Category: Timeline of Horsemanship

#54- The Emperor’s Stables

“Horses helped Meagan through the dark days. The familiar rhythms of their care was an anchor to the world she had always known.” – Eclipsed by Shadow (excerpt)

Charioteer of the Greens (Ancient Rome)In the year 100 A.D.

The Emperor’s chariots belonged to the Green corporation, and it was impossible to forget. Green banners flapped against squat mortar buildings and green ribbons adorned iron-grilled gates. Guards and supervisors wore leek-colored tunics and the horses worked in green-dyed wrappings and pads.

Inside the Emperor’s compound, stern horsemanship was executed with clockwork precision. Daylight hours were filled with the rumbling of chariots and shouts of men. First feeding was sharply at dawn and repeated at regular intervals throughout the day. Fresh water was supplied continuously and the stalls cleaned in rotation.

Horses helped Meagan through the dark days. The familiar rhythms of their care was an anchor to the world she had always known. Stall cleaning was her duty: slaves of better rank carried out feeding and grooming. The horses’ mangers were stuffed with fragrant hay and grains, but every morning a stained cart was wheeled down the rows, from which meat and eggs were distributed to mix with the feed. Romans believed feeding sparrow’s eggs, ground feathers and birds’ blood logically made a horse run faster.

“No, they do not,” Meagan had protested in broken Latin. “Horses are … are…”

“Horses are what?” asked a sneering voice behind her. She turned to see the baleful gaze of the Master of Horse. A waft of pungent perfume seeped from his toga. “Please, tell us. Horses are … what?”

“I-I don’t know,” Meagan said, flustered. She wanted to say “vegetarian” but could not think of the Latin word.

The man blinked up at her and wrinkled his nose. “Better not to offer opinions in the Emperor’s stable, I think. Others might find out we use idiots here.”

Meagan observed the other workers’ downcast eyes and remained silent. Later, she would learn the Master of Horse was called Posthumous, a name commonly given to a son born after his father’s death. Others’ descriptions of his character added colorful phrases to her vocabulary.

Excerpted from Eclipsed by Shadow, the award-winning 1st volume of “The Legend of the Great Horse” trilogy. (Hrdbk pg. 128)

Book II: The Golden Spark will be published soon.

Read the 1st Chapter online!

Copyright © 2008 John Royce

#53- The Master of Horse

The stallion renewed his fight and pandemonium filled the aisle. Restraining chains were linked. In the end the black stallion was safely conducted outside, leaving the dazed grooms staggering as if on a battlefield. – Eclipsed by Shadow (excerpt)

“Mea-gan.”

The gentle call came again, and she recognized the soldier Horace standing in the guard line. His helmet’s shadow obscured his scarred face. Glancing to make sure the supervisor was not looking, she gave him a quick wave.

The first worker was called. The supervisor pulled a pin from one of the doors and swung it around on enormous hinges. A narrow closet of a stall appeared, presenting a black stallion’s muscular hind end. The chosen worker looked dumbfounded as he was handed a woven basket and scoop. Stall cleaning, Meagan thought resignedly. Some things never change.

The stallion shifted in the narrow confines of his stall as the shaking worker knelt beside the open door and began to delicately scrape the closest clods. Exasperated, the supervisor raised his voice and gave the horse’s rump an ill-considered slap.

The enraged stallion bunched his hindquarters and launched a kicking barrage. Chain broke from the masonry and the horse rushed backwards like a dam giving way. Meagan flattened against the wall as men came from both directions. The stallion lunged at a nearby groom—alien behavior for a horse—and wheeled to attack another. Men scrambled to escape the deadly hooves.

Grooms ran and tossed ropes until the raging horse was trussed like a fly in a web. The scene had almost quieted when a piercing whine filled the stable aisle. Workers and guards came to attention as a pale, puny man in an oversized toga entered, flanked by armed men. The Master of Horse had arrived.

The man pointed and shouted and called out instructions until the scene was more confused than before. The stallion renewed his fight and pandemonium filled the aisle. Restraining chains were linked. In the end the black stallion was safely conducted outside, leaving the dazed grooms staggering as if on a battlefield.

The horse was clearly a product of harsh treatment, Meagan thought. An emblem of Rome’s brutality. She watched the Master of Horse angrily confront the supervisor, who pointed first to the abject servant who crouched, cowering, and then to Meagan who remained standing. The Master of Horse took measured steps to stand in front of her, coming only to her chin but managing to look down on her. She did recognize the Latin words for “pain” and “punishment,” since they were repeated several times.

