Secrets of Argo
The Care, Training and Staging of Xena’s Wonder Steed
The Official Magazine: Issue 04
A hero’s horse is more than just a horse, of course. Roy Rogers had Trigger, the Lone Ranger was blessed with his magnificent Silver, and Xena, TV’s Warrior Princess? She rides proudly astride a mare named Argo, although Argo herself is played by a variety of horses who answer to very different names. In the following interview with Xena trainer/wrangler Horace Newton, conducted by Julie Ann Sczesny, you’ll learn everything you ever needed to know about an amazing trio of four-footed friends who add up to one TV wonder horse.
JS: What kind of horse is Argo?
HN: Argo is just a Palomino, which is a color, rather than a type. Argo is made up of three different horses at this stage, and they average 7-9 years of age.
JS: Do you own the company that handles the Argos? How does that work?
HN: Yes, I do have my own company, but on this occasion, the Argos are actually owned by Renaissance, the production company. They basically own the whole horse department, and we just supply the labor for it.
JS: What kind of training do you do? Is it like reward training?
HN: Sure, all our training is done with reward, gentleness and patience. Basically getting a horse to do what it already can do, and just showing it the commands you want it to recognize, to do that particular thing.
JS: Great! That’s very different from what I would call the mindset of say, forty years ago, with animal training.
HN: It’s changed completely. The animal rights people are to be praised for that because they have really clamped down on all the nasties that used to happen with horses. For instance, if we want a horse to fall over, we teach it to lie down by itself, rather than dropping ropes, or trip wires. A horse is only doing what it can do naturally… it can’t be forced to do something it can’t actually do.
JS: Like playing a piano (laugh).
HN: (Laugh) But a horse can talk, and a horse can join in a conversation; a horse can lie down, it can run around the place on its own, and come or go. Everything you see on the show is done just by the horse.
JS: So the three Argos, they have their own names?
HN: We’ve got Tilly, who’s the main Argo; she’s the one Lucy rides. Then we have Barbara, who’s more of a stunt Argo. When you see Xena flipping onto the horse or flipping off the horse, or anything like that, that’ll be Barbara in there. And if you’re seeing the horse gallop away - it might not be Xena riding it - that’s a horse called Mac, he’s the number three horse.
JS: You have two mares and one stallion?
HN: Yes. Nobody’s ever recognized that, though right at the beginning of the show, we were never quite sure whether Argo was male or female so we had one of each, just in case. But she seems to have worked out to be a she.
JS: How did you select the Argos?
HN: Well, when Xena first arrived on Hercules, we had a fairly dark and nasty-looking horse, named Snuff. She rode Snuff for the three Hercules episodes. Then when Xena got her own show, we decided that she actually got a bit better (as a person). She needed not a white horse, but something a little lighter than the dark and nasty horse.
JS: She needed it off-white! (laughs)
HN: (Laugh) Yes, she’s still not quite that good, so we decided we’d go with a Palomino horse. It was a matter of looking around and finding the right one. Luckily, New Zealand has the best horses in the world.
JS: Which horse is it that Lucy rides when she sword-fights on Argo?
HN: Once again it depends on the action. Lucy gets along great with the Argos, and Tilly is her favorite. Usually if Lucy is on the horse, or you see her face, that’s Tilly. Tilly’s got the looks; she looks just great! You can see it on the screen, (the chemistry) between the two of them. She and Lucy get along so well together that Lucy still has every confidence, even after her accident on the Jay Leno show.
JS: That was obviously not one of your horses.
HN: Ah, no, no. The problem with that horse is that it was on concrete, with shoes, and it was a horse that Lucy wasn’t used to. On the show here, we ride in the English-style. She ended up with a horse that was an American-style neck-reining horse. I watched the tape of it. She’d done about three run-throughs, and all had been fine. For the last run she basically had to ride along, and turn a right angle to go through the doors and into the studio. As the horse turned the right angle, it’s feet went out from underneath it, and over it went. Lucy is back on Tilly now, quite happy, and thundering around the place like nothing ever happened. But she’s on her own horse, so she feels happy and safe.
JS: Right! One thing I don’t think people understand is that in riding a horse, there’s always the danger that it’s going to stumble, and that is just an accident.
HN: Yes. Most inexperienced people say that the horse threw them, whereas in fact they just fell off. Yes, accidents do happen, and that’s one of our major jobs, making sure the accident doesn’t happen. We sometimes have up to fifty horses on set, and you’ve got to be so careful, with eyes in the back of your head, all the time. It can happen so easily, but fortunately we have gotten away with it. And we intend to stay that way too.
