"I was raised on a ranch and already knew how to ride, but," Ty Miller explains, "I had difficulties staying down in the saddle until the wranglers taught me how to hold on to the horse with my legs and by the end of training and the end of last season, I was doing okay. I just hope it all comes back fast now that we're back filming..."
"Part of being a good horseman comes from being able to ride different horses," Stephen Baldwin told us. "So in the beginning we were all riding different horses, to find the one that suited us the best. I started out on 'White Lash' and we just didn't get along-I was immediately bucked off."
It took six hours before Baldwin finally found one he could ride. "And-surprise!-it was White Lash, that first horse I tried."
Travis Fine had never ridden before. Although he was one of those actors who'd written "expert rider" as one of his special skills. "All actors do that sort of thing," he said, "but after working with the wranglers, it didn't take me long to pick it up. And that's a credit to their teaching more than my skills."
Travias ended up with a horse named "Bud", who he says, has a longer list of TV credits than he does. "One night I was watching this old western movie and there was Bud on the screen. I couldn't believe it and the next day during training, I asked about Bud and found out Bud has been in over 1,000 movies, television shows and commercials. I guess that's what is meant by having 'legs' in show business."
Just before going off to location for all outdoor filming for her series, "The Young Riders", Yvonne Suhor admitted she had not been on horseback for a long time when she got the role of Lou last year.
"I had ridden, but it was a long time ago," and she laughed, as she remembered those first few days back in the saddle. "It's not like riding a bicycle. It doesn't come back right away.
Before we even started working on the pilot for the show, we spent two weeks in cowboy camp so we could find out not only what horse was best for us and to learn how to be comfortable on the horses, but also to learn it isn't just riding."
She reminded us that this was not just riding for fun, but work, and just as actors have to rehearse and find the mark so the camera will be in focus and everyone in the scene will be seen, this is also true when riding.
"So you have to learn galloping up to the mark and stopping without riding on into the valuable camera and crew.
"There was so much to learn about control, she explained, "like riding abreast with five people and staying in the same line. And how to downcheck if your horse wants to start racing or how to go faster.
"There was a lot of things to learn even an experienced rider wouldn't have to know, so nobody really thought we were hopeless.
The hardest thing, for me, was after the first day. It had been a long time since I'd ridden and it was a long day, so you wouldn't be surprised when I tell you I could hardly walk. My butt was really sore and I knew I had to go back the next day and do it again.
Yvonne is only 5'3", so it is with some pride she admits she has not fallen off her horse. "I have been dumped by a horse, but that's different.
"I was shooting a sequence and not riding my regular horse but a trick horse, and I got on and kicked the horse into a gallop, but the horse cut a short turn and the saddle slipped over and when it was about one-and-a-half feet from the ground, I just sort of slipped off.
"So it wasn't as painful as it would have been ordinarily because I was so close to the ground and it was in the mud, so that was softer than if it had been hard earth.
"I just started laughing because I'd been waiting for it to happen and I sat there thinking, 'what a wonderful way to have the agony of waiting over, for my horse to throw me or falling.'
"This was actually a treat."