Hollywood Hoofbeats

by Petrine Day Mitchum

  Horse trainer Rex Peterson faced his own challenge, finding the five sorrel and white overo Paints who would play Hidalgo. Combing corrals and barns from Oregon to Missouri, Texas to Michigan, Peterson considered and rejected close to a hundred horses before finding TJ, who would become the main Hidalgo. The distinctively marked, bald-faced Paint stallion became the model for Hidalgo’s four doubles.

  Riders battle for the lead in the 3,000-mile endurance race portrayed in 2004’s Hidalgo. The sorrel and white overo playing the title character is easy to spot amid the solid-colored horses.

  RJ Masterbug, or RJ, was an untrained three-year-old stallion when Peterson acquired him, but after five minutes with the horse, Rex knew he had the perfect personality for a trick horse. RJ can be seen rearing, grabbing objects, and dragging them in the film. His cute and clever tricks are a refreshing throwback to the days when a cowboy’s best friend was his horse. The toughest trick to train was for a dragging scene, in which Hidalgo pulls his drunken master out of the Wild West Show exhibition arena. Since horses are herbivores, they simply do not have the jaw strength to pull much weight with their mouths. RJ, however, was able to master the task, and the scene is truly charming. TJ was no slouch either when it came to a difficult lay-down scene in which Hopkins and Hidalgo endure a locust invasion. To protect himself and his horse from the swarming insects, Mortensen lies down with TJ and covers them both with a blanket. Rex Peterson taught Mortensen to lay TJ down, as the trainer could not be close enough to cue him. The scene required multiple takes, and Mortensen later said this about his costar’s performance: “To get a horse to lie down like that 30 times in a row is not easy. To get him to hit the same spot over and over again, then to throw a blanket over him and blind him that way, well, most horses, especially stallions, are not going to put up with that. But TJ did.”

  TJ also proved to be a quick study for another scene in which Hidalgo is supposed to pick up Hopkins’s hat and bring it to him. RJ was trained for the sequence, but director Joe Johnston decided he needed a close-up and TJ would have to be trained to do the scene. According to Mortensen, “TJ had been standing there the whole time, quietly, just watching Rex work with RJ. So, when they wanted this close-up, Rex said, ‘Well, let’s just try it,’ and we brought TJ in. The first time, TJ picks up the hat, gently holds it, and looks me right in the eye. Every take! I mean that was amazing!”

  Director Johnston was also amused by TJ’s voracious appetite. “He was different from the other horses. He was smaller, and all he wanted to do was eat. At times, you’d look over and it looked like he was eating sand. He’d eat a candied locust [used as props in the film], a regular locust—he’d eat anything.”

  For the jumping scenes, a gelding named Oscar, who had competed as a show hunter, got the job done. “He’s an incredible jumper,” said Mortensen. “The part where I’m racing the guy in the beginning of the movie and we’re jumping those fences: that was Oscar. He could sail over them.” Honkey Tonkin Tuff, a gelding nicknamed DC, was a daring horse, except when it came to another species on the set—camels, of which he was decidedly not fond. Bigger than the other Hidalgos, DC was used for longer running shots, in which his size would be an advantage. Ima Stage Mount Two, known on the set as Doc, was tough and willing. His bravery enabled him to be trained for the film’s most treacherous stunt, a slide into a pit trap. The frightening scene took over three months of training to achieve. Doc gradually learned to gallop to a slide-stop onto a platform that eventually lowered him into a pit almost 10 feet deep. Rex Peterson’s most oft-stressed training tool, patience, was the key to getting this spectacular stunt on film.

  Frank Hopkins (Viggo Mortensen) and Hidalgo, played here by Doc, attempt to outrun a raging sandstorm in Hidalgo.

  Equine makeup artist Garrett Immel skillfully painted the Paints to match. For the larger areas, he used an airbrush, but for the more intricate markings and facial areas, he used a variety of paintbrushes. He had no trouble with the horses standing still. In fact, Immel has joked that horses are much easier to work on than humans.

