This message is from: Anita Unrau <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Jean, it has actually been three movies our horses were involved with. The first one was in the 70's with our original gelding George. Dan Haggerty of Grizzley Adams fame got his start in this movie. The riders couldn't handle the tigers and the tiger handlers couldn't ride very well. Dan Hagerty was one of the tiger handlers. The movie was called "When the North Winds Blow" and you occasionally see it on the late night movies. It was about some guys in Siberia trying to catch Siberian Tigers. Near the end George has a tiger on a travois and the two guys are talking and one has a bunch of flowers in his hand. They cut the scene just as George went to eat the flowers. If you know what to look for you can see the Fjord going for the food. George was the only horse there that would go up to the tigers when in the nets and let them load them up. It was the early eighties when we took Bjarne and some of the other Fjords up Cathederal Mountin for the Clan of the Cave Bear. Permission was not granted for the horses to go out on the fragile alpine so we had 10 days of relaxation with a bunch of Fjords that were in a corral with helicopters landing right next to them. People always told us that horses don't look up but I got some pics of them looking up to see what that horrible noise was. The last movie was the 13th Warrior that took two years to be released. There wereabout 60 Fjords of which we supplied 21. Ted Swendsen and Helena Klement supplied about another 20 head between them and some came from Sask. as well as several from individual people. Only during the big rides were all 125 head out at once. Usually we worked a total of 40-60 head of all horses every day. We worked for the first week in July until the middle of Sept. Orville was one of the Wendol's and many a day was 14-16 hour days starting with costume and makeup. The horses learnt to have patience and be ready to go but to relax and get some sleep in between takes. Sometimes it might be two hours between and the next time they would have to go right away. They all learnt to listen for "Rolling" "Action" and they were gone as most scenes were wide open. Then they would come back to the starting point and have to stand in line. It was a standing joke that the Wendols could not count. They would be told to line up in threes or fours and a lot of them never did get that figured out. One filly that we sold to New York would lay down between takes and her 14 yr old rider would snooze on top of her. I wish I could have got some of the waiting pics. 7 or 8 Wendols sitting around a stump with everyone on the next person's shoulder sound asleep and their reins in their hands with the horse standing with hind leg cocked also asleep. With the long hours sleep was a real rare commodiy. We also worked 6 day a week and would take the Sunday shift so we would have time to go over the horses and make sure everyone was okay. My job was staying at the tent and cleaning barn, feeding, doctoring etc. I did get to go up top a couple of nights and watch. I too wish we could take the cuttings and make another film. Anita Unrau Anvil's Acres Norwegian Fjord Horses.
