Hollywood Hoofbeats Read online

  In the horror film The Ring (2002), a horse is seen breaking out of a trailer on a ferryboat and jumping over several cars, then over the railing into the water. Trainers Rex Peterson and Rusty Hendrickson prepared a number of black horses, owned by supplier Mike Boyle, to do the required stunts. Working in tranquility on Boyle’s California ranch, the men taught the horses to fight through a barricade of cardboard boxes, to jump large objects at liberty, and finally to leap off a platform.

  When the sequence was filmed, several horses were used on location for the different aspects of the scene, but the final shot, of the horse going over the ferry’s railing, was done in a controlled setting against a “blue screen.” Filmmakers often employ the blue (or green) screen technique when the real action is too dangerous or costly to produce. In the case of The Ring, the horse jumped over a railing on a platform far from the water. The shot was then digitally inserted in the scene to make it look as if a horse had jumped overboard. The animal seen thrashing about in the water is from found footage and was digitally inserted in the film. Later the horse appears apparently dead on a beach. The “dead” horse is actually a fake, or “stuffy,” in American Humane terminology, designed to look amazingly real.

  The Horse Whisperer (1988) Effectively combined live action with animatronic horses to create a terrifying accident sequence. Here trainer Rex Peterson uses his whip like a conductor to cue Hightower to rear.

  Natural Enemies

  Sometimes horses are called upon to work with their natural enemies, which include bears, wolves, large cats, and snakes. Years before the blue-screen process, the opposing animals were either tame and highly trained or tranquilized. German Shepherds portrayed wolves, and fake animals were often used, with varying success.

  In The Black Stallion, the black stomps a cobra to death. Intercuts between a real snake menacing from behind a protective Plexiglas barrier and Cass Olé’s stomping a dummy snake created a realistic sequence. Today, however, these types of predator/prey scenes are usually achieved with the help of computer-generated images (CGI). In Hidalgo (2004), a scene takes place in which two leopards attack the lead horses, the Paint Hidalgo and a gray mare named Ghost. The horses were filmed whirling and backing, moving forward aggressively, and stomping while trainer Rex Peterson cued them. The trainer was digitally removed from the scene, and the separately photographed leopards met their potential prey in the editing room for a frighteningly realistic sequence.

  Highly trained equine actors, animatronics, stuffies, the blue screen process, computer-generated imagery, and the effective use of special props and makeup have done away with the need to ever subject a movie horse to danger for the sake of entertainment. In addition to all the technological advances, American Humane’s guidelines dictate an animal’s working schedule, feed, care, and veterinary requirements. Humane-conscious filmmakers, such as Robert Redford, welcome American Humane on their sets. “Because it’s important to me that the animals in my films are well treated, I choose to ensure it by working with the American Humane Association,” Redford has stated. A filmmaker’s voluntary compliance with American Humane’s high standards earns the coveted “No Animals Were Harmed” end-credit disclaimer that concerned moviegoers look for at the end of every film with an equine or other animal actor.

  In training for Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken (1991), Chad eagerly dives in—but notice how he braces his neck.

  The Big Picture

  Unfortunately, American Humane cannot always give the disclaimer, and some films are categorized as “questionable” and even “unacceptable.” This sometimes occurs with overseas productions when the animal action cannot be monitored by American Humane or one of its affiliates, usually because of budgetary restraints. American Humane is funded by a grant bequeathed by a fund controlled by the Screen Actors Guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Its safety representatives’ salaries and expenses are not part of a film’s overall budget. While this system allows American Humane to enjoy impartial autonomy, it makes far-flung locations often impossible to monitor. Many countries, such as Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand, either have animal-protection agencies or American Humane-trained representatives who work with the association’s guidelines, but others do not. Cultural differences also make the humane treatment of horses in some countries more challenging. Furthermore, while it is difficult to believe, there are still unscrupulous filmmakers willing to put animals at risk to achieve spectacular stunts. Incredibly, one such director even had the audacity to create his own disclaimer avowing humane treatment of animals in an expensive 2004 production after American Humane deemed it unacceptable. However, the questionable treatment was noted in the film review on the American Humane website.

