Of all domestic animals, the horse is, along with the dog and the cat, the one most often encountered in the cinema. Since the history of peoples and civilizations has been written on horseback, it’s only logical that the cinema should have drawn inspiration from them to create the great historical frescoes, westerns and cloak-and-dagger films, themes – among others – in which horses play an essential role. We’ve come a long way from the days when the 7th art showed little concern for the welfare of animals (especially horses) during filming. Since then, horses have been protected by law, but also by very serious physical training, top-level dressage and total complicity with the trainer.
The overflowing imagination of screenwriters sometimes generates scenes that would be inconceivable without the use of special effects: technical and practical means that enable dangerous or unusual actions to be carried out in complete safety. The horse can then become the driving force behind a multitude of effects. From a simple wrapped horse to a corpse, from spectacular falls to impressive pyrotechnic effects: practically anything is possible or… “trickable”. But not just anyone can be a movie horse!
The horse, just another film star
While stunt horses are more likely to be the stars of a film, their smaller roles are not to be overlooked. Extra horses, those often overlooked extras, are just as indispensable as the others. The work they’re asked to do doesn’t differ much from their daily lives. Calm, patient, obedient and without vices, they are part of the scenery, whether mounted, harnessed or tethered.
Another category, and by no means the least, is that of actors’ horses. Perfectly trained, they allow the actors (who are not always riders) to think only of their lines, and to move as if they were accustomed to the exercise. When the staging calls for delicate actions, or those that exceed the actor’s level of horsemanship, a horse look-alike, mounted by a stuntman, takes over.
It’s the Iberian horse that most often attracts the attention of trainers. Generous at heart, he’s as courageous as he is proud. His elegant gaits give him a grace and lightness that give the action all its panache, and, as an amusing little detail, the breed’s slightly poochish side makes him a comfortable star! Moral qualities as well as physical ones: the morphological criteria of Iberian horses are particularly well-suited to this type of work. But this doesn’t mean that other breeds have been denigrated: who can have forgotten Crin blanc, the proud little Camargue horse; Black Beauty, the black Thoroughbred star of a famous TV series; or Mr. Ed, a pure Palomino?
Athlete training for film horses
Starting with elementary dressage, a versatile training program is launched. The first few months are devoted to physical preparation. Based on complete muscular training, breath-holding, and flexibility exercises during numerous outdoor outings (which also facilitate familiarization with natural obstacles and elements of nature), training is punctuated by sessions in the riding arena.
Lateral movements, backing up, canter starts, clean stops, changes of foot… the lessons follow each other relentlessly. Reaction to aids must be immediate and the effect achieved with exact precision. Supple, submissive, and balanced, the horse then learns to execute all the high school airs whose finesse might seem incompatible with stunts or special effects, but it’s quite the opposite: the horse will count or write from the gestures of the Spanish walk; a levade will be transformed into an aggressive cabrade; a vicious kicking will be based on a croupade. In this way, raised airs find another purpose in special effects.
Lunging also takes up a lot of time, as this is how the horse learns to obey the voice, the only aid available to the trainer when it comes to working a horse at liberty in front of the camera. The schedule also includes carriage driving, cross-country courses, acrobatics, and a gradual introduction to the “art of the fall”. Knowing that a stunt horse will only reach full maturity between six and eight years of age, and that out of 100 horses, barely 5 will be “confirmed”, we can better appreciate the difficulties of the job and recognize the inestimable value of these horses. You can count the number of film horse trainers in the world on the fingers of one hand! It’s also interesting to note that in Europe, a stunt horse’s career can cover 30 or 40 films, whereas in the USA, horses are prepared for a specific film and the trainer’s part with them as soon as the shoot is over. Europeans are more sentimental than accountants…
Of all the effects, falls are certainly the most spectacular, but also the most delicate. In this new stage of dressage, the horse’s physical condition is comparable to that of an athlete: breath, muscles, and suppleness to succeed in “bending in all directions”.
