, Alphonso is a Knapstrupper, a Danish breed similar in color to American Appaloosas. In the movie, Alphonso is played by a leopard Appaloosa owned by Hollywild Park in South Carolina. Alphonso was trained to sit, walk up and down stairs, pull a motorized sidecar, and allow several children to ride him at once. The film was not successful and proves that even the most talented horse actors have the unfortunate disadvantage of not being able to read the script before committing to their roles.

  In 1992, Miramax released an exceptional film about the mystical bond between children and horses. Filmed in Ireland by British director Mike Newell, with an international cast starring Gabriel Byrne and Ellen Barkin, Into the West focuses on two young brothers, Ossie and Tito. They connect with a mysterious gray horse who follows their gypsy grandfather from the seashore to Dublin. Stuck in a miserable existence with their alcoholic father (Byrne), who is still grieving the death of their mother, the boys are fascinated by their grandfather’s tale of the horse, Tír na nÓg, Celtic for “the Land of Eternal Youth,” and the magical undersea kingdom whence he came.

  Ossie and Tito try to keep Tír na nÓg in their tenement apartment but are forced to give him up. A wealthy horse dealer illegally buys the gray and discovers his preternatural jumping ability. The boys reclaim the gray in a dramatic scene at a horse show and go on the run—to the West, a place they have imagined from watching American Westerns.

  Tír na nÓg takes the boys on a journey that not only connects them with their mother’s spirit but also heals their father’s broken heart and reunites him with his gypsy soul. The many haunting close-ups of Tír na nÓg’s kind eyes, as well as amusing shots of him in the tenement and beautiful scenes of him running, make lasting impressions.

  Tír na nÓg was portrayed by three different light gray horses belonging to French stunt and trick trainer Mario Luraschi. For the romantic image of the lone horse running on the beach, a Lippizan liberty horse was cued to run 200 meters from a distant mark to the camera. The memorable shot was accomplished in one take. Two Andalusians played Tír na nÓg in all the other scenes. The talented horses were handled by Mr. Luraschi’s protégé, Joelle Baland.

  The Black Stallion screenwriter Jeanne Rosenberg penned the family film Running Free (2001), directed by the Russian Sergie Bodrov. A fictionalized story about how a group of real wild horses came to live in the Garub Desert of Namibia, South Africa, the tale begins in 1914 with a group of German horses being loaded onto a ship bound for South Africa, where they will toil in the mines. Among them is a pregnant gray mare who gives birth en route to the hero of the film, a chestnut colt. Like 1994’s Black Beauty, the story is told from the colt’s point of view through narration, added by a studio writer after the film was cut. Actor Lukas Haas provided his voice.

  As the ship finds shore, the colt is separated from his mother. He is rescued by Richard (Chase Moore), an orphan boy who works at the stable of the German mine boss. Richard names the colt Lucky and does his best to nurture him. Despite Richard’s efforts, Lucky finds the going rough at the fancy stable. His nemesis is a majestic black stallion named Caesar, who disapproves of the attraction between Lucky and his daughter, Beauty.

  Lucky is separated from Richard at the onset of World War I and finds himself alone. Searching for companionship in the desert, Lucky discovers two baby lion cubs resting under a tree. By now fully grown (and portrayed by a horse named Aladdin), Lucky lies down in the shade and plays with the cubs in an incredible sequence of animals-only acting. When the mother lion challenges Lucky, he is helped by a friendly onyx. The horse interacts with the long-horned African antelope in some fascinating scenes, made even more incredible by the fact that onyx are wild animals that have never been domesticated. The film culminates with Lucky returning to the old mining encampment for a showdown with Caesar. Victorious, he takes the former workhorses to live wild in the desert. All grown up, Beauty becomes his companion. In a tag scene, the adult Richard returns for a brief, touching reunion with Lucky.

  While some reviewers criticized the narration’s rather treacly anthropomorphizing of animals, it does help children identify with their four-legged friends as feeling beings. For older adult horse lovers, the cinematography and equine action make the movie more than worthwhile.

  For much of the film, Lucky is a weanling. Amazing sequences depict the colt struggling in the ocean. According to Heath Harris, the ocean work proved very difficult as the water temperature was quite cold. As soon as a foal—in reality an at least six-months-old colt—would hit the beach, he would be wrapped in blankets and warmed by portable heat lamps. Several colts were used to create the swimming sequence to minimize exposure. In fact, it took ten horses to play Lucky in his younger years, including Jibber Jabber of The Black Stallion Returns. Trainers Harris and Bob Lovgren worked with all the horses. Head trainer Sled Reynolds supervised the animal action and worked with the exotics. Tommy Hall, an expert on the wild horses of Namibia, was involved in the shooting of real wild herds. A team of thirteen assistant trainers was employed to marshal the extensive equine and exotic animal cast.

