Game of Thrones horse trainer and weapons master give behind-the-scenes insights

The cast of Game of Thrones has had plenty to say about the series and its final season over the past couple weeks, with many of the actors making television appearances and giving online and in-print interviews about their characters. But the cast members aren’t the only ones on the Game of Thrones set offering up details about the show; plenty of people from the crew are also looking back as the end approaches.

Case in point: Camilla Naprous, Game of Thrones’ horse master—yes, somebody has to train and care for all those horses—recently did an interview with the Los Angeles Times. Since coming onboard during the first season of the series, Naprous’ two-week job helping out with a jousting scene has turned into a nine-year career during which she’s aided in coordinating and choreographing basically all of the horses that appear on the show.

Naprous and her brother manage The Devil’s Horsemen, the company that provides Game of Thrones with its horses. Originally started by their father, the organization has climbed to all-new heights since she and her brother took over. In addition to Game of Thrones, its horses have also appeared in major hits like Wonder Woman and The Crown.

Of course, dealing with all of the equine scenes on Game of Thrones is no easy feat. There are so many moments that feature the characters riding on horseback, it’s hard to imagine overseeing it all. But even with all the work Naprous has done on the show, she was easily able to pinpoint some of her favorite experiences while working on the set.

“Battle of the Bastards” was the first “high point” she mentions, and anyone who has watched the episode will understand. The epic battle between Jon Snow and Ramsay Bolton was so huge that the horse department needed to hire around 160 people just to manage that aspect of it. These employees ranged from groomers and lorry drivers to trainers and stunt riders.

Naprous also cited “The Spoils of War” as one of her favorite moments to film, referring to the battle between Daenerys’ army and the Lannister forces led by Bronn and Jaime. Viewers will recall that Daenerys had plenty of Dothraki fighting on her side—and the Dothraki have a tendency to go wild while riding their horses. Naprous designed a special rig that enabled the stunt riders to stand up while riding, waving their weapons as they did.

Part of this episode’s brilliance comes from the free reign Naprous was given by showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss. “There was a brilliant bit on on the outline when I first read the script that just went, ‘And Camilla whatever you can bring. Go free,'” she remembered. And that’s exactly what she did.

But Naprous’ job isn’t all fun and epic battles. She also must see to the transportation of horses and deal with the logistics of every scene that contains them. The stunt riders need to be wearing the right gear, and sometimes, they need to be dirty or bloodied up to look the part.

Naprous also makes sure to stand up for her horses if they’ve been overworked. ““If the day gets too long or the ground is not right or they need a lunch break, that’s my job to stand up for them. They don’t have a voice, and I am the horses’ voice.”

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Of course, more goes into the massive battles in Game of Thrones than preparing the horses and stunt riders. For a series so full of fighting, it’s important to have plenty of weapons. That’s where the show’s weapons master, Tommy Dunne, comes in.

With more than 25 years of experience creating weapons for television and movies, Dunne has been arming the characters of Game of Thrones since the beginning. His role was even more crucial for the upcoming season, as he was in charge of making the dragonglass weapons that our characters will (hopefully) use to defeat the Night King.

Speaking with Inverse, Dunne gave his two cents about creating dragonglass for season 8. “What’s the point of having any other weapon?” he asked, rhetorically. “Nothing normal is gonna work on the wights and the White Walkers. Everything has to go obsidian; every shape, every form of weaponry that we know of … has to be turned into dragonglass.”

It’s a fair point (geddit?), but apparently, making all of that dragonglass wasn’t an easy feat. Dragonglass is made from obsidian, and the material is a brittle one—both in fiction and in real life. That makes the substance difficult to work with, and the only way to sharpen obsidian is to use a method called “knapping,” which Inverse describes as “whittling it down the same way you’d create a stone knife.”

With the difficulties involved, dragonglass blades can’t be very long; 10 inches is probably as long as they can get, with 8-9 inches being the best size. When you compare those blades to the 5-foot sword the Mountain carries around, they seem positively miniscule.

“You’d never make a long blade out of obsidian, but you could set it within a frame that takes all the weight and power,” Dunne said. He cited Aztec and Mayan weaponry as inspiration for what he did with the Dragonglass blades, explaining that idea for the Children of the Forest’s spears also came from these ancient civilizations.

Dunne also explained that, while the Game of Thrones weapons needed to look like obsidian, they weren’t actually made from it. “The ‘obsidian’ that we use is, alas, 99 percent rubber—a rubber mix blade and a rubber mold,” Dunne said. “They’re all mapped out, hand-carved, and obviously molded and created to be safe.” The swords meant to do “actual cutting on screen,” however, were made from steel and then given the look of obsidian.

The weapons designer also discussed his experience working on “Beyond the Wall,” the episode where Jon and his companions journey north to capture a wight they can bring to King’s Landing. Each of the characters was given a weapon made of dragonglass for that scene, and while Dunne didn’t decide which weapons each character got, he agreed that the weapons matched their individual fighting styles. “The Hound likes to fight,” Dunne said. “He’s one to use that to his advantage in bold ways, to punch and stab at the same time. That’s part of his character’s look. He’s just coming back to his preferred weapon.”

With all the consideration Dunne gives to the weapons on Game of Thrones, it seems fans have been lucky to have him around all these years. He’ll also be working on the Game of Thrones prequel series in the works, although he could reveal about that project just yet.

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