TV: Horses to make a comeback in ‘Walking Dead’

Fans will recall that horses haven’t fared so well thus far in the AMC series’ zombie apocalypse, but equines will be playing a bigger role in the upcoming Season 4.

Top photo: Michonne riding her new horse Flame in Season 4, which returns on Oct. 13. Image via Entertainment Weekly.

We’ve seen a horse here and there throughout the series, but the last real horse-as-supporting-actor role happened in Season 1/Episode 1. To review:

Rick rides his horse straight into a big herd of zombies…

Bad idea!

Horse brains, nom-nom…

Since then, the show’s characters have for the most part been getting around in cars. But in the newest issue of Entertainment Weekly, executive producer Gale Anne Hurd explained that things were about to change:

With gas at a premium, with the fact that vehicles break down, I think we would return to the days of horseback riding and you can graze them as you go in a place like Georgia. You don’t have to carry food for them. They feed themselves, so to speak. It goes along with the new approach this season of sustainability. With a horse, you can go through the woods. You can get around obstacles. You can’t do that in a vehicle. If a tree falls and blocks the road, you can’t go through the forest. You’re not going to make it through. It’s actually much more of a useful choice.”

Actress Danai Gurira, who plays Michonne, had to learn how to ride a horse for her role. She took lessons in L.A. and found it intimidating at first.

“I thought it would be fine, and then I got on it and I was like, this is really not easy,” she told EW. “This is a huge beast and it has very sharp instincts. It really expects you to know what you’re doing or it’s not going to listen to you. And, it’s bigger than you and stronger than you. And, you’re really high off the ground.”

She set her mind to it, though, and it all came together by the time they were ready to begin filming the new season. Now, Gurira says, she’s all about some riding.

“I love it now,” she enthused. “And I totally get why Michonne would love it. It’s such a freeing experience, it’s you and this one creature and you don’t have to talk. And it does what you say, but it’s also this old being and it gets you where you need to go. It has this perfect function. It’s just a fantastic animal. So, I so get why she would jump on it and feel free. It’s like going into her man cave.”

Horse as “man cave”? I like it.

Read the full story here.

Here’s the official Season 4 trailer for all my fellow dorks:

Go Riding!