Unlike in Steven Spielberg’s world, where (mostly) a horse is a horse, the “Joey” in the stage production of War Horse is a very intricately hand-crafted puppet that takes three puppeteers to operate at all times.

However, just like Joey in both the play and Spielberg’s film version, he can be as stubborn as a mule.

“It’s a balance that you’re having between whether you’re in control of Joey or Joey is controlling all of us,” Gregory Manley, one of the puppeteers for the War Horse production currently at the Curran Theater in San Francisco, says in the Wired video above.

Each night during the production the puppeteers must master the 120-pound horse through every scene of the World War I tale of a young man and his beloved Joey – sometimes with that actor on their backs. And the fact that those three people can make something as mechanical as Joey (seen above meeting a horse from the San Francisco Police Department) exude emotion is a testament to brilliant puppet-making. It’s also a bit more impressive than those animatronic steeds Spielberg occasionally used.

Crafted by Handspring Puppet Company in South Africa, each hand-made horse is built from aluminum, wicker, and a Georgette fabric that the puppet-masters can see through when maneuvering the horse. A puppeteer outside the body controls where Joey’s head points and manipulates the ears using bicycle-break-like levers, while a harness inside the frame connects to the other two puppeteers to let their movements give the equine star realistic gestures.

“Our whole body is breathing together and integrating to make the horse seem alive,” Manley says.

Every time the currently-touring production goes to a new city Joey and the other horses in the play, based on Michael Morpurgo’s World War I novel, travel as complete puppets, according to puppet technician Kurt Oostra. So when the production moves to Dallas, which will happen after San Francisco’s final show on Sunday, the trusty steed remains intact.

“For the most part Joey stays as a whole, he also travels as a whole,” Oostra says. “We never take Joey apart.”