Heavy/Hallmark Cast of Hallmark's "Ride" (from L to R): Tyler Jacob Moore, Beau Mischoff, Tiera Skovbye, Jake Foy and Sara Garcia
With Hallmark Channel‘s new series “Ride” set on a ranch and chronicling a legendary rodeo family, the McMurrays, it was important for the cast to be comfortable with riding and working with horses — and sometimes even bulls. While most of the cast had some experience with being around horses, Sara Garcia revealed in a Facebook Live on March 30, 2023, that she wanted to be part of the show so badly that she pretended she did, too.
“I didn’t have any experience with horses at all,” she said during the chat with co-stars Jake Foy and Tyler Jacob Moore. “And I specifically remember the audition (staff) asking if the actors did have experience or if they were afraid of horses or if they were allergic, and I was just like, ‘I’m experienced, I’m fine.'”
Garcia landed the role of Valeria Galindo, who Hallmark describes as a “ranch hand turned right-hand” to family matriarch Isabel McMurray, played by Nancy Travis. In addition to participating in the horse training the whole cast received, Garcia said she attended a special equine therapy session before filming began to get comfortable with the animals on set.
Sara Garcia Shares How She Grew Comfortable With Horses on Set of ‘Ride’
The entire cast of “Ride” attended horse training before filming began in Canada, on a family ranch outside of Calgary, because even those who had past experience needed to learn how to work with the animals and look authentic riding them.
Foy, who plays Isabel’s youngest son Tuff McMurray, explained during the Facebook Live session, “We have trainers and decorated riders in the Canadian rodeo and ranch circuit, so we were in excellent hands from day one.”
But Garcia said that, given her lack of experience, she needed a little extra help feeling comfortable with the animals before taking riding lessons.
“I ended up actually doing an equine therapy session where I got to learn a little about horse energy, and meet a horse and just hang out in a pen for an hour with them,” she recalled. “I learned a lot about their body language and how empathetic they are.”
“I brought that with me to my first lesson and I think it helped,” Garcia continued. “It definitely made me feel more comfortable and confident. And then we just had the most incredible wranglers and teachers helping us through.”
Garcia said she was surprised by how taken she was with the animals, ranch life, and the setting.
“I just felt this incredible sense of coming home,” she said. “I grew up in a city and had never really been around farms or ranches. I didn’t know that I was going to fall in love the way that I did. And now I can’t wait to have my own one day.”
‘Ride’ Cast Loved Learning From Real-Life Ranchers & Rodeo Vets
Though stunt doubles are available to film the most complicated scenes, like those showing Tiera Skovbye’s character Missy McMurray doing trick riding — which she explained during a March 24 Facebook Live session as “essentially gymnastics on a horse” — all of the cast members needed time to get to know the horses assigned to them and learn how to handle them.
“For a few weeks before we actually started filming, I got to go to Calgary to get acquainted with the horse that was going to be my horse throughout filming and to learn how to ride,” Skovbye told Wide Open Country. “I had been on a horse before, but I’d never learned proper technique or skills about how to actually navigate controlling a horse, because there’s actually a lot that goes into it.”
During the same Facebook Live session that Skovbye was part of, co-star Beau Michoff, who plays bull rider Cash McMurray, said in addition to working with horses, he also got to spend time with bulls.
“I actually got to sit on a bull a few times, which was pretty cool,” he said.
As for working with horses, Michoff is very experienced and even owns two with his fiancé, Jenny Meinen.
“My fiance has ridden horses her whole life and she got me into horses a few years ago,” he said. “We actually own two horses of our own, two thoroughbreds, so I’ve been riding for a few years now.”
“It’s funny, actually,” Mischoff told Wide Open Country. “I was setting goals and I put in my goals that I wanted to get on a show that was centered around horses, and then this came around. I don’t want to say I manifested it, but …”
“Ride” airs Sunday nights on Hallmark Channel at 8 p.m. Eastern time and is available to stream via Peacock.