  Viggo Mortensen, who had honed his riding skills on The Lord of the Rings trilogy, still needed some brush-up lessons with Peterson. Mortensen did nearly all his own riding in Hidalgo; he was doubled only for difficult stunts, by Mike Watson. Peterson couldn’t say enough good things about the star’s ability and horse-friendly attitude. Careful to dismount to rest the horses’ backs between takes, Mortensen had the utmost respect for his equine costars. Peterson said, “The show would not have been possible without Viggo.” The actor in turn had this high praise for Peterson’s ability and his choice of Paints: “Rex has a good eye and he picked well.” He enjoyed working with all the Hidalgo horses, but at the end of filming, the bond he had forged with TJ was too tough to break so Mortensen decided to give him a permanent role as stablemate to his The Lord of the Rings costars, Uraeus and Kenny. About TJ, Mortensen said, “He is a good friend that I went through hard challenges with. I feel a loyalty to him.”

  Screenwriter-producer John Fusco also added a Hidalgo horse to his stable, the talented Oscar. “I had to have a ‘Hidalgo,’ and Oscar is the one I rode initially,” said Fusco. “I had checked on all their backgrounds and knew that he was good with children. I thought he would be great for my son.” Rex Peterson kept RJ, while DC and Doc found happy homes as pleasure horses.

  For the impressive black Arabian stallion Al-Hattal, director Joe Johnston wanted an animal that would tower over Hidalgo. This was a tall order for Rex Peterson as most Arabs are not that big. After much research, the trainer found the 16-hand black TC Bey Cedar, born in 1994, at a Kentucky breeding farm. According to Peterson, the stallion struck him immediately as “an exceptionally nice horse that had an ‘OK, what do you want me to do?’ attitude.” He decided to buy the stallion for the production after working with him for only a few minutes. Peterson’s instincts proved to be correct: the stallion trained beautifully, and although he had plenty of presence to play the prancing Al-Hattal, TC was easygoing on the set around the other equine cast members. Peterson purchased the black at the end of filming and retired him from show business to resume enjoying life as a breeding stallion.

  Hidalgo’s climactic release of 572 wild horses presented Peterson and his team with another unique challenge. Finding that many wild horses was the first obstacle, and it took seven different Native American herds to fulfill the casting call. No stallions, who might have disrupted the herds by fighting, and no foals, who could have been hurt with so many horses running, were used. A number of additional professional wranglers were hired to marshal the action, which took four days to shoot in Montana. The horses first had to be acclimated to the sound of a helicopter for the breathtaking panoramic aerial shots. Peterson and his team worked with wild-horse experts to prevent a real stampede, all the while making sure American Humane guidelines were followed—as they were throughout Hidalgo’s production. The result is an unforgettable finale to one of the finest horse movies in modern times.

  For actors, the work often continues on a film long after the cameras have stopped rolling. Big stars are obliged to show up at movie premieres to greet their adoring fans and members of the press. TJ was no exception and made a crowd-pleasing appearance with Viggo Mortensen on the red carpet when Hidalgo premiered on March 1, 2004, at Hollywood’s famed El Capitan Theater. Several days after the premiere, the actor left for a European publicity tour for Hidalgo while, like a cowboy’s true partner, TJ stayed behind in Hollywood to greet admirers at the El Capitan during the movie’s opening weekend.

  Viggo Mortensen and TJ take a break between takes with trainer Rex Peterson and Doc, whose face paint needs some touching up.

  Hidalgo screenwriter John Fusco with Hidalgo double Oscar (right) and Chato—star of Young Guns, The Three Amigos, and Young Guns II—at home on their Vermont farm.

  10. Horse Laughs and Bits

  I think half of this belongs to a horse somewhere out in the valley.


  —Lee Marvin, on accepting his Best Actor Oscar for Cat Ballou

  The classic: Smokey and Lee Marvin in Cat Ballou.

  When warned about being upstaged by a powerful male costar, Marilyn Monroe famously quipped, “It’s not him I’m worried about, it’s those hammy horses.” Marilyn was only half-kidding. Movie horses have been known to hog the limelight, sometimes drawing attention to themselves through sheer presence. It’s difficult to ignore someone who weighs at least a thousand pounds, even when he’s just cavorting in the background, much less when he’s performing clever tricks or wisecracking like a four-legged stand-up comedian. Whether clowning around in a comedy, running away with the leading lady in a romance, or popping up for a cameo in a psychological thriller, the charismatic movie horse has stolen more than a few scenes.