Once again, submission, the rider’s help and trust are combined to ensure that the horse obeys unconditionally and without risk. It’s up to the rider to never deceive the horse, if he wants to become one with this generous, complicit mount. Learning to fall begins at a standstill, from a standing or sitting position. The choice of ground is essential to ensure that the horse never suffers or injures itself, and that it performs without apprehension or reluctance! As the animal experts its movements, it will be asked to fall from walk, trot, canter, and then full gallop. Whether habit or tradition, falls are always made on the left flank. Using a rein effect like a supporting rein, the rider brings the horse’s head to one side, which, at the end of the 3rd beat of the canter, will have the effect of unbalancing the horse. At the same time, the rider puts all his weight to the left, and the animal is flat on its flank.
Film horse methods
The first film horses were not used by riders, and even less so under the guidance of equestrian experts. The quest for the “spectacular” was the sole aim, especially for falls.
However, there is a difference between “asking” a horse to fall and “making” it fall. The former is pure dressage, the latter involves the use of tricks to obtain a fall in which the horse will unfortunately be unable to control any of its movements or use the reflexes essential to its protection.
In this field, the running W or “tirette” has had its hour of glory: it’s a system of restraints placed on the horse’s forelegs and connected to the rider’s hand by a cable. By pulling on the cable when the horse is launched, the forelegs fold under the chest and the fall is inevitable. This accessory, too often used by incompetent riders, has been the cause of numerous accidents.
Among the objects that could be described as torture, there was the “trabonne”, a pull-tab connected to a cable fixed to the ground: as the horse moves away from the anchoring point, the cable unwinds and, at the end of its course, the inevitable fall occurs. Worse still: the pit, a camouflaged trench a few meters wide into which the horses will fall, betrayed by the ground that hypocritically gives way beneath their feet. The effect on screen was spectacular, but at what price! There’s no script in the world, no staging, no stuntman worth the price of so much unnecessary damage and suffering.
Ever since the rider became interested in the work of film horses, spectacular action has been the fruit of work that draws its sources from equestrian art in the broadest sense of the term. The horse is trained, and these artifices are no longer necessary. If we add up the time spent recruiting horses, the hours spent training them, plus the emotional bonds that develop between expert and pupil, we’ll never find a trainer who is willing to put his faithful working companions at risk. If there’s one effect that exceeds the limits of what’s possible, it’s the systematic use of tricks combined with dressage. A horse limping across the screen is a dressage effect; if a lion attacks it, it’s a superimposition of images; the fall into a ravine is entrusted to a dummy; the horse on fire is covered with an asbestos caparison…
Training and regulation of today’s film horses
In the early 1900s, one of the essential components of silent films was action. To achieve this, horses were often placed in situations that exceeded both their understanding and their physical capabilities. Fortunately, it didn’t take long for the public to reflect, rebel, and put the brakes on these over-the-top acts.
As early as 1940, The Humane Association opened an office at Hollywood studios and introduced strict regulations on the use of animals on film sets. Audiences were still able to enjoy the thrills and chills of filming, but barbed wire was made of plastic, weapons were blunted, windows were made of cellophane or sugar; fences, gates and partitions were built of balsa wood; unlocking systems were fitted to carriages that had to turn around, and the use of dummies became systematic in fatal scenes.
The work of animals in film was sometimes so remarkable that the A.H.A. created an Oscar for the best animal role of the year: the Patsy Award Picture Animal Top Star of the Year. The list of winners includes – among others – Smokey, the grey horse from the film Cat Ballou, as well as Plipper the dolphin, Clarence the cross-eyed lion, Lassie, Judy the monkey from Daktari… In Prance, Cinémalia, the animal feature film festival in Beauvais (Oise), awarded prizes to “Sueno”, Lucky Luke’s horse, and, in another field, to the grizzly bear in L’Ours. Every year in Cabourg, Equidia rewards the best short films and equestrian documentaries. Crin-Blanc, Litchi, Apollo, Diego, Chepa and many others would certainly not have been last!
