Idaho Ranch Has Hollywood’S Sounds

Of all the pretty horses on a Careywood ranch, Choo-Choo and Stormy, two paint horses, are going to be Hollywood movie stars.

The Idaho ranch’s setting was serene - an ideal place to capture sound tape for “All the Pretty Horses,” a film starring Matt Damon that opens today.

Although the horses can’t be seen in the film, their sounds sure can be heard. Sound editor Patricio Libenson captured 10 hours of Choo-Choo and Stormy’s hooves and whinnies - even the sound of a mane slicing through the air.

“The thing about Idaho was it was very cold, the air dense, making the speed of sound faster, that the recording sound’s quality is full and rich,” Libenson explained from his office in California. “You can hear the cold under the recording. All the material is very, very tasty.”

Even the silence of Patrick and Marion O’Connor’s barn was worth recording.

The effort has become one of the most comprehensive collections of horse sounds in Hollywood, Libenson said. He’s already using Choo-Choo and Stormy in a film being made about Jesse James.

The two horses were chosen because one had horseshoes and the other didn’t, said ranch owner Marion O’Connor, who rode Stormy for the recordings.

“Like every horse mom, I considered my herd the prettiest around,” she said.

Recordings included about 10 separate sounds of the horses walking at varying speeds on a range of surfaces, including water, rocks, grass and cement.

“I had no idea it was worth money for someone to record it,” O’Connor said, while on vacation in Germany.

O’Connor’s name was passed along by a friend in the film-producing business when executives talked of making the movie, which is based on the award-winning novel of the same name. O’Connor made a videotape of her ranch and “tried to record the silence,” she said.

There wasn’t a place to record the sounds in California without interruption by city noises such as those from a plane or car, Libenson said.

A few other movies - including “The Horse Whisperer” and “Black Stallion” - have used natural horse sounds. Other movies have relied on staged, or Foley, sounds for horse clip-clops.

Sound editors used to depend on coconut shells hitting a sand floor.

Libenson - who has worked on films including “Speed,” “Jackie Brown,” “Boogie Nights” and “Last of the Mohicans” - said he hopes “All the Pretty Horses” wins an Academy Award.

“I think it’s probably going to get a nomination of some kind,” he said. “It’s out there to be considered.”

When Libenson sees the movie, he said he will remember how each sound was recorded in Idaho with Choo-Choo and Stormy. One of those moments included the sound of a stampede.

Like clockwork, O’Connor’s 14 horses rush for dinner each night. So one evening, when they were grazing far enough away, she clanged a chain for the horses to come.

“When they hear that chain against the gate, they know, red alert,” O’Connor said. “Dinner is ready, and if we don’t get it now, she will walk away and let us starve!”

The crew placed microphones in a semicircle around the area. As the horses approached, O’Connor jumped out and scared them so they would turn around and run away.

The animals were rewarded with some hay, even though it was before dinner, O’Connor said.

The editors also needed sounds to match a scene where the horses cross the Rio Grande. The group visited Farragut State Park and asked for special permission to ride in the water - promising to pick up any manure, O’Connor said.

The experience was educational for O’Connor, who learned a lot about filmmaking, including that filmmakers edit sound into their work, as opposed to recording it during filming.

The Hollywood sound experts stayed at O’Connor’s Cocolalla Creek Sport Ranch for 10 days. The host was paid $150 a day for her help with Choo-Choo and Stormy. O’Connor got to see the unedited version of the film to help editors figure out which sounds would go where.

“I think I would have done it even if they didn’t pay me for it,” O’Connor said with a laugh. “It was fun.”

O’Connor said she’d be happy to work with the California group again if they want to return to North Idaho for additional recordings.

Choo-Choo and Stormy will wait, ready to perform for their audiences across the world.

“If they come across scenes they don’t have sound for, these guys will be right back up here.”