  Four-Legged Fun

  In 1965’s Cat Ballou, a gray horse named Smokey posed, leaning against a building with his front legs crossed, emulating the hungover appearance of his snoozing rider, Kid Shelleen (Lee Marvin). When the actor accepted his Oscar at the 1966 Academy Awards ceremony for his performance as the drunken gunfighter, he got a big laugh for mentioning his equine costar. Director Elliot Silverstein knew that the “stoned” Smokey would make the shot memorable. To achieve that hilarious image, however, Smokey was forced to resort to method acting: he was drugged. Owned by the Fat Jones Stable and trained by Al Janks, Smokey was recognized for his work with a Craven Award from the American Humane Association, which was probably unaware of the training “method” used for the famous scene. Overlooked was his stunt double, who was featured in a comic sequence in which the drunken Shelleen does some fancy trick riding. Lee Marvin was doubled by Tap Canutt in that sequence.

  The makers of Cat Ballou weren’t the first to exploit the horse’s comedic potential. In the 1920s and ’30s, Lionel Comport specialized in renting extremely sway-backed nags to the studios, which paid fifteen to thirty dollars a day for these walking sight gags. In the late silent film Wrong Again, 1929, the comedians Laurel and Hardy work at a racetrack, looking after a horse named “Blue Boy.” Later they hear that a millionaire has lost Blue Boy. Not realizing that the missing Blue Boy is the famous painting by Gainsborough, the bunglers deliver the horse to the millionaire’s house, expecting a reward. He calls to them from upstairs, saying to put “Blue Boy” on the piano. Of course they do (off-screen), creating a fabulous visual punch line. The Marx Brothers got laughs in A Day at the Races (1937) as veterinarian Groucho dispenses advice to an ailing horse, and jockey Harpo motivates his mount to run by showing him a picture of a man he hates. Abbott and Costello’s It Ain’t Hay (1943) features a ridiculously “disguised” horse—named Teabiscuit, in parody of Seabiscuit—wearing dark glasses and slippers, being sneaked into a hotel room. Bob Hope looks as if he is getting racing tips straight from the horse’s mouth in The Lemon Drop Kid (1951), but really the nag is just nibbling a lemon drop placed behind Hope’s ear.

  Laughs are at the expense of this extremely sway-backed nag, rented for his pathetic appearance, in this gag publicity shot for A Day at the Races with the Marx Brothers.

  Stan Laurel (right) and Oliver Hardy (left) in the 1929 comedy of errors, Wrong Again, in which “Blue Boy” winds up on top of a piano.

  Colorful Characters

  Paints, palominos, an ornery red roan, and a pure white stallion were among the equine comedians who added spice to a variety of humorous roles.

  Dice

  Roy Rogers’s Little Trigger, who had the famous cover-stealing scene with bedmate Bob Hope in Son of Paleface, wasn’t the only cowboy horse to kick up his hooves in a comedy. Dice, Ralph McCutcheon’s black-and-white pinto, guest starred in 1943’s It’s a Great Life, one of a series of movies based on the comic-strip characters of Blondie and Dagwood Bumstead. In the film, Dagwood (Arthur Lake) is sent by his boss, Dithers (Jonathan Hale), to buy a house. In typical bumbling fashion, Dagwood mistakenly buys a horse, named Reggie (Dice), instead.

  Dice proves to be quite the comedian, displaying his full repertoire of tricks, which include lying down and hiding behind a sofa; and entering an elevator, changing his mind, backing out, and taking the stairs. In addition to providing lots of physical gags, his deadpan looks make him a perfect foil for the mugging actors.

  Dice (as Reggie) lets Blondie (Penny Singelton) know what he thinks of his vitamin pills in It’s A Great Life.

  Trainer Ralph McCutcheon taught Dice many tricks, such as sitting, which came in handy to frustrate Arthur Lake’s Dagwood when he tries to impress a business associate.

  The cast of 1943’s It’s A Great Life clown around in this publicity shot with Dice as Reggie the Horse. From left, Penny Singleton (Blondie), Marjorie Ann Mutchie (Cookie), Larry Simms (ALexander), Daisy the dog, and bringing up the rear, Dagwood’s boss Dithers as played by Jonathan Hale.

