As many fans know, Ben Barnes claimed during auditions for Prince Caspian that he could ride a horse. It turned out to be a stretch of the truth as he had only been on a horse once when he was very small. So they trained him in horseback riding.
While filming Easy Virtue, the last part of shooting involved a big and expensive fox hunt on horseback. The director, Stephan Elliot comments:
“Ben really wanted to ride in the hunt scene, which was the last thing we shot, but the insurance company wouldn’t let him. It was such a shame because he’d learned to ride for Prince Caspian and he knew he was good on a horse. I put all the money we had left into this hunt and it looked great, so I just said, ‘Ben, get on the horse.’ He was thrilled… The producers found out too late and I could see them rushing to the set, where they’d attempt to pull him off the horse. I yelled, ‘Action,’ the hunt took off and Ben rode his horse straight into a tree, was thrown off and knocked himself out. He was fine but for a minute there, I was really concerned… but I thought, ‘Well I’ve got what I need and they can’t take the film away from me.’ The insurance company guys were not happy.”
Ben Barnes is currently preparing for his return to Narnia in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader; shooting starts this July in Australia.