Category: Black Stallion

Cass Ole’ is a classic among stallions!

Sheila Cone is a knowledgeable equestrian with a particular affinity to Cass Ole’ who played the Black in the 1979 film. We thought it was time to gift her writing to all the Stallion fans! You can write her and check out her extensive collection of interesting Black Stallion facts and photos on her facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/fansofcassole/?ref=share

Cass Ole

By

Sheila R. Cone

Cass Ole.  Photo courtesy Carol Darling.

As far back as I can remember I have always loved horses.  I saw The Black Stallion for the first time in the early 90’s when my dad brought home a vhs copy.  I remember watching that magnificent black horse on screen and was utterly mesmerized.  I had to know who he was and what breed of horse.  My search birthed a deep love of research and I have devoted the past thirty years to finding photos and info about Cass Ole, speaking to people who knew him or bred their mares to him, and I am just as ardent a fan of Cass Ole as when I first saw his iconic performance as The Black. 

Cass Ole was bred by Gerald Donoghue of Donoghue Arabian Farm in Goliad, Texas.  Born in 1969, he had a cute little star and four white socks and was the first black foal Gerald bred.  Unfamiliar with the mousey coat color, he at first thought Cass Ole to be a liver chestnut.  On the farm he was affectionately called ‘Mickey Mouse’.  Three full siblings were born before Cass Ole, all were bay.  He was sold as a two-year-old to the Cuello’s of San Antonio, Texas where he would forge a deep bond with Francesca that would later help her heal and recover from a devastating accident.

La Bahia with Cass Ole as a foal.  Photo courtesy Carol Darling.

La Bahia with her filly Cassa Viva, full sister of Cass Ole.

 Photo courtesy Charlotte Donoghue.

The Donoghue Farm was known for producing Arabian horses that were family horses first, show horses second.  Cass Ole was no exception.  He had such a clam disposition that his owner, Francesca Cuello, would have to really push him at times to get him to move beyond a walk.  His quiet disposition allowed him to excel in western pleasure.  In 1975 he won the U.S. National Championship in AOTR with Francesca.  During his seven-year show career, Cass Ole had accumulated over 400 ribbons and trophies competing in English Pleasure, Side Saddle, Native Costume, Formal Driving, Halter, Most Classic as well as winning the AHSA Horse of the Year award in 1975 and 1976.  He was also awarded the King Saud Cup trophy twice.  Cass Ole’s fans would often shout “Ole! Ole! Ole!” from the stands, fulfilling a vision Gerald Donoghue had for the horse and the reason he named him Cass Ole.   

After a nationwide search, Cass Ole was chosen to perform the main role of the Black.  His presence in the show ring translated beautifully on film, captivating the hearts of many horse-crazy kids—and adults—across the nation (including mine!).  His intelligence made him stand out on set as well.  His trainer, Corky Randall, commented that the horse seemed to know he was acting and even enjoyed it.   

Back home Cass Ole’s popularity escalated.  A fan club was created for his faithful followers with special items of memorabilia such as pins, postcards, t-shirts, stickers, etc.  His fame also extended to the breeding shed.  Cass Ole sired 135 registered foals, fifty of which were black.  The Cuello family put on many presentations at the farm where thousands gathered throughout the stallion’s life to see him with their own eyes. 

Cass Ole at San Antonio Arabians in 1984. Photo courtesy Carol Darling.

In 1993 Cass Ole suffered from a severe case of colic and had to be euthanized.  He was buried in the arena at San Antonio Arabians, but his memory is forever immortalized on film.  And there are two stallions available to the public for breeding.  A black grandson named Cass Ole’s Stahr lives with his owners in Arkansas and has four foals due for 2022.  Bronze Starfire is a chestnut great grandson living with his owner in Nevada.  These two are the last known stallions carrying Cass Ole’s line into the future.

Cass Ole as the Black

Be sure to join Sheila’s fan club and meet new friends!!

Don’t forget to watch the Kentucky Derby tomorrow 6:45 pm NBC sports.

And pick up a little Black Stallion luck at the shop!

Alec Ramsay talks about the Black!

Bucephalus

Here’s a blast for your Black Stallion history, an interview with Kelly Reno about working on the classic movie!
He and his wife, Dawn post on the forum so if you have any questions you may find the answers there already. You can always leave a special note to them – BlackStalGal.

Our friends at Horse Illustrated published this last fall but if you didn’t get a chance to read it then you can now. Stop by their site at www.HorseChannel.com and see all the latest stories.

