Horses in Western movies

[7_Sorrows]

I am an animal lover and the other night I was watching the western Stagecoach with John Wayne. There was a scene of horses running - either the cavalry or the Indians - and I don’t know how they made them trip, but the horses suddenly fell violently forward and some flipped over their heads. Back then I don’t think they had people on the sets of movies to make sure animals were treated humanely. Most of the horses that fell looked like they jumped back up but it made me wonder with the number of westerns that were made between the 1920’s and the 1970’s how many horses were hurt. Maybe I don’t want to know the real number.
I used to want to see more westerns made, but now i might have changed my mind. I do not know how they can make it safe for them.
In fact I think there was a show sometime over the past year that was cancelled because some of the horses had died. I don’t know when they started putting people on movie sets to check welfare of the animals.
Has anyone else noticed this in the old westerns?

 

[colliric]

Prior to 1966 the Hays Production Code and Hays Office had stipulations that prohibited animal cruelty. Under this system the American Humane Association was charged with keeping these standards enforced and, contrary to popular belief, they also monitored film sets during this period as well. Most films produced from 1939(the year the AHA was made the enforcement agency of this section of the Hays code) to 1966 therefore retroactively can have the “No Animals Were Harmed” certification applied and be safely viewed without worry… Even Ben Hur with it’s famous horse race sequence.

The drift away from the Hays code, and censorship in general, however, was somewhat destructive and films produced after 1966 when the office closed, until the AHA regained it’s control over animal treatment on film sets as the singular authority in 1988, may not qualify for their certification as the industry rejected the Hays code in general and that also meant the ability of the AHA to monitor film sets was diminished by association.

So answering your question:
1939-1966 then 1988-present have been the periods in which the American Humane Association have been enforcing anti-cruelty requirements on film sets.

 

[7_Sorrows]

Thank you colliric! I was hoping someone with this type of information would post. There was a lot of years then that no one was monitoring treatment of animals. I will have to read up on the Hays code. I am sure horses have been the most widely used animal in Hollywood.

 

[unstoppable_II]

…
Has anyone else noticed this in the old westerns?

I worked in a movie theater for about 5 years in the early ‘60s and saw a lot of movies. I have noticed some scenes that made me wondered how they got by the humane treatment folks. There were others that didn’t hurt the horses. There was one scene in The Alamo in which a line of cavalry attacked, and some defenders shot at them. You could tell that the riders jerked the horses’ heads to get them to fall down on their shoulders. The riders then fell off, simulating being shot. The horses got up and ran away, but here is the hokieness: the riders, got up and ran away also. One wondered who, or what, was shot that caused the horses to fall down.
And this was from John Wayne, a horse lover. I have heard of trip wires that caused them to fall down, but that was in much older movies. I don’t know if they use them any more since I don’t go to movies because the overall quality has gone way down over the years.

 

[simpleas]

Yes I noticed it in lots of western films, my mum loves watching them, but I never did like the “stunts” they made horses do, even the shooting scenes must have been stressful for the animals, the noise of gun shots and explosions…not my cuppa tea…

 

[Mintaka]

Horses can be trained humanely to be accustomed to explosions, to drop suddenly, or even to play dead. In fact, some of this stuff was part of traditional cavalry and dressage training, because you can’t have horses panicking if you’re going to ride them into battle! Cavalry horses would ideally be very smart, very agile, very well-trained, and not very impressed by any weird stuff they saw or heard.

There were still a lot of old cavalrymen and cavalry horses kicking around in the early days of moviemaking, so sometimes they did it the right way.

Unfortunately, Hollywood animal wranglers didn’t always go to the trouble of training horses, since horses were very cheap at certain times. That’s why you see unsafe and cruel practices being followed in some cases.

Nowadays, horse training for the movies is usually a blend of the best modern practices with the best olden-days techniques. They get paid to do it right.

(Police horses are also trained to get used to gunfire and other weird stuff that would spook an untrained horse.)

 

[7_Sorrows]

I worked in a movie theater for about 5 years in the early ‘60s and saw a lot of movies. I have noticed some scenes that made me wondered how they got by the humane treatment folks. There were others that didn’t hurt the horses. There was one scene in The Alamo in which a line of cavalry attacked, and some defenders shot at them. You could tell that the riders jerked the horses’ heads to get them to fall down on their shoulders. The riders then fell off, simulating being shot. The horses got up and ran away, but here is the hokieness: the riders, got up and ran away also. One wondered who, or what, was shot that caused the horses to fall down.
And this was from John Wayne, a horse lover. I have heard of trip wires that caused them to fall down, but that was in much older movies. I don’t know if they use them any more since I don’t go to movies because the overall quality has gone way down over the years.

Yes it looked like some of the scenes in Stagecoach the reins were jerkes. I think I had also heard of the use of tripwires which I think would have been dangerous to both horse and rider. I wonder how many horses had to be put down because of broken legs.