  One problem is that since fewer movies with horse action are made these days, there are fewer trained movie horses awaiting a casting call. Filmmakers, used to the “time is money” pressure that drives the industry, often do not understand the amount of time needed to prepare horses, especially for liberty work. Trainers sometimes resort to shock collars to achieve results quickly. Shock collars are readily available to the public and are used in aversion training to cure chronic bad habits. The problem with using such devices is that the horse learns to respond to a shock, but in training for performance, the learned behavior is not lasting. In the long run, shock collars can create horses with poor attitudes. American Humane has banned the use of these questionable devices, but it is impossible for its safety representatives to be present at all training and filming sessions.

  Although, many strides have been made toward making sure our four-legged actor friends are treated as well as their human costars, room for improvement remains. It’s up to audience members to let producers know their films will not be supported if they don’t treat their hardworking equine and other animal cast members with the respect they deserve.

  Yakima Canutt springs from horseback to wagon bed in an episode of The Three Mesquiteers, Code of the Outlaw (1942), a demonstration of the trust a stuntman can place in a well-trained horse.

  5. Working Steeds of the Westerns

  “To me a Western is gunplay and horses.”

  —Howard Hawks, Director

  Television star Clayton Moore as The Lone Ranger with the iconic Silver.

  When the visionary Thomas Edison turned his cameras on a bucking bronc in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show in 1894, it’s doubtful even he could have imagined the stampede of movie horses to come. In the decades since, Hollywood has produced more than 20,000 Westerns and employed thousands of horses. Where did all these horses come from? The mares and geldings that made up the galloping herds? The mounts of the posse, the cavalry, the Indians? The teams that pulled the wagons? The glamorous star horses who appeared in multiple roles? The many doubles who filled in for the stars? These horses, who formed the four-legged foundation on which most Westerns were built, were largely procured and rented by a handful of savvy entrepreneurs.

  Clarence “Fat” Jones, in his office.

  The Big Barns

  While wintering in California in 1911, a troupe from the Millers Brothers 101 Ranch Wild West teamed with Thomas Ince’s Bison Movie Company to form Bison 101. Thus Ince acquired herds of cattle, buffalo, trained horses, and authentic props such as stagecoaches and teepees, all utilized in his early Westerns. Bison 101 originally occupied 18,000 acres near Santa Monica, California. In 1915, Inceville, as the ranch was called, moved to the Culver City site that would later become MGM Studios.

  In the teens and 1920s, the back lot of Universal Studios was home to huge herds of horses, which grazed peacefully between jobs. Since Universal had a galaxy of cowboy stars under contract, including genuine buckaroos Hoot Gibson and Art Acord, it was to the studio’s advantage to keep its own supply of horses.

  With all the Westerns being made, however, there was plenty of opportunity for ambitious horse dealers.

  Hundreds of horses and wagons dash
across the dusty plain, recreating the Oklahoma Land Rush for the movie Cimarron (1930)

  Fat Jones Stable

  As a teenager, Clarence “Fat” Jones operated a burro-drawn grocery cart. Growing tired of the burros, he traded them for a buckskin gelding, Chick, and later purchased another, Buck. In 1912, the nineteen-year-old Jones rented the buckskins to the Pathé production company for a two-reeler film. He eventually parlayed that simple transaction into a million-dollar business.

  In the early days, Fat Jones furnished horses for films starring Tom Mix, William S. Hart, and Ken Maynard. After supplying horses on a relatively small scale for low-budget “oaters” (Hollywood shorthand for a film with lots of oat eaters: horses), Jones was tapped to provide 1,100 horses to RKO Pictures for Cimarron (1930). He was also contracted to provide four hundred wagons for the film’s famous Oklahoma Land Rush sequence.

