Been watching old Westerns and the cross country galloping over uneven terrain…sometimes bareback…and not be impressed by the quality of riding?
Also been binge watching Lone Ranger/Tonto and Roy Rogers/Dale Evans TV series…amazing to watch them step into stirrup and next stride galloping off.
Anyone else out there also fascinated by this riding?
You and I must be watching different old westerns. The riding in most of them makes me cringe.
I’m thinking of John Wayne in particular. Roy Rogers was, I believe, a horseman, but I can’t say I remember any of his films ATM.
Well, horses were a means of transportation then, so different all around. But yeah, many of the horses were treated like old beater cars. Punch the gas, brake hard, park outside the saloon tied with one rein (yeah, right - handler standing right off camera . . .).
I always used to encyclopedia how Dale Robertson (who was a horseman) was able to run towards his horse and take a little jump and land his left foot right in the stirrup and swing on!
The wranglers for the old tv westerns said the best riders were Robertson and Glenn Ford. They said Dennis Wever and James Arness were good, but Arness’ size was an issue. James Garner was good, “but he had learned English so he posted.” Also pretty good were James Drury (The Virginian) and Robert Horton (Wagon Train).The worst was Richard Boone, who had never ridden before Paladin,
Damn auto correct!!! ENVY Robertson!
Yeah, some of the riding in the westerns makes me cringe too.
But OTOH, those riders actually get those horse across creeks and bridges, whereas most correctly ridden horses I have known would balk when faced with that sort of thing.
I’ve often thought it would be hilarious to write a movie where the horses act like real-life ones, and just as the bad guy is getting away from the posse, either his horse refuses a bridge or a creek, or the posse’s horses do! Or, if the posse are real horsemen, when they rush out of the sheriff’s office to chase the bad guy, they put their feet in the stirrup and all their saddles slip down because they correctly loosened the cinches when they left the horses at the hitching post.
Movie riding and historical riding are, of course, two very different things.
Historically horses were transportation, not child-substitutes treated with kid gloves and showered with non-essential attention. Skill varied widely from deplorable to outstanding. Equine treatment ranged from excellent to outright cruelty. In wealthy circles the ability to ride well was considered a mark of personal quality. For most folks it was just something they did because it needed to be done. Indeed in “settled” areas most equine usage was drayage of one form or another. Astride work was considered a waste of energy and time.
Movie horsemanship exists for drama, not the critique of equestrians. I watched “A Fist Full of Dollars” a couple of weeks ago and I don’t think there are more than two scenes of mounted men where they were not riding at a full gallop. Eastwood, by the way, is a pretty good on a horse. But nobody rode at a gallop in the “real West” unless it was necessary (being chased by hostiles, carrying critical information, etc.). The Cavalry is always charging around but The Book said the proper gaits for almost 100% of the time were the walk and the trot. Not exactly dramatic, that! 
Westerns can be entertaining but few are worth a bucket of warm spit as history lessons. 
G.
Posted by Sandy M
I always used to encyclopedia how Dale Robertson (who was a horseman) was able to run towards his horse and take a little jump…
Posted by Sandy M
Damn auto correct!!! ENVY Robertson!
I was wondering how to encyclopedia someone. Kind of a fun accidental metaphor.
As I understand it, Hollywood started making westerns in the 1920s, a time when the ranching economy had suffered really badly due to the collapse of the European market for horses and beef at the end of World War 1. There were a lot of highly experienced horsemen and women available to gallop after stage coaches and pretend to be indians and outlaws. John Ford’s ‘Stagecoach’ has some awesome riding in the famous chase scene. Whether one approves of the treatment of the horses is another thing.
Take a look at the first minute, including the intro…I find Clayton Moore’s position at the gallop interesting. He does not have the “forward seat” you see now with riders at the gallop, but he is the epitome of non-interference with the horse…a very nice horse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JSKl2wn4jc
There’s also some short snippets of great riding starting at 19:43 when the Lone Ranger is chasing the runaway coach at a full gallop…
A good 50+ years ago our riding school provided the horses for several western movies being filmed in our area.
