horses of your world

[Graylorne]

A bit about horses? All right. Scene: medieval town, grand festival. Brewer's dray and horse. Uwella and Damion are beastmasters.

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‘Bravo,’ Uwella said, sour-faced. ‘The noble steed understood you.’
Damion was still fuming. ‘Madness,’ he grumbled. ‘That dumb horse never leaves her yard. All she does is going in circles; she can barely walk a straight line. You can’t take her into town!’
‘Going in circles? What do you mean?’ Ghyll said.
Damion looked at him. ‘The beast works at the local brewery. From morning to evening, she walks in circles around the well and keeps the whatsit in motion that pumps up the water. That’s the only thing she knows. She’s old and confused, and walking in a straight line makes her dizzy. Here in town, the crowds get on her nerves and she wants to go home. You wouldn’t wish it upon your worst enemy.’ There was silence and then he burst out, ‘Nobody cares, of course!’
Uwella gave him a patronizing stare. ‘Boy, don’t listen to all these animals or you’ll go stark, beastly mad. Farm creatures are always complaining and horses are the worst. To hear them talk, every one of them is mistreated. Even your own mount. Don’t heed them. They just like to whine.’
‘Hm.’ Damion looked at the wikke as if he but half believed her. ‘They’re not people.’
‘No, they’re a lot smarter. Believe me, boy, they are having you on. Behind your back, they’re laughing at you. All of them.’
‘Not Ulanth,’ Ghyll said.
Damion looked at Uwella and both snickered.
‘Ulanth is a trained warrior’s horse,’ Uwella said. ‘You’re not a warrior. He knows it’s his job to keep you, that fragile human on his back, alive. He obeys you, but respect? You haven’t earned that yet.’
Ghyll swallowed. He was proud of his black stallion and he had taken the animal’s affection for granted. The idea that Ulanth only tolerated him was a bit of a shock.

 

[K.S. Crooks]

Here is my horse scene, involving students learning how to communicate directly with animals.

Master Lyra takes the class to the stables, where she assigns each student a horse to brush and water as a way to build an affinity with the animals. After thirty minutes they saddle and mount the horses then Lyra leads them to a trail in the Guild woods. “For the beginning of the ride” Lyra tells them, “I want you to attempt to feel the thoughts and emotions of your horse.”

Ten minutes into the ride they come to an area where the trail splits into four paths and the horses stop moving. “Your horses have been instructed to wait here, until there is an understanding of which way for them to walk. All of the paths are fine for you to choose, what matters is you reach the end.” With that said she leaves in a gallop and disappear into the forest.

The students try various means of instructing the horses what they want, with no results besides head shakes from the horses. After five frustrating minutes Naomi closes her eyes and says softly, “Please, may we take the third path?” Immediately after she hears the horse whiny, while in her head she hears, “As wish young one. Thanks nice speak.” and they begin trotting down the path. When she starts going the other students call to her and ask how she did it. “I simply asked.” She then considers what the horse said. “I was polite.” she shouts back to the group.

Naomi continues on her way asking the horse to increase the pace from walking to a fast trot. Then when she sees another fork ahead she asks politely, for them to take the path on the left. They move along and have a small conversation about where they are from. Naomi finds speaking with the horse similar to speaking with a small child of maybe two years of age. They have some coherent thoughts, which they can express in three or four word sentences. However, they do not understand many concepts, especially anything not a part of their everyday world.

 

[Caged Maiden]

Final tally for top posts:

K.S Crooks: 0
Graylorne: 0
FarmerBrown: 0
Ayaka Di'rutia: 0
Russ: 0
Tom Nimenai: 3
Svrtnsse: 2
Skip.Knox: 2

We received eight participants to this impromptu challenge. Ireth and Jabrosky did not submit quotes from work, and though I considered counting Ireth's because it received a vote, that still didn't make ten participants. I guess we should try this again with a more popular subject, and set it in the challenges section. Did you all at least have fun dredging up your horse quotes? It was nice to see what other folks are working on and how a popular animal, often given little thought in books involving travel, can be used with so much variety by writers.

 

[Ireth]

I didn't realize having a quote was mandatory -- otherwise I would have dug something up from my WIPs. I just thought this was a place to post info on how one uses horses or horselike beings in one's stories.

 

[Caged Maiden]

Yeah, I didn't know whether people were just sharing, but it didn't matter in the end. We didn't get ten participants and voting was really light. I hope we can do this again though. I think I'll select wolves next time since they're super fun too.

 

[Russ]

Thanks for bringing up that interesting topic CM, prizes or not, it was fun and got me focused on a part of my world.

Wolves are also very cool.

 

[Caged Maiden]

well then I gotta do it. I'll make a prize first to whet the appetites of competitors and then post in the challenges. Thank you for your participation! I had a lot of fun seeing how much I wrote about horses.

