Developing a special partnership with a horse takes equal parts hard work, perseverance, and passion, but once formed, such a bond can last a lifetime. For Japanese-American cowgirl Miko Moriuchi McFarland and her American Paint Horse, Sparkle Grady One Eye (“Bandit”), an unshakable relationship has helped them stand out from the crowd while making a career of trick riding and accomplishing amazing things together during their 18 years together.

Conquering the World

McFarland and Bandit, an overo gelding with one blue eye and one brown eye, have competed in a plethora of disciplines, including mounted archery, extreme cowboy racing, drill team, western pleasure, horsemanship and trail.

As a professional trick-riding duo, they also helped found and train the Trixie Chicks Trick Riders, and have performed trick riding and Roman riding in countless rodeo circuits, including the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. Some of their most notable experiences include carrying the American flag during the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Lexington, Ky., and exhibiting alongside the Budweiser Clydesdales.

According to McFarland, who lives in Lexington, Ky., her special partnership with Bandit is what made it all possible.

“It’s a great thing to have the kind of partnership with an animal where you don’t even have language as a common ground, but you have this unspoken relationship where you understand each other,” says McFarland. “In many ways, I feel like I know Bandit better than I know myself, because he’s always been that steady presence in my life.”

Learning Together

McFarland and Bandit have been fast friends ever since she bought him as a green 3-year-old in 2003. At the time, McFarland was trick riding professionally in Dolly Parton’s Stampede in her hometown of Branson, Mo. When she was little, her parents ignited her passion for horses with riding lessons and the gift of an ornery Shetland pony, but at the time she met Bandit, it had been years since she’d had a horse of her own.

“I put myself through college by trick riding in the Stampede,” says McFarland. “I would go to class during the day and perform six nights a week. I also saved up enough money to buy [Bandit], a little stud colt, from the show’s production manager. Several horses from his bloodline were already established trick-riding horses in the show, so I thought I’d take a chance on him. He had a willing attitude and a cool confidence about him, but no experience, and I was a feisty, overly confident college graduate.”

Faced with the task of training her first horse, McFarland wasn’t sure how to begin. But the man who sold Bandit to her gave her a piece of advice that she’s never forgotten.

“He was an experienced cowboy who was a very calm, gentle hand with the horses,” she says. “One of the things he told me was that my responsibility as a horse owner was to make sure that I was always setting Bandit up for success in any experience or situation. I took that to heart. Of course I made mistakes along the way, but I wanted to learn as much as I could from as many different disciplines and sports as I could.”

Made for Trick Riding

Over the course of their first years together, McFarland made sure to expose Bandit to as many situations and experiences as possible, including introducing him to a variety of disciplines, such as western dressage, horsemanship and Extreme Cowboy Racing.

By the time Bandit was 8 years old, McFarland decided he was ready to learn to be a trick-riding mount. In addition to drawing on her own experiences training trick-riding horses for the Stampede, McFarland took Bandit out west to train with the Harry Vold Rodeo Company in Avondale, Colo.

“At the time, there were probably less than 100 people in the United States who were actively trick riding,” she says. “Trick riding has become more popular over the last 10 years or so, but for a while, it was a dying sport. The Vold Rodeo Company are renowned rodeo professionals who were the go-to people at the time to learn how to trick-ride.”

During their time in Colorado, McFarland worked carefully with Bandit, teaching him how to get used to the way her weight might change and shift as she performed different trick-riding maneuvers on his back, under his belly or around his chest and sides.

“Everything I asked him to do, he did with a willing attitude,” she says. “That’s something that has always impressed me about Bandit.”

Turning Points

Bandit’s willingness to please was put to the test during the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Lexington, Ky. During the closing ceremonies, McFarland and Bandit were honored with the task of carrying the American flag.

“They wanted us to do it in a liberty stand, where you stand on top of the saddle and ride at a full gallop,” says McFarland. “The only catch was that there were 20 other horses in the arena. That part was intimidating for me because I knew I could account for Bandit, but I didn’t know if the other horses might spook.”

As they prepared to enter the arena, McFarland gathered the flag and her courage in both hands and made Bandit a promise.

“I told him, ‘Let’s carry this flag and represent the United States well, and if you can do your job, then I promise I will take care of you the rest of your life,” she remembers. “You don’t have to worry about anything—just help me get through these next few minutes.’ I was so nervous!”

