Of all domestic animals, the horse is, along with the dog and the cat, the one most often seen in the cinema. As the history of peoples and civilizations has been written on horseback, it is logical that the cinema has been inspired to create the great historical frescoes, westerns and cloak-and-dagger films, themes – among others – in which horses play an essential role. We are far from the time when the 7th art was little concerned with the well-being of animals (especially horses) during filming. Since then, horses have been protected by laws, but also by a serious physical training, an elevated level of dressage and a total complicity with the trainer.
The overflowing imagination of the scriptwriters sometimes generates scenes whose realization would be inconceivable without recourse to tricks and special effects: technical and practical means which make it possible to carry out dangerous or particular actions in full safety. The horse can then become the engine of a multitude of effects. From the simple horse wrapped to the corpse, through spectacular falls or impressive pyrotechnic effects: everything is practically feasible or… “fakable”. But not everyone is a movie horse!
The horse, a film star among others
If the stunt horses are the stars of the show, the small roles are not to be neglected. Extra horses, these often ignored extras, are, at their level, as indispensable as the others. The work they are asked to do is not different from their daily life. Calm, patient, obedient and without vices, they are part of the scenery, whether they are mounted, harnessed, or tethered.
Another category, and not the least, is that of the actors’ horses. Perfectly trained, they allow the actors (not always riders) to think only of their text and to evolve as if the exercise was theirs. When the staging requires delicate actions or exceeding the actor’s equestrian level, a horse look-alike, mounted by a stuntman, will take over.
It is the Iberian horse that most often holds the attention of the trainers. Endowed with a great generosity of heart, it is as courageous as it is proud. Its elegant gaits give it a gracefulness and lightness that gives the action all its panache and, a small amusing detail, the slightly poochish side of the breed installs it in a comfortable attitude of star! Moral qualities but also physical qualities: the morphological criteria of the Iberian horses are particularly adapted to this form of work. The other breeds are not denigrated: who can have forgotten Crin Blanc, the proud little Camargue horse; Black Beauty, the Black Thoroughbred star of a famous television series or, Mr. Ed, a pure Palomino?
The athletic training of movie horses
Starting with basic dressage, a multi-faceted training is started. The first months are devoted to physical preparation. Based on complete musculation, the setting in breath, the relaxations during numerous outings in outside (which also facilitate the accustoming to the natural obstacles and elements of nature – the training is punctuated by sessions of riding school.
Lateral movements, backward movements, galloping starts, clear stops, changes of foot… the lessons follow one another without respite. The reaction to the aids must be immediate and the effect obtained with exact precision. Supple, submissive, balanced, the horse will then learn to execute all the high school airs whose finesse might seem incompatible with stunts or special effects, but it is quite the opposite: the horse will count or write from the gestures of the Spanish walk; a levade will be transformed into an aggressive rear; a vicious kicking will be based on a croupade. Thus, the raised airs find another purpose in the special effects.
Lunging also takes up a lot of time, as this is how the horse learns to obey the voice, which is the only help the trainer has when it comes to working a horse in front of the camera. The schedule also includes driving sessions, cross-country courses, acrobatics, and a progressive initiation to the “art of the fall”. Knowing that a stunt horse will only reach its full maturity between six and eight years old and that out of 100 horses, barely 5 will manage to be “confirmed”, one can better measure the difficulties of the job and recognize the inestimable value of these horses. We can count the horse trainers for the cinema, all over the world, on the fingers of one hand! It is also interesting to note that in Europe, the career of a stunt horse can cover 30 or 40 films while in the United States, the horses are prepared for a specific film and the trainer’s part with them as soon as the shooting is over. Europeans are more sentimental than accountant…
Of all the effects, the falls are certainly the most spectacular but also the most delicate. In this new stage of dressage, the physical condition of the horse is comparable to that of an athlete: breath, musculation and suppleness to succeed “in bending in all directions”.
Once again, submission, the rider’s help and confidence will come together so that the horse obeys unconditionally and without risk. It is up to the man to never deceive him if he wants to be at one with this complicit and generous mount. The learning of the falls begins at the stop, from the station upright or sitting. The choice of the ground is essential so that the horse never suffers and does not injure itself; it is also on this condition that it will perform without apprehension or reticence! As the animal heads its movements, it will be asked to fall from the walk, the trot, the canter and then the full gallop. Habit or tradition, the falls are always on the left flank. By an effect of rein like a support rein, the rider brings back the head of the horse on the side, which, at the end of the 3rd time of the gallop, will have for effect to unbalance it. At the same time, the rider places all his weight on the left and the animal is flat on its side.
Methods related to film horses
The first movie horses were not used by riders, and even less under the direction of competent horsemen. The quest for the “spectacular” was the only goal, especially for the falls.
However, there is a difference between “asking” the horse to fall and “making” it fall. In the first case, it is a question of pure dressage, in the second, it is the use of artifices which allows to obtain a fall in which the horse will unfortunately not be able to control any of its movements nor to use the reflexes essential to its protection.
In this field, the running W or “pull” has had its moment of glory: it is 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 thrown, the forelegs fold under the chest and the fall is inevitable. This accessory, too often used by incompetent riders, has been the cause of many accidents.
Among the objects that could be qualified as torture, there was the “trabonne”, a kind of pull cord connected to a cable fixed to the ground: as the horse moves away from the anchor point, the cable unwinds and, at the end of the race, it is the inevitable fall. 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 under their feet. The effect on the screen was spectacular, but at what price! There is not a scenario in the world, not a staging, not a stuntman that is worth the price of so much damage and unnecessary suffering.
Since the horseman became interested in the work of horses for the cinema, spectacular action has become the fruit of a work that draws its sources from the 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 of training plus the emotional ties that are established between the expert and his students, we will not find a trainer who accepts to put these faithful companions at risk. If there is an effect that goes beyond the limits of what is possible, it is the systematic use of tricks combined with dressage. A horse limping on the screen is a dressage effect; if a lion attacks it, it is 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 movie horses
In the early 1900s, one of the essential components of silent films was action. To achieve this, horses were put into situations that were beyond their understanding and physical capabilities. Fortunately, it didn’t take long for the public to think about, protest, and put a stop to these over-the-top acts.
As early as 1940, an American animal protection association, The Humane Association, opened an office in the Hollywood studios and established strict regulations regarding the use of animals on film sets. Nevertheless, the public was still able to thrill in front of the screens, but
barbed wire was made of plastic, guns were blunted, windows were made of cellophane or sugar; fences, gates and partitions were made of balsa wood; unlocking systems were installed on the 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. On the list of winners, we find – among others – Smokey, the grey horse from the movie Cat Ballou but also Plipper the dolphin, Clarence the squinting lion, Lassie, Judy the monkey from Daktari… In France, Cinémalia, the festival of animal films in Beauvais (Oise) awarded “Sueno”, the horse from Lucky Luke and, in another field, the grizzly bear from The Bear. In Cabourg, every year, Equidia rewards the best short films and equestrian documentaries. Presented at this competition, Crin-Blanc, Litchi, Apollo, Diego, Chepa and so many others would surely not have been the last!
