Old Western Myths: 3 Ways the Silverscreen Got It Wrong

John Wayne, Roy Rodgers, Audie Murphy, Gene Autry, Dick Jones - I love those good, old westerns! The cowboy hero who overcomes all odds, falls madly in love and rides off into the sunset - I mean, who doesn’t love that! My parents introduced me to those black-and-white westerns when I was young and I still enjoy rewatching them over and over again.

But the more I’ve been with horses, working with them on a daily basis, the more I’ve spotted some inaccuracies within the portrayal of their trusty steeds. Let’s take a look at the three examples that stand out to me the most when our family is enjoying movie night together.

Thundering across the Plains…

For Too Long 

It’s just the perfect way to picture a cowboy - galloping flat-out on a powerful horse. Think of the beginning of John Wayne’s Angel and The Bad Man, where he’s outrunning the bad guys to send a telegram; he and his horse go on forever. But realistically, it doesn’t really happen like that. On top of the fact that it’s terribly unsafe to run a horse on the ground you don’t know (especially in the dark), horses can’t keep up that speed for that long of a distance. A well-conditioned horse could run continuously for about 2-3 miles, reaching speeds averaging around 30 mph; so a horse would last like 4 to 6 minutes at full speed. A horse can take their cowboys 35 or even 100 miles in a single day; they just can't gallop the whole way. Alternating between a walk, a trot, a lope, and even a gallop for a few minutes will take you so much further than when you try to force a horse to go fast the whole way.

They aren’t parked and Ready For The Next Day

You see it all the time, the cowboy rides in at a gallop, ties his horse to the closest hitching post, and walks away. A quick run to the general store, checking to see if you got a telegram, no problem. But you can’t leave a horse like this. A horse was a cowboy’s lifeline and he would know to take good care of it. That would mean unsaddling and rubbing down the horse; checking it for injuries; making sure it had water and forage. The horse that's fed, watered, and well-rested will outlast the horse that's just left to stand tied for hours. I remember one scene in a Bonanza episode where charming Little Joe rides back to the Ponderosa barn just after dark. He steps out of the saddle, wraps the reins around the saddle horn, and tells his paint, Cochise, to, “Go on to your stall; you know where it is.” before walking to the ranch house. It might have looked neat to have his horse walking into the barn because he was told to, but it doesn’t really work that way.

Bucking It Out,

Ready in a Day’s Time

Okay, one thing that always gets me in lots of westerns is how they show horse training. I really love Audie Murphy, but for instance, one of his movies shows him roping a wild horse, throwing a saddle on it, taking quite a few bucks, and then the horse is ridden through the film. For one thing, horse training takes a lot longer than a couple of hours. You can make a lot of progress with a horse in just one day, but it certainly can’t be fully rideable and useable right away! Even if the movie does show a realistic time frame of training, you’ll often see them bucking the horse out - climbing on a horse and staying on until it finally gives up. Unfortunately, this was indeed the acceptible and approved method of training for horses at that time. But it is a terrifying experience for the untrained horse, and the risk of injury is extremely high. And there are still those who use those techniques today… But I praise the Lord that these more violent ways of training are finally being replaced by a gentle, understanding, and safe way to train our horses!

I will always love westerns, the old cowboy heroes that came to the rescue time after time. And even these little incosistantcies don't spoil getting to experience the feeling of the old west. I mean, if any movie has horses, it’s off to a good start! 

P.S. Have y’all noticed any other things that old westerns have wrong about horses? Tell me about it in the comments!