Within moments, a star-spangled McFarland and Bandit galloped through the arena at full speed. With her horse running steadily and smoothly beneath her, McFarland stood proud and straight atop Bandit’s withers, the stars and stripes flowing gracefully from her outstretched hands.

Affinity for Archery

After that ride, she knew it was time that she and Bandit find new ways to enjoy their partnership. In 2009, McFarland tore her ACL in a riding accident on a different horse, so she knew that her trick riding days were numbered.

Over the next few years, McFarland and Bandit worked together to coach and train the founding members of the Trixie Chicks Trick Riders, now one of the country’s most popular trick riding teams. They also embarked on a variety of other adventures, including learning mounted archery.

“I enjoy mounted archery because it welcomes riders and horses of all breeds and backgrounds,” says McFarland. “It doesn’t matter what breed of horse you have or what discipline you ride. It doesn’t matter what kind of tack you use or what training your horse has. Everyone can compete together because what matters is your strategy and your partnership with your horse.”

The Next Generation

While Bandit continues to be one of McFarland’s main riding horses, he has taken on a new role as leadline pony for her 5-year-old daughter, Emii. Now 21 years old, Bandit is demonstrating a new talent for gentleness and slowness as he introduces Emii to the world of horses.

“As a trick rider, you achieve an entirely new level of partnership with a horse when you trust him with your life by doing trick riding stunts in a high-intensity, high-speed performance,” says McFarland. “But it’s a whole other level when you can entrust your child’s life to a horse. I couldn’t have asked for a better partner than Bandit because he’s been able to do everything I’ve ever asked of him, from high-voltage performances to being a leadline horse for my daughter. That’s one of the things that makes him so special.”

Proud to Stand Out

On a more personal level, McFarland has learned a lot of valuable lessons from Bandit. As a Japanese-American, she says it hasn’t always been easy to be a part of the horse industry, but Bandit has shown her the value of standing out in a crowd.

“Bandit commands attention wherever he goes, and he wears his colors loud and proud,” McFarland says. “I think that’s helped me find my courage and my own level of comfort in knowing that I may look different, and my name may sound different, but in the arena, it’s all about the partnership with your horse and what you can do, rather than who you are or what you look like.”

It’s a lesson she hopes to pass on, not just to her daughter, but to other young men and women establishing their places in the horse industry.

“People are being more intentional about confronting prejudices nowadays,” says McFarland. “It’s empowering to see people of color representing themselves in the horse world. Like Bandit’s markings, I choose to wear my heritage as a badge of honor. Every single person is special and unique and brings qualities and experiences to the horse industry that will only help us grow. No matter your background, you can make your mark in the equine industry because horses help level the playing field.”

This article about Miko McFarland’s trick riding career appeared in the October 2021 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

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Towslee’s horse-crazy life started with backyard horses in Washington state.

“We always had horses from the time I can remember,” she says. “I was riding from before I could walk.”

She competed in hunter/jumper events until her junior year in high school, then convinced a racehorse breeder that she knew how to break colts.

“I lied and said I’d done it before, and fumbled my way through it, breaking a set of colts for her,” Towslee recalls. “Her husband trained racehorses, and I ended up going to the racetrack after that and grooming horses. Later that year, I started galloping them.”

Big Screen Serendipity

She spent the next decade as a gallop girl and assistant trainer at racetracks around the country. While in New Mexico outriding and galloping horses on tracks, breaking horses, and running a training stable, Towslee stumbled upon stunt horse training. Or, rather, it stumbled into her.

“I got into it completely by accident,” she says. “A friend of ours had been working on a movie job, and they needed some horses that looked like racehorses but were broke. All of my outriding horses were old racehorses, so they could still gallop around, but you’d say whoa and they’d put on the brakes. They were perfect because it was a racehorse-based teen drama, Wildfire. I started wrangling and renting horses to them and doing stunts.”

Wildfire ended after four seasons, and Towslee moved on to managing a breeding farm. She turned down a couple of stunt horse trainer jobs because she felt obligated to the breeding farm owners.

Then The Lone Ranger (released in 2013, starring Johnny Depp) came calling.

