Horses...

I fell asleep during the news last night and woke up to old Roy Rogers movies. I noticed something I hadn't as a kid, that Trigger really was a beautiful looking horse. His head was not pretty - the long mane and forelock were good ideas. But his build was one I have always liked. He was hefty and solid with great mass in the hindquarters, a build that I don't tend to associate with Paliminos. I had also forgotten that they had introduced a second trained horse during the course of these movies, a lighter built but similarly marked Palimino horse named Trigger Jr.

The second movie that came up was one that really showed the sign of the times. These were formulaic western movies of the 50's, set in a time when the sheriff was as likely to appear driving a car as riding a horse but still wore a holstered gun. The movies each had a wild horse herd available, used for various purposes including rushing Roy Rogers and his buddy to try and break them out from cover, and being led back and forth over the Mexican border carrying diamonds.

But the really striking difference from current times was the violence among and towards the horses. The first movie gave you a hint that some of the wild horses were being killed to retrieve diamonds from their gut. The second portrayed a large white horse, a rogue stallion that was being used to kill horses to convince ranchers to buy protection. They showed some real fights, though the camera pulled back during the worst of it far enough that I suspected Trigger and Trigger Jr were being represented by stand-ins. But these were kicking, biting fights and some horses definitely were hurt. They had quick camera shots portraying a horse that had been killed, though happily those looked staged.

Even with the editing, the violence was real, and these were kids movie. In someways the horse violence bothered me more than the person to person stuff, because you know that the horses were given little choice.