How to Ride a Horse was the first of several "How-To" films made in which Goofy doesn't speak. These were made during a period when Goofy's voice artist Pinto Colvig was temporarily unavailable.
Features How to Ride a Horse, the first of the Goofy "How-to" cartoons. When narrator John McLeish was brought in to record the narration, he was asked to read it in a very straightforward manner, as if for a serious documentary about horse riding. He was shocked when he was told that the narration he recorded would be used in a Goofy cartoon.
Film debut of John Dehner.
In the sound effects department the workers are creating sound effects for a piece of film with the train Casey Junior. Casey would pop up in Disney's next film, Dumbo. Likewise in the art department, the animators are making sketches for "Dumbo". Bambi also makes a minor appearance in this film, a year before Bambi was released.
Maquettes in the model department include Jiminy Cricket and the drunk cuckoo clock from Pinocchio, characters from Fantasia including Chernabog, a black centaurette that Robert Benchley takes with him, and the Knight from The Reluctant Dragon.
Most of the 'animators' shown in the film were actually actors hired to portray animators. And this film, showing the Disney animation studios as a happy, coherent family, was released at the worst possible moment, when half of the actual animators went out on strike. The strikers frequently picketed theaters showing the film, sometimes holding up a large cardboard sign depicting Disney as a dragon, labeled 'The Reluctant Disney.'
Portions of this film had to be redone because of objections by the Hays Office. The dragon was originally drawn with a navel which had to removed before the film could be passed.
The Donald Duck parodies of Old Master paintings were originally made for an unproduced cartoon in which Donald is a guard at a museum. The film was being developed by Frank Tashlin during his brief, uneventful stay at the studio. The paintings were later used for promotional print stories.
The Mickey Avenue/Dopey Drive signpost was built specifically for the movie, and was supposed to be removed afterward. It wasn't, and it still stands at the Disney studio.
This is the first full-length feature for Disney where the voices are credited.
When Robert Benchley visits the art department one of the sculptors quickly makes a clay bust caricature of Benchley. In reality the bust was made in advance and then gradually destroyed while being filmed. The film was simply shown backwards to make it appear as though the artist was making the bust from scratch.