 

[Reilith]

This is just en excerpt from the first version of my still in-writing work so don't be harsh on me. :=

Steffan raised his head to face a well-known view. The city of Zennit was as remarkable as he remembered it from his previous visits. It was enormous; grey stone walls encircling the elaborately spread houses between neatly paved streets, people of all kinds clustered and barely visible; and in the distance — pristinely white walls, stone and marble, separating the High Court Castle and the Circle enclave. Slender turrets towering over the lower buildings, giving off that glamourous luminescence the capital was known for.
He sighed and led Maddy down the road in a mild trot. This was not like any other visit to the capital of Therannia for them. This time, they were here to stay. And that was the reason Steffan felt so uneasy. Unlike before, when he was just another noble childe visiting the High Court with his family, this time he was quite alone. Not even his entourage of five armsmen could make him feel better; he was too nervous and very much out of his league. His insides were a knot, his body weary from the long travel, but he didn’t feel joyous for the rest that he was going to get when they finally reached their destination. Between the feelings of unease and utter loneliness and abandonment, he didn’t really know how he felt. He wasn’t the one to get depressed easily, but the way the situation was out of his hands in more than one way left him drained, and the beginning of his journey to Zennit was all the more painful. Not that it was any easier now; as they approached their goal he was feeling a rising tide of insecurity gnawing at his stomach and the incompetence if he were to fail. For Steffan, this was the beginning of a completely new life.
As they were covering the last part of their journey Steffan had come to realize how alien he felt about the whole ordeal. The primary feeling of lost footing was now growing into a full-blown panic attack that he had to contain, and it was no easy thing. Now, going down the Queen’s Road his stomach began to turn, nausea threatening to overpower him. He silently prayed to all of the gods that he was not going to make an even bigger embarrassment of himself at arrival. Maddy felt his unease — like most of the animals around Steffan she could seemingly easily read what he felt and she snorted at him, almost as if she was telling him to stop it. No matter, Steffan still fidgeted in his saddle, legs numb despite the slow pace his party was taking for the most part of the journey. He had to remind himself that he was no longer a small child and that it was his job to look and act presentable. He never questioned the tight etiquette he was learning as he was growing up — he revered it as a normal part of his life and growth. And that etiquette was now the only thing keeping him from taking the reins and galloping away into an unknown direction. He took a deep breath, letting the air leave his lungs through his nose, and tried not to look as miserable as he felt.

 

[Reilith]

Uh-oh, I haven't noticed that this was discontinued, and now the browser won't let me edit the post so I have to double-post. Can an admin remove or merge the posts for me?

 

[Caged Maiden]

We are never harsh. Thank you for sharing. I'm going to do another challenge and I'll put it in the Challenges section. I invite you to play with us next time as we explore the wonder of wolves, mundane or werecreature.

 

[Reilith]

I will do my best!

 

[Mindfire]

I hope we can do this again though. I think I'll select wolves next time since they're super fun too.

DO THIS. Please?

 

[Caged Maiden]

I certainly will. I'm gong to make a prize before we begin though because with wolves, I know we'll draw more people, and I want to post a pic of the prize so folks vote in droves...

 

[BronzeOracle]

Okay this may be way off topic and too late but on the subject of horses I was recently linked to a page on insane kindle cover fails:
Fails |*41 Utterly Insane Kindle Cover Disasters | Comedy Central

If you scroll down about 60% of the way you'll find this umm... speculative take on romance.

 

[Elrik Blackhaven]

A variation of the horse in my world:

Tallos was surprised at how quickly he was able to get into rhythm with the horse and after a short time; he was even able to relax a little. By the time they had decided to stop for the night, he was actually starting to enjoy himself and was sorry to have to stop. Arwyn dismounted first then helped Tallos to the ground. She then began to unpack some of the supplies while Narl saw to the animals and Tallos tried to get a fire going. As soon as Narl got the animals settled, he disappeared into the woods. Soon the fire was going and Tallos and Arwyn were enjoying some bread and cheese. Tallos was just about to inquire about Narl when he emerged from the trees carrying several fat rabbits. Tallos' mouth began to water as Narl approached. As Narl got closer, he changed direction and walked over to his mount and dropped the rabbits on the ground in front of it. Tallos watched in disgust as the animal tore into the rabbits messily. After a moment, he turned quickly away and took what was left of his bread and cheese and set it aside.
Arwyn chuckled as she watched him from across the fire. "I take it that you've never seen a drindox before?" Tallos shook his head and she continued, "Then you wouldn't know that they're meat eaters. Sorry about that. I should have warned you. Don't worry; you'll get use to it."
"I sincerely doubt it," Tallos replied glumly. “What, exactly is a drindox?”
“They were created to pull huge ore carts through the mountains. They are extremely strong and hard working but also notoriously bad tempered. They have even been known to turn on their owners from time to time.” Arwyn explained.
Narl came over to the fire and plopped down. He immediately began to tear into a large piece of cheese and a loaf of bread. He quickly finished that off and moved onto some dried meat and fruit and washed it all down with a small skin of wine. Then, without a word, he lay down with his back to the fire and was soon asleep.
Tallos and Arwyn had sat quietly for some time when Arwyn broke the silence, "So, how is it that you've never been on a horse before? Did one scare you when you were a child or something?"
"No. There just aren't that many where I come from," he replied after a few moments.