Two of us would ride one and lead up to 4 more horses all the way across the city to where the movie sets were, the wranglers there would take over and we would go back in the bus.
Most times we went back to get the horses that evening, some times they may keep them for a day or two, but not very often, they were not set up to care for horses for long time there.
We would take the horses the movie people asked for, some times just very quiet ones, a few flashy ones.
The horses were a prop, the wrangles said most of the actors and extras could not ride, so the horses had to be foolproof and they were.
The ones that could ride were not horsemen, they just could stay on the horses and more or less guide them.
Much of the riding when possible was done by stunt men, that could ride, but also were mostly the stay on, jerk and kick type riding, not the riding with finesse in competition.
John Wayne was not a very good rider and he himself said so, he was “adequate, that’s all”.
He had a cattle feedlot in AZ and would buy all the colts a friend raised and his cowboys would start them and train them and some of those horses were used in his movies, especially some he used.
We bought some of the fillies, they were very nice, quiet minded but athletic horses, that took a little more riding than your run of the mill slowpoke type beginner horse.
Some of the riding in old westerns is right down painful to watch, much less try to imitate.
It was what it was, a movie about the humans there, riding very secondary, as someone already said, a way to get from here to there for most western movies.
Few westerns were made about the horse/s themselves.
Want to see some bad riding, go to any local playday games.
It is, still today, with all that information out there, kind of painful to watch.
Some of that reflects the riding that happened in western movies.
At least with the new competition venues of ranch rodeos and SHOT and such, the level of riding has greatly improved over the past decade.
Much of the riding by the seat of the pants less common, a little more considerate riding tends to carry the day and win, which bring in more interest on riding correctly over the old speed only counts mindset.
In fact, many of the younger cowboys today are fascinated with riding correctly, find it immensely interesting and can’t get enough of it, if they are real horsemen at heart.
While the old westerns were full of horses and that for many of us was what drew us to them, those movies had horses as props mostly, they were not filmed to showcase the best horsemanship.
Many “oater” stars (including Jimmy Steward, Ronald Reagan, Henry Fonda, Victor Mature, etc.) got their basic riding training from the CA National Guard. The Guard wanted to keep their horses in shape and give their training cadre something to do during non-drill time.
G.
I always hated watching Westerns where it seemed that every chase or battle type scene involved so many horses falling over… guess it made for more dramatic scenes.
There is definitely better riding by some actors and really bad riding by others.
The best was Ben Johnson, who grew up ranching and riding and was a rodeo champion. He started as a stunt man until John Ford’s Fort Apache. Ford put him under contract. Won an Oscar for his role in The Last Picture Show. He was the real deal.
Knew a Western trainer out in So Cal who bought a horse for their young daughters first serious show horse from Ben Johnson. It was a family, personal horse with some film credits and, man, that horse was BROKE. Bout the only things it couldn’t do were drive the rig and hang the drapes and banner at the shows. Most impressive.
Findeight I love that story Yeah there were some Western regulars like Ben Johnson you could just tell were the real deal. Lorne Greene kept his buckskin from Bonanza, Buck, who he later donated to a therapeutic riding program until he died at age 45! Buck was 15.1 - no wonder they could step in the stirrup and take off!
Yeah, I’m always bothered by people in films/on tv starting out on a looooong ride at a full gallop. Stagecoaches too. They even did it in “Bite the Bullet,”* though Gene Hackman is just going at a slow lope while everyone else is off at a full gallop. Damn it, guys, you want to go a long distance, you start at a TROT.
Pluvinel - I haven’t looked at the Lone Ranger in ages, but you’ll notice that Pat Conway, start of Tombstone Territory, has that very erect posture, quiet seat, at a full gallop (they used helicopter shots - very different for that period of tv shows). Despite the fact that his father was a director and his mother the granddaughter of silent star Francis X. Bushman, Conway was raised on a ranch and obviously was a rider.
