Posted on 04/27/2005 6:44:00 AM PDT by blogbat
Animal neglect true reason for death of horse on movie set
CNN reports,
The horse was killed Monday during filming at the Hansen Dam Equestrian Center in the San Fernando Valley.
According to the City of Los Angeles' Department of Animal Services, which conducted an investigation, the horse was running when it stepped on its own lead rope and broke its neck. Animal Services is ruling the death an accident.
As someone who has owned and worked with horses his entire life I must tell you this case is most likely not an accident, but rather the result of cruel and tragic negligence.
Unless this horse untied his own lead rope and ran off, the handlers of this horse broke one of the cardinal rules of horsemanship and one of the first things you teach anyone working around horses: do not allow the animal to wander freely with the lead rope still attached because if he steps on it while either walking or running there is a good chance he will panic or trip and break his neck.
The City of Los Angeles’ Department of Animal Services should be ashamed of their shallow, perfunctory investigation. Any such agency worth its name would have cited the handlers for not taking the very simple steps known to avoid something this avoidable. The ineptitude of both parties is beyond me.
20th Century Fox should likewise be ashamed and should fire the parties involved. The Department of Animal Dis-Services should also fire anyone involved in the decision to label this an accident. If neither of those two will do that then obviously we need to find some political accountability somewhere.
The movie being made was a remake of the 1943 classic, “My Friend Flicka”. Friend indeed.
Let's face it, safe horsemanship isnt sexy (for example, you cant get a shot like this by tying up the lead the way you should if, for example, they were reins. (I'm sure you all know the many methods for tying up reins when you're lunging your horse with his bridle on.)
At this point, I guess, we are truly beating a dead horse ::cring:: (sorry) but it's part of the mouring process also to try to understand how this could have happened. I find it hearbreaking that this horse had to die, and I hate Monday morning quarterbacks, but dont you think letting a 15' lead dangle within a dangerous rodeo ride with wild horses, no less, is just a disaster sort of waiting to happen? I mean if the lead drags, this sort of thing is going to be the logical conclusion especially if these horses are galloping around. I mean it's every horse owners worst nightmare, that your horse gets away, dragging the lead. Here they did it on purpose! Ok, I'm off of my soapbox, I'm sorry if I've overdone it. Yes, accidents happen but I think they were taking unneccessary risks for dramatic effect, so they should just cop to it. Ya know? JMHObservation, really, of course.
It is a disaster waiting to happen, I think that is the appeal of that kind of sport. They just usually don't expect this kind of disaster, I'm gonna guess there are more cowboy injuries than horses in a normal day. This isn't something any of us would do.
The leadline is long so that the cowboys can grab it on a running horse. Yes, I know we all worry when our horses are loose and panicked, but really horses are very strong, and even if they step on the line, they don't ~often~ have this happen. Believe me, I've had to let go of horses that have pulled out of my hands, and in the rodeo that followed while I tried to catch them again, they stepped on the line.
I'm sorry this horse was injured. I think in reality, not movie land, this sport's popularity is probably on the decline, and I am not sorry for that.
I don't think the American Humane Assn that oversees movie sets are slouches where cruelty is concerned, and they and the other local animal welfare agency that investigated didn't find a pattern of abuse here, but an accident.
Even under supervision, they do amazing things with horses in movies that we should never do at home. Jumps, battle scenes, galloping on pavement, all things that I've seen in amazing action flicks, all potentially dangerous, but performed by horses that are both surpervised and valuable to their owners. The horses in this film probably get more oversight than the animals used in real rodeo.
I don't know how I could have talked about movie stunts without talking about horse ~falls~. Those are among the most amazing to watch in modern film, because the horses are now trained to fall, often slow and the film is sped up in editing, but sometimes they do it in real time. Looks dangerous as heck, but it sure beats the old days of trip wires. I can't watch old westerns for the trip wires they used.
It ain't MY cup of tea. My trainer bought my mare unbroken, and we spent hours grooming her and feeding her treats while we rubbed her all over with saddle pads, a saddle without stirrups, and pieces of a bridle. End result, I climbed on her and rode her off without a single buck. That's the way I prefer to do business.