For a bit of Alec’s magic pick up your own Bucephalus at the Gift store!
Thanks for reading … and writing! – tim

It was 35 years ago when a young boy from Colorado named Kelly Reno thundered down a pristine beach against an aquamarine sea with outstretched arms, riding bareback
on a black Arabian stallion named Cass Ole. Together, they became the embodiment of the boy and horse in Walter Farley’s classic tale, The Black Stallion, giving life to Alec Ramsay and the wild stallion The Black in ways that only the extraordinary visual storytelling of Hollywood conveys.
As timeless today as when the Academy Award winning movie was released in 1979, Reno was only 11 years old with no acting experience when filming began. In contrast, riding was totally ingrained from growing up on his parents’ 10,000-acre cattle ranch.
“Basically, my whole childhood from birth was sitting on horseback somewhere,” says Reno, now 47. A family friend spotted an advertisement in The Denver Post for the lead role in a new movie based on Walter Farley’s book, The Black Stallion, and told Reno’s mother. The idea of getting out of school to go to Denver for auditions held immediate appeal to the young boy. “One thing led to another and I happened to be what they were looking for, and I wound up getting the part,” says Reno. “I had never done any acting, but I was always kind of a ham.” The actor who played Alec Ramsay recalls his classic role.
By Elizabeth Kaye McCall

This is the link to the full story with photos;
HI Kelly and the BlackStallion

Ride on!!!

Racing The Black

… and now the rest of the story!

dad writing

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b&w Rearing web
Hi!
Thought you might like these questions and answers from some students in the Horse Tales Literacy Program.
www.HorseTales.org
Enjoy your Sunday Ride.
And stop at the Ranch on your way home:-}

Subject: 4th grade questions

Message Body:
Dear Mr. Farley,
My name is Mr. Dan Range and I co- teach 4th grade vocabulary with Mrs. Garcia
in the Gadsden Elementary school district. We are located in San Luis, Arizona.
During our class time for the last month Mrs. Garcia and I have been reading
your fathers book “The Black Stallion” to the students as a read aloud. We just
finished this morning and the students have some questions that they would like
to ask of you in regards to your father’s book.
1. How did your father develop the character of Alec. Was he based on people he
knew in school or was there a particular family member that resembled his
personality.
2. Is the “Black Stallion based on actual events”
3. What made you and you brother decide to continue your father’s legacy in
regards to writing and literacy?
The students enjoyed the story of the Black stallion, so much so that we are
going to show the movie on Friday. Thank you for your commitment to literacy and
for writing and preserving such great American literature. The students look
forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Mr. Range and Mrs. Garcia
Arizona Deserts 4th grade class.

Dear Mr. Range, Mrs Garcia and students,
My dad started writing” the Black Stallion” on his parent’s kitchen table when he was only a bit older than your students, sixteen. He had never owned a pony or a horse but had the opportunity to work with his Uncle Bill at a farm in upstate NY. There was plenty of work and many tall tales about horses of all kinds from his uncle. One that was repeated often was about Uncle Bill’s experience in World War 1;
Bill served as a veterinarian in the Army Equestrian Corps, there were many horses used in battles at that time. If you have seen the movie “War Horse” it shows the pain and tragedy of that war, and Uncle Bill’s job was to keep the horses sound and fit.
One evening a cry went up that the base camp was being attacked and Bill jumped out of his tent to see a lone man on a huge black horse charging toward him, bomb in hand!! Bill knew that if the solider managed to throw the bomb many of his friends would die and he had to do something NOW. He raised his pistol and fired without hesitation. The shot killed the rider instantly, before he had a moment to react, and he and his bomb fell to the ground harmlessly. Uncle Bill had saved the camp, his friends and officers, he was a hero!
The Captain of the base was so impressed by Bill’s swift action he asked him what he wanted as a reward. Uncle Bill knew exactly what he wanted – that Huge Black Stallion!
From then on the German horse and Bill were inseparable – traveling all over Europe as war raged and, like Alexander The Great’s horse Bucephalus, he saved Uncle Bill’s life more than once. Finally the war finished and it was time to go home. Like thousands of other soldiers Bill made his way to France where he was to board a ship back to America. When he arrived he soon learned there was no room for his most important possession, his horse. He had to make a painful decision – his family or his stallion.
Bill found a farmer in a nearby town who would take his beautiful black stallion and with tears in his eyes he left Black with the farmer, promising to return soon.
It was years later before Bill could get the money to go back but that big horse was a treasure he wasn’t going to lose! His big stallion became the sire of many fine race horses for Uncle Bill, who treated him with love and care for the rest of his life.
This is the way the story was told to me.