  One of the most dramatic scenes in the film depicts a fight between Lucky’s dam and Caesar, a fight that results in the mare’s demise. The fight looks frighteningly real, but according to the American Humane Association, trainers cued the horses off-camera to perform each behavior throughout the choreographed action. American Humane did not monitor the production directly but relied on the reports of the Animal Anti-Cruelty League of Johannesburg, South Africa.

  When the final credits roll, the horse stars are given billing just after the human actors, with a freeze frame of each horse superimposed behind the credit. Lucky’s dam was played by a noble Polish Arabian named Kateefa. His filly friend, Beauty, was played by Noodle, and a weanling named Nisha is given credit for playing Lucky as a young horse. Although Caesar is referred to as a Thoroughbred, he was played by a jet-black Friesian stallion named Fat Albert.

  Aladdin, as Lucky in Running Free (2001), plays tag with a long-horned onyx.

  Animated Equines

  Animated equines have enchanted children of all ages for decades. In Disney’s first full-length animated feature, 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Prince Charming rides a beautiful white steed. This horse was modeled on King John, an Arabian stallion owned by the illustrious Kellogg Arabians of California. Short cartoons such as Disney’s How to Ride a Horse from 1941, starring the lovable Goofy as a ridiculous cowboy, warmed up audiences for the feature attractions. In more recent times, a horse named Kahn provided transportation and companionship to Mulan, the heroine in Mulan (199
8). In Toy Story 2 (1999), the horse Bullseye saves the day in the film’s climactic sequence, helping cowboy star Woody make an improbable transfer to his back from the landing gear of an airplane.

  It wasn’t until 2002 that a full-length animated feature focused primarily on a horse. DreamWorks’ Spirit, Stallion of the Cimarron tells the story of a wild stallion and his adventures with humans both good and evil. Told from the stallion’s point of view through narration, Spirit includes the voices of stars Matt Damon (Spirit) and James Cromwell.

  A woolly Spirit surveys his winter pasture at the Return to Freedom wild horse sanctuary.

  Spirit, as captured by renowned equine photographer Kimerlee Curyl at the Return to Freedom wild horse sanctuary in Lompoc, California.

  Spirit’s animators sought to create the most realistic horses possible for the film. Horses are difficult creatures to animate because of their long, inflexible spines, range of gaits, well-defined musculature, and vibrant body language. Anatomy and locomotion expert Stuart Sumida, who teaches at California State University San Bernadino, was recruited to instruct the animators at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center, where he could illustrate his lectures with live examples. “My job,” said Sumida, “is to teach animators about natural movement and shape so that when these characters are moving on-screen the audiences are so comfortable with what they do, they lose themselves in the story.”

  The horses in Spirit do not speak, so their emotions had to be conveyed on their faces. To create more expression, artists gave the horses eyebrows and white around the irises of their eyes. Of course, real horses have neither characteristic.

  A handsome Kiger Mustang stallion served as the model for Spirit. Named for Oregon’s Kiger Gorge, where Bureau of Land Management officials discovered the breed in 1977, Kigers are thought to be purebred descendants of the Spanish Barbs first brought to America in the 1600s. Prized for their beauty and dispositions, they are now bred in captivity. Originally called Donner, Spirit, as he was renamed after the movie, was foaled on a ranch in Bend, Oregon, on May 8, 1995. A dun with a dorsal stripe, he stands 14.3 hands high. He was chosen for Spirit because of his great personality, his lovely gaits, and his willingness to pose for hours while the animators copied his conformation. After making his contribution to the film, Spirit was permanently retired to the Return to Freedom American Wild Horse Preservation and Sanctuary in Lompoc, California, for an idyllic life among others of his kind.

  A blue-eyed bay overo pinto mare named Wakaya (registered with the American Paint Horse Association as Maide Of Smoke) was screenwriter John Fusco’s special inspiration for Spirit’s companion, Rain. Wakaya lives in Vermont with many equine friends on Fusco’s farm where he maintains a conservancy for rare Spanish Mustangs, as well as a retirement colony for movie horses.

  Cloud: A Wild Dream of a Horse

  Wild horses are popular characters in family entertainment because of the life lessons they have to teach about the values of freedom and loyalty. In reality, wild horses live in family bands, each one led by a dominant stallion and his lead mare. Emmy-winning filmmaker Ginger Kathrens has recorded much of what we know about these bands of wild horses in three amazing documentaries for the Public Broadcasting Service’s Nature Series. Cloud, Wild Stallion of the Rockies (2001); Cloud’s Legacy, The Wild Stallion Returns (2003); and Cloud, Challenge of the Stallions (2009) all follow a rare pale palomino stallion named Cloud from birth in the Rocky Mountains to his role as a mighty band leader. These incredible documentaries still air on PBS as the beauty of the horses and the story they have to tell never gets old.

