ERREBONNE – Whether he’s training roping horses at his expansive Terrebonne spread or teaching tricks to a horse halfway around the globe, for Dave Clark, home is where the horses are.

The quiet, modest demeanor of this former professional rodeo cowboy and longtime cattle rancher belies his colorful upbringing and unusual profession.

Who would guess that last year at this time Clark was living in a tent on New Zealand’s South Island, training horses for the Disney movie ”The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe?”

The Narnia film, which is currently playing at Central Oregon movie theaters, is based on the 1950 fantasy novel by C.S. Lewis. In it, four young children enter a mythical land of talking animals.

Clark’s connection with movies began in his youth, when he worked as a double for the character Timmy on the classic television show ”Lassie.”

His father, Gene Clark, was a professional bull fighter and rodeo clown who was inducted, along with Gene’s brother Bobby, into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 1997.

Dave Clark was also childhood friends with Sled Reynolds, whose father, Fess, was a rodeo clown and trick performer. The elder Reynolds raised and trained animals for film and television going back to the days of silent movies and cowboy Westerns.

”I’ve known David all my life,” recalls Sled Reynolds of Lebec, Calif. ”He’s two months older than I am. His dad and my dad rodeoed together. My dad was a rodeo clown but he came out (to Hollywood) in the (19)40s with Roy Rogers, and my dad got in the movie business at the same time.”

The younger Reynolds went on to own and operate Gentle Jungle, a company that provides animals – including horses – for film and other media. Gentle Jungle has amassed dozens of film credits, including ”Gladiator,” the ”Lord of the Rings” trilogy, and ”Dances With Wolves.”

Clark would later attend Cal-Poly University in San Luis Obispo, Calif., where he rode bulls and bareback horses on a rodeo scholarship, before embarking on a 14-year professional rodeo career.

Recently retired from ranching, Clark has occasionally been solicited by Reynolds to help train and handle horses for Gentle Jungle film projects such as ”The Postman,” ”Even Cowgirls Get the Blues” and ”Black Stallion II.”

Originally, Clark got the call from Reynolds last year to train a team of 16 reindeer from a nearby Central Oregon ranch that were to appear pulling a sled in the ”Narnia” movie. Four months later, New Zealand customs wouldn’t allow the reindeer inside the country.

That was the end of Clark’s involvement with ”Narnia” – or so he thought.

One day in September 2004, Reynolds called up his old friend in Terrebonne and said he needed him in New Zealand to help break horses and train young actors to ride. Clark was on a plane the next day.

Over the course of the next five months last fall and winter, Clark and a team of horse trainers selected unbroke horses in New Zealand to be ridden in the film, and he worked with two young actors who needed to stay mounted while swinging a sword and shield without a saddle or use of reins.

”(In the film) these horses had to make a charge in a V (formation), following a white horse into battle,” Clark explains.

Easier said than done.

With throngs of workers, plus cords and cameras everywhere, one of Clark’s first tasks was to expose the horses to ”anything and everything” so they would be gentle on the set.

”They have to be calm and get to where they don’t spook,” says Clark.

Because of a privacy contract, Clark says he is unable to share certain particulars of his duties working on the ”Narnia” film, but he was responsible for all aspects of horse care from grooming and cleaning to daily exercising and training.

What makes a good horse trainer for the movies? Experience, confidence and flexibility, says Reynolds.

There are plenty of competent horse trainers and handlers in the world, he notes, but not just anyone can survive in Hollywood.

”You have to find people who have a lot of experience with horses, and obviously David does,” says Reynolds, who also trains dozens of other animals for movies. ”With horses, that’s the one discipline you sort of can’t hide. It becomes really obvious (on the set) if you don’t know much about them.”

And dealing gracefully with unexpected changes or new demands comes from being confident in one’s own knowledge and skills.

”How you deal with being compromised goes a long way with how you function in the movie business,” explains Reynolds. ”You’ll spend months and months trying to get a horse running to you, and then (on the set) they decide they want you to have the horse run away. A lot of guys have a really hard time dealing with that. That’s the hardest part of the movie business: being flexible.”

Not an easy attitude to swallow for many a horse trainer, who would likely possess more equine knowledge than the movie’s director.

”But at the end of the day it’s his (the director’s) decision,” says Reynolds. ”He doesn’t want you directing his movie.”

Clark’s quiet, laid-back style makes him a natural, says Reynolds.

”He’s amazing,” praises Reynolds. ”David is the ultimate cowboy. (He) is every bit as good as anyone I’ve ever met.”

Clark’s adult children have continued to grow their father’s rich cowboy roots. His daughter is an accomplished barrel racer, and his son is a former national college bull-riding champion.