JS: I take it you handle all of the horses on both Xena and Hercules?
HN: Yes, we provide the lot, absolutely everything… including the centaur horses as well.
JS: That is very cool. How do you guys pull that off?
HN: (Laugh) It’s really good fun, we enjoy doing it, and we wish we could do more! It just becomes fairly expensive by the time you add the computer work. The horses we use are little Hackney ponies, little carriage horses, and we’re driving them on nylon reins, sometimes 20-30 meters away from the horse, so that we can guide the horses straight to where we’re supposed to get them, and do their actions. It’s just nylon fishing line… sort of live puppeteering, really.
JS: Let’s talk about the challenges of the stuntwork.
HN: The problem with this show is that it’s a very tight turnaround. We’ve probably got, at the most, two weeks to prepare for any particular trick. For instance, we recently had Xena on Argo jump through a window, a Chinese screen. So we had to prepare a horse that would jump through that window.
JS: There has to be trust on the horse’s side, too, that it’s not going to hurt him.
HN: Exactly. It was a matter of making up newspaper screens out here in the training yard. And the horse jumped through those, and we increased and increased it until we had the horse with just a tiny slit that it could see through the window. Other than that, it was sort of a blank screen with wooden paneling around it. The horse charged on through it, and it looked quite a treat at the time.
JS: How about Renee O’Connor? Does she get along with the horses?
HN: Well, Renee’s actually not a bad little horsewoman, though her character, Gabrielle, first started out not being terribly good on horseback. She’s occasionally featured with Argo, trying to get the horse to do things. But Argo’s pretty smart, and she’s not going to let Gabrielle get away with too much! They’re getting on a bit better now. We’ve always wanted Gabrielle to have a horse, but she hasn’t been allowed one yet. We’re working on it. She’s had a donkey.
JS: Has anything funny ever happened to anyone on the set, with the horses?
HN: Yeah, we’ve very often had stunts where the horse is galloping along, and suddenly somebody gets knocked off the horse. We have one horse that was so concerned about that - y’know, “Whoops! My ride is gone!” - that he came screeching to a halt, rushed back to have a look and see what had happened to the poor rider, lying on the ground! That’s the type of thing that can crack us up… the horses are actually concerned about the people they’re working with.
JS: Tell us more about the stunt Argos, Barbara and Mac.
HN: Barbara does the rearing up, the stamping on the ground, the counting, and she nods “yes.” She’ll rear up with a rider astride her. And she’s the horse we use for the liberty work, running from Point A to Point B with no rider on, and with the trainer off-camera, giving the signals. Then Mac sort of works as the body double, another stunt Argo. If you’ve got Gabrielle and Xena on the horse together, that’ll be Mac doing it. He’s slightly heavier, and can carry the weight for those second unit galloping away shots. And we’re currently training him to fall down, as being “shot” while in motion, so he’ll just drop to the ground on his own.
JS: We know there are paramedics on hand for the people during a stunt, but what about for the horses?
HN: Sure, we have a veterinarian/surgeon that works with us. When we have a mass of horses on set, and if there is likelihood of any injuries to the horses, we have to have a vet standing by. Mostly we haven’t really had to worry about anything with the Argo horses. All the wranglers are competent and can deal with the minor contusions and bumps and knocks from everyday work. Should anything serious happen, help would be there so quick.
JS: “Bitter Suite,” the musical episode, is on this weekend…
HN: Watch out for Gabrielle sitting on the donkey. That’s sweet.
JS: (laughs) Her and donkeys!
HN: (laugh) Well, unfortunately, she gave the donkey away to the lady with the baby, at the end of the Christmas show. We’ve been trying to get Joxer or Salmoneus to have a donkey chariot, but we haven’t quite got that one in yet. I think that would be a treat.
JS: I’m pretty familiar with horses, but I’m no expert. From what I see, you folks have been doing an exceptional job.
HN: Thanks. I think the guys here with me, help me make the horses look real good onscreen. We’ve got the Xena horse trainer, Sandy Rayner, and Trish Roberts… Then there’s Mark Peret, who looks after the Hercules show, and most of the harness horses. Those are the main people who work with me. Then there are a whole bunch of part-timers who come and give their all for us, whenever we need them.
JS: Xena and Hercules are so different from all the other top shows today…
HN: They’re the only shows on right now that are horse shows.
JS: And they’re so amazingly popular. You know, everybody always talks about the actors. But without the horses you wouldn’t even have a show.
HN: Exactly. The American shows have got to have the car chase, the getaway. Well, if you’re back there in B.C., you hop on a chariot, grab the reins, and head out west….