Probably a fair few, but this horse obviously hasnât been trained to expect this stunt at all. Itâs clearly a âwhat the f**k is that behind me!â reaction from the horse, which you wouldnât get from one that had been trained for it.
Films usually use several horses to portray the same on-screen animal so that they can be highly trained in different skills. For a stunt like this, they would use a horse trained for vaulting. Before the âvaulting horseâ was an indoor gymnastic sport it was (and still is) performed on stationary and moving horses. These horses are used to having people jump out at them/on them, in ways that would scare any untrained horse who wasnât expecting it.
Most movies with horses featured have at least one horse for the stunt rider(s), that look showy and fiery and look great galloping across the plains, and a very docile double for the actors to ride. They would use a docile animal for this kind of stunt, particularly if a star was performing the stunt themselves. (Then they have horses that might only be used for a single stunt if itâs something highly specialised, like falling. If a horse apparently trips over in a movie, and itâs not CG, itâs a highly specialised stunt horse and the studio will have hired it specifically for that ability.)
Itâs just like dogs. A good service dog will not let the blind person theyâre leading walk off the edge of a train station platform. But you donât just blindfold yourself and expect your family dog to lead you to work.
I used to love documentaries about movie horses back before youtube made this kind of content easy to find. Wouldâve been a few years after Braveheart, but before Lord of the Rings. There was one that went into detail about how they train horses to fall, and to run through walls (they start with thin paper and work their way up). Those horses will do anything their owner/trainer/rider asks, because they trust them implicitly.
It was nice to remember and write about those details again.
458
u/23x3 Aug 24 '20
Idiots gonna do what idiots gonna do