Riding Dollar Back to Common Ground
Randall Franks (left) as “Capt. Robert Shields” with Dollar and Butch Culpepper as “Jeremiah Weer” with Charlie on the set of The American’s Creed. (Courtesy: Peach Picked Productions: Ashley Robillard)
I’d spent my childhood glued to westerns, both films and TV shows, dreaming of the open range. My Granddad Bill had lived that life, cowboying out west in his youth at the turn of the 1900s. From what I’ve heard, he was a fine horseman, punching cows and driving steers to market. I never got to learn from him—he passed before I was born—but those old westerns gave me a glimpse of what his adventures might have been like. As an actor, I longed to star in one, though I came up in the era of police dramas like In the Heat of the Night and endless sitcoms.
Filming The American’s Creed gave me a taste of that dream, even if it wasn’t a western. I was nursing a broken leg back to health, and mounting Dollar was a struggle. I climbed up the wrong side, awkwardly lifting my mending leg over the saddle. No doubt she was annoyed—and I couldn’t blame her. In life, we all get irked by folks who rub us the wrong way. But just as Dollar tolerated my fumbling, we often have to push past slights or annoyances to find a way forward.
That day, as I steadied her after her spook, I felt a flicker of the past—those western scenes where a horse bolts and the rider hangs on. Here I was, living it, albeit in a Revolutionary War setting. Over time, Dollar and I found our rhythm, syncing our timing and intuition to nail the scenes. By the end of the shoot, we were old friends. If I ever get to do a western, I’d love to ride with her again.
