Tehachapi News

Long life for star horse

A famous actor died in Tehachapi Oct. 30, 2008.

His name was Hightower. He was 26 years old.

That's a good old age for a horse.

Among his other achievements, Hightower appeared as the ill-fated Ginger in “Black Beauty,” as the traumatized Pilgrim in “The Horse Whisperer” and as the steed who carried Julia Roberts away in “Runaway Bride.”

For that gig, he had to shoot some extra scenes after the main shooting was over. By then, Hightower was in the middle of another film in California. FedEx shipped him back to the East Coast for the additional footage.

The director and the star wouldn't hear of using any other horse. Roberts wanted to buy him.

Rex Peterson, Hightower's owner and trainer, lost part of his heart when Hightower died.

“He was a great, great horse,” Peterson said in an interview at his ranch in Tehachapi, where he keeps, trains and breeds about 30 horses. “If you have one great horse in a lifetime, consider yourself lucky.”

“When the going got tough, he just got better and better,” the 54-year-old trainer said. “Hightower had a presence. When the camera rolled, he knew it was there.”

By the time Hightower worked in 2004 on “Princess Diaries II” - whose director, Garry Marshall, decreed “Let's understand this: There's one horse on my movie set, and that's Hightower” - Hightower would perk up like a true thespian for the cameras, but Peterson could tell it was an effort.

“He was sore in the morning. He had arthritis. He would walk up to the set like an old man and then work all day just like he was fine. He had a work ethic. He was a professional. He knew why he was there.”

“I said, 'enough.' I retired him after Princess Diaries II.”

Happy in Tehachapi

The unregistered chestnut racing Quarter Horse lived out his days peacefully in the company of Peterson's other equine actors, including the pure black Justin, who still lives there among his numerous progeny, and offspring of the star of “Hidalgo.”

During his aging star's retirement years at the Tehachapi ranch, Peterson said.

“Hightower would run with babies. He was a good babysitter.”

Hightower’s pal Justin, a Quarter Horse stallion whose registered name is Doc’s Keepin' Time, starred in the 1994 Warner Brothers production of “Black Beauty,” wearing a wig for the white diamond between his eyes. Justin appeared in “The Horse Whisperer” as the horse Gulliver, who was killed at the beginning of the film, and performed in commercials, music videos and television, including the Family Channel’s “Black Stallion” series.

Peterson learned the hard way that Hightower, a gelding from Beaumont, Calif., was a unique animal.

“Hightower was given to me as a two-year-old,” Peterson said. “He wasn't much when I got him. I used him for a ranch horse. We were roping (in an event) at the top of Topanga. A 2,000-pound buckin' bull - a Brindle that had escaped -- picked us up and carried us 50 to 60 feet. This horse never panicked.”

He said his friends told him, “That horse will never rope another.”

Aboard Hightower, Peterson said, “I roped another that afternoon. There was no panic in him. A couple of months later I got a call for the “Winter People (a movie).”
In that film, a horse was required to “drag a guy to death,” Peterson said.

“The other three horses burned up, dragging him mile and after mile.”

But not Hightower, Peterson said - he just kept dragging that guy better each time.

Audition for Redford

Hightower won the starring role in the “Horse Whisperer” by nailing his audition with Robert Redford.

Peterson taught Hightower to feign a charging attack, one of the actions that the injured, anti-social Pilgrim would do in the story.

“When they drop their neck and charge you, the game's over. It's serious,” Peterson said. “They are coming at you to hurt you. They come in low to get at the jugular.”

Redford came to Peterson's ranch, which was in Simi Valley at the time, to look at the prospect.

At a hissing signal from Peterson and from a standing start 30 feet away, Hightower bore down on Redford, head lowered as if to attack, backing the startled actor against a fence before pulling up about a foot away from him on command.

Redford hired him on the spot.

Peterson, a native of Nebraska ranch and farm country, worked the rodeo and Wild West show circuit as a prelude to becoming a renowned trainer, performing trick riding, Roman riding, chariot racing and jousting.