*I still get the giggles (rather than cry) when the Englishman in that movie has to shoot his horse (which is still on its feet and moving) because its leg is broken. He shoots it, from several feet away, with a derringer. Really? That must be one heckuva derringer, and he must be a heckuva shot. At least in “Impromptu” (not a western!), Judy Davis (playing Georges Sand), shoots an injured horse with a rifle AND it is already down and not moving.
What I do notice is that many of the horses in most westerns are VERY fussy in the mouth, even when ridden by someone who rides well. I imagine the poor beasties got jerked around a lot. I notice that Conway looks pretty light with his hand most of the time, but the horse flips it’s head anyway the moment there is any contact (and it’s outfitted with a fairly long standing martingale). I also cringe - but accept the convention - of them mounting and swinging a leg over while the horse turns and takes off. In Conway’s case, he was 6’3" and I imagine the horse was at most 15.2, so I guess it was pretty easy. For me, not so much, not to mention being drilled on not allowing the horse to move while I mount!! LOL
Yeah, I’m always bothered by people in films/on tv starting out on a looooong ride at a full gallop. Stagecoaches too. They even did it in “Bite the Bullet,”* though Gene Hackman is just going at a slow lope while everyone else is off at a full gallop. Damn it, guys, you want to go a long distance, you start at a TROT.
Pluvinel - I haven’t looked at the Lone Ranger in ages, but you’ll notice that Pat Conway, start of Tombstone Territory, has that very erect posture, quiet seat, at a full gallop (they used helicopter shots - very different for that period of tv shows). Despite the fact that his father was a director and his mother the granddaughter of silent star Francis X. Bushman, Conway was raised on a ranch and obviously was a rider.
*I still get the giggles (rather than cry) when the Englishman in that movie has to shoot his horse (which is still on its feet and moving) because its leg is broken. He shoots it, from several feet away, with a derringer. Really? That must be one heckuva derringer, and he must be a heckuva shot. At least in “Impromptu” (not a western!), Judy Davis (playing Georges Sand), shoots an injured horse with a rifle AND it is already down and not moving.
What I do notice is that many of the horses in most westerns are VERY fussy in the mouth, even when ridden by someone who rides well. I imagine the poor beasties got jerked around a lot. I notice that Conway looks pretty light with his hand most of the time, but the horse flips it’s head anyway the moment there is any contact (and it’s outfitted with a fairly long standing martingale). I also cringe - but accept the convention - of them mounting and swinging a leg over while the horse turns and takes off. In Conway’s case, he was 6’3" and I imagine the horse was at most 15.2, so I guess it was pretty easy. For me, not so much, not to mention being drilled on not allowing the horse to move while I mount!! LOL
To see authentic Cavalry riding and travel protocols, watch “She wore a Yellow Ribbon” in which Ben Johnson is doing his usual excellent riding. The troop and associated wagons are shown rotating to leading the horses for ten minutes every hour (or two hours, whatever it is) to rest the horses and keep the trooper loosened up. They also changed gaits, alternating walk and trot to preserve the horses while covering ground. The rainstorm, by the way, was pure serendipity. The camera crew wasn’t sure if it could be filmed properly, but John Ford ordered them to keep shooting, and it became a great scene.
John Wayne is in this movie (it’s part of his Cavalry trilogy). There were authentic Cavalry members on set who advised Ford on procedures.
Ben Johnson was a great character as well as a great actor. I saw a story after he passed away about a dinner gathering at a restaurant, in which Johnson just ordered “A steak…a big one.” The waiter tried to get details about how he wanted it cooked, etc., but Johnson just repeated, “A steak…a big one.” And when it came, it was a big one!
Bill Boyd was a pretty helpless horseman who was toted around by his loyal Topper, the only horse he could manage. When the director gave him directions about “ride to the intersection, pull up and make the horse rear, then dash off,” Boyd told him, “Listen, tell the horse all that. I’m just a passenger up there.”
Boyd rode in the Rose Parades as long as Topper was alive, but stopped after that, as he felt no other horse would take care of him.
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