CALGARY - It’s a TV movie based on a true story about the race to save two
abandoned, starving horses in the mountains in British Columbia.
But on the snowy set of Horses of McBride, being shot this week near Turner
Valley and on Moose Mountain, the most fascinating story-within-the-story may be
the feel-good tale of a sorrel mare named Lady.
Lady, one of the equine stars who shares screen time with Aidan Quinn,
Mackenzie Porter, Kari Matchett and Michelle Thrush, has been typecast as a
horse that needs rescuing.
Because, while the production is not providing specific details, Lady herself
was rescued from bleak conditions near Cochrane, says veteran movie horse
wrangler John Scott. She was purchased for the production and will likely be
adopted after the shoot. For now, she’s getting healthier by the day.
“We had to start slowly because (her stomach) was small,” Scott says. “So we
start them off slow and just work (her) up.”
Lady was down 500 pounds when arriving on the set, Scott says. Under his
watchful eye, and with the support of the SPCA, she is being fattened up and has
proven to be co-operative and docile in front of the camera. Scott says he has
already received interest from two or three people to adopt the horse after the
shoot.
The other horse in the film, while thin, was not rescued. It will be returned
to its owner in B.C. after the shoot.
Scott is a veteran horse wrangler and stuntman based in Alberta who has
worked on everything from the locally lensed Unforgiven to Lord of the Rings in
New Zealand.
But he admits his quest to find two horses thin enough to fit the
requirements of Horses of McBride was one of the biggest challenges of his
career.
“It was very tough,” he says. “We started the show last summer with two
horses that were in great shape: one was a black and one was a sorrel. We
thought those two colours would be easy to double into.”
Scott had a network of 50 to 60 people searching for animals that could match
the earlier scenes of the healthier-looking horses shot around the
Kananaskis.
“This was more trouble for me than 400 head of horses in New Zealand,” Scott
says, referring to his wrangling duties on Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings
epics.
Still, it underlines the “miracle” theme of Horses of McBride, which is based
on the true story of a group of volunteers who helped free two horses trapped
high in the Rockies near McBride, B.C. Porter plays a teen who spearheads the
rescue, helped by her father (played by Quinn) and others in the community.
The film is scheduled to air on CTV during the Christmas season.
Writer and director Anne Wheeler says she hopes the production will give Lady
a new lease on life. Both horses have taken advantage of the plentiful food and
fattened up considerably, she says.
But the stranger-than-fiction horse stories don’t end there. Thrush, a
Gemini-winning Calgary actress who has a role in Horses of McBride, was shocked
to discover that the other equine star — a black gelding named either “Slim” or
“Dark,” depending on who you talk to — had a personal connection.
When she was in B.C., Thrush lived with a horse trainer and would frequently
ride a gelding named Dark.
“It was a huge part of my life when I was living in B.C.,” she says, adding
that the horse is thin because of its age. “I guess it’s serendipity. I was
doing a scene last week with Aidan Quinn and the other people in the cast and
this dark horse caught my eye. I kept looking at this horse and thinking ‘I’ve
got this feeling, this love for this horse.’ ”
She posted a picture of the horse on her Facebook page, which prompted a call
from its owner, who confirmed it was the same horse both she and her daughter
would ride in B.C.
“I didn’t think in a million years that I’d be up on Moose Mountain, in the
Kananaskis, in Alberta, doing a scene with Aidan Quinn, looking into the eyes of
a horse that I lived with,” she says.
evolmers@calgaryherald.com
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