Audrey's Riding Skillls


She sat a horse well.

I always admire and envy good horsemanship.

I've done very little riding in my life, but enough to know there is a lot more to it than just climbing aboard and clucking "giddy-up" (I was never so graceful).

Such a beautiful sight - this beautiful, graceful woman riding so smoothly atop that extraordinary creature; the wildness of them both - probably the best part of the whole movie for me.

I see that she was seriously injured riding in this film.
Anyone know the scene? Jumping out of the corral? Was that a stunt double making the jump - looked like it was actually Audrey - and the horse got caught on the fence?
I imagine there was an English saddle hidden beneath that heavy dress.

Any one care to share info on Audrey Hepburn's riding background? She must have been well qualified to be permitted such scenes.

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Haven't seen how are where.
Trivia

From what I read, Edda van Heemstra, or Audrey Kathleen Hepburn-Ruston, was pregnant, and was thrown from a horse when filming in 1959. She broke her back, and had a miscarriage. That had to be just horrific for her and her husband, Mel Ferrar. I also read she had a total of four miscarriages. That may have to do, I feel, with what she died of, a rare form of abdominal Cancer.

"The Unforgiven turned out to be a disaster for just about everyone involved. With Burt Lancaster and Audrey Hepburn as stars and John Huston at the helm, expectations were high. But the production was plagued with deaths, accidents, miscarriages, and a disgruntled, disinterested director. In the end, for all the considerable interest the film has for us today, it failed to find an audience and proved to be the undoing of the HHL production company that Lancaster and partners Harold Hecht and James Hill had started several years earlier with such high ambitions."

"If, indeed, there was "celestial vengeance" as Huston suggests, it was visited on others with almost Biblical horror. Three crewmembers were killed in a plane crash on their way back from the States to location shooting in Mexico.
During the filming, Audie Murphy nearly drowned, when he and a friend decided to go duck hunting, and their boat capsized in a lake. He was saved by the quick action and skill, of still photographer Inge Morath (although news reports tried to paint it as a publicity stunt).
Hepburn, who was pregnant, was thrown from a horse and suffered fractured vertebrae that required six weeks of recuperation in Los Angeles. When she returned to the set, she had to complete the film in a stiff back brace. Shortly after shooting completed, she suffered a miscarriage, although it's unclear if it was related to the fall.
Maka Czernichew, an artist Huston met in Mexico and with whom he began an affair during production, claimed she also suffered a miscarriage. The baby was Huston's, which may have been the spur for another incident, a knife attack against him by Lorrie Sherwood, a personal assistant referred to by one newspaper as his "secretary-mistress."

http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/38739|0/The-Unforgiven.html

Can you fly this plane?
Surely u cant be serious
I am serious,and dont call me Shirley

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Here is a description of when from IMDB Trivia

Audrey Hepburn was seriously injured when she was thrown by a horse between scenes. Hepburn, who was several months pregnant, spent six weeks in the hospital healing from a broken back, and when she returned to the set, was able to complete her role wearing a back brace, which her wardrobe had to be redesigned to hide. Sadly, she suffered a miscarriage a few months later, which some blamed on her injury from this movie. John Huston blamed himself for the mishap and hated this movie. Hepburn, however, bore no ill will towards the director. While Hepburn was in hospital, Huston filmed scenes using a double.

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I used to ride myself

Can you fly this plane?
Surely u cant be serious
I am serious,and dont call me Shirley

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Lots of interesting - behind the scenes - details. Thanks Bruce!


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Your welcome. I just randomly ran across that, and it certainly is.

Can you fly this plane?
Surely u cant be serious
I am serious,and dont call me Shirley

reply