THUNDER BAY — She had the time of her life on the set of a popular TV series this summer, but Jenn Salo couldn't talk about it until CBC broadcast an episode of Heartland earlier this month.
Salo can now speak freely about an experience she calls "one of the most epic adventures of my life."
A year ago this month, she took a call that came out of the blue from Amber Marshall, the award-winning star of the long-running series set on an Alberta ranch.
"Apparently we have a mutual friend, and she had asked if he knew anyone who did falconry from horseback, and I'm pretty much one of the only people who practise it, as far as I know, in Canada," Salo recalled Wednesday in an interview with Newswatch.
She said Marshall explained that birds trained to be comfortable around horses were needed for filming an episode of the show's 18th season called World On A String.
"They were planning an episode involving falconry from horseback. At first they wanted to know if this was even something that could be feasible. Then, we spent the winter conversing about what's realistic. But when spring came around, and they were getting ready for production, they asked if I would consider lending my hawk Nymaari for the episode, since she's already trained to horses. Of course I said 'heck, yes.' "
Salo said she realized, though, that one bird wouldn't be enough.
"From what I knew of filming, and the time it takes and the days that go into doing an episode, and how it is working with hawks. We have to always monitor their weight. Their response is food-based, so if you're doing a whole day of training, he's gonna be stuffed to his gills and not be able to fly the next day."
Facing the challenge of finding birds already trained to work with horses, she called on longtime friend and fellow-falconer Laurel Gordon, who lives in southern Ontario.
"She had her little Harris hawk, Quill, that she's been working on with her friends' horses to get him used to it over the last couple years. She agreed to put more training into her bird."
Salo also turned to another friend and bird-breeder who was willing loan of two of his own for backup.
"Off we went. Four hawks, two girls, and a wee baby Eurasian eagle-owl, all packed into a van and off to the most epic adventure of our lives'" she wrote in a social media post.
The long drive out west brought her, Gordon, and the birds to Alberta in July, right in the middle of one of the province's busiest-ever wildfire seasons.
"Jasper was burning down, and the forest fires were just crazy. The smoke was unreal on some days. If the wind wasn't blowing it away with 50 km/h gusts, the air was really heavy with smoke. At one point we actually had to stop production, and there was ash falling out of the sky. I was concerned about my birds breathing all this in."
It turned out a full week of training was needed, and there were hundreds of people on-site at any given time.
"It was a lot to ask from the birds, to deal with that many people, to deal with strange horses. I had to train the actresses to look natural, like they'd been doing this their whole lives where they have never even held a bird before, let alone get one to fly to them, and how to handle the horse and a bird all at once. It was a lot of work but it was also a lot of fun," Salo said.
All the efforts she made to contribute to a successful production happened off-camera, as she passed up an opportunity to become an actress.
"They had considered casting me, just because they figured it would be easier, since the birds were already familiar with me, but I respectfully declined. I'm quite happy to be behind the scenes."
Salo said that despite the hectic pace and 14-hour days, she would do it all over again "in a heartbeat."
On her Facebook page, she wrote "It was an incredible experience. I can't thank everyone involved enough for the help to make this happen."
Her friend Gordon echoed those sentiments with her own note, saying "It was surreal to walk around the Heartland ranch and work with such an amazing cast and crew."
Heartland/World On A String can be seen online on CBC Gem.