While working at a spectacular Wild West show in New Jersey, Peterson became a protege of fellow Nebraskan Glenn Randall, Sr. -- “the greatest horse trainer Hollywood has ever seen,” Peterson said.

Peterson’s mentor

“He did stuff with horses nobody ever did,” Peterson said of Randall - including teaching Roy Rogers’ Trigger to “empty and drain” on command before entering a children's hospital.

“Glenn was a master horseman,” Peterson said. “When someone asked if something could be done, he said, 'Never been done doesn't mean it can't be done.'”

Peterson said Randall rode and trained every day.

Peterson learned from Randall how to build confidence in horses by using whips - not ever to touch the animals, but “as extensions of your hand.”

Peterson said good trainers aren't born.

“There's no such thing as a horse whisperer. It's a fantasy. A fairy tale,” he said.

“There are people that spend their lives becoming great horsemen.”

Similarly, after “The Black Stallion,” he said, “Everybody wanted to buy their kid a wild horse. I would tell them, 'Do you have a lot of life insurance on your kid?' A horse is not a dog. It's never your buddy or your pard. It's never bought you a cold beer or paid the electric bill.”

Hidalgo horse tale

For “Hidalgo,” the story of a western showman (played by Viggo Mortensen) and his mustang who compete in a 3,000-mile race across northern Africa, Peterson spent seven weeks hunting for five paint mustangs to play the lead role.

The director threw the photos of the first 200 candidates on the floor, dissatisfied with them all.

Peterson finally handed over a shot of one last horse. It was a show horse and did not look anything like a mustang.

The director said, 'This is the horse I want. Every little girl in America will fall in love with him.'”

Peterson had to find four others to match the horse, named RJ. Actor Mortensen, a superb horseman, bought him from Peterson after the filming.

As the main horse trainer on “Hidalgo,” Peterson made it clear he would tolerate no fighting among the horses.

In Morocco, he said, the men ride stallions  -- no mares, no geldings, just stallions.

So the grand shot of the start of the race, featuring high-strung local Arab horses and riders, could have been chaos.

“There were 120 studs on that starting line,” he said.

At the first take, two stallions got into it. Overriding resistance from the local contractor (“But they're my friends…”) and with full support of the director, Peterson ejected the miscreants.

He had no more trouble.

Peterson used his magic touch to train Justin for the video of British pop group Procul Harum's song “Won't Fade Away.” The sequence called for a horse to burst forth after being completely buried in sand. Peterson accomplished this near-impossible feat, and will not reveal the secret.

Peterson lives at his ranch with his two sons, Tyler, 18, a 2008 graduate of Tehachapi High School, and Ryan, 17, a senior at Tehachapi.

He moved to Tehachapi six years ago after the notoriety of “Hidalgo” brought too many curious visitors to his door.

Each and every horse is an individual, Peterson said, and he is hoping that one of the horses he is currently working with will be as good as Hightower.

“He will hopefully replace Hightower,” Peterson said, conceding that any newcomer probably will not have Hightower's work ethic. “He will have to fill awfully big shoes.”

••••••••••••••••••

 

Closure of slaughter plants 'a big disservice'

The forced closure of 15 horse slaughter plants in the United States, coupled with the Bureau of Land Management policy of keeping 30,000 captive mustangs and burros alive elicits a passionate reaction from Rex Peterson.

"It's done the horse world a disservice," Peterson said. "Those bleeding hearts closed the killer (slaughter) plants. The way the economy is, people can't feed their horses and now it is the most horrible thing you've ever seen. People are turning their horses loose to die. They have no place to take them. It's unbelievable. The people who closed the plants should take over the horses.

"They should have these horses introduced to their own yards. It's a horrible, horrible thing. Sometimes (slaughter is) the kindest thing for 'em. How horses are dying now is ten times worse than going to the plants.

You don't want to know how they destroy them in Mexico."