Narnia Fans » Horse

As many fans know, Ben Barnes claimed during auditions for Prince Caspian that he could ride a horse. It turned out to be a stretch of the truth as he had only been on a horse once when he was very small. So they trained him in horseback riding.

While filming Easy Virtue, the last part of shooting involved a big and expensive fox hunt on horseback. The director, Stephan Elliot comments:

“Ben really wanted to ride in the hunt scene, which was the last thing we shot, but the insurance company wouldn’t let him. It was such a shame because he’d learned to ride for Prince Caspian and he knew he was good on a horse.  I put all the money we had left into this hunt and it looked great, so I just said, ‘Ben, get on the horse.’ He was thrilled… The producers found out too late and I could see them rushing to the set, where they’d attempt to pull him off the horse.  I yelled, ‘Action,’ the hunt took off and Ben rode his horse straight into a tree, was thrown off and knocked himself out. He was fine but for a minute there, I was really concerned… but I thought, ‘Well I’ve got what I need and they can’t take the film away from me.’ The insurance company guys were not happy.”

Ben Barnes is currently preparing for his return to Narnia in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader; shooting starts this July in Australia.

Ben Barnes had to learn horse sense – fast.

Ben, 26, had no equestrian skills when he won the role of dashing Prince Caspian in the rollicking follow-up to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

‘They said: “How’s your horse-riding?”‘ the actor, who was chosen to play Caspian after a year-long search, told me. ‘I may have said something like “average”. I wasn’t going to lose this job! I mean, I knew what a horse looked like.

‘My mum showed me a photograph of me, aged eight, on a horse, which proved I had been on a horse before.’ First stop, once Ben reached New Zealand, where much of the film was shot, was Auckland’s Riding School For The Disabled. ‘No one could see the irony,’ Ben laughed.

When I met Ben back in London, he still seemed slightly amazed by events of the past few months.

One minute he was in the play The History Boys in the West End — the next he was in New Zealand, learning which end of a horse was which, as well as mastering sword fighting and leading an army of ‘Old Narnians’ to unseat his evil uncle King Miraz.

‘The original plan was to hire an authentic Spanish or Mexican to play Caspian. And to get someone younger,’ he joked. He explained that in C.S. Lewis’s Prince Caspian book, the hero is a teenager.

But Lewis also wrote that Caspian should be comparable in age to Peter Pevensie, and William Moseley (who played of my dream role Peter in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) is now 20 — so Ben’s not that old.

‘And in the end, they decided on an English actor using a Spanish accent,’ he said.

Read the rest at The Daily Mail

Calling all Spanish Horse Riders! From Prague Playhouse:

Disney is shooting the second Narnia movie in the Czech Republic April – July. We need English speaking men between the age of 30-50, who are good horse riders and who look Spanish. Acting experience is helpful. Thirty days of work during the shoot period. Candidates should reside in or near Prague. Please send photos and contact info to casting@nancybishopcasting.com.

George started life as a nag toughing it out in Gisborne but in a magical twist of fate has landed an enchanted role in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

The station-bred horse was living without a rug on a patch of bare land with nine other horses when Waikanae couple Janine Sudbury and Andrew Froggatt found him.

Ms Sudbury and Mr Froggatt, a horse whisperer, bought 10-year-old George for about $2500 several months ago.

They also snapped up four other horses from Gisborne and took them to their farm at Te Horo, on the Kapiti Coast, the site of their horse training business Horsesense.

Initially unhappy with life, George blossomed with the love and tasty morsels his new owners lavished on him.

The couple advertised horses for sale in a horse trading publication. A woman called and told them she had looked everywhere for a white horse, about 15 hands high, for a role in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, soon to be filmed in New Zealand.

Having seen photos of George, she bought him for $4500 and asked the couple for help finding more horses.

Ms Sudbury was told George would play the part of the unicorn and she understands he will be ridden by the wicked witch in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

British actress Tilda Swinton has been cast as the White Witch.

“He’s got lovely big eyes so he will make a wonderful unicorn,” Ms Sudbury said.

It would be hard to part with him because he was a real character but she has the chance to buy him back after filming. “He’s come a long way from living on that patch of dirt to being a superstar,” she said.

That’s no horse, it’s a unicorn
15 June 2004
By LEANNE BELL

The training of all the current horses has commenced. There are approximately a dozen on site and there seem to be 3 main horses so far – 1 black, 1 chestnut, 1 grey. The grey seems to be undergoing specialist trick training -such as rearing. The other horses are currently being trained for liberty work – i.e. like circus horses running in formation left or right while the main horses are ridden.

There is also an interesting ‘device’ on the property – two large poles (telegraph sized but not as tall) with two metal rings attached to both. Guesses are that these will be used for training a horse in levade (in hand training between poles is classical for dressage) OR some sort of acrobatic training for people…

The horses are using an enormous truck for transport – so once filming begins in June this would be easy for any hardcore spies to follow the truck(s) out to filming sites from the base.