“I thought if I didn’t make the jump in careers then, I probably never would,” she recalls. “So, I went ahead and took a leap. I [left] my job and my house at the same time. I bought a travel trailer and went to work on movies, and I’ve been doing it ever since.”

The Highs and the Lows

As a stunt horse trainer on the set of The Lone Ranger, Towslee worked with Bobby Lovgren, one of the most well-known movie horse trainers.

“There was a lot of liberty trick horse work,” says Towslee. “The movie had some complex stunt sequences that had to be worked out, and the director wanted as little computer-generated stuff as possible. The Lone Ranger’s horse, Silver, had to be on rooftops and jump from building to building. Silver [also] had to be in a tree over the Colorado river, so they built us one. Bobby had trained the horse to stand on a rail, so it looked like he was standing on a branch. Silver had to jump up into a train car and run through it while the Lone Ranger was shooting, so they built us a train car that was big enough.

“It was a process keeping things safe,” she adds. “You have to be pretty creative to figure out how you are going to get what they want to see on camera.”

The cast, crew, and of course the stunt horse trainers travelled to spectacular filming spots, including Canyon de Chelly, Monument Valley, and several locations in New Mexico.

But lest you think working as a movie stunt horse trainer is all teaching horses tricks in spectacular scenery, there are downsides to the work. Think white horses working in red sand.

“We had five white horses—I spent a lot of time washing [them],” Towslee laughs. “We were in Monument Valley in all that red sand, and there were windstorms. Our white horses turned pink, and when you’d wash them, they’d turn orange. And it was cold, so you couldn’t really give them good baths. It was just awful. I think they digitally fixed it; we couldn’t get them clean!

“We would be working all night and doing rain scenes, freezing our butts off,” she adds. “But you also get to do some really cool stuff as well and meet some really neat people.”

Horse wrangling work on A Million Ways to Die in the West and The Magnificent Seven, which included 140 cast horses, followed.

Stunt Horse Trainer Gangboss

Towslee’s first gig as wrangler gangboss came in the 2017 film, Hostiles. A gangboss runs the wrangler crew, trains the movie horses, gives the actors riding lessons, and handles the horses and actors on set.

“I would say the most important component to being a gangboss is communicating with the assistant director’s department, relaying that information to the wranglers, then getting them organized to achieve what the director wants to see,” says Towslee. “A lot of it is making sure everything’s safe for the horses around the cameras and making sure the actors are alright. Then we have other wranglers that are handling the background horses. Any time there’s a horse on set, we’re there.

“Quite often, we’re really close—if the camera sees half of the actor and half of the horse, we’re probably on our knees helping hold the horse still. It’s not always glamorous,” she adds with a laugh.

Towslee is one of just a handful of female stunt horse wrangler gangbosses in the industry.

“I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily a disadvantage being female, but there is [also] no advantage to it,” Towslee says. “And it does have its challenges. I’ve been very lucky that my boss, Clay Lilley, has always had my back. Some of the cowboys have been in the business longer than me, although they have been very supportive of me. I very much respect their opinions.”

It’s easy to respect anyone who has the skills to work at this level—in other words, an accomplished horseman. Galloping scores of racehorses and breaking and training horses for decades goes a long way toward helping one speak horse.

“You do have to know horses: how they’re going to react to a situation and whether they’re going to be bothered by it, or whether you can use a situation to get the desired action,” explains Towslee. “You must know what drives a horse.

“Another thing is being a person that really pays attention to what’s going on around you all the time and can spot things that are going to cause a problem,” she continues. “Movie sets are incredibly busy, and there’s a lot of moving parts. We have actors on horses in very tight situations sometimes. You need to always have your head on a swivel.”

Favorite Co-Stars

If pressed, Towslee will name Sam Elliott as her favorite actor to work with.

“I worked briefly with him years ago, and now for the past five months on the series 1883 [a prequel to the hit show Yellowstone]. What a wonderful man. He possesses a certain humility and grace.”

But any conversation inevitably turns back to her horses.

“Pistol, a Quarter Horse, is fantastically talented as a movie horse,” she says of a horse she recently worked with while filming a series. “He’s like a Border Collie, he’s so darn smart.”

King, a Friesian cross, is another favorite who has been in half a dozen movies and doubled the main horse on News of the World.

Some of the horses know they’re performing.