  Horses, culled from various ranches, were relatively easy to come by. The wagons were more problematic. Jones and his employees scoured the Southwest for authentic vehicles, but many of the ones they found required expensive repairs. Once he had procured the horses and refurbished the wagons, Jones faced the monumental task of teaching both humans and horses the art of driving. His Herculean ability to deliver the goods established Fat Jones as the most reliable supply stable in Hollywood. Cimarron, meanwhile, became the first Western to win the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1931. Six decades passed before another Western, Dances with Wolves, won the Oscar in 1991. Western fans only had to wait a year before Clint Eastwood’s masterpiece, Unforgiven, won the Best Picture award in 1992.

  From the 1920s to the 1960s, Fat Jones furnished livestock and equipment for a vast number of films and television shows. The Fat Jones Stable became a hangout for wranglers such as Alan Lee, who had supplied the company with horses from his Arizona ranch for 1930’s The Big Trail. Jones persuaded Lee to move to California so he could take advantage of the wrangler’s stock and expertise. Lee’s son, Ken, only five when his family relocated, virtually grew up at the Fat Jones Stable and followed in his father’s boot steps to become a top stuntman and wrangler. In addition to schooling the horses to keep them in shape, the wranglers gave riding lessons to tenderfoot actors. This involved wrangling egos as well: most actors listed “expert horseman” on their resumes, but few actually knew the first thing about horsemanship.

  Top trainers gravitated to the Fat Jones Stable and were hired by the studios to work with the star horses. One of the best was Jack “Swede” Lindell, described by Ken Lee as “the granddaddy of all horse trainers.” As a young boy in Sweden, Lindell had been intrigued by the American West. In his early teens, he immigrated to the States and headed straight to Texas. He found work as a cowboy and later trained horses for the Barnes Circus. Traveling with the circus to California, he met rodeo roper Buff Jones and his brother, Fat. Fat Jones recognized Lindell’s extraordinary talent and hired him away from the circus. Lindell is credited with developing new techniques to cue liberty horses with all the distractions of motion-picture equipment between the trainer and his subjects.

  In its heyday, the Fat Jones Stable occupied eleven acres in North Hollywood, where barns, corrals, a blacksmith shop, an extensive collection of wagons, and more than a hundred resident horses, plus mules, burros, oxen, and even a small herd of Spanish Longhorn cattle formed the most successful rental stable in the picture business. Stars and specialty horses had their own box stalls, with their names on the doors. Swede Lindell’s first movie star pupil, the wild and charismatic Rex, resided in a special stall constructed from thick logs to keep the stallion from chomping through the walls. Performers such as Baldy, Banner (John Wayne’s favorite mount from 1940 to 1954), Black Diamond, Blanco, Crown Prince, Flicka, Misty, Steel, Sunny Jim, and Thunderhead all had their nameplates proudly displayed in the Jones barn aisle.

  Fat Jones passed away in 1963, but his stable continued to provide horses for film and television under the direction of Dyke Johnson until 1969.

  Trainer Ken Lee kept star horse Steel camera ready at the Fat Jones Stables in North Hollywood.

  A horse from the Fat Jones Stable waits to be auctioned off in 1969, when the legendary establishment closed its doors.

  Hudkins Brothers Stable

  Fat Jones’s chief rival was an outfit run by four brothers from Nebraska: champion boxer Ace Hudkins, who bankrolled the enterprise, and Art, Clyde, and Ode, who operated it. Roy Rogers’s Trigger came from the Hudkins Brothers Stable, as did Gene Autry’s original Champion. Known simply as Hudkins within the industry, the stable provided the cast, stunt, and extra horses for both Rogers’s and Autry’s films. It was also contracted to furnish horses to Warner Brothers, Columbia, and Republic Studios. Although well known for their stunt horses, such as the hardworking Jerry Brown Falling Horse, the Hudkins brothers owned several stars, including Black Ace, the horse who played Challenger in Dark Victory (1939) with Bette Davis.

