|.
Zhol winced slightly at the complexity of the answer that Drusilla's latest questions required. "There are a lot of different opinions about that," he said, choosing his words as carefully as he could, trying to steer towards an explanation that wasn't too heavily rooted in his own personal perspective. "In some parts of the world, they ride bareback: no saddle, and not very much of anything else, except maybe a blanket for comfort. In Endrykas, they use something called a yvas, which has handles behind the horse's shoulders instead, and has nothing on their face at all. In Syliras they use horses for jousting, so there's a whole different set of equipment. Every society seems to have their own idea of what is right and what should be done."
He frowned a little, not feeling his answer was quite satisfactory enough. "I think of it like shoes. Some people are used to wearing big clompy boots. Some people are more comfortable in sandals. Some prefer going barefoot. They probably spent their whole life getting used to doing one particular thing, and if you suddenly force them to start wearing different shoes, it's going to be weird and uncomfortable for them at first. That's how it is with horses. If you brought a strider from Endrykas and started strapping all of this stuff on them, they wouldn't know what was going on, and would be very unhappy. If I got a yvas, and tried to ride Solo with it, he wouldn't understand what instructions I was trying to give him; he'd have to learn all over again."
"It would be tricky for the rider, too: riding isn't just about sitting up there and holding on, it's about giving subtle little instructions and messages to the horse without having to say anything, because when you're riding fast it's too loud to hear. A particular style of riding is like a particular language; if you took a rider from Endrykas and sat them on a horse from Wind Reach, it'd be like talking to the horse in Pavi, when it's spent it's whole life learning how to follow instructions in Nari. The horse and the rider wouldn't know how to understand each other."
He shrugged. It felt like a non-answer, dodging around his uncertain opinion by claiming there was no such thing as correct. He'd considered the possibility more than once of asking Wind Reach's leathersmiths to build a yvas for him, so that he could perhaps at the very least teach Solo to use one; Solo was still young after all, and if he was going to learn something new, now was the best time. But not only was it not his choice - Solo belonged to the stables; his role was to train the horses, not to make decisions about what they were taught - he also didn't feel as if it was his right, either. Who was he to say that Wind Reach was doing it wrong? Who was he to decide that what Solo was comfortable with and accustomed to wasn't the best way? What gave him the right to expect every horse in these stables to adapt to how he thought it should be, instead of him adapting to a Kalean style of riding?
"As for why they need to bite something -"
That was even harder to explain. It wasn't even biting, really; the bit was designed to slot into the spaces between their sets of teeth, to press against their gums rather than bash against the delicate enamel.
"That's just how it works?" That was an even worse answer than his other one. "What happens is that when you move the reins, as long as you do it gently, it gives the horse a little nudge inside their mouth, letting them know which way you want their head to point. You could tug on the straps across their face I suppose, but every little nudge would rub and chafe, and I think that would probably be uncomfortable. Mouths are pretty resilient things though, they're used to have stuff in there moving about, and the metal is pretty smooth so it isn't going to rub against anything. I don't really know enough about riding in these parts of the world to know why they decided to do it this way, instead of how it is back in Endrykas, but they've been doing it for hundreds of years, and no one seems to have come up with a better option, so I'm sure they must have had a good reason for thinking of it in the first place."
He frowned a little, not feeling his answer was quite satisfactory enough. "I think of it like shoes. Some people are used to wearing big clompy boots. Some people are more comfortable in sandals. Some prefer going barefoot. They probably spent their whole life getting used to doing one particular thing, and if you suddenly force them to start wearing different shoes, it's going to be weird and uncomfortable for them at first. That's how it is with horses. If you brought a strider from Endrykas and started strapping all of this stuff on them, they wouldn't know what was going on, and would be very unhappy. If I got a yvas, and tried to ride Solo with it, he wouldn't understand what instructions I was trying to give him; he'd have to learn all over again."
"It would be tricky for the rider, too: riding isn't just about sitting up there and holding on, it's about giving subtle little instructions and messages to the horse without having to say anything, because when you're riding fast it's too loud to hear. A particular style of riding is like a particular language; if you took a rider from Endrykas and sat them on a horse from Wind Reach, it'd be like talking to the horse in Pavi, when it's spent it's whole life learning how to follow instructions in Nari. The horse and the rider wouldn't know how to understand each other."
He shrugged. It felt like a non-answer, dodging around his uncertain opinion by claiming there was no such thing as correct. He'd considered the possibility more than once of asking Wind Reach's leathersmiths to build a yvas for him, so that he could perhaps at the very least teach Solo to use one; Solo was still young after all, and if he was going to learn something new, now was the best time. But not only was it not his choice - Solo belonged to the stables; his role was to train the horses, not to make decisions about what they were taught - he also didn't feel as if it was his right, either. Who was he to say that Wind Reach was doing it wrong? Who was he to decide that what Solo was comfortable with and accustomed to wasn't the best way? What gave him the right to expect every horse in these stables to adapt to how he thought it should be, instead of him adapting to a Kalean style of riding?
"As for why they need to bite something -"
That was even harder to explain. It wasn't even biting, really; the bit was designed to slot into the spaces between their sets of teeth, to press against their gums rather than bash against the delicate enamel.
"That's just how it works?" That was an even worse answer than his other one. "What happens is that when you move the reins, as long as you do it gently, it gives the horse a little nudge inside their mouth, letting them know which way you want their head to point. You could tug on the straps across their face I suppose, but every little nudge would rub and chafe, and I think that would probably be uncomfortable. Mouths are pretty resilient things though, they're used to have stuff in there moving about, and the metal is pretty smooth so it isn't going to rub against anything. I don't really know enough about riding in these parts of the world to know why they decided to do it this way, instead of how it is back in Endrykas, but they've been doing it for hundreds of years, and no one seems to have come up with a better option, so I'm sure they must have had a good reason for thinking of it in the first place."
"Pavi" | "Common" | "Nari" | "Symenos"
Dad Thoughts | Dinah Thoughts | Khara Thoughts
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This template was made by Khara. She was bribed with coffee and jammy dodgers.
Dad Thoughts | Dinah Thoughts | Khara Thoughts
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This template was made by Khara. She was bribed with coffee and jammy dodgers.
