It was interesting that the producers never even asked me if I knew how to ride a horse before they cast me in the starring role. In that first week I had to canter and be accosted by Indians on a tiny path where all the horses were rearing and charging around me. I thought it was very amusing. When the right moment came along, I told the producers and wranglers that they were very lucky because I did know how to ride. From then on the cowboys let the do most of my own driving on the show.

Film riding is very difterent from regular riding. You can't go gently from a walk to a trot to a canter but have to charge out from behind a tree at full gallop, stop on a dime at your mark, and then recite a few pages of dialogue. I became good at that kind of precision driving and could land my horses and buggy on exactly the right spot. Then there were other times on Dr. Quinn that I had the wagon and horses going at a full
canter. Once I had to drive Jane Wyman at full speed and she really freaked out.' But I felt so comfortable that I even drove when I was seven months pregnant with my twin boys.

Before Dr. l Quinn, I drove horses in Somewhere in Time with Christopher Reeve. In that film I played an actress, and there is a scene where I run away from my manager to spend the day with Chris, who is a playwright. I was wearing an Edwardian gown that was beautiful and elegant but very constricting, and we jumped into a carriage and went off around Mackinac Island in Michigan, which was where we were shooting. In fact, we had to ride everywhere in a buggy because no cars were allowed on the island. The Teamsters had to drive the horses to take the actors to the set. The film had a wonderful leisurely pace about it, as the crew could only go as fast or slow as the horses could carry the equipment from one location to the next.

Perhaps driving horses is more of a British sport these days. I remember many years ago when I interviewed Prince Philip on Good Morning America about the upcoming marriage of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, Philip gave me the royal scoop about the horses that were going to pull the wedding carriage. It gave me great pride to see the streets lined with hundreds of thousands of spectators waiting for these remarkable horses and an elegant carriage to come prancing down the wedding route and up to the church-and to realize that I drove horses too!

From "People we Know, Horses they Love" by Jill Rappaport Buy it here

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