I believe this family tale and Dad’s wish to be an adventurer created Alec Ramsay. Often as my father would run on the beach, he was a track runner in school, and I would wonder who he was – Alec or the Black? He seemed to be both of them at different times but his fascination with horses of all types and that special feeling of connection between human and animal was a constant. Dad didn’t want sad stories about horses, books like “Black Beauty” and later “King of the Wind”, he wanted exciting adventure and wild horses! The Black Stallion gave him the ability to meet people in all walks of life from jockeys and trainers to presidents, kings and movie stars. He was able to ride the Black Stallion around the world doing what he like best – having adventures and writing about horses.
You never know where your dreams might take you!

I grew up with my dad’s closest friend, the Black Stallion, and he was a real part of the family. Dad was able to own a few horses later in life but that special mystery horse was the BIG brother of the family. When I was just out of college I started working on the Black Stallion films as a photographer (attached pix). That was an fantastic adventure that took me from the race tracks of California to the Sahara desert in Africa. I worked with many exciting people and saw magic come to life – like the rainbow scenes at the end of the Black Stallion film.
We started our literacy program with family friend Mark Miller and Al-Marah Arabians. Mark was best friends with my sister Pam and she is the inspiration for the books “Black Stallion and the Girl” and “Black Stallion Legend”.
Mark had a wonderful horse theater, Arabian Nights, in Orlando, Florida and I always hoped we could do something together. Horse Tales started as a small idea that used my dad’s books and his horses to tell a story that made reading fun. It was hard at the beginning but after the first year we knew we couldn’t stop – too many teachers and students enjoyed the program. We’ve now had over a million students participate in ten states and three countries.

You can read more about my dad’s life; https://theblackstallion.com/web/author/
Don’t forget to join the forum – you never know who you might meet there; https://theblackstallion.com/web/mb/
We have contests and discussion about horses, writing, movies … all kinds of topics.
Join us on FaceBook https://www.facebook.com/alec.ramsay.96
Check up on the happenings at the Florida farm on FaceBook; https://www.facebook.com/almaraharabianhorses
And in Arizona; http://www.al-marah.com/
Thanks for writing … and reading!
Tim & Pamela Farley
www.theblackstallion.com
www.HorseTales.org

 

Goodbye Mr. Rooney :-{

carrollmickeyscript

 

atbs

MickeyHat

Mickey Rooney passed away yesterday, a sad loss to the entire entertainment world. Mickey started at two years old and was still making movies this year at 93! His legacy will endure as history has already shown. His performance as Henry Dailey, with Kelly Reno as Alec Ramsay, in Carroll Ballard’s classic “The Black Stallion” for MGM /UA brought an Oscar nomination for Mickey, many yeas after he was a an MGM contract actor. His work when he was the young heartthrob for the studio only  brought him a marriage to young Ava Gardner – every inch a classic at 5 foot three!

I had the pleasure and honor to ride to the set every day with Mickey and heard a lot of his wonderful stories as the miles swept by. Sometimes those rides were the highlight of my day … and that’s saying something as those were exciting days. To see him perform, a true entertainer, singer, dancer & actor was a treat not to be forgotten. He had boundless energy that shows in every frame of film.

After his work on “Black Stallion” in 1979 Mickey went on to Broadway with Ann Miller and “Sugar Babies”, a tribute to his song and dance Vaudeville roots. It was a hit running for over three years with rave reviews and awards.

In 1988 we had the pleasure to team up with Mr. Rooney again with the TV show “Adventures of the Black Stallion” for a three year series. Mickey continued his role as Henry Dailey with Richard Cox as Alec.

Here’s a great article on Mickey – good or bad boy – he was a REAL original;

Mickey Rooney Was the Last Old Hollywood Star Standing

He was an astonishing actor, a galvanized entertainer and a star who could never diminish his own glory (though he tried). He was Puck and Baby Face Nelson—only in America. But it is not enough to say that we have lost an actor, a vaudevillian, an artist, and a national treasure. It is the force that is gone, and the sense of that force as part of our history. We know what it is to admit that there is no one left alive who fought in the trenches of the Great War. Soon there will be no one left who existed in a Nazi concentration camp. So Mickey Rooney was the last male left alive who had been a true star and a phenomenon in the 1930s, when Hollywood believed it ran the show and had established the idea of some spunky, brilliant kids doing it. After all, the show was hardly a thing for which one could expect adult participation.