But cowboys just don't have that sort of time to waste. They have a long day's worth of work and multiple half-broke horses to catch, saddle, and use. The Wild Horse Race tests those skills . . . say eight or ten cowboys have to ride out, and they have to cut ten horses out of the remuda, rope 'em, saddle 'em, buck 'em out and ride out. Most working ranches now use jeeps a lot for work, so the horses aren't worked as hard and you don't need to remount quite so often. But this is arguably based on real life. It's not my real life, probably not yours either.
But I'm not going to stand here not knowing the whole story and scream HANG 'EM HIGH! Things can go wrong that you don't expect - dealing with horses you can just count on it.
It ain't MY cup of tea. My trainer bought my mare unbroken, and we spent hours grooming her and feeding her treats while we rubbed her all over with saddle pads, a saddle without stirrups, and pieces of a bridle. End result, I climbed on her and rode her off without a single buck. That's the way I prefer to do business.
But cowboys just don't have that sort of time to waste. They have a long day's worth of work and multiple half-broke horses to catch, saddle, and use. The Wild Horse Race tests those skills . . . say eight or ten cowboys have to ride out, and they have to cut ten horses out of the remuda, rope 'em, saddle 'em, buck 'em out and ride out. Most working ranches now use jeeps a lot for work, so the horses aren't worked as hard and you don't need to remount quite so often. But this is arguably based on real life. It's not my real life, probably not yours either.
But I'm not going to stand here not knowing the whole story and scream HANG 'EM HIGH! Things can go wrong that you don't expect - dealing with horses you can just count on it.
I don't have the book to hand (it isn't all THAT good a book - for a good horse story I'd rather read Donn Byrne), but I don't remember a rodeo scene - part of the ambience of the book was the kid's isolation on a remote ranch with his cowboy father, sympathetic but ineffective mother, and an older brother who does everything right. But there was a scene where Flicka's mother (a black mare whose name I don't remember - but a bad actor and outlaw that nobody could tame) rears up in the cattle truck as it goes under the ranch gate and knocks her brains out. The boy is of course horrified by this (and the cowboys naturally don't comprehend that).
I'm sure the rodeo scene is more of the kid's horrified reaction to cruelty and violence.
I can't help but notice that while all of us who really have riding experience have been trading actual personal observations and incidents, he has been suspiciously silent. Nothing from personal experience, nothing about his qualifications (other than the very general "owned and worked with horses his entire life".)
Exactly! I was reading (or rather going through) Ferber's Giant --- same thing. Sensitive kid who abhors all the evil ranch violence, son of heavy-handed rancher, sensitive eastern mother...groan.
If you want to read a really good horsey book (not exclusively about horses, but with some great horse stories in it), read Destiny Bay by Donn Byrne. Or anything by Charlie Russell.
"I don't have the book to hand (it isn't all THAT good a book - for a good horse story I'd rather read Donn Byrne), but I don't remember a rodeo scene - part of the ambience of the book was the kid's isolation on a remote ranch with his cowboy father, sympathetic but ineffective mother, and an older brother who does everything right. But there was a scene where Flicka's mother (a black mare whose name I don't remember - but a bad actor and outlaw that nobody could tame) rears up in the cattle truck as it goes under the ranch gate and knocks her brains out. The boy is of course horrified by this (and the cowboys naturally don't comprehend that)."
You know what else that sounds like? The Red Pony by John Steinbeck.
I'll take Walter Farley! Gawd, that match race with Cyclone and Sun Raider still gives me chills.
I also liked Marguerite Henry. Somerville's The Irish R.M. is a good horse book too.
If you want something that will put chills down your spine, read "The Tale of the Gypsy Horse" by Donn Byrne.
I get those books confused as well but I think you are correct, the horse rearing up in the open topped trailer and creaming it's head on the gate was My Friend Flicka. Isn't it funny how all these horse books all follow the same story line? Maybe that's why we liked The Black Stallion books so much, they were upbeat and fun.