“[Some can be] a bit of a ham,” says Towslee. “You have some stunt horses that you use for years and years. They’ve done umpteen Indian raids and bank and stagecoach robberies, and they just keep going. It never shakes them up. They’re in a whole league of their own.”

However, the work isn’t all fast-paced cowboy shootouts.

“Your background horses are basically walking from A to B all day long or standing tied to a hitching rail,” she explains. “A movie set has all these moving parts that are often very close to horses, so they have to be super tolerant of stuff.”

Temperament is the No. 1 trait Towslee and her boss look for in potential movie horses.
“Sometimes you’ll get a horse who you think is going to be perfect for the movies, and as soon as they set foot on a movie set, they’re like, ‘Nope! Can’t do it!’” she says.

“There’s a different energy to a movie set, with so many people and equipment and cameras. You try and introduce the horses to it slowly, but only your very best ones ever end up with actors [riding] them. They’re really special, the ones that make good cast horses.”

Variety is the Spice

No day as a Hollywood stunt horse trainer is the same.

“That’s probably one of the things I like most about it,” says Towslee. “I’m not good at things that are incredibly repetitive. Every day is different; it keeps your mind busy. I really enjoy that, plus the fact that I get to work with animals every day.

“The funny thing is, way back when, I always thought, ‘Wouldn’t that be cool to work with movie horses?’ And just out of the blue, I’m doing that.”

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Trick riders at work are a sight to behold. Watching them swing around, perform handstands, and dangle inches from the ground, all from the back of galloping horse, is a rush. For those of us who work hard just to stay upright in the saddle, watching riders hang upside down at top speed is mind-blowing.

Most trick riders are on the younger side, and it’s no wonder. This pastime requires both courage and athleticism. And when learned in the context of a nurturing environment, it can help teens develop life skills and confidence they can take with them into adulthood.

The History Behind Riata Ranch

One such environment is the Riata Ranch in Three Rivers, Calif. A non-profit organization whose mission is to enrich and enlighten young people by building positive life skills in a safe environment—which in turn changes lives by allowing good kids to become great citizens—the Riata Ranch is home to the Riata Ranch Cowboy Girls, a rope-spinning, trick-riding troupe that has been performing hair-raising stunts on horseback around the world since 1976.

In the 1940s, a cowboy named Tom Maier got a job as a performer in a drill team troupe, which led to an opportunity to become a Hollywood stunt rider. He appeared in a number of westerns alongside actor Ronald Reagan. He also doubled for Elizabeth Taylor in “National Velvet.”

Preferring ranch work to making movies, Maier became a horse trainer and ranch hand in California, roping and branding cattle. After honing his skills in the field, he went on to become a professional rodeo cowboy.

Maier’s rodeo career was cut short by a car accident one night after an event. His knee was crushed, and he could no longer compete as a professional roper. In need of money to support his wife and two young sons, Maier accepted a job teaching a local district attorney’s daughter how to ride. Word got out, and in a short time, other Los Angeles-area parents were asking Maier to teach horsemanship to their children. Maier soon found himself the head of an unofficial riding school for kids.

In 1956, Maier went on to buy his own ranch in Southern California. The Riata Ranch was formed, and Maier began teaching horsemanship, western values, cowboy skills and rodeo stunts to kids. His goal was to make students into top-notch cowboys and cowgirls. Their lessons included roping and riding, and they began to compete in rodeos and horse shows throughout the area.

The Riata Ranch Cowboy Girls Trick Riders

By 1976, it became apparent to Maier that girls had far fewer opportunities for athletic activities than boys. Choosing four 13-year-old girls to form the first Riata Ranch Cowboy Girls, he arranged for the trick-riding troupe to begin performing at rodeos and events.

After learning to ride and making the Riata Ranch show team, current ranch Executive Director Jennifer Nicholson bought her first horse and competed in reined cow horse events.

“Tommy Maier decided to start a western performance team to complement his award-winning horse show team,” says Nicholson. “In between training days for the show team, I was also learning to trick ride, along with my teammates.”

Soon the girls had the opportunity to perform at some of the most noted rodeos in the West and were able to meet some of the biggest names that the world of rodeo has produced.

“We then began international travel, building western riding in Europe in the early 1980s,” says Nicholson. “It was an exciting time to be on the forefront of the explosion of the western horse in Europe and abroad. We spent more time in Belgium, Germany France, Italy and Switzerland than we did in our own country.”

