Anna Pigeon’s Tracy Spiridakos Learned Horseback Riding for Show

Tracy Spiridakos didn’t want to wing it for her titular role in Anna Pigeon.

That’s why the 38-year-old quickly started researching “survival stuff” to play her park ranger character in the new TV show, based on the crime novels by Nevada Barr.

“I had to learn how to ride a horse first and foremost,” Spiridakos exclusively told E! correspondent Will Marfuggi at the USA Network show’s Los Angeles premiere on Aug. 5. “That was kind of the biggest one.”

Though the actress also knew the “basics” of wilderness exploration thanks to various camping trips she took as a child, her experience portraying Detective Hailey Upton in Chicago P.D. didn’t necessarily help her get into character this time around.

“If anything, I had to kind of unlearn some of the stuff that I knew from playing a Chicago police officer for such a long time,” Spiridakos explained. “There’s such a comfort in kicking down a door, and I think that’s something that Anna isn’t as comfortable doing. She doesn’t do that all the time, so that was a little bit more pulling back some of that knowledge.”