When the production came to us for “Funeral”, the brief was a horse that could be trusted completely: on open sand, near the water, around a crew and their kit, with cameras moving and takes repeating for hours. That is a very particular ask, and it is not something you can hire in on the morning.
We put up Dolly. She is one of our own mares, a black Friesian, and the kind of horse who takes a film set entirely in her stride. She had the temperament the shoot needed and the look the director wanted.
Before a single frame was shot we ran the same safety brief we run on every production. Everyone on set was walked through where to stand and where not to, how to approach the horse and when to leave her alone, what the handler’s signals mean, and what happens if a take has to be stopped. Nobody goes near a horse of ours on a set without that conversation first.
Dolly was then worked and settled into the location ahead of the crew arriving — walked over the ground she would be on, brought near the water, given time with the noise and movement around her. By the time the cameras rolled none of it was new to her. That preparation is the whole job; the filming itself should be the easy part.
A handler stayed with her for the length of the day, with rest, water and time out of shot between setups. She went home sound and settled, which is the only outcome we count as a success.