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Twisting in Air tells how an extraordinary group of horses learned to fall on cue in Western movies and chronicles how one of them, Cocaine, overcame a debilitating injury to become the fastest falling horse.
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Twisting in Air

The Sensational Rise of a Hollywood Falling Horse

Publisher: Bison Books
381 words/paperback

Twisting in Air is a fascinating look at the dark early history of stunt horses in movies and the development of falling horses, the stunt riders who owned, trained, and depended on them, and the behind-the-scenes circumstances in which they performed. And it’s the story of a thoroughbred–quarter horse mix named Cocaine who doubled many times for John Wayne’s horse Dollor and appeared in a number of Westerns directed by John Ford.

 

Falling horses came into being in the 1940s after movie studios agreed to abide by the Hollywood Production Code’s ban on cruelty to animals and stop using deadly trip wires, tilt chutes, and covered pits to topple unsuspecting horses. Filmmakers still wanted to depict horses falling in battle, however, so they went looking for a new wave of “acting” horses who could tumble to the ground on command.

 

In Western movie circles, Cocaine was one of only a couple dozen horses who mastered the demanding athleticism required to fall safely at will. Twisting in Air charts his remarkable rise.

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Twisting in Air celebrates the bravery and athleticism of equine entertainers. More importantly, it shows how the bond between horse and human can help both achieve great things.

Cynthia Branigan

author of The Last Diving Horse in America

Excerpt from Twisting in Air

The script called for Chuck Roberson to race Coke down a hillside and fall him just before reaching a circle of wagon trains. Roberson inspected Coke’s leg one last time before climbing into the saddle. Cocaine stepped forward and back as if he could sense Roberson’s nervous energy. When the direc tor called, “Action!” Roberson spurred him on, and Coke flew down the hill, Indians sprinting from behind. Coke was galloping so fast that for a second Roberson wondered if he could pull off a fall at the designated spot. “Good Lord, don’t let this be Rio Grande all over again,” he thought.

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As they approached the wagons, Roberson transferred his weight and pulled Coke’s head around. The horse whirled in the air and struck the ground, sliding twelve feet before he came to a stop beneath a wagon. Roberson took a moment to compose himself. Cocaine had done it. He’d fallen more admirably than Roberson could have hoped. The stuntman looked up to see everyone on the sidelines standing and clapping loudly for himself and his horse. The director slapped him on the back. “That was the most spectacular fall I have ever seen, bar none,” he said. 

 

After the euphoria faded, though, Roberson was flooded with doubt. Coke had recovered enough from his injury to deliver, but maybe this was a fluke. Could a horse that survived a wound as serious as Coke’s really be that good? A few weeks later Roberson had the chance to find out. He landed a role as a stuntman in Way of a Gaucho, a film about a young South American cowboy sentenced to the army after killing the enemy of a friend, who deserts the military and becomes an outlaw. Doubling for the star of the movie, Rory Calhoun, Roberson’s assignment was to race Cocaine while being chased and fall him suddenly, as if gunfire had blown him away. The director called, “Action!” and Roberson and Coke dashed across the plains.

 

The cameras didn’t capture Coke’s head being pulled to the right. They only showed Coke bursting in the air, twisting from side to side, his rust-colored mane whipping against his neck. He landed on his shoulder so hard that his hind legs kicked up toward the sky. Roberson had not yet learned to remove Coke’s saddle horn; it jammed into the dirt and broke off as the horse began his slide. Immediately afterward the camera panned out to show Coke standing up and shaking himself as if he were shuddering off a fly— jolted, but unhurt. Once again, his derring-do earned Coke and Roberson a round of applause from the cast and crew. Coke’s stunts weren’t some accident. Despite everything he’d been through, he was a master at falling.

Praise for Twisting In Air

“Carol Bradley has written a necessary book about the horses and the stuntmen that made possible the action exploits of the great Western stars, as well as the bonds of shared trust and devotion between rider and mount—and the cruelty imposed by Hollywood’s invariable need for expedience and speed.”

—Scott Eyman, New York Times best-selling author of John Wayne: The Life and Legend

“The Western, Hollywood’s earliest and most enduring genre, couldn’t exist without horsepower. . . . If you love horses—and who doesn’t?—you’ll enjoy Bradley’s authoritative and thoroughly entertaining account of the rise and fall and rise again of the men and animals who tamed the West, at least in the movies, and created a legend all their own.”

—Glenn Frankel, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author of The Searchers: The Making of an American Legend

“This is a book about Hollywood’s glory days and its stunt men, about the barbaric ways we used to treat movie animals, how that slowly improved, and how one amazing thoroughbred-quarter mix named Cocaine (think Seabiscuit) learned the hard way the art of fast falling. It’ll change how you watch animals who appear on the big screen.”

—Larry Tye, New York Times best-selling author of Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend

Twisting in Air is by turns a well-researched and damning indictment of Hollywood’s callous disregard for the welfare of horses (and their riders) from the days of the nickelodeons to the present, as well as an endearing account of the relationship of one of the industry’s most famed stunt horsemen, Chuck Roberson with his extraordinary ‘falling horse’ Cocaine. Chock-full of anecdotes from the glory days of the Westerns, including unvarnished glimpses of famed director John Ford (‘he looked like a sack of walnuts in the saddle’), John Wayne, Cecil B. DeMille, and many more, this book will appeal to horse lovers, fans of the genre, and students of the American experience alike. Mount up!”

—Les Standiford, author of the New York Times best-selling Last Train to Paradise

“From silent film horse actors such as Fritz to latter-day superstars like Cocaine, Twisting in Air celebrates the bravery and athleticism of equine entertainers. More importantly, it shows how the bond between horse and human can help both achieve great things.”

—Cynthia Branigan, author of The Last Diving Horse in America

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