Excerpted from Eclipsed by Shadow, the award-winning 1st volume of “The Legend of the Great Horse” trilogy. (Hrdbk pg. 125)

Book II: The Golden Spark will be published soon.

Read the 1st Chapter online!

Copyright © 2008 John Royce

#52- The Slave Quarters

Meagan hugged her knees tighter, feeling ridiculous to find herself rehearsing the finer points of riding a flying horse. No, she could not be where she seemed to be, shivering on a cot in the ancient city of Rome. This experience was clearly the result of reading too much history and getting a bump on the head. Eclipsed by Shadow (excerpt)

Roman Republic 1st Century BC

MEAGAN LAY CURLED on an uncomfortable cot. She had been numb since her arrival; the cold was not intense but it was seeping and damp. Her extremely unprivate quarters consisted of a row of filthy beds crowded into a low room.

The cracked cement walls were coated with dirt and scratched graffiti. Meagan’s cot was only a foot above the floor, but it was a crucial distance. She felt about the floor of her living space as she would the underside of a rotten forest log.

For clothing she had been given a wool tunic with holes for her head and arms, and a tie-cord around the middle: only people of distinction wore togas, and she was clearly not one of those. She waited for the meager candlelight to be put out before crying softly, missing home.

Meagan hugged her knees, listening to the rattling sleep of the other slaves. She struggled to understand what was happening. The flights had seemed a normal ride over the top of a jump … then Meagan hugged her knees tighter, feeling ridiculous to find herself rehearsing the finer points of riding a flying horse. No, she could not be where she seemed to be, shivering on a cot in the ancient city of Rome. This experience was clearly the result of reading too much history and getting a bump on the head. She needed to forget the tomb and the arena—if she could.

The next morning her roommates failed to show the courtesy of ceasing to exist. Instead they resumed talking as if sleep had been a polite interruption, and after a few disoriented moments Meagan sat up groggily. She tried to pick out Latin words she knew from the confused conversation, but the talk was too fast to follow.

Conversations halted upon the arrival of a man wearing a dingy toga. He was apparently a supervisor, and from his tone Meagan inferred a toughening of policies. She stood barefoot on the cold, gritty floor—this fact was not addressed, nor was breakfast. Her conviction that she was only dreaming was again challenged as her group formed a line and followed the supervisor into the damp morning: she could see puffs of breath as they tromped across the chilly courtyard and past iron-grilled gates into the stables.

Excerpted from Eclipsed by Shadow, the award-winning 1st volume of “The Legend of the Great Horse” trilogy. (Hrdbk pg. 124)

Book II: The Golden Spark will be published soon.

Read the 1st Chapter online!

Copyright © 2008 John Royce

#51- The Emperor’s Chariot

Caesar stood as riders in green tunics rode forth between columns of marching men. The first chariot to appear was pulled by four black horses, their manes woven in matching emerald ribbon. – Eclipsed by Shadow (excerpt)

Pegasus coin from Ancient Greece19 centuries ago …

“How are the omens, my Master of Horse?”

A puny man near the front of the platform jumped as if prodded. He stood quickly, his oversized garments in disarray. “Very good, Caesar, very good. The horses are ready and the omens are with us, favored son of gods. Victory should be ours.”

The platform’s audience clapped dutifully. The man called Caesar shifted in his seat. “So you always say, Master of Horse. So it never is.”

Trumpet blasts sounded across the stadium. On the oval sand track below, men in red tunics marched forward pounding drums and cymbals. Chariots entered, appointed in red and drawn by surging teams of four horses. The drivers turned and saluted the platform as they passed. Anxious as she was, Meagan was stirred by the pageantry flowing across the track.

Cheering rose for a new entering color. Caesar stood as riders in green tunics rode forth between columns of marching men. The first chariot to appear was pulled by four black horses, their manes woven in matching emerald ribbon.

A gasp went up from the spectators as one of the horses rose in his traces. The animal was satin black with the thick crest of a stallion. The horse struck his partner and the team swerved out of line as kicks hammered the chariot. Dull thuds echoed across the field. Men flooded the track and stretched ropes before the fighting horses.

From the raised center of the platform, stone-faced Caesar watched.

