Fate of the Stallion

Made for TV Documentary

The Making of a Movie - Ron Hevener

When the decision was made to go into production for a film documentary based on Fate of the Stallion, I wasn’t sure where we could find a horse to portray “Nahgua,” the lead character. Nahgua, himself, was still living and visitors to the farm were enjoying him as much as ever, but we had a problem on our hands. In the story, Nahgua was illustrated and described as a taller-than-average Arabian, considerably bigger than he really was. It never occurred to me that this exaggeration would ever be put to the test!

By the summer of '05, I had met animal trainers working on a film in New York City. They owned a successful agency for animal actors, and they specialized in movies. We got along pretty well and we made a deal to shop Fate of the Stallion (in its second printing by that time) as a feature film. That’s when I found out how the movie business works, and how you need to have a short “sample film” (10 minutes or so) to present your project to producers. My team decided to produce a 30 minute TV documentary to serve the same purpose, and, when the project was announced, several TV networks stepped forward with interest in broadcasting the documentary. I hadn’t realized Nahgua’s following was so strong, although I shouldn’t have doubted it after his death hit the news and more than 10,000 emails, letters, phone calls and visits to our web site came in from horse lovers around the world.

The arrangements were in place. We had TV networks ready to broadcast the documentary. We had agents ready to shop it as a feature film. What we didn’t have was a horse!

This wasn’t going to be easy. The horse had to be an Arabian. He had to be bay with a star. He had to train-able for films and he had to be a stallion. But, most of all (Thanks to my illustrations and lively imagination) he had to be BIG! I never regretted having a good imagination until that moment. Where could we find such a horse?

There was only one place in the country that had Arabian horses like that. I had first crossed paths with Jim Andreson, of Selket Arabians in Michigan, many years before when we were both starting out in in Arabian racing. Michigan is a serious racing state and I was the racing editor for a magazine called “Oasis”. At that time, Jim had just purchased an incredible stallion named *Furno Khamal, a champion in Germany, Belgium, Holland and France, where he won Junior World Champion Stallion at the respected Salon du Cheval in Paris. Khamal was bay . . . And he was an incredible 16.2 Hands tall. Maybe I was thinking of him when I wrote the story!

I called Jim, asking about Khamal, knowing that, over the years, he had searched the world for mares that were right for such an impressive stallion. Although Jim started his breeding program nearly 50 years ago, everything was designed around * Furno Khamal for about 20 of those years. By chance, did he have any bay colts with a star? Yes, he did. He had produced a son of U.S. Reserve National Champion Stallion Da Vinci FM out of a huge Khamal daughter. The colt was winning in the show ring and he loved people. As Fate would have it, the colt was already over 16 Hands tall. His name was Selket Louchiano and he was the closest Jim had produced to his beloved Khamal. He was exotic and train-able. Jim was counting on him as a breeding stallion for the Selket Arabians bloodline -- and he was exactly what I was looking for.

I met Louchiano “in person” at the U.S. Arabian Nationals. When I saw him enter the arena, under those bright lights, with the crowd cheering, I knew we had found the horse we were looking for. By the end of the class, I knew we had ourselves a star.

I am no stranger when it comes to managing the careers of “star animals.” Over the years, I have been lucky enough to know or own several such animals and it is a great responsibility and I like writing about them. Besides Nahgua, the basis for my racing stable, there was Ch. Amberlyn’s Bright Tribute, the second greatest winning show Collie of the past century, featured in my novel The Blue Ribbon, and one of the most legendary Greyhounds in the world, Some Picture, is featured in my novel High Stakes. In each of those cases, I have built breeding programs around these rare individuals. When I met Louchiano for the first time at the show, I knew he was important in my life when he lowered his head and pressed the star of his fore-head to my chest. Talk about touching your heart! But, when I saw him in the arena, I knew this was “The One.”

Louchiano was set to compete at Scottsdale after the Nationals, but we couldn’t take the chance of anything happening to him before the film. Immediately after the show, he was shipped to Pennsylvania and put in the care of trainer Nancy Waite-Howington, who presented him so beautifully at last year’s Horse World Expo in Harrisburg. After that, he was moved to WaterGap Stables, near Christiana, where Judi and Christi Scott trained him under saddle and care for him now. With our interest in racing Arabians, the relaxed atmosphere at WaterGap Stables, with its own racetrack, pasture, paddocks and good stallion management is perfect for Louchiano and much of the movie was filmed there.

Making a movie has taught me that films are a complicated process starting with the written word. After the screenplay, you must find the right camera professionals, musicians and editors. You must scan video footage going back many years in some cases, and somehow you have to piece it all together. Hours are spent piecing together a few seconds here and a few seconds there. Anguish is felt over good footage that ends up “on the cutting room floor.” Little by little, the story is told in pictures and a film is made.

Through it all, you keep reminding yourself that the horse in the pictures is real. You say, “I know this horse. I can touch him and mess up his mane and ride him.” And, in the spring, you can see his foals . . . Maybe at WaterGap Stables, maybe at Selket Arabians and other places, too.

Lights! Camera! Action!  …. On with the show!