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When Rockstar Games makes a game, they don’t mess around.

For games like Red Dead Redemption 2 or Grand Theft Auto 5, the developers approach the game like movies, building full sets and having the actors act out each scene as if it were a big Hollywood production.

What does that mean for a Western-era game like Red Dead Redemption 2? It means Rockstar brought real horses into the studio. Speaking to a crowd at Outlaws for Life: A Red Dead Redemption Reunion panel at C2E2 2025, Arthur Morgan actor Roger Clark revealed that Red Dead Redemption 2 used real horses. However, he wasn’t able to ride any of them.  

“We had plenty of fake horses thar we dearly loved,” Clark recalled. “They got all the horse animation done in 2 and a half weeks. We weren’t involved; they used the real horse wranglers for that.”

However, as Clark noted, real horses can be messy, so he was glad the wranglers handled that.

“Looking back on it now, I’m grateful for that. I can ride, but I’m sure I’m not as good as the horse wranglers, and I’m glad that we didn’t have to deal with all that horseshit too. We sat on steel drums with saddles strapped onto them with four posts sticking out, so that it was dimensionally accurate.”

Clark sang the praises of Rockstar’s animators, noting the lengths they went to make the environment seem authentic.

“All of our sets were dimensionally accurate, but they didn’t look at all what they looked like in the game. That’s why the animators were so useful. They would say, ‘Okay, this is what it actually looks like,’ and point at a screen, and we would go, ‘Oh, okay.’ But the animators did all that magic. We would be stationary on set on a steel drum, and the animators did the rest.”

“They made it look so seamless, even with the bouncing, and whether it’s a gallop or canter, or what have you. The way the animators just blended that in seamlessly, you’ve got to take your hat off to them.”

This raises an interesting question – does Rockstar use real cars when they’re making the GTA games? Hmmm…someone ask the actors about this at their next convention appearance.

Here's how to play all the Red Dead Redemption games in chronological or release order.