As those on the track worked to subdue the fighting horses, the man called the Master of Horse groaned piteously and covered his face. Caesar gave the shriveled man a long, chilly stare, then abruptly stood and made his way across the deck, followed by his guards.

“Emperor Trajan…” the olive-skinned man beside Meagan called respectfully. “We have the slaves you pardoned. Will you assign them?”

Meagan felt a hand at her back as she was pushed forward…

Excerpted from Eclipsed by Shadow, the award-winning 1st volume of “The Legend of the Great Horse” trilogy. (Hrdbk pg. 121)

Book II: The Golden Spark will be published soon.

Read the 1st Chapter online!

Copyright © 2008 John Royce

#50- Captive

FOR A LONG time Meagan remained in the position the soldiers had left her, stunned and afraid to move. She huddled alone in a cold, gritty underground cell, buried in catacombs beneath the amphitheater. – Eclipsed by Shadow (excerpt)

Coliseum cellFOR A LONG time Meagan remained in the position the soldiers had left her, stunned and afraid to move. She huddled alone in a cold, gritty underground cell, buried in catacombs beneath the amphitheater. Her shoulder ached from her fall, and her forearm was raw from a soldier’s hard grip. Her nightgown was torn and filthy.

Muffled cheering surged at intervals, coming from all sides of her prison. Meagan hugged her knees and rocked when the sounds came, reliving the images in her mind. I’ve seen the worst that people can do, she thought numbly. People can do anything. She rocked as another roar rose to surround her. Things could never be normal again.

In time the cheering ended. Long hours passed in silence. Scurrying cellmates skittered around her, tiny shadows in the gloom of flickering torchlight. This isn’t real, Meagan still told herself, making it a mantra. Promise will come back for me. She will come back…

The scraping of a latch startled her. “Salve!” a voice greeted her gruffly. Two men entered, their armor gleaming dully in the torchlight.

Excerpted from Eclipsed by Shadow, the award-winning 1st volume of “The Legend of the Great Horse” trilogy. (Hrdbk pg. 117)

Book II: The Golden Spark will be published December 2010.

Read the 1st Chapter online!

Copyright © 2008 John Royce

#49- In the Shadow of the Coliseum

Even in this dark dream, Meagan did not want to see another death. She forgot danger; she reached over the stricken horse and touched the soldier’s arm. The eye in the scarred face fixed on her. The granite look of victory flickered as the crowd fell silent. –Eclipsed by Shadow (excerpt)

THE CROWD BEGAN laughing at the terrified girl clinging to her fugitive mount, the only entertainment remaining. Spectators pointed and mocked her frantic ride. Meagan tried to coax her mount down to a slower pace, but the frightened horse fought every pull. The animal’s breath came in short, explosive bursts. Flecks of foam covered Meagan’s legs.

The crowd’s roar surged as her mount stumbled and pitched. Meagan’s shoulder hit the sand as the horse fell, and she rolled to escape being pinned. She pulled herself to her knees.

The fallen horse lay heaving. Going to the animal’s head, Meagan spoke gently, huddled against the sound of the crowd. Around her were only the dead and dying and panting soldiers leaning on spears. The crowd clamored for more blood, but the sound receded into the background of her mind.

A uniformed man strode towards her and the fallen horse. He wore no helmet and his hair was plastered in sweat. Scars slashed his face, and one slash intersected the place his left eye should have been. The man ignored Meagan and stood over the horse’s head. His living eye was filled with hard passion. She shouted to him but the man did not hear. He was savoring the moment, the glory. He lifted his sword over the horse’s neck.

Even in this dark dream, Meagan did not want to see another death. She forgot danger; she reached over the stricken horse and touched the soldier’s arm. The eye in the scarred face fixed on her. The granite look of victory flickered as the crowd fell silent. The stricken horse lifted his neck and rose in a series of well-timed jerks. Shouts began to rise across the stadium as the pardoned horse jogged stiffly away to find his partner.

The disfigured soldier pulled Meagan to her feet. She half-jogged to keep up with the man’s purposeful strides as he brought her to the side of the arena. On the platform above her, a robed man stood. He waited a moment, listening to the ovation, and thrust his fist into the air.

Excerpted from Eclipsed by Shadow, the award-winning 1st volume of “The Legend of the Great Horse” trilogy. (Hrdbk pg. 116)

Book II: The Golden Spark will be published soon.

