JANE SEYMOUR- A HAND FOR DRIVING
© People we know, horses they love By Jill Rapporport

Multiple Emmy Award and Golden Globe winning actress Jane Seymour has starred in some of television's most memorable miniseries, including East of Eden, War and Remembrance and Onassis, in which she played Maria Callas. Seymour is however perhaps best known for her starring role in the long-running television series Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, in which she got to show off her skill with horses. Born and raised in England, Seymour's early training was in ballet, thousands of miles and many careers from the frontier world of hearty pioneer Doctor Michaela Quinn.

Today, Seymour continues to work with horses. In 2003, she starred in Touching Wild Horses, a heartwarming drama about a young man who is sent to live with his reclusive aunt Fiona (played by Seymour) on a remote island, where the two form a bond with a herd of wild horses. In real life, all four of Seymour's children ride, and her husband, actor James Keach, was one of the writers, producers, and stars of the contemporary western classic, The Long Riders. A true Renaissance woman, Seymour is also the writer of the acclaimed children's series This One and That One, and her artwork has been featured in one-woman shows across the country.

We caught up with Seymour at the Bony Pony Ranch in the Malibu mountains, where she drove her horse and wagon from Dr. Quinn one more time.

"Over the last twenty-plus years, horses, have been very important to me both on and off the screen. It all goes back to The Four Feathers, which I starred in with Beau Bridges. I fell in love with the discipline of riding sidesaddle in that film. Growing up as a ballerina, l felt very comfortable turning my spine toward the direction the horse was moving while leaving my legs on the left-hand side. I balanced myself by crossing my legs around the pommel, which is like a saddle horn. Riding in this position made me feel very safe; if the horse reared around, I was firmly attached to the middle of the saddle and wasn't sliding off of the front or the back. I could canter and gallop in full period costume. I have often thought that if I had continued riding in a serious way, the sidesaddle would have been my choice."

Years later I starred in the remake of the Daphne Du Maurier thriller Jamaica Inn and fell in love with this wonderful horse named James. In the movie he was ridden by another actor, but at the end of the project I bought both him and the castle in England where we were filming. James was really a film horse when we got him, but soon that steed became a member of our family.

Even though I have ridden in many movies, more often than not I have driven horses, and I am actually very good at it. I've driven four-in-hand and actually attempted six-in-hand once, which was pretty impossible given the size of my hands. On Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, almost every day of shooting I'd be on that wagon. Driving horses is, to me, like riding a horse except that you are not sitting on the animal. This is a very delicate thing, to persuade them to move in a particular way by giving cues to their mouths. You have to be pretty strong to have full control, as well as a good horse and light touch to finesse their double bridles. The wranglers on the show always liked working with me, as I had a gentle touch with the horses. And I think the horses liked me as well, they were usually well behaved, and we never had a serious mishap.