  King Cotton

  A whole galaxy of Hollywood stars made cameo appearances in the 1960 comedy Pepe, but Ralph McCutcheon’s trick horse King Cotton stole the show. A big white American Saddlebred-Morab cross, the stallion had incredible screen presence. The Mexican comedian Cantinflas stars as Pepe, a poor stable boy who loves a stallion named Don Juan, whom he has raised from a colt. When the horse is put up for auction, Pepe gets Don Juan to feign illness so he won’t be sold. Ted Holt (Dan Dailey), a washed-up film director desperate for cash, sees through the ruse and buys the “sick” stallion at a bargain price, hoping to make a fortune from stud fees. Pepe winds up in Hollywood caring for Don Juan at Holt’s dilapidated estate. Since there is no green pasture or stable, Don Juan beds down on the closest thing resembling a lawn: a billiard table. Throughout the film, Pepe calls Don Juan his son, causing silly misunderstandings. This tiresome running gag is forgiven every time King Cotton, as Don Juan, appears on screen.

  For the beginning scenes of Don Juan playing sick, King Cotton was trained to limp, as was McCutcheon’s Highland Dale for Giant. He had all the same tricks as Dice, including going up and down stairs. One of the most outrageous scenes has Don Juan swimming in Holt’s pool. The sequence begins with a quick shot of Don Juan surfacing from underwater, then cuts to the actors and back to the swimming horse. A fake horse head was used for the surfacing shot. King Cotton deservedly won a PATSY Award from American Humane for his efforts.

  The stallion continued his acting career through the sixties. Charlton Heston rode him in 1962’s Diamond Head, and he appeared in The Virginian television series. His last known film was Viva Max (1969), in which he was ridden by Peter Ustinov. Despite these appearances, King Cotton never again got the chance to shine quite as brightly on the screen as he had in Pepe.

  Wearing a sensible sun hat, King Cotton, as Pepe’s Don Juan, practices horse paddling much to the amusement of costars Cantinflas and Shirley Jones.

  Old Fooler

  The Rounders (1965) prominently featured a cantankerous blaze-faced red roan horse named Old Fooler, who gives cowboys Ben Jones (Glenn Ford) and Howdy Lewis (Henry Fonda) a bad time. After corralling stray cattle and breaking wild horses for Jim Ed Love (Chill Wills), the two cowboys take the roan to the Sedona, Arizona, rodeo and challenge all comers to ride the unbreakable bronc. Old Fooler, who has repeatedly bucked off Ben, foils the cowboys by sitting down instead of bucking for money.

  Old Fooler was destined for stardom. V. J. Spacey bought a chocolate roan Quarter Horse-type mare at auction in Lancaster, California, and she turned out to be in foal with Old Fooler, a distinctive red roan colt. Fat Jones acquired him when he was three and, according to trainer Ken Lee, “half-spoiled and half-broke.” Director Burt Kennedy was scouting horses for The Rounders at the Fat Jones Stable and spotted Old Fooler alone in a corral. He liked the horse’s looks and cast him on the spot. Lee was skeptical that the roan, as ornery as his movie character, would learn the tricks required by the script, but eight weeks later, he was camera ready. Lee had taught Old Fooler to sit, bite on command, drag a man through mud, and untie knots. In one sil
ly scene in The Rounders, Old Fooler spots an attractive mare’s rump, unties the mare from a hitching rail, and leads her out of the barn. Old Fooler later learned how to drink from a bottle for his role in another movie, Flap (1970), in which he played a drunken horse named H-Bomb.

  Old Fooler goes on strike on the set of The Rounders.

  Albarado

  In 1968, the beautiful dappled steel gray gelding Albarado won the PATSY for his role as the title character in Disney’s The Horse in a Gray Flannel Suit. Dean Jones starred as Fred Bolton, an advertising executive who convinces his boss to buy a horse for his daughter, Helen (Ellen Janov), to campaign in prestigious competitions. The idea is for the horse to attract publicity for an antacid. The horse, named Aspercel after the medicine, runs away after Fred insults him. Comically clad in boxer shorts and bedroom slippers, Fred frantically chases the gray. Finally catching him, Fred makes several futile attempts to mount bareback. After playing hard to get, “Aspy” gives in and sticks his head between Fred’s legs while the hapless human is standing on a wall. Fred slides down Aspy’s neck and off they go on a wild ride, pursued by the police, who think the horse has been stolen. Apsy redeems himself by winning the championship in the open-jumping division at the Washington International Horse Show.