A bucking horse invades and seems to control a cowboy’s love life. When successfully riding the horse the cowboy is closer to the rancher’s daughter. But when he is bucked off it brings the ranch manager’s daughter to a boil.

SYNOPSIS:

http://www.magicalrealism.us/2014/06/21/bucking-horse/ alternate title, The Loving Horse Screenplay by Lee A. Miller Beau is a cowboy. Not a wanna-be cowboy but an employee on a ranch. He was a rodeo cowboy, specializing in “rough stock” events, such as bareback bronc riding and saddle bronc riding. Countless injuries solved that problem. Beau works on a large Texas ranch. He is responsible for the horses. Many of the cowboys use ATVs. The ranch has a helicopter and the horse business loses money, but Beau’s job is nostalgic. The rancher is sentimental. The most beautiful woman in the state is the rancher’s daughter, Delilah. And Delilah loves the horses, so Beau has some job security. Of course Beau wants Delilah to notice him. Delilah is sweet and shy and extremely attractive. She has the body and the hair and is a simple woman. She is graceful and uncomplicated. She seems to always be in the same mellow mood. She has very soft personality. She attends the huge state university, but the big city really hasn’t rubbed off on her, yet. She really is reserved about her opinion and is reluctant to tell it to anyone. She is very political taking no sides. She learned to play the middle at collage. Or, that is just he genetic personality. We don’t know which. At home for the summer, Delilah falls in love with a horse at a sale. It is a beautiful horse, but no one knows her background. The rancher asks Beau his opinion. Beau is honest but there is some magical attraction between Delilah and the horse. The father buys the horse and instructs Beau he doesn’t want his daughter on the horse until she is proven safe to ride. Only when they get back to the ranch does Beau check her teeth and finds a tattoo under the lip, “Bad Luck”. All the ranch hands take it as a bad omen, but Beau isn’t superstitious. “I can tame anything,” he declares. The ranch manager (the foreman) has a daughter, Elizabeth Grace. Not so pretty but really has a nice personality. She is moody and a fighter. She curses, gets in fistfights with boys and she is a bit rough around the edges. She is 10 lbs overweight, but it is all heart. She loves hard and she hates even harder. She is as rough and tough on the ranch as any cowboy. She doesn’t have to work, she has community college in town, but she gets her hands dirty for the fun of it. She has a strong sense of what is right and wrong and we hear about it. Her father calls her ”Elizabeth Grace”; the cowboys call her “Grace” but she is far from that. The cowboys on the ranch call the horse “Bad Luck”. Grace, however, calls the horse, “That fucking horse.” As Beau tries to ride the horse, he is bucked off. With each failed attempt to ride the horse, Delilah becomes more impatient with Beau. However, each time Beau is bucked off makes Grace is more attracted to Beau. The horse bucks Beau off in the bed of a pick-up truck. Then, later that night Grace makes love to Beau in the bed of a pick-up truck. The horse bucks Beau off on a wooden fence. Then later, Grace makes love to Beau on top of the wooden fence. The horse bucks Beau off in the water trough. Then the next day, in 107° midday sun, Grace makes love to Beau in the water trough. They Beau and Grace go for a picnic. The horse bucks Beau off on the blanket and into the food. Then, Grace makes love to Beau on the blanket and into the food. Each time Beau is bucked off, Delilah happened to be watching. Her patience is gowning thin and she grows a little edgy with Beau. She questions his competency. She doesn’t know about Grace, but Delilah acts a bit jealous. In reality, she is angry about the horse not being tamed. The horse seems to have two minds. Sometimes she is tame and sometimes she grows a wild hare and pitches a fit. When Beau is riding the horse, Delilah is increasingly friendly even hinting that they might have a future together. She spends time with Beau talking and being friends. However, once the horse spooks and throws Beau, then Delilah storms off mad and disappointed. Beau notices a magic pattern. Delilah and her father want the horse tamed. Beau however, because of what it does to Grace, sees it in his best interest if the horse remains a bit raw. However, he does really try to tame the horse. But he is in the middle. If he tames the horse he might have Delilah, but currently the horse gets him Grace. In the mean while, Grace talks Beau into talking the horse to a rodeo, a bucking contest. It isn’t a good idea at all if he wants to be with Delilah, but this is what Grace wants. All the best professional rodeo cowboys recognize the horse as “Bad Luck”. And we learn the horse was a former retired rodeo bucking horse. They are all afraid of her. She injured many cowboys, but Beau has been bucked off several times and landed hard but hasn’t been injured. However, Beau’s heart is being pulled in two by the horse. The horse wins $1000 and they agree to split it, but Grace gets the idea of buying a really nice saddle. It is worth far more than $1000. But a traveling cowgirl and her cowboy are out of money and must sell the saddle to get to the next rodeo. Beau and Grace are supposed to share the saddle of course but Grace ends up monopolizing the saddle. Grace is oiling the leather on the saddle and the horse bucks Beau off and he lands on the saddle. That night they make love in the saddle. Resolution of this conflict tearing at Beau is simple. Beau tames the horse and is willing to let fate decide what will happen. Delilah is delighted and returns a lot of affection for Beau, but she returns to college the next day. Beau gets on the horse after she has left and of course it bucks him off. MAGICAL REALISM There is an element of magical realism in this screenplay. Beau, Delilah and Grace, their love life is magically tied to the fate of the horse. It is very slight and the audience will need to pay attention but since the magic repeats itself several times, after not too long the audience will see the magic. This magic element in the story is necessary to paint Beau into a box. It is his dilemma and his conflict. Another element of magical realism are two apportions that visit Beau. The ghosts of two cowboys killed by Comanche Indians in 1874, are torn between Delilah and Grace. Beau gets conflicting advise about the women and the horse. CONFLICT There are three levels of conflict. One historic conflict is between cowboy and horse. The horse resents being ridden, so in response the horse places Beau in this conflicted position. With the horse injuring Beau isn’t really the issue in the conflict. It is the best revenge to ripe at Beau’s heart. The horse might have some human traits of civility and the custom of destroying her enemies through cunning. She bucks Beau off at strategic moments. And she is a perfect lady when this suits her plans for Beau. Hidden inside this screenplay is the hint that the horse could break Beau at any time. Beau has been broken by horses before and this has ended his rodeo career. Bad Luck has also broken cowboys in her past. It is never stated but Beau and the horse are both from Texas. The ranch is in Oklahoma. They are both expatriates in a foreign land, with a mechanized culture, and the horse shows him some deference, and only tries to break his heart and not his bones. Neither, man nor horse, wants to break the other and they seem to understand that. The second level of conflict is between Beau’s rivals, Delilah and Grace. Also historic is the idea that two cowgirl will wrestle with each other over a cowboy. Finally, there is a conflict over culture. The horse was a rancher’s tool from the past. The horse is in conflict with the new mechanized ranch. Beau, Grace and Delilah belong to the “horse culture”. Everyone else in the screenplay belong to the “modern culture”.

THE BUCKING HORSE

http://www.magicalrealism.us/2014/06/21/bucking-horse/