Cowboy camp is a well-known aspect of the training Yellowstone casts go through to prepare for these Western programs. It’s been well documented that it’s not for the faint of heart and that some actors are better at cowboying than others. Now, as the franchise’s latest spinoff, Marshals, prepares to premiere, one of its stars, Arielle Kebbel, told me about her cowboy camp experience, and it was not what I expected.
When I spoke to Arielle Kebbel about the Yellowstone spinoff on the 2026 TV schedule that focuses on Luke Grimes’ Dutton sibling, Kayce, I asked about training for it. In the show, she plays Belle, a marshal who works alongside Kayce. So, she went through cowboy camp like everyone else; however, Marshals' training was a bit different than other cowboy camps. Kebbel told me why, too, saying:
Yeah, so we did have a cowboy camp. From what I understand, it was different than what they did on Yellowstone, which makes sense. I mean, look, first of all, they had a lot more time on Yellowstone. And also, of course, you know, you're dealing with the ranch all the time. So, [their] cowboy camp, I think, was much more cattle-heavy and roping and riding.
“Roping and riding” is always what I think about first when cowboy camp comes up. However, it’s way more than that. Kebbel went on to say that she had about “five days” of training total, and two of them were devoted to learning how to ride a horse and work with them and a camera. She said:
So we had two days of cowboy camp. But it was really about getting familiar with your horse, getting comfortable with your horse, learning your horse's personality, learning how to rope side by side, because there's a lot of shots where you're riding together. Or, you know, practicing, ‘Okay, if the camera's here, let's practice stopping on where your mark is,’ or getting five horses to stand in a row together. Stuff like that, really just prepping for what it's going to be like to be on a horse on set.
I’ve seen every Yellowstone show (you can stream most of them with a Paramount+ subscription); however, I’d never considered how they had to learn how to do things like hit a mark while riding a horse. The first things that always came to my mind were skills you’d learn on a ranch, not a film set. However, obviously, these are things this cast needed to know how to do before filming began.
Anyway, the differences between Yellowstone and Marshals got more vast as Kebbel told me that their cowboy camp was way shorter because they also had to go through weapons training:
The rest of the time, we were in weapon training. So we had to learn how to work with M4s. We had to learn very specific footwork, team signaling, how to clear a room…Even just all the equipment, all the tactical equipment that you're putting on and taking off every day, that has to be like second nature.
Marshals will see Kayce Dutton join a team of U.S. marshals, and the story will tap into his military history in a way Yellowstone didn’t. Every week they’ll be on cases, and while this series is very much a direct spinoff of Yellowstone that follows Kyace, one of its original characters, it also reminds me of other CBS procedurals, like SEAL Team and S.W.A.T.
According to Kebbel, this weapons training was vital too. That’s because, along with looking like a natural cowboy, they also have to look like natural marshals. Describing the learning curve she faced with these tactical skills, the actress told me:
Let me tell you, the first time I put on that vest, I couldn't get it closed. I was like a damn comedy act. I was like, ‘Maybe I'm not a U.S. marshal, I don't know.’ And that's supposed to be second nature. You don't even think about it. So getting familiar with all of the gear and the equipment and what it means to maneuver through these missions so swiftly together as a team, that took a lot of time and energy. So the training was split between the two.
As you can see, I got totally schooled in cowboy camp, and for the Marshals cast, it was more than that; it was marshals camp too.
Now, to see all that training and hard work on screen, you can catch the series premiere of Marshals on Sunday, March 1, at 8 p.m. on CBS. You can also stream it the next day on Paramount+ alongside most of the other Yellowstone shows that required cowboy camp.
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