Fans can evidently see how much effort and authenticity Taylor Sheridan is putting on Yellowstone. Apart from the rigorous training the actors went through in preparation for their roles, the director also provided the horses used in the show.
The series has been met with several controversies in the past couple of months following Kevin Costner’s exit, but despite all that, the show remains a testament to the filmmaker’s devotion to the rich Western culture.
Taylor Sheridan Provided Trained Horses In Yellowstone For Everyone’s Safety
In an interview with CBS Sunday Morning, director Taylor Sheridan revealed he insisted on using his own horses on the set of Yellowstone. As a real-life cowboy, he knows exactly what’s safe and what’s not, so he makes the grand gesture of buying all of the horses to be shown in the series.
All the horses, for the most part, in our business are terrible. They’re not very broke. They’re not very safe, which is one of the reasons you don’t see actors on ’em very often. And I didn’t want to do that. So, I bought all the horses for the show, and then taught the actors how to ride ’em.
Prop master, Ian Roylance, told Men’s Journal that Sheridan was very meticulous when it comes to the designs of the materials used in the show. “He wanted very specific guns, very particular saddles. We had nine saddles custom-made, $6,000 each, then olded them up with dirt so they looked real.”
In the same conversation, the director reiterated that he also “didn’t want some half-broke horses the actors couldn’t ride.” Apart from teaching horse riding, Sheridan also sent the actors down the river for a guide to teach them how to fly-fish, which is a method of fishing.
He also made them attend a three-day cowboy camp in the mountains with pack mules. Was it all worth it? Sheridan thinks so. “It looks real on camera, and the actors feel immersed in the world,” Roylance added.
Taylor Sheridan Held Cowboy Camps For Actors
In a new featurette via Yahoo! Life, Taylor Sheridan admitted he does not rehearse with the actors. “There’s no way to inform them what this way of life is, you just have to do it. I just take them out and put them to work,” he stated.
Tim McGraw, who starred in the Yellowstone spinoff and prequel, 1883, claimed that the “cowboy camp was probably the most helpful thing in the world” after he spent a couple of weeks riding horses and herding cattle.
Country singer Faith Hill admitted “most of us have learned how to drive wagons—which is dangerous, by the way.” She said the training taught her how to do things properly. Finally, Eric Nelsen said it created “an authentic cowboy because the blisters are real, the cuts are real.”
All of them seemed like they had a great time at cowboy camp despite all the perils that they might have encountered. Indeed, Sheridan was right – it was all worth it.