Johnny Depp was nearly "horrifically mangled" by a horse while filming The Lone Ranger. The 49-year-old heartthrob plays Native American warrior Tonto in the new Disney western and had an "unpleasant" moment when he fell off his steed, causing him to almost be crushed by the "death machine" of an animal.

Speaking on The Late Show With David Letterman, Johnny said:

"There was one moment in particular where it got unpleasant. We'd been running [the horses] all day and they weren't really interested in slowing down, at all. My horse that I was on decided to jump a couple of these little obstacles. The horse was unaware that the saddle I was wearing to sit on top of it was sort of jerry-rigged, kind of faked. When we came down, the saddle slipped and I went to the left and [lost] the reins, somehow I had the wherewithal to grab his mane - all very calm for some reason, I figured fear would kick in, but it didn't. I saw in front of my eyes these very muscular horse legs and the striations of muscles moving, this kind of death machine. One word popped into my head - hooves! You know? Hooves. In any case, mind the hooves."

Johnny could have been seriously injured if it wasn't for the horse jumping over him, avoiding a near-miss with the actor's head. "The one thing that saved me was the horse's instinct to lift his front legs and go over me. If not, it was coming straight down into the head," he added.

Johnny stars in the movie - a remake of the popular 50s film based on the Old West - with Armie Hammer who plays the titular Texas Ranger.