Equus Documentary Filming Experience

When I was approached by a local photographer in January 2017 to bring my 12 yr old American Saddlebred gelding Foxcroft Firestorm to a filming of a documentary, I jumped at the chance! I was a bit concerned at first because he had been outside for the winter, didn’t have show shoes on and had a fairly heavy winter coat. I confessed all of this to Linda Finstad, totally expecting her to look for a different horse with the right credentials, but she said “Fabulous! The producer wants the horses to be as natural as possible and no shoes is actually preferred.”

Jumping ahead to two months later, we were packing up the trailer to head into the unknown. We had no clue what to expect, but had tried to prepare “Caesar” mentally by doing lots of ground work and natural horsemanship in order to have some leadership in what could possibly be a very stressful situation. He loaded and unloaded calmly as any seasoned show horse should, but when we led him into the arena and saw the black curtains, bright spotlights, fog machines and numerous camera men, the real test began and still, he remained incredibly stoic and relaxed.

The producer, Niobe Thompson, complimented Caesar’s beautiful head, neck and tail and told me to let him go free style in the arena. The “Saddlebred curiosity” got the best of him though, as he only wanted to check out the camera men and equipment. In order to get film of his graceful movement, I had to run back and forth across the arena so that he would trot behind me like a puppy! It was exhausting and everyone was laughing at me as I was trying to outrun this 17hh “super athlete”, but we sure got some beautiful shots!

Then came the riding part. As I swung my leg over the saddle, I had to imagine how he was feeling in such an unfamiliar, frightening environment. I have competed on Team Canada in the Saddleseat Equitation World Cup Competition where stress runs high and you must form a bond with a horse over a short period of time. Through this competition, I realized that the love and trust of a Saddlebred runs strong and Caesar did everything I asked of him with an open mind and a gentle manner.

I am always amazed that these giant, exhilarating animals put such trust and faith in us as riders/handlers and I am once again so grateful that I could be a part of a documentary that shows this relationship that we can have with such a mystical being, the horse. #equusdoc

Check out the three-part documentary series Equus: Story of the Horse on CBC.ca.