Rider

From the ground, the chestnut seemed the size of an elephant. His thick, stocky legs were like tree trunks and his shortened mane rippled like a fire. He snorted, and his head went up, high, high into the air, where it arched, like a serpent waiting to strike. 1

Kacia took a step back.2

“I don’t… I don’t think I can…” she stuttered. “He’s so big!”3

The chestnut raised his right foreleg and smashed it violently against the ground with a furious squeal. Kacia paled and stepped back again.4

“Of course you can,” Darcus replied smoothly. “Off you go, go on, up you get.”5

In one fluid movement he grabbed the frightened girl by the arm, dragged her closer, and swung her at the prancing horse. The horse-hand grabbed the chestnut by the ear and the nose and expertly lowered his head, and, before she or the horse knew what was happening, she was precariously perched 13 and a half hands off the ground. 6

There was a moment of silence. 7

Then the bucking began. 8

Like a see-saw, the chestnut rose and fell, with his head between his knees and his ears flat against his head. His back rippled like a wave and twisted to the side; Kacia hit the ground with a thud. The questing hands of Darcus felt her over and pulled her to her feet. 9

“All good and well, nothing broken,” he said cheerily, dragging her towards the horse-hand. The huge, golden chestnut eyed her warily. A rim of white was showing all the way around his black-brown pupil. 10

“He sure is a wild one,” the hand grunted as he grabbed the ear again and forced the head down to his knees. The chestnut squealed with rage but was unable to do anything. His dark eyes gleamed with menace.11

“Right-e-o, on again you get,” Darcus smiled, dragging her to the horse’s side. He began to whistle a tune to himself.12

“What – no?! You can’t be serious? You want me to get up there again?”13

“The first rule of good horsemanship – you fall off, you get right back up and on again.”14

And with that, he thrust her once more onto the awaiting stallions back. 15

An hour later and Kacia had managed to stay on the golden stallions back for exactly eight seconds. She was bruised blue and green all over, dusted with mud, filth and horse dung and aching with muscles she hadn’t even known she’d had. Even Darcus and the horse-hand were beginning to look concerned, exchanging small, worried glances with each other. 16

“I think we’ll stop at that,” Darcus announced, striding back to where Kacia was lying, still splayed out from her last failed attempt. “You’ve made some real progress and we’ll continue where we left off tomorrow. You’re bound to have better luck after a good night’s rest and a hot bath.” He didn’t sound convinced.17

Kacia just grunted. She carefully peeled herself from the ground and limped over to where the horse-hand was forcefully restraining the chestnut, and reached out to pat its nose, as Leila had instructed her. The chestnut took one look at the pro-offered hand and lunged at it, teeth bared; ears flat. 18

Like lightning the horse hand jerked its head back and Kacia jumped away. Horse and girl glared at each other from a safe distance. Then Kacia turned her back on the horse-field and stormed, as well as she could, back to the dorms.19

For three weeks, twenty-one days, the stallion held his own. Nothing got any better, Kacia found bruises on top of bruises, and every second of every day, she could feel the students and masters eyes on her, wondering why she hadn’t succeeded in mastering her horse yet. It was pure torture.20

On the twenty-third day, she returned from her ride streaked with mud and angrier than a hornet. Today, Darcus had taken a whip to the horse and it had responded by savaging the horse-hand restraining it, and almost her. 21

“How did it go?” Leila asked distractedly. She was standing by her well-made bunk, oiling the leather straps of a dark brown bridle. Kacia eyed her bitterly. She and Barnable were making progress. 22

At the sound of her room-mates footsteps Leila turned, caught sight of the dust, bruises and expression, and paled. She put down the bridle on the desk and stepped closer.23

“Kacia what happened,” she asked quietly.24

“It was great. Just great,” Kacia made her way to her bunk and flopped down on the mattress. “I got bucked off about, oh I don’t know, fifty-million times, and then at the end Darcus had the nerve to say: ‘you’ve made real progress, I’m sure you’ll do better next time.’ Again.” She paused, and then added. “I’ll be damned if I’m ever getting on that crazy thing again.”25

“Oh Kacia,” Leila sat next to her. “I’m so sorry. Sometimes it’s hard, especially when you get a wilful one.”26

Kacia snorted. “Wilful? The thing’s crazy! It tried to take a hunk out of my hand at the end, and it attacked the horse hand.”27

Leila swallowed and looked away. “Perhaps you should ask for a switch,” she suggested.28

Kacia glanced up. “A switch? As in, ask for a new horse?”29

Leila nodded.30

“But I don’t want to ride at all! I want to go home!”31

“It happens sometimes Kacia; a hard horse, one that won’t break. Some of them just have too much spirit. It isn’t your fault – he just isn’t supposed to be ridden. It’d be easier to hand him over to the kitchen before someone gets hurt - find a new, more cooperative colt to train.”32

Kacia sat for a second, absorbing this. Then she turned to her friend, eyes glittering.33

“You mean, like, kill him? Send him to the kitchen to be eaten?”34

“The Riders don’t have any use for an unbreakable horse, Kacia.”35

“But that’s not fair!” She thought of the furious dark glint in his eyes. “It’s not his fault!”36

“Well, I’m sure the Council are thinking the same thing right now Kacia. If he can’t be tamed, he’ll have to go.”37

“Can’t somebody else ride him instead?”38

“No one ever rides another horse but their own,” Leila reminded her. “If you claim him, then you’ll never get another chance.”39

And if I don’t, then neither will he.40