Game Of Thrones' Kit Harington Learned The Hard Way How Painful Dragon Riding Can Be

If my memory is correct, I have only ridden a horse once in my life. I was a young kid when I did this, probably around eight years old. I didn't enjoy it. Frankly, interacting with animals in any way that isn't just petting a dog has never been of interest to me. The animals are doing their thing, and I'm perfectly fine just letting them do that. I have zero interest in ever getting back on a horse in my life.

Actors get hired to ride horses all the time on film and television. This was especially true when Westerns were one of the most dominant genres in Hollywood. Some actors had entire careers because of the skill they displayed on horseback. For whatever reason, people love it. I think some believe it brings them closer to nature and gives them a special connection with animals, but my hunch is that they might just enjoy the thrill of charging forward on something so fast with the wind in their hair.

On "Game of Thrones," many people had to do their fair share of horseback riding. After all, how else were you to travel the lands of Westeros and Essos in a place and time when planes, trains, and automobiles didn't exist? Rarer, though, were the occasions of someone riding a creature a bit larger than a horse. Of course, I mean a dragon. For most of the series, that honor went exclusively to Emilia Clarke who played the Mother of Dragons herself, Daenerys Targaryen. But as the series entered its final season, Kit Harington's Jon Snow got to join in on the dragon-riding fun. Well, the theoretical fun, at least. As it turns out, hopping on the back of a dragon can be rather unpleasant if you have certain anatomical attributes.

Anyone who has testicles has had many instances in their life of truly searing pain and discomfort at unexpected times. The sensitivity is sometimes so great that just a light tap could send someone to their knees, let alone sitting down on a chair wrong. Well, riding a dragon turns out to be not great, either. Back in 2019, experienced dragon rider Emilia Clarke was on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" and revealed that Kit Harington was a bit too cavalier about his dragon-riding ability before actually doing it:

"Well he was kind of, you know, arrogant about it and was like, 'I can do this.' And then he got on, and that was when I learned that men riding dragons is, like, a whole other thing than a lady who rides a dragon. A little more uncomfortable for them ... So he looked really pained. It's like, 'You alright dude?' He's like [grunting] 'Yeah, I'm fine.' So yeah, yeah. And I sat – I was letting the girl doing the joysticks know to just — whenever she felt needed — to just mess with him."

Achieving the dragon riding on "Game of Thrones" required the actors to mount this gigantic hydraulic system, but unlike a horse, you can't just sit upright on it. You have to both straddle the thing and nearly lie face down as well. There truly is nowhere for one's testicles to hide in this position. Then you have to deal with all the sharp, unexpected motions of the rig as well. Having not actually participated in this, I can just imagine how uncomfortable the whole endeavor is. Riding a horse feels rough enough on the anatomy. I don't ever need to ride a fake dragon.