Trainer mourns ‘Lord of the Rings’ horse

A horse trainer in Fallbrook is mourning the recent death of her Andalusian horse, Blanco, who played the wizard Gandalf’s stallion Shadowfax in two of the “Lord of the Rings” films.

Blanco’s hospitalization and death at the end of March have left owner Cynthia Royal with $18,500 in vet bills, so friends are stepping forward to help cover the costs for the horse she described as her “soul mate in a fur suit.”

Royal has owned Blanco since 2006, when she purchased him from “Lord of the Rings” filmmaker Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema. He was one of three horses Royal trained and toured the country with until 2009. Since then, Blanco lived quietly on Royal’s ranch. In late December, Blanco fell ill with an undiagnosed bowel and liver disorder. After three months of unsuccessful treatment, he was euthanized and died in Royal’s arms at a local animal hospital.

Royal said Blanco was like her shadow, a horse she could ride without saddle and bridle and a leader to other horses.

“He was my partner, my friend and my teacher and an integral part of my life personally and professionally,” she said. “To lose him was like losing a parent, spouse or child. In some ways he was all three.”

Royal, a Santa Monica native, grew up around horses. Her stepfather worked with exotic animals and her mother was friends with the famed Hollywood horse trainer Glenn Randall Sr., who worked with Roy Rogers’ horse, Trigger.

“I was riding before I could walk. When I was little, they’d tie me to a baby sitter horse. Being around animals has always been what was normal to me,” said Royal, 55.

In the 1990s, Royal became a professional horse trainer as an outgrowth of a personal crusade. To save foals headed to the slaughterhouse, she bought the young horses, trained and sold them, then used the proceeds to buy more foals.

“I found out I could train these baby horses to do anything. If you wanted it to come into your house and sit on your couch, I could make that happen,” she said.

Disillusioned with the punishment-themed techniques used by some trainers, Royal developed a positive training style that rewards horses for good behavior. She dreamed of one day traveling the country with a team of humanely trained horses but she couldn’t afford to leave her high-paying job in Virginia as a computer support technician.

Then in 2004, she got sick. A serving of salmonella-tainted chicken chow mein landed her in the hospital with a progressive illness so severe, it was written up last month in Reader’s Digest. The bacteria breached the wall of her intestines and hitched a ride to her heart on the arterial plaque in her bloodstream. The resulting inflammation of the arteries around her heart and her genetically high cholesterol led to double-bypass surgery. It was the first of five heart surgeries she has endured over the past 10 years.

After her second surgery in 2006, Royal said she had the “a-ha moment” where she decided she couldn’t put off her dream any longer. She quit her job and went around the world buying horses for her show. They included Rameous, a black Norman horse from Canada; Bronse, an Andalusion from Puerto Rico; and Blanco, who she found for sale in Australia after the “Rings” movies wrapped filming.

Blanco can be seen in both “The Two Towers” and “Return of the King” films, running to Gandalf (Ian McKellen) on command and galloping up the stone paths of Minas Tirith. Blanco knew a few tricks when Royal bought him, but she worked with him and the other horses to become “liberty” or untethered performers, who do behaviors and tricks to voice or hand commands.

As they toured the country, Royal found that audiences were more interested in her training style than her show, so in recent years she has focused on teaching horse owners her techniques.

Because her heart problems have continued and she has no health insurance, Royal was forced to file for bankruptcy in 2012. She sold her former ranch in Valley Center and most of her animals, and recently moved to an older, 12-acre ranch in north Fallbrook. When Blanco got sick in December, Royal didn’t have a cushion to cover the costs of his veterinary and hospital bills.

“People think if you’re in show business you’ve got a lot of money, but those of us who train animals for entertainment are very poorly paid,” she said.

To help cover Blanco’s bills, friends have helped Royal launch an online fundraising campaign

(gofundme.com/shadowfax). So far, nearly $6,000 has been donated.

“People have been responding and I’m really hopeful that we’ll meet our goal within two months, if not sooner,” she said.