Clint's Horses

[Stockton]

I just watched Pale Rider this weekend for the upmteenth time and as my wife walked through the living room I made her stop and watch the scene where Meghan Wheeler is reading the scripture out of the bible about the pale horse and the Preacher rides up on his pale horse.  My wife commented how Clint always rides great horses in all his movies.  I hadn't really paid much attention to this detail before but i will start.  The horse in Pale Rider is definitely a fine specimen.  My question is: Where does Clint get his horses for his films and does he keep any of them after the filming is over?  Also which film does Clint ride the best horse?

[Lilly]

Hi, Stockton.   I don't know details, but I think horses are usually supplied by a wrangler who specialises in working for the film industry.  In the "making of" featurette on the Unforgiven DVD there is a brief interview with the wrangler for that movie, who says they deliberately picked a flea-bitten grey for Munny's old horse.  I would imagine that most of the horses stay with the wrangler as they would be valued animals accustomed to working on movie sets.

Also which film does Clint ride the best horse?

I'd have to think about that, but the grey in Pale Rider is a beauty.

[Lilly]

On using trained animals, here's a paragraph from the American Humane Association's page on Unforgiven.

For the various scenes involving horses, trained rearing and falling horses were used. In several scenes Will's horse, supposedly unaccustomed to being saddled and ridden for many years, resists being mounted and prances about or attempts to throw Will. Will's horse had two doubles that were more spirited and not accustomed to a saddle that were used in these scenes. A stuntman doubled for the actor and the scenes were shot in cuts.

LINK.  (Page has details on treatment of other animals in the film too, and how they shot the pheasant scene.)

Alberta Beef Magazine has an article (LINK) on John Scott, the head wrangler for Unforgiven.

"When training horses I try to keep it so there are no surprises out there for them while they are learning the ropes and that includes smoke, fire, gun shots and tough trails with lots of obstacles. Horses have to see what the have to do and they need to be bred right and exposed to all the things ranch life and movie sets demand of them. Horses believe in you if you've never abused them. The trust is total. If you break that trust your job training them has become impossible. For instance, two of my best horses Jiggs and Sharkey, have been through just about everything from fire, to guns and all the rigors a movie set can offer but they have never been hurt. Their trust is total. It all comes down to trust, everything is trust...all the rest is dust. If you abuse horses they let you know it. Those horses can make you look like a king or a bum...."

Munny would agree.   I can't see John Scott selling any of his hard-trained horses to movie makers.

[Lilly]

One more thing, then I'll be quiet.

There is a book called Hollywood Hoofbeats: Trails Blazed Across the Silver Screen, by Petrine Day Mitchum (daughter of Robert Mitchum), about movie horses and their handlers.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1931993386

According to THIS article, Eastwood is mentioned.

Also, I just found out that the telegrapher in Pale Rider was played by wrangler Jay K. Fishburn.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0279332/

[Lin Sunderland]

Thanks for those links Lilly.    I often wonder how the horses and other animals are treated in movies.  It seems that in Clint movies, at least, they are treated well.   As one of the srticles says horses will walk away if they are not happy.  I am sure the horses used on movie sets are well treated or they would show signs of distress and would not perform for their trainers on cue. 

[HK-47]

It's funny. I have a horse that looks just like the one from "Pale Rider". It's named "Steel".

[crowkiller]

  Also which film does Clint ride the best horse?

I think the one in The outlaw Josey Wales is a good looking horse.

[Concorde]

I recall a magazine profile of Clint in which he sat down to chat with a reporter at his Malpaso office, and a secretary interrupted them to mention that HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER had just started on TV.

Clint switched on a TV set in his office and watched the opening, commenting as he observed it, "That was a really good horse."