  Hudkins competed with Fat Jones on a grand scale as well. The brothers supplied about one thousand horses for both The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936) and They Died with Their Boots On (1942). One of their last big jobs was providing five hundred horses for Springfield Rifle (1952) with Gary Cooper. Of course, such vast numbers of horses were no longer kept in the Los Angeles area. Instead Hudkins, like Fat Jones and others, rented them from various ranchers in popular movie locations, such as northern California, Arizona, and Utah. Hudkins was originally located at the Providencia Ranch in the Hollywood Hills, previously owned by movie pioneer Max Sennett. Many early films were shot at the ranch (today the site of Forest Lawn Cemetery). Hudkins eventually moved deeper into the San Fernando Valley, where it occupied less than ten acres at the time of its closing in the mid-1960s.

  Randall Ranch

  The Hudkins brothers gave legendary trainer Glenn Randall his start in show business. Born in 1907 and raised on a Nebraska farm, Randall became a lifelong student of equine psychology. Today he might be called a “horse whisperer.” His mother used to say he talked to horses. As a young man he was delivering Thoroughbreds from Wyoming to California racetracks when he met Hollywood wrangler Buddy Sherwood. Sherwood introduced him to Ace and Art Hudkins. Randall sold them a horse, Rags, whom he had raised from an orphan colt. Impressed by Rags’s repertoire of tricks, the brothers hired Randall to train a palomino stallion for a young cowboy actor named Roy Rogers. Thus Randall’s long career as a celebrity horse trainer was launched in 1941 with Trigger.

  When the Hudkins Brothers Stable folded, Glenn Randall bought their collection of horse-drawn vehicles for his competing Randall Ranch, which he ran with his sons J. R. and Corky. When the Fat Jones Stable closed, Randall purchased a number of horses and horse-drawn vehicles at its October 1969 auction. He acquired even more from a Fox Studios’ public auction.

  Located in Newhall, just north of Los Angeles, Randall Ranch maintained a head of 250 movie horses. One of its biggest jobs was to supply 300 horses and vehicles for Paint Your Wagon (1969). The ranch provided horses and equipment for films and television until the mid-1970s, when the Western hit a major slump and the need for movie horses declined sharply. The legendary Glenn Randall passed away in 1993.

  In 1957, trainer Glenn Randall received a special PATSY award from the AHA for his work with so many equine stars.

  A Randall Ranch brochure touts the many horses and wagons available for rent to the movie industry.

  Smaller Stables

  Several smaller supply stables enjoyed the Western boom during the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s. Charlie Flores had a barn in Culver City and supplied horses to nearby MGM Studios. His brother Joe Flores ran a North Hollywood livery stable that also furnished horses to movies.

  Partners George Myers and Henry Wills specialized in renting jumping and stunt horses, including Flash, the falling horse who won the Craven Award in 1955. Henry Wills, who also worked as a stuntman, actor, and second unit director, trained Flash. Wills doubled many Western stars, such as
Roy Rogers, Alan Ladd, Clark Gable, and Marlon Brando, and performed more than 1,400 horse falls in his long career. Myers owned at least one star horse, the splendid blaze-faced sorrel that carried Alan Ladd in Shane (1953). The sorrel contributed to one of the Western’s most iconic images, as Ladd’s mysterious handsome stranger makes his entrance on the magnificent horse.

  A former forest ranger, Ralph McCutcheon had a small but potent stable of stunt and star horses. In the early 1950s, McCutcheon trained on his small spread in Panorama City. He was known for using voice commands and subtle hand signals once the horses were traditionally trained with whip cues. He also reportedly trained at night to prevent prying eyes from learning his secret methods.

  In 2003, California equestrienne Penny Bernard recalled spending time at McCutcheon’s as a kid. Her father had purchased two palomino former movie horses, Sunny and Champ, from McCutcheon. Bernard remembered hanging out in McCutcheon’s comfortable tack room, admiring his silver saddles and trophies while her father and the trainer swapped stories. Occasionally, one of the star horses would open the screen door, stroll over to the refrigerator, open it by its rope handle, and help himself to a few carrots, then shut the refrigerator and stroll back outside and into his stall.