Anyone who has a dog or cat or parrot or iguana or hamster will tell you animals make special connections with humans. This is also apparently true of horses who work in movies. I always assumed these horses were just doing a job — punching a clock, as it were. They show up to set, gallop around, then head back to the stable for some hay and carrots. Apparently I was very wrong.

While promoting his new Western movie The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, actor Liam Neeson told Page Six that his horsey co-star recognized him from a past gig and the two shared a nice reunion:

I play a traveling impresario. We filmed in New Mexico. The odd thing is the horse who pulls my wagon knew me ... You won’t believe it. I’m saying this horse knew me. He actually remembered me from another Western we made a while back. I love animals. When we worked together before I took special care of him. I fed him treats. Gave him apples.

Neeson’s most recent Western was the Seth MacFarlane comedy A Million Ways to Die in the West, which was released in the spring of 2014 and was shot at least a few months earlier. Assuming this was the film the two worked together previously (Neeson didn’t specify) that means this horse had such a good time trotting around with Neeson (or he was such a huge fan of The Commuter) that he remembered him at least five years later.

After Neeson’s tale appeared online, Russell Crowe ponied up a similar story of being saddled with a horse he had previously worked with:

Oh to be a fly on the horse’s tail of the conversations between Russell Crowe and his horse friends. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs debuts on Netflix on November 16. It has some very good horses in it.

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