[Canadian Lady]

This is an older topic but I just wanted to put my 2 cents in.  I have to say the best looking horse (in my opinion) that Clint rides in his films, has got to be the one he's on in The Outlaw Josey Wales.   And for what it's worth I once worked at a race track in southern Alberta and there was a pony-horse that I rode, (a flea bitten grey mare), and the owner of the mare said this is the one they used in Unforgiven well, I almost fell off the horse cause I was so excited to be riding the same horse as Clint.  Then I got to thinking, and went back and watched and slow motioned the film I had at the time (VHS) and in the scenes where you can see under the horse, it is a gelding  . So unless they used two different flea bitten greys, which they very well could have, maybe I rode the same horse as Clint I don't know. I still tell people I did!   

[Lilly]

Hey that's cool, CL!  I'm think they would have had more than one horse, as cover, so maybe you really did ride it.

[KC]

That's great, CL! I think they did use at least two horses; one did the "stuntwork." Where are the scenes when you can tell it's a gelding?

EDIT: When I posted this I forgot to re-read the thread! Lilly, a few posts above, quotes from the American Humane Association's page on Unforgiven:

In several scenes Will's horse, supposedly unaccustomed to being saddled and ridden for many years, resists being mounted and prances about or attempts to throw Will. Will's horse had two doubles that were more spirited and not accustomed to a saddle that were used in these scenes. A stuntman doubled for the actor and the scenes were shot in cuts.

[Canadian Lady]

Where are the scenes when you can tell it's a gelding?

In the beginning, where William is having a tough time getting on his horse, and the horse is jumping around alot.  There are a few parts there you can tell it's a gelding and one other part later on in the film you can see just under neath a bit, but I can't remember exactly when it was, I'll have to watch it again. ( Oh Darn  )  You come to think of it I have only seen Unforgiven on VHS, I think I need to get the DVD, maybe there are other scenes on there!!
Maybe another member could do a screen cap for me? Or if anybody else has any info on the greys he used for the film?

[KC]

Well, the scenes where the horse was "prancing" were the ones that they used a "stunt horse" in.

[Guy With No Name]

  I was goin to say that but I have is movies and I watch it all

I just watched Pale Rider this weekend for the upmteenth time and as my wife walked through the living room I made her stop and watch the scene where Meghan Wheeler is reading the scripture out of the bible about the pale horse and the Preacher rides up on his pale horse.  My wife commented how Clint always rides great horses in all his movies.  I hadn't really paid much attention to this detail before but i will start.  The horse in Pale Rider is definitely a fine specimen.  My question is: Where does Clint get his horses for his films and does he keep any of them after the filming is over?  Also which film does Clint ride the best horse?

[bbrider88]

Clint Eastwood's horses in High Plains Drifter and Pale Rider were Andalusians for sure. There was another movie that he rode a black Mustang. Hmm which one was that?  Good Bad and Ugly I recall.?

[SillyFilly]

RE:Clint's beautiful grey in Pale Rider was actually D. Wayne Lucas's "Pony" horse.  A Thoroughbred whose career was over but used to pony the racing horses to and from workouts and races.   I breed TB's so LOVE watching my fave actor, allergic to horses and all, riding a horse big enough for how tall he is.  I've only met him 4 times but he has that unearthly star "something" that we call the "Look of Eagles" in horses.  (I'm talking of course about Clint, not the beautiful grey.  One of my Bloodhorse Magazines wrote this little trivia and I wish I had saved that issue!  Then I could tell you the breeding.


Without starting another subject, Hollywood did not always put him on a horse tall enough to not make the horse look like a pony due the the amount of leg below the horses girth (Belly).  I have to laugh on some of the cow "ponies" Eastwood rode as Rowdy Yates.  At least it saved his knees a bit, being able to swing into the saddle of a 15 hand high quarter horse.....

But let's face it, He made the horses look good as well as some good looking Horses made him look good.  It always takes two individual souls to accomplish that almost Centaur symbiosis which makes those Western Movies Magical Over and Over Again!

[KC]

Thank you for a beautiful post, SillyFilly, and welcome to the Board!