The Mountaineer: Hollywood Horse Play

Photograph by Kathy Landman

On screen, the mood is dark and anxious as a mother (Julianne Moore) teeters between losing her daughter (Sydney Sweeney) and losing her own moral compass. The crows are cawing and the horses are whinnying in the stalls. 

Those horses, in several scenes on Apple TV’s new American thriller, Echo Valley, are your neighbors (no pun intended). Off screen, they spend their days at Windrock Farm in Amenia, NY, under the care of a woman who’s made a name for herself as the Upstate horse trainer in the film and television industry: Cari Swanson. 

“Horses need a purpose like people need a purpose,” Swanson tells me. It’s why she gives many of her horses second lives on-screen. Most of them are rescues, sometimes from a racetrack or an abusive environment, sometimes when their owner dies. If they’re too old or sick, they retire at the farm. They all do equine therapy when they come to Windrock, working with children or veterans—or acting on set when possible. 

And in Echo Valley, you can see Moose, Luna, Buddha, Blaze, Listo and Chief on a farm that’s very different from the one they enjoy when they’re done with work.

“Sydney Sweeney fell in love with my Palomino, Moose,” Swanson says. Although the actress didn’t share any scenes with Moose, she’d visit between scenes to relax. “Horses heal humans,” she says. “They make them feel better.”

But the way that Swanson works with her horses—connecting with them, understanding their emotions, their pasts and their needs—I think it’s safe to say sometimes humans heal horses, too. 

“The most important thing is that I develop trust with all my horses, so when they’re in a unique situation, they look to me and trust me,” Swanson says. She helps her horses prepare for the sights and sounds of being on a sound stage by replicating some of it at home. She’ll do photoshoots inside her house, set up black boxes in the dining room, assemble lights and cameras—whatever they might encounter on the job. “If you come prepared, then it’s easy,” she says.

Swanson’s horses have trusted her on stages, walking up steps or ramps, in freight elevators and on a tiny sound stage for a Ralph Lauren shoot. Always, someone from American Humane Society observes the horses on set to help ensure their safety, she says.  

And sometimes, Swanson must coach actors to ride her horses. Recently, Days Of Our Lives, the long-running daytime drama, said they wanted a horse to rear and for a stunt man to fall off—one who’d never ridden a horse before. Swanson worked with him to make it happen safely.

Jonathan Groff in Taking Woodstock, who also had never ridden, trained with Swanson’s horse RJ for two weeks before filming the final scene of the movie with him.  

Occasionally, a project will require a specific breed of horse and Swanson will source a horse to fit the bill. When this happens, it takes at least six weeks to prepare a horse who’s new to her care, along with further training throughout filming. 

Because of Swanson’s passion for the arts, Windrock Farm is often buzzing with creative energy as artists, writers and other creators pass through—right now, Swanson is working on a television series in development about a talking horse, the grandson of Mr. Ed—but the farm is also home for Swanson and her animals. 

While living in NYC Swanson had a horse sent to her from Ohio—luckily, she’d met someone with a farm Upstate who let her board the horse there. After a decade of splitting her time between Manhattan and Upstate, Swanson gave up New York City life and settled in beautiful Amenia. 

“It’s a magical place to live,” she says.