The horse that played the title role,
Apache, was the horse the boy rode. The horse in most of the action scenes was actually named
Rex, and he in fact WAS a "devil horse"--wild, vicious and tremendously aggressive, he had killed one of his trainers several years before this picture was made. Stuntman
Yakima Canutt, doubling for
Harry Carey, had to try to ride him in a scene, and knew that it would be virtually impossible to stay on the horse for more than a few seconds, so he instructed the wranglers to tie his wrists and ankles around the horse's neck and let go. When you see that footage in the film, in Chapter: 1, Rex is not trying to throw Canutt off--he's actually trying to kill him.