Jimmy Stewart (about Pie): “The horse was amazing. I rode him for 22 years. I never was able to buy him because he was owned by a little girl by the name of Stevie Myers, who is the daughter of an old wrangler who used to wrangle horses for Tom Mix and W.S. Hart. He retired and he gave this horse to her. He was a sort of a maverick. He hurt a couple of people. I saw him when I started making Westerns. Audie Murphy rode him a couple of times. He nearly killed Glen Ford, ran right into a tree… But I liked this darned little horse. He was a little bit small, a little quarter horse and Arabian. I got to know him like a friend. I actually believed that he understood about making pictures. I ran at a full gallop, straight towards the camera, pulled him up and then did a lot of dialogue and he stood absolutely still. He never moved. He knew when the camera would start rolling and when they did the slates. He knew that because his ears came up.”
From a great BFI interview from 1972. You can read the whole thing here. Photo of Stewart on Pie from The Far Country (1954).
50 Westerns From The 50s. 
I used to ride horses at the track. Toward the end of my career there was a horse that wasn’t one of my regular mounts because he was dangerous and bad and had dropped every rider that had been on him. At this point I had been working for this particular trainer for over a year and hadn’t been dropped from any of this horses. But I’m a woman. Anyway, this little chestnut horse finally couldn’t stand his current rider’s rough handling and he reared up and flipped over. He ended up needing 8 stitches in his head. After that he was so terrified of people that he would run to the back of his stall when someone tried to go in. At this point they decided to try me as his rider. He was a wreck. So scared of the rider that if I lifted my hand to pat his neck he’d bolt. For a week I just rode him walking around the barn. I’d keep about 4-6 big carrots in my pocket to reward him for each time he didn’t bolt. The next week I took him to the hacienda, a small indoor track, and just loved him. That night I stopped by to visit my parents for dinner and they told me about a biography they’d just watched on tv about Jimmy Stewart and his horse, Pie. They told me about the story of Pie walking through town. This red horse that I was riding had no nickname. He was called That Bad Horse, or The Horse In Stall 40, at the very best, The Crazy Red Horse. I knew that horse and I would someday be as close as Pie and Jimmy, so I started to call him Pie. He ran three races and won the last two. But after winning that third race he pulled up lame. He couldn’t run again but it wasn’t a life threatening injury. The owners gave him to me. I retired from the racetrack about 6 months later. Pie and I are now living happily ever after.
I feel that the strength of my relationship with my Pie was inspired by the story of Jimmy Stewart and his Pie.
Great story, Susan. You probably saved his life. Jimmy Stewart has inspired many, but I never knew about Pie til I watched The Far Country and heard Ben Mankeowitz talk about him on TCM. I’m a rider, too.
Other people have mentioned seeing something on TV about Stewart and Pie. I’d love to see it.
I’d love to see that, too. Here’s a link to a real audio clip about it, though:
http://www.wildwestweb.net/pie.html
and here’s a bit from an interview:
http://www.bfi.org.uk/features/interviews/stewart.html#horses
I enjoy watching old westerns and always look for “pie”. I remember seeing the Jimmy Stewart interview were he talks about “pie”. Also great story susan.
When I was five years old I asked my Daddy for a horse and a farm. I watched every movie that had horses in it. And I would think of all the horses I ‘d see , I just wanted one thats all. I worked on a ranch the weekends just to be around them and to ride. On my sixteenth birthday I got my first horse. I’m fifty seven now and have three horses, and still get the thrill every time I go for a ride. I remember how Jimmy Stewart and pie looked to be best of friends. I feel so blesses to have my horses. With all the every day stresses it’s my time alone with my horses and the world and it’s beauty shines thru each time with each season.