Joseph Yule Jr. was ninety-three at the end; he had been five-feet-two once; and there had been eight wives and nine children, many of whom may have tottered away from the experience in exhaustion and disbelief. He was not easygoing, and not restrained by reality or fact. In the late ’30s, when he was the number 3 champion at the box office (following Clark Gable and Shirley Temple), he let it be known that Mickey Mouse had been named after him. Walt Disney did not recall it that way, but why would anyone attend to his rather grim, clerical manner when the wide eyes and the wider imagination of the Mick were on offer? Years after the death of Judy Garland, Rooney looked back on their screen association. He said their love affair—which had never been an affair—was intense beyond description. It meant, he said, in 1992, that Judy was not really or exactly or simply dead. She lived on in him. Such talk is easily taken as show business hyperbole, and by 1992 that had become an alien language. But the truth is that Mick meant it. He believed. Stranger  things had happened—notably the way he was Andy Hardy in fourteen films at MGM, as well as Judy’s partner in films where the couple put on a show, climaxing in Babes in Arms, which was one of the biggest box-office hits of 1939, even bigger than The Wizard of Oz.

Mickey Rooney

Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Mickey Rooney and Ava Gardner in 1942.

The story of how MGM and its father figure, Louis B. Mayer, tried to keep Mickey and Judy kids forever and out of trouble would make an astonishing movie. There is only one drawback to the plan: No one now can match or understand the ferocious acting-out dynamic of all three parties. Mayer may have hoped that the vast sexual energy in both kids might be married off, but Mickey became a serial marrier. He started with Ava Gardner, who was nowhere near a star yet and was four inches taller than he was. He moved on to Martha Vickers, who is Carmen Sternwood in The Big Sleep, the nymph who tries to sit down in Bogart’s lap while he’s still standing up. The mere idea of Mickey and Martha together (1949-52) tends to eclipse the nuclear testing that was so popular at that time. I know, that’s excessive and vulgar, but we are talking about Mickey Rooney.

Anyone would have anticipated that the Mick would burn out. By about 1950, the generation of child stars he had grown up with were looking for careers in stockbroking and settled marriages. Judy was cracking up, but Shirley Temple, Freddie Bartholomew, Deanna Durbin and Jackie Cooper were all facing up to reality. Rooney went broke—god knows what happened to his money. He should have subsided, or come to a bad end. He never stopped. Only a few years ago, I was driving in rural Oregon and came to a settlement, with a casino and dinner theatre, and there he was doing one of his shows.

That view of his undying thunderstorm could be amused and patronizing, so let me just say to those who hardly knew him and who lack the time to track down everything he did—he has 340 credits on IMDb—try these (going back in time):

Mickey Rooney

Express Newspapers/Getty Images
Rooney in 1971.

Carroll Ballard’s The Black Stallion is a film that never fails with audiences. One reason why is that after the lyrical stuff on the island with the horse and the boy, the story moves on to horse-racing where Mick is the trainer who teaches the boy to be a jockey on the Black for the big race. It is one of the finest tributes to education in American cinema.

In 1957, for the big screen, he was the lead in Don Siegel’s Baby Face Nelson—brilliant, hilarious, demonic; and in the same year, on the small screen, directed by John Frankenheimer from a Rod Serling script, he did The Comedian for Playhouse 90—monstrous, inspired, terrifying.

Last, let it be first. In the Max Reinhart film of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, made at Warner Brothers in 1936, he was Puck. Many years ago, an English critic said of that performance, “Rooney seems inhuman, he moves like mist or water, his body is burnished by the extraordinary light, and his gurgling laugh is ghostly and enchanting.” Let that stand.

One co-star in the Dream was Olivia de Havilland, and she is still alive and (I hope) very well (she is the last female star from that era). I’m not sure if they met during the filming, but it’s pretty and tempting to picture the two of them together—Mickey sixteen, Olivia nineteen—with her offering him advice to calm down, behave and think of his career, while knowing that he was not going to do one damn thing she told him.

We’ll all miss you Mr. Rooney – but we’ll see you at the movies.
Tim, Kelly, Carroll, Doug, Caleb, Fred, Tom …  and all your Black Stallion friends!