I'll try "The Tale of the Gypsy Horse." I've never heard of that book but I have a movie called "Gypsy Colt" about a girl that owns this horse and her parents have to sell it to make the rent or something. The horse is sold and taken away but he makes his way back to the little girl, ala "Lassie Come Home." It's not the same story, is it?
Boy meets horse, boy loves horse, boy loses horse, boy finds horse . . . LOL!
A horse was a horse, of course, of course,
And no horse can walk with a lead rope of course
That was, of course, a negligent source who should be slapped upside their head.
Go right to the judge and fine the man
Just make it large enough so they'll understand.
That we don't want this to ever happen again.
From what I heard, another horse recently broke his leg so bad during filming they had to put it down. Rush this morning said, why don't they just quit feeding it and let it euphorically starve to death.
Destiny Bay is a collection of short stories grouped around an Irish family at the turn of the century. They are highly eccentric and the book is too -- amusing, sentimental, and a touch eerie by turns. Great scene in the "Tale of the Gypsy Horse" when a bishop comes to dinner and is holding forth in front of Sir Arthur Pollexfen of Mayo (the trainer the MacFarlanes have called in to train the Gypsy colt) . . .
Our bishop, on one of his pastoral visitations, if that be the term, stayed at Destiny Bay, and because my uncle Cosimo is a bishop too, and because he felt he ought to do something for our souls he remonstrated with us for starting our stable. My uncle Valentine was livid, but said nothing, because no guest must be contradicted in Destiny Bay."For surely, Sir Valentine, no man of breeding can mingle with the rogues, cutpurses and their womenfolk who infest race courses, drunkards, bawds and common gamblers, without lowering himself to some extent to their level," his Lordship purred. "Yourself, one of the wardens of Irish chivalry, must give an example to the common people."
"Your Lordship," broke in old Sir Arthur Pollexfen, "is egregiously misinformed. In all periods of the world's history, eminent personages have concerned themselves with the racing of horses. We read of Philip of Macedon, that while campaigning in Asia Minor, a courier brought him news of two events, of the birth of his son Alexander and of the winning, by his favourite horse, of the chief race at Athens, and we may reasonably infer that his joy over the winning of the race was equal to if not greater than that over the birth of Alexander. In the life of Charles the Second, the traits which do most credit to that careless monarch are his notable and gentlemanly death and his affection for his great race horse Old Rowley. Your Lordship is, I am sure," said Sir Arthur, more blandly than any ecclesiastic could, "too sound a Greek scholar not to remember the epigrams of Maecius and Philodemus, which show what interest these antique poets took int he racing of horses. And coming to present times, your Lordship must have heard that his Majesty (whom God preserve!) has won two Derbies, once with the leased horse Minoru, and again with his own great Persimmon. The premier peer of Scotland, the Duke of Hamilton, Duke of Chastellerault in France, Duke of Brandon in England, hereditary prince of Baden, is prouder of his fine mare Eau de Vie than of all his titles. As to the Irish families, the Persses of Galway, the Dawsons of Dublin, and my own, the Pollexfens of Mayo, have always been interested in the breeding and racing of horses. And none of these -- my punch if you please, James Carabine! -- are, as your Lordship puts it, drunkards, bawds, and common gamblers. I fear your Lordship has been reading --" and he cocked his eye, bright as a wren's, at the bishop, "religious publications of the sensational and morbid type."
It was all I could do to keep from leaping on the table and giving three loud cheers for the County of Mayo.
I heard on the radio that they were rodeo horses from Montana and that the owner of the horses {probably a little angry} is having the rest of his horses shipped back home to Montana immediately. No more scenes with his horses for this movie.
Well, if he has rodeo horses, broncs probably for a job like this, this is probably not the first severe injury he's had. His horses burn out, get injured and are shipped off for dog food doing their day job.
Yes, they decided not to used untrained horses for the rest of this shoot, but I wouldn't go putting a bunch feel-good motives on the part of the owner of the horse that was killed. This isn't about any eeeevil film makers who mistreated his animals in some covert way, he knew what his horses would be used for and the risks involved.
Dang girl, you mean I'm going to have to read and think at the same time?! I'm used to reading mindless drivel that any 5 year old could understand....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.