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Horses have a storied history in film and television - something that Jordan Peele's instant neo-Western classic, Nope, beautifully explored within the context of Black American history. And for anyone who's ever had the privilege of riding horses or working at a barn, these animals' presence onscreen is all the more intriguing. Horses are like people: they have complex personalities where they can be agreeable, or they can be spiteful. But unlike us, they're prey animals, and evolution has designed them to be wary of their surroundings. They're unique among domesticated animals in that they size us up, closely observing our behavior and facial expressions to form their own opinions of us as individuals.

We all know the story of how Viggo Mortensen bonded with his horse so much on the set of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy that he bought the animal after filming ended, but what about the individual temperaments of the horses used in Hollywood? Luckily, Jack Schumacher from the new Netflix Western show, Ransom Canyon, was able to answer questions I've had burning in the back of my mind about what it's like to work with horses on a TV set. For Schumacher, a newcomer to horseback riding, he had to undergo a rigorous training before he started shooting.

Schumacher explained, "We had this really intense cowboy camp where for a couple months, every day, it was like 3 hours of riding and roping, doing things like that. The trainers, who were just phenomenal, like I mean anyone, I think who was shooting in New Mexico trains with them, and they were so patient and so great and got us all to a really, I would say pretty advanced level." 

For Schumacher, working closely with horses during this cowboy boot camp opened his eyes to just how much personality they have. "Having no experience with horses, I knew that they all had different personalities, but it's crazy how much they have different personalities, much in the same way you know dogs do. But you're not riding a dog and so there's this real connection between you and this very intelligent animal that you're trusting to take you on a trip really fast sometimes."

And this intelligence would sometimes lead to conflict: "My biggest problem was cornering, just like going around to turn, trying to keep the horse in a loop. And I was like, 'Why can't I do this?' The trainers would be like 'They know. They know that you're not able to do it. They're gonna take advantage of you. You got to show them who's in charge.'” 

If you spend enough time with a specific horse, you'll notice that they have their own quirks. The horse that Schumacher rides in Ransom Canyon is named Pistol, and the actor got to bond with him over the course of shooting. Pistol certainly had his own interests though. "He loved to pick up cones," Schumacher said. "We’d be using street cones, so I had to keep him away from the street cones. I think I have a picture on my Instagram of him where he just like bends down and grabs it and you're like, 'Ok.' He was great."

But beyond dealing with rascally equine behavior on set, acting while on horseback comes with its own challenges. Schumacher noted how being on horseback forces actors to be mindful of their movements like never before. "They would give us tips on acting on a horse too... If you're doing a scene just standing, yeah, you might like adjust your weight. If you're on a horse and you're arguing with someone, and then you kind of kick a little bit, the horse moves a foot and ruins the shot. You've got to keep your lower body super still. Do all the acting from the waist up. A lot of small things that you don't think about until you have to."

As it turns out, horses have shaped the course of Hollywood history more than we give them credit for. 

Watch our full interview with Ransom Canyon's Jack Schumacher here:

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