Can anything really come between a man and his horse? On Yellowstone, the Duttons make their living from cattle ranching, much of which requires many of the Yellowstone workers and family to take to their horses to ferry their hoofed money-makers from one part of the land to another.
The hit Western-inspired TV series has shown us the ins and outs of running a ranch, and though the humans running around the show often encounter dramatic situations, their horses are usually right there with them.
Cole Hauser, who plays the Head Rancher of few words, Rip Wheeler, perhaps spends more time on his horse than anyone else in the Yellowstone cast. Since he’s in charge of those in the bunkhouse, as well as acting as the pseudo-Head of Security for the Dutton family, he needs to get to places fast.
But spending so much time on a horse while filming the drama series meant that Hauser got to know his horse buddy pretty well, and he ended up feeling like he had something of a lovely connection with the animal.
“Year two, the horse I loved the most — and actually, he’s lame now because he hurt himself, not on the show — his name was Dude,” he explained [via Entertainment Tonight]. “He was a Bay horse. And he was a badass. He’d do anything for me. He was like my best friend. I could look at him and go, ‘Let’s go’, and he’d just walk right up.”
For those who are unfamiliar with horse lingo, ‘Bay’ refers to the coloring of the horse, and Bay horses are typically recognizable by their reddish-brown color, and usually have a black mane, tail, and legs. They’re generally the most common colors in most horse breeds.
When the time came to replace the original Dude, the wranglers behind the drama series didn’t put too much effort into coming up with a name for Hauser’s new horses.
“They call him Dude No.2,” he said of his replacement horse. “And then there’s Dude No.3. All the horses I ride, they just name Dude. They’re all good, but nothing like the first one. He would come up and just snuggle under my arm and I’d pet him.”
We doubt you’d catch Rip ever saying such affectionate things, but we kind of love the idea of one of the Yellowstone horses being the best co-star. Here’s wishing Dude No.1 a happy acting retirement.
For all Dutton matters take a look at the 1923 cast and characters list. And if you want to get really in-depth about the Yellowstone universe, check out why we think Dallas ran so Yellowstone could fly.