How to make a horse fall over on film
I recently heard Hal Needham describe the way in which horses are made to fall on film.
Now the animal protection society insists that it is done through training, but back in the day the technique was quite horrific :
1. Drill a hole in each of the horses front hooves
2. Pass a cable through each hole and attach the end to a fixed point
3. Run the horse away from the fixed point until the cable goes tight and it’s front legs are stopped dead
Apparently they killed a lot of horses this way…