When Luke Macfarlane isn’t filming, he’s often getting ready for his next big adventure. The Platonic star and Hallmark Channel fan-favorite is an avid outdoorsman who has run marathons around the world (he just signed up for Tokyo’s race) and has climbed some of the planet’s tallest peaks (he scaled Western Europe’s highest mountain, Mont Blanc, in 2025).
So Macfarlane probably seemed like a natural choice to cast in the new Hallmark holiday flick My Christmas Cowboy, given that the role requires some outdoorsy-prowess and athleticism, including hopping on a horse and lassoing a Christmas tree. But when Parade asked about his history with horses, there was an awkwardly long pause, a big sigh and, finally, a jaw-dropping admission.
“I had never been on a horse in my entire life,” Macfarlane said sheepishly. “Never, ever, and it’s very embarrassing.”
The actor, who shares three-year-old daughter Tess with his longtime love, Hig Roberts, continued, “My partner actually comes from Northern Colorado, and they are horse people. It was funny because I was showing videos to my mother-in-law (from filming My Christmas Cowboy), and she goes, ‘Oh, they gave you a real slow poke, didn’t they?’ I was like, ‘We gotta start me off somewhere!’ But I loved it immediately. Immediately.”
Macfarlane’s co-star, Amy Acker, co-wrote My Christmas Cowboy about a Hollywood star who begrudgingly returns to his native Texas and reconnects with his roots (and the former college classmate she plays). A Dallas native who had plenty of opportunities to ride horses growing up, Acker told Parade that she was not only shocked Macfarlane hadn’t been on a horse, but couldn’t believe what a natural he was at it.
“I mean, it was insane,” she laughed. “He had never been on a horse, and he had zero fear. He wasn’t afraid at all. He got right up there. He was great! He’s kind of just good at everything. He also said, ‘I can’t dance,’ and then we went to the dance rehearsal, and I was like, ‘Shut up, you’re so good!’”
“I think the cowboys were all also slightly in love with him,” Acker quipped. “They gave him a lasso at the end of the movie!”
That was a moment Macfarlane said left him feeling “flattered and honored” at the end of filming, telling Parade, “There was this wonderful group of wranglers there that were taking care of our horses, and there was this one young man who was like, ‘It was really, really great to watch you practice so hard. I’d like to give you my lasso.’”
Macfarlane joked that he wasn’t sure how TSA agents would react to him traveling with a giant rope, laughing, “I didn’t check a bag, so I was like, ‘Is this going in my carry-on? What’s gonna happen here? I could (look like) a crazy person in the airport if they open up my bag!’”
He made it through security, though, and deadpanned, “Now I have a lasso in my basement. Guess I could take it to Central Park and practice, but I could get myself in a lot of trouble there, too!’”
The best souvenir from the movie, actually, may be Macfarlane’s newfound love of working with horses. He loved how tuned in the horses were to everyone’s energy, and it inspired him to follow suit.
“I loved the opportunity to to take a breath before you get onto a horse and be like, ‘Am I mad? Am I anxious? Am I upset?’” he said. “Because they’re gonna feel it in you.”
“So I thought that was a (good chance) to check in with myself because they feel those feelings, and then they will sort of do what they do with it,” he explained. “So, loved it. I actually found it very intuitive.”
Hallmark Channel’s My Christmas Cowboy premieres on November 13 at 8 p.m. Eastern time and will be available to stream via Hallmark+ the following day.