Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Game of Thrones Horses (Garrons)

By Eliza

Obviously we have been working a bit of a theme with onscreen horses here lately--Hunger Games, Luck, Dreamer and Grand Slam, and now, Game of Thrones. I've read all the books, but it wasn't until last night that I saw the first episode of the HBO series. Talk about horses aplenty. There are horses everywhere. Royal horses, pack horses, cart horses, ponies for children. In the books, the smaller horses are called garrons, which I learned is a Scottish word for a hardy little horse.

Here's what Michelle Fairley, who plays Catelyn Stark, says about the horses in a Metro interview: "Some of those horses have better CVs than the actors. They work non-stop, are always on time, wear their costumes brilliantly and understand what the word ‘action’ means."

Over on Vulture, Matt Zoller Seitz writes that Game of Thrones provides an apt foil to the Luck situation: "If Game of Thrones, a vastly more popular HBO series that also employs large numbers of horses, had experienced a similar string of animal deaths during its first couple of seasons, production might have continued, not just because it was a more expensive and highly rated drama, but because the show isn't all about the horses and riders." Rest of his piece is here.

And here is just a funny Den of Geek interview where Jason Momoa, who plays Khal Drogo, talks about how he liked his horses on Game of Thrones, but not the one he rode in the movie Conan. Language a tad salty for www.thesweetfeed.com, but I enjoyed the actor/rider's eye view. And Khal Drogo is the bellicose, macho ruler of a tribe of horsemen.


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