Horses from the Mayfield Horse Company in Seward wait for their close-ups during filming of “Running Wild”
Wearing baseball caps and sweatshirts, Derry and Shannon Mayfield don’t look like the stereotypical Hollywood cowboy.
And Hollywood told them so.
The Mayfields, owners of Mayfield Horse Company in Seward, had horses appear in “Running Wild,” a 2016 movie about the plight of wild horses.
Their company provides bucking horses for rodeos around the area.
They arrived in California after three days of driving, wearing ball caps and shorts and with 12 horses in a trailer.
Those waiting for them expected cowboy hats and boots, the Mayfields said. And, they wanted to get started with the horses right away, which the Mayfields denied.
“You can’t work them right away,” Shannon said.
“They needed to rest for 24 hours before you use them,” Derry said.
Their involvement with “Running Wild” was serendipitous. Last July they took some horses to Oklahoma and decided to stop at the Cowboy Museum in Oklahoma City. While touring the museum, Derry said, they commented that “it would be neat if we had horses in a movie.”
They walked back to their truck and the phone rang. On the other end of the line was Dave Duquette, president of the United Horsemen Association, an organization Derry belongs to, as well. Duquette told them of a movie that was looking for a dozen horses by Aug. 12.
Derry said they sent pictures of the horses so the writers could finish the script.
“We loaded up and headed out,” he said, adding that his parents were part of the crew.
It took three days to get to the K2 Ranch in Santa Rosa, where they spent the first two weeks of filming. They were in Petaluma for four weeks after that.
Things were quite different on the set, Derry said.
“It’s not like you expect. They have no idea about animals,” he said. “The director wanted things they couldn’t do. They wanted them to be ready now, but you have to warm them up.”
Warming up the horses means riding them to get the jitters out and calm them down. They also made sure the horses were ready for the different things on set they would face.
“The lights were a big deal,” Derry said.
They also made sure the horses were ready for the smoke and flames in one of the scenes.
Hours were unusual, too. One night, they were filming until about 3 a.m. On the other hand, once they were done filming, the horses had 12 hours with no callbacks.
The Mayfields, though, didn’t get the full 12 hours. They still had to do their chores.
Derry described the rules on set as “just nuts.” The bits had to be a certain length. Only rubber rowels were allowed on the spurs. An on-site veterinarian was there to make sure the animals were not hurt. The Mayfields weren’t allowed to give their horses any medicine.
And, Shannon said, there had to be one handler for each horse.
At the K2 Ranch, the resident horses each had their own pen. The Mayfields put all 12 of their horses in the same pen, which caused some consternation, Shannon said.
“It was neat to see how it came together,” Derry said.
Shannon was impressed with how the director kept everything straight when they were filming scenes out of order.
The producers asked the Mayfields to bring thin horses to represent the wild horses that are starving. They did, but the scenes with the thin horses were among the last to be filmed. By then, the horses had regained the weight, Shannon said.
So, the make-up artists drew the ribs on the horses and added some scars and sores.
“All the people were excellent to work with,” Derry said. “They’re really down to earth.”
Sharon Stone is one of the film’s stars and “was really cool,” Derry said.
“She said she enjoyed working with us and our horses,” he said.
Jason Lewis and Dorian Brown, two of the leads, were also fun to work with, he said.
“Dorian was the sweetest,” Derry said. “Jason rode every chance he got. He said if I’d teach him to ride, he’d teach me to surf.”
Tommy Flanagan, another of the actors, “was a blast,” according to Derry.
Shannon said they’d hoped to see some of the sites in California while they were there, but they didn’t have much down time. However, they rode on the weekends. One weekend, she and the film’s producer, Ali Afshar, rode down a canyon.
Both said they’d love to be involved in another movie, although Derry said he’d do more negotiating up front.