  “I have often said that mustangs value their freedom and their families above all else,” states Kathrens. “The complexity of their behavior and the uniqueness of their social structure make the wild horse incredibly interesting to watch.” In describing how their structure works, Kathrens says, “The wild horse, or mustang, is the only species in our hemisphere that lives in a family band in which the male is present 365 days a year. The job of the stallion is to protect and keep the family together. If the foals wander or fail to keep up, it is the stallion’s job to retrieve them.” While the mares primarily raise the foals, they relinquish this part of the task to the stallion. A mare who left the band in search of a foal would be at risk of being captured by a rival stallion, thus further jeopardizing her foal’s chances of survival.

  As the colts mature, they leave the family and live as bachelors until they are capable of challenging the older stallions for mares. As a family, the horses search for sustenance and fend off natural predators. Cloud’s survival is remarkable because of his unique, almost white color that makes him highly visible to predators like mountain lions.

  Besides natural predators and the challenges of harsh weather, another threat to wild horses is their routine capture by the Bureau of Land Management. A great deal of controversy surrounds this issue, especially since many of the rounded-up horses have ended up in slaughterhouses. Awareness of their plight has galvanized people from all walks of life who would like to see the mustangs remain free on public lands deeded to them by Congress. One of these advocates is actor Robert Redford who says, “If you think about an image of a horse running wild and free, it’s pretty beautiful. The horse is iconic, symbolic of America. And what is America? America is freedom. That’s how we became America: we sought freedom from other rule.” Redford believes that protecting the national treasures that are America’s wild horses starts “with telling a story.” Ginger Kathrens’s wonderful documentary films and books about Cloud and his family are an excellent place to start.

  Still going strong at eighteen in July, 2013, Cloud enjoys running through a summer pasture in the pryor mountains.

  Cloud’s look-alike daughter Encore was born in May 2013.

  Cloud’s daughter Encore and her two-year-old brother, Mato ska, which means “silver bear” in the lakota language.

  8. Epics and Adventures

  “A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!”

  —William Shakespeare, Richard III

  Jousting stuntmen demonstrate breakaway rubber-tipped lances for Camelot (1967).

  In the final act of Shakespeare’s Richard III, the murderous King Richard loses his mount in battle and cries out for a horse to spirit him away from certain death. Alas, no steed materializes to save the maniacal monarch, and Richard perishes. The great British actor Sir Laurence Olivier starred in a self-produced and -directed film of the play in 1955. Film, of course, permitted the staging of the climactic battle with scores of horses, including the beautiful gray, felled by an arrow, who brought graphic realism to Richard’s desperate plea. Sir Laurence gallantly credited the two “Masters of Horse,” Jeremy Taylor and Jack Curran, who furnished the many equines that appear throughout the film, at court and on the battlefield.

  Celluloid kingdoms from widespread realms, real and imagined, have been won and lost by armies on horseback. Meanwhile, soldiers of fortune and avengers of all sorts have dashed across the screen on equally dashing steeds. Historical dramas have costumed equines in elaborate trappings—which have sometimes presented unforeseen productions problems. From the silent era to the twenty-first century, the intrepid movie horse has had many adventures in some of the greatest extravaganzas ever filmed.

  Two cinematographers on one of the first camera cars capture Messala (Francis X. Bushman) and his team of blacks as they rip around the track in the 1925 version of the epic Ben-Hur.

  Ben-Hur

  Winner of a record-making eleven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Ben-Hur (1959), the tale of a Jew’s persecution by the Romans in the time of Christ, was based on a novel by Civil War hero Gen. Lew Wallace. The film’s best-remembered sequence is a thrilling chariot race between hero Judah Ben-Hur and his nemesis, Messala. Ben-Hur was first staged as a play in 1880; it used live horses in the chariot race scene. In the most lavish productions, as many as five horse-driven chariots appeared on treadmills, against a rolling canvas
backdrop. The first film version of Ben-Hur appeared in 1907. The chintzy production grabbed footage of a mock chariot race—all the rage since the success of the play—being staged by the Brooklyn New York fire department as part of a fireworks celebration. This fifteen-minute one-reeler marked the first time a chariot race had been filmed. William S. Hart played the role of Messala, Ben-Hur’s treacherous friend. Hart, of course, became the first cowboy movie star to share billing with his horse, Fritz. The play Ben-Hur continued its twenty-year run, featuring one constant cast member, an Arabian horse belonging to Lew Wallace.

  Goldwyn Pictures secured the motion-picture rights in 1923. The resultant film cost $4 million and was Hollywood’s most expensive silent epic. Photography began in Rome in early 1924, but problems plagued the film from the start and brought shooting to a temporary halt. It resumed in June 1924, after the director and many of the cast had been replaced. A disastrous fire during the great sea battle claimed the lives of several Italian extras and prompted the newly formed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios to bring the production home to California. The climactic chariot race had yet to be filmed.