Photo courtesy of Bill Lawrence

Bill Lawrence, cowboy, roper, and horse trainer for Hollywood films

If you’re a fan of movies where animals are actively involved with the star of the script, a person might often wonder how you get that animal to react or participate.  Smaller animals such as dogs and cats are fun to watch and some would agree, easier to train.  How about an elephant or a horse, or a cow?  How would you get this animal of such greater size to react?   In comes the talented trainer’s that the biggest directors in Hollywood rely upon to get the job done. 

Recently a Steven Spielberg movie “War Horse” was released on Christmas day.  In speaking with several movie fans of horses, their responses were, the movie was spectacular, but the horse was even more amazing to watch.  There were several experienced trainers on set to train the horses and one trainer local to the Yakima valley is Bill Lawrence.  Bill has worked on several movies, such as The Young Black Stallion, Evan Almighty, Racing Stripes, The Legend of Zorro, Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties, How Did You Hear About The Morgans, and currently in pre-production John Carter. 

I was given the opportunity to speak with Bill about how he became involved in the movie business and he responded he never thought he would ever be working on set training horses for the film industry.  He met Bobby Lovgren when there was a demand for several horses and Bobby came out to White Swan Washington to see the many horses owned by Vernon Lawrence, who is Bill’s Dad.  During this time, is when Bill and Bobby first began working together at the ranch and Bill got first hand on what it’s like to really train a horse for film.  Bobby Lovgren was the final protégé of the late Glenn Randall Sr,. who was Roy Roger’s trainer.  Bobby noticed that Bill was naturally talented with the horses, why not, Bill is a Yakama Indian, and he grew up all his life on his Dad’s ranch with horses and cattle.  The first film Bill worked on with Bobby was The Young Black Stallion which was filmed in South Africa.  He was the assistant horse trainer and though he was hesitant in doing the job, it’s a step in his career that he will never regret.  He went on to work the film Racing Stripes where he worked as the horse trainer and now he’s proud to be part of a great team of horse trainers who worked the film War Horse which is becoming buzz around the world of an Oscar contender. 

I asked Bill what was his most favorite location where he trained on set, and he replied “we film The Legend of Zorrow in San Louis Potosi, Mexico, it was a beautiful location.”  He also spoke about filming in England and spoke about one of the set locations close to where the “bogs” are located in Dartmour, “you had to be very careful, people were known to go out to the bogs and never return”.  

This story is part one of two that will be completed after I watch the movie “War Horse” and we’ll wait for January 24^th to arrive with the nominations for the 2012 Oscars.  Look for future films where Bill’s work continues and we’ll keep up on featuring more animal trainers and stuntmen involved with the films. 


 

Article by: Gina Northover-Moore,;  CEO/Editor Indian Rodeo News.com 2012

photo courtesy of Bill Lawrence

photo courtesy of Bill Lawrence