Englishman Tom Blyth plays William H. Bonney in 'Billy the Kid' (2022-2025). Image supplied.
Scores of novels, comic books, plays, songs and films have been written about Billy the Kid, the notorious American outlaw. This extensive TV series embellishes the legend even further.
‘BILLY THE KID’ – 2022-2025
Television series created by Michael Hurst.
Born Henry McCarty, alias William H. Bonney, he was better known as Billy the Kid. At the age of 21 he was gunned down by sheriff Pat Garrett after escaping custody while awaiting a murder trial. There are rumours he hadn’t actually been killed and went on to live in a Texas town called Hico, calling himself Ollie “Brushy Bill” Roberts. And he died in 1950, not 1881.
Who knows? It all depends what history books you read!
Tom Blyth in the saddle as William H. Bonney, aka ‘Billy the Kid. Image supplied.
The first movie about the young gunslinger was a silent western made in 1911. Billy was played by an actress named Edith Storey no less who could ride and perform her own stunts! It was directed by Laurence Norwood Trimble. The original film – possibly for the best! – has been lost forever.
TRIVIA: Edith Storey was nicknamed “Billy” at the Star Film Ranch Movie Studios in Texas. She earned the goodwill of the cowboys working there for her ability to “ride anything with hair on it”.
Laurence Trimble, by the way, had a great track record working with animals. He began his career directing Jean the Vitagraph Dog. This Border Collie, which he owned, was the first canine to have a featuring role in motion pictures. The director was most widely known for his four movies about Strongheart, a German Shepherd he discovered and trained that became cinema’s first dog star. He was the subject of countless news stories and had a brand of dog food named after him, which still exists. With another Shepherd, Lady Jule, he sired numerous puppies many of which also starred on the silver screen. After Trimble left filmmaking he trained animals, particularly guide dogs for the blind.
In this present-day production of Billy the Kid, comprising 22 televised episodes over three seasons, Englishman Tom Blyth (Benediction, The Hunger Games) is in the leading role with Daniel Webber (11.22.63, Furiosa, The Dirt) playing his mate Jesse Evans. Thirty-year-old Blyth comes from Birmingham, while Webber, 37, is from Gosford on the NSW Central Coast. As a young actor he worked on All Saints (2008) and Home and Away (2015) and values the on-set experience those early gigs gave him. He also appreciates all the long-distance horse work he and his family did.
“I was 10 when I did my
first endurance event…”
(Australian Endurance Riders Association records show his mother, Vicki, competed at some major meetings such as the Tom Quilty.)
“We’d ride from 40 to 400 kilometres,” Daniel recalls. “I was 10 when I did my first endurance event.”
All that stood him in good stead for his role as Jesse Evans.
Daniel Webber endurance riding as a youngster. Image supplied.
TRIVIA: Daniel Webber was also a competitive gymnast in his youth. In 2000 he performed trampoline routines during the closing ceremony of the Sydney Olympics.
On the other hand, Tom Blyth’s riding experience was almost zilch. “I once sat on a horse when I was nine, fell off and was traumatised,” he explains. “Nine years later I had to ride in a show I was doing in Saudi Arabia. The horse was young, flighty, poorly trained and it was very scary.”
He had to find a teacher. Tom was living in upstate New York at the time and a friend suggested he take lessons from a woman who saved mustangs.
“I turned up at her property with boots and jeans expecting to jump on a horse and begin having lessons in the arena,” Tom recalls. “Instead, we went into a field, and she told me to take off my shoes and jacket and lay over the horse!
“It turned out her speciality was doing Reiki and yoga with horses and veterans, so she had me doing energy work as the first step of learning to ride.” Eventually he sat in the saddle in the conventional way and learned some of the basics. “I’m sure the energy work helped because it was quite therapeutic,” he adds.
DOING HIS OWN STUNTS
After a few sessions he had to leave for the Canadian Rockies where he collaborated with local cowboys and wranglers who were on the Billy the Kid production. “Before I knew it, I was riding full gallop and was able to do 90 per cent of my own stunts throughout the show.”
Much of his riding was on a grey named ‘Steel’ (which had two doubles, ‘Spider’ and ‘Jess’). The show’s creator, Michael Hirst, specified Billy the Kid’s mount should be this colour, although he does ride others in early scenes). “Your eye goes to a lighter horse which helps Billy stand out and doesn’t make him look like the bad guy,” Hurst maintains. “Billy’s a gunfighter but he doesn’t go looking for trouble, it’s always coming for him.”
This production’s head wrangler was Canadian John Scott who’s been in the film business for over 50 years. He leads a 15-man team, many of whom are former rodeo riders who are responsible for the care and handling of the horses (mainly Quarter Horses) which carry actors and pull wagons.
Head wrangler John Scott. Image supplied.
Now in his early 80s, Scott was awarded the Alberta Order of Excellence in October 2025. He was recognised for his career of wrangling animals, working as a stuntman, scouting locations and providing livestock for Hollywood and Canadian movie sets, as well as advocating for Alberta’s motion picture industry.
Jackie Chan was one of the many actors he taught to look good in the saddle. “He’d never been on a horse, but after only 15 days he looked like he’d been on one forever,” Scott says of Chan in the 2000 film Shanghai Noon. Years later the actor must have remembered his lessons as he looked very comfortable when he made Ride On.
You can read more about Jackie Chan in the saddle via the May 2024 issue of Equestrian Life here.
“And when filming Legends of the Fall, Brad Pitt was a perfectionist,” he adds. “It was no surprise in that picture just how good he looked on horses.” Scott has an autographed photo of the actor which reads: “I’d say we went through some horses — thanks for showing me the ropes.”
‘Billy the Kid’ featured many horses throughout the 22-episode series. Image supplied.
‘BOMBPROOF HORSES’
In season two of Billy the Kid, additional actors were hired and there was more gunfight action, so extra “bombproof” horses were needed. “They put up with gunfire, crowds and other horses,” explains John Scott. “Also, we had to do a scene where the horse runs straight with a guy dragging behind, which requires safety wranglers to be at point A and point B.”
There are many dangerous sequences in these 22 episodes but very few accidents. Conditions were also hazardous in the snow. “We were shooting in freezing conditions which makes things dangerous because you can’t see the ground,” says Webber who rode ‘Cooper’ in many of the episodes. “You don’t know if you’re about to ride through a hole or onto a frozen creek bed.”
When the terrain got rough the film horses, often a mob of 60 or more, would all be fitted with special footwear. “We put on leather pads under their feet, so they don’t bruise their soles,” says John.
Tom Blyth enjoyed every moment he spent in the saddle during filming. Image supplied.
The actors were genuinely sorry when the final season wrapped. Daniel Webber declares: “It’s been the best three years of my life being in Calgary working with such responsive and well-trained horses.”
“Any day I got to be on one I was just so happy,” adds Tom Blyth. “We were in the company of stuntmen and rodeo champions, but I’d say for a couple of dumb actors we did pretty well.”
The three seasons of Billy the Kid are presently screening on Stan.
Next time in ‘Horses & Movies’, Martin Clunes: Heavy Horsepower, documentary (2010). EQ
Related articles
Based on a story by Alan Marshall, who had suffered polio as a child, Hammers Over the Anvil takes place in 1910 centred around a crippled boy who idolises a breaker named East Driscoll played by a youthful Russell Crowe.
Unless you count the excellent award-winning Brokeback Mountain, this lesser-heralded film Ride with the Devil is Ang Lee’s only western. Based on conflicting loyalties in the US Civil War, it also showcases how the role of “falling horses” have evolved in the history of Hollywood.