the story goes that in one film pie had a bell on his saddle . he had to walk down the street by himself and as he walked the bell rang . it did it in one take
The horses are gone, the ‘westerns’ are gone the people that portraited them are gone- our world is a poorer place without the example they were for the children of the time. Now the children watch senseless violence, rape and murder and consider that ‘normal’
LOL, Toby,
Was looking for some info on when Pie died for an article I thought of doing…..comparing him to my horse perhaps. I found this of yours. NICE. had heard Jimmy tell some of the story, including the one about having the horse walk down the street all by himself………..Jimmy had told the director that he could tell Pie to do it and he would……..he DID as stated above….first take. So thanks for this and for all the comments above about their horses. Mine, Carat, is most special to me, so i know how you and JIMMY feel. Imagine Jimmy takes a ride on him every now and then up there with the rest of the guys! KEITH
Think the film with the bell on a Pie’s saddle was “The Far Country”
i reakky enjoyed jimmy movies im sixty years old and i still watch emwhen come on t.v. i watxhed the far country today from a liyyle boyto an old man i really liked james stewart he.s right up there with johnn wayne both man are my heroes…. joe r johnson
hey every one this joe johnson sorry about my spelling didn,t have my glass es on
Mary Alice Nelson.. Very well said.. But all the Western were pretty bad in those days.. Stage couch robbers.. Train Robbers.. Custer last Stand.. the Alamo.. So, there are horses every where.. from Roy Rogers, Jimmy Stewart to John Wayne.. all those great western movies.. the west couldn’t live with out horses, cattles or ox in those days.. They were the great as they pull the wagons.. Yes It was History.. and Yes.. they make great movies.. Roy Roger with Trigger , John Wayne with Dollar.. and Jimmy Stewart with Pie. plus more yes.. they were great riders!! and Yes. Most of them are gone.. But will not be forgotten as TCM still keep on showing them.. and Yes.. there better then these new TV shows in the new era’s!!… KEEP ON RIDING TO THE SUNSET!!
Suzanne “-)
jimmy was a great actor I watch his movies every time they come on tv they don,t make western like his any more he is missed and ive already read the story about pie
Pie was a beautiful horse and looks very much like the horse Yul Brynner rode
in The Magnificent Seven. Henry Fonda painted a picture of Pie for Jimmy
Stewart. Jimmy Stewart was noted for a terrible temper.
Pie was the horse that Brynner rode in “Magnificent Seven”. When you see the movie again, look how Pie is tacked up. He had a bit of a head up issue, so he always had the strap between his chin strap and chest strap. Also, watch how perfectly still he his during close up shots of Brynner.
I always thought that was Pie. The girl who owns Pie should have sold him to Stewart. I always thought that Stewart was an asshole.
Was the same horse. I read when Stewart found out that Brynner was riding Pie in that movie, he wasn’t happy about it.
Stevie Myers was my 2nd riding instructor and had my own horse stabled at their barn a few stalls away from the Pie. I had a chance to ride him as well. Stevie daughter Leslie and I were friends. I even went to Stevies funeral. I think the Pie lived for 41 years I don’t remember him being small. Every one loved that horse and he was spoiled rotten by all of us at the barn. We had many horses at the barn that were used in the movies we even had a trained falling horse sometimes I would ride him as well.
Thank you for the comment on Pie, As a horseman and cowboy I can relate.
If Pie lived to be 41 that is an extraordinary life.
All I could remember from when I was 15 years old was seeing a film in Caerphilly Working Men’s Hall cinema starring James Steward in which he had a tiny bell under his saddle. I soon bought a bell for under the saddle of my new drop handlebar bicycle which I took on rides to Lands End and Paris etc. Many thanks to everyone for their stories which have added so much to my own recollections of a wonderful time.
I have seen Pie in other movies, for instance, as a mount for Yul Brynner in
Magnificent Seven Jack Meyer redowljack@yahoo.com
http://mikeandvicki.com/Horse_The_Pie/The_Pie_A_Horse.htm
After seeing James Stewart in ‘Harvey’ in London about 1971, I met him at the stage door and asked him if PIE was still alive. Sadly No. Then he signed my programme
http://mikeandvicki.com/Horse_The_Pie/The_Pie_A_Horse.htm