While the Riata Ranch Cowboy Girls quickly achieved acclaim as trick riders, their lives at Riata Ranch were not all glamour and adrenaline. Part of the program at the ranch included upkeep of the facility, taking care of the horses and maintaining the tack. Learning responsibility and building confidence are an essential part of the Riata curriculum, and working at the ranch is part of the program.

Over the past 44 years, the Riata Ranch Cowboy Girls have performed at rodeos and events around the world, including Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012 in London, England.

“Besides performing for Her Majesty, I actually got to meet her and talk about Riata Ranch,” says Nicholson. “What a thrill to meet one of the most well-known world leaders in our modern era—and it’s all because I learned how to spin a trick rope on horseback.”

Learning the Craft

To do trick riding feats, you need a good foundation in physical fitness. According to Nicholson, Riata Ranch Cowboy Girls learn vaulting first, a sport that is often referred to as gymnastics on horseback. Vaulting helps build core strength and flexibility, along with balance and confidence. It also teaches participants to trust the horse’s movement, along with their own seat.

The Riata Ranch Cowboy Girls also train for upper body strength, since many of the tricks they perform involve pulling their weight up into the saddle from close to the ground. Work around the ranch helps them develop this ability, and includes raking, stall cleaning, lifting loaded pitchforks, shoveling manure, sweeping, moving hay bales and a variety of other activities that help maintain the ranch while also increasing their physical abilities.

Tricks that will eventually be performed on horseback are practiced on the ground first, using a trampoline and vaulting barrel. Participants develop position, posture and control in the legs and arms while working on stationary equipment. Once a girl is ready, she moves on to performing the stunts on a horse.

In order to learn the rhythm and timing needed to eventually do tricks on horseback, each girl practices running beside a horse in a 70-foot round pen. The horse learns to rate his speed and keep a consistent pace. At the same time, the girl develops the ability to move in time with the horse.

When the horse and rider are synced on the ground, the work moves onto the horse’s back. The same stunts that were performed using the trampoline and vaulting barrel are now transferred onto the horse in the confines of the round pen. It takes considerable practice before a Riata Ranch rider is ready to perform in front of an audience in a full-sized arena.

Riata Ranch Cowboy Girls are taught both strap tricks and ground tricks. Strap tricks take place on the horse and use leather anchor straps placed at various spots on the saddle. Tricks that require standing, hanging, dragging and layouts (where the rider is stretched out parallel to the ground) are all performed with the help of a strap.

Ground tricks, on the other hand, require touching the ground from horseback. These tricks require the most upper body strength because the trick rider must pull herself back up onto the horse’s back after getting very close to the ground.

Horses for the Job

Of course, plenty of work goes into teaching the ropes to a performing trick horse, too. Horses must not only maintain a consistent pace while riders are dangling from the saddle or standing on their backs, they must also stay calm when performing in front of roaring crowds. To build a bond of trust, the Riata Ranch team works with each trick horse in training to help that horse get used to riders vaulting on and off while traveling at high speed.

When choosing a potential trick horse, the Riata team looks for certain qualities. Horses are chosen for their age (around 8 years old is preferred), height (14 to 15 hands) and conformation (balanced, with defined withers). They also want a horse with experience under saddle and a sound mind.

Today’s Riata Ranch Cowboy Girls

More than 45 years after the Riata Ranch Cowboy Girls first came into existence, the famed trick-riding troupe is still performing regularly throughout North America, with their next performances tentatively scheduled for rodeos and horse events through the West this summer.

Maier is no longer here to see his girls in action; he passed away in 2002. Yet his dream of the Riata Ranch Cowboy Girls continues in the hands of Nicholson.

“In 2002, we were faced with the question: ‘Do we shut the doors or do we continue?’” she says. “The obstacle was that the company was bankrupt due to Tom’s years of major medical issues. But I took the reins and decided to forge ahead. With a lot of uncertainty, grit and determination, here we are.”

With the support of parents who continue to send their horse-loving children to the riding school and donors who believe in the program, girls who aspire to become expert trick riders and horsewomen still have a home at Riata Ranch.

This article about the Riata Ranch Cowboy Girls appeared in the July 2020 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

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