Read the 1st Chapter online!

Copyright © 2008 John Royce

#47- Savage Nation

Meagan knelt in her tattered nightgown, barefoot on wet, cement-like flooring. This is not happening, she repeated, keeping her eye on the soldiers. The group was forced to its feet and she was shoved forward with the others. Sweat, garlic and leather mingled with the scent of animals and dung. – Eclipsed by Shadow

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“HABES SPEM NATANDI!”

An icy blast of water filled Meagan’s eyes and nose. She tripped among wet bodies as she was drenched by another downpour. A crowd of ragged people crouched around her, soaked and shivering within a circle of steel spears. Men in rags stood close with brimming buckets.

Where am I now?

Another bucket was tossed. Meagan gasped under the spray and stood to escape. Metal-tipped points blocked her way. Bronze-helmeted men came closer, shouting furiously at the people cringing within the circle of spears. The prisoners were men and women both, mostly young, and all were filthy and sodden. A few bled diluted streaks into the rags they wore. Sweat, garlic and leather mingled with the scent of animals and dung.

Meagan knelt in her tattered nightgown, barefoot on wet, cement-like flooring. This is not happening, she repeated, keeping her eye on the soldiers. The group was forced to its feet and she was shoved forward with the others. Incredibly, Meagan heard something she understood just as another bucket drenched her. It was a fragment of a language heard only in a classroom, but the words were well-formed and clear: the words were Latin and they meant, you have hopes of swimming.

Soldiers forced the group against a wooden wall until splinters pressed into Meagan’s forearm. Suddenly the wall gave way, swinging open. She was pushed into open space.

Sound rose and shook the air. Filled bleachers banked a vast four-story amphitheatre. Tall masts soared to spread a high awning over the stadium. A moat circled the inner arena floor, and beyond it smooth marble walls were topped with elephant tusks and netting. Cherub-winged boys suspended by rope swooped over white sand and arced high above the audience. Near the opposite end of the stadium, a team of mules was lashed to something dark and slack. It took a moment for Meagan to recognize the shape of an elephant.

Excerpted from Eclipsed by Shadow, the award-winning 1st volume of “The Legend of the Great Horse” trilogy. (Hrdbk pg. 111)

Book II: The Golden Spark will be published Fall 2010.

Read the 1st Chapter online!

Copyright © 2008 John Royce

#44- Into the darkness (700 BC) …

THE DROP WAS not far, not more than ten feet. For a time Meagan lay with her eyes and hands clenched shut, trying to make sense of recent events. Slowly she opened her eyes and let her vision adjust to the dim light around her. A hoof stood inches from her face. – Eclipsed by Shadow excerpt

One of the riders stopped on the ground below…

Until that moment Meagan had been too stunned for fear, but she looked into the man’s slitted eyes and backed away from the edge. He saw her. The rider’s thin arm motioned and an object whistled past her. Two yards away a spear jabbed into the bare ground. Its end rocked. Another spear shot up. Meagan scuttled for the center pit as the new missile streaked overhead. She caught the edge of the pit and lowered herself, kicking for a peg. Another spear arced up, but she did not wait to see where it fell.

She stepped down, bare foot waving until she found a peg. Heavy air insulated the sounds of battle as she descended the dim tunnel. One peg gave slightly and shifted. Meagan froze. She flattened against the side of the pit, testing the nub with her weight. With a sudden twist Meagan’s support was gone. For a brief second she hung in space, scrambling against the scraped earth, kicking dirt away before she fell.

* * * *

THE DROP WAS not far, not more than ten feet. For a time Meagan lay with her eyes and hands clenched shut, trying to make sense of recent events. Slowly she opened her eyes and let her vision adjust to the dim light around her. A hoof stood inches from her face. Meagan jerked away, but another solid limb pressed unyieldingly into her back. She was surrounded by a forest of horses’ legs.

Excerpted from Eclipsed by Shadow, the award-winning 1st volume of “The Legend of the Great Horse” trilogy. (Hrdbk pg. 106)

Book II: The Golden Spark will be published Fall 2010.

Read the 1st Chapter online!

Copyright © 2008 John Royce

Historical Notes: Leaving the Prehistoric world behind …

In Eclipsed by Shadow, the first book of “The Legend of the Great Horse” trilogy, young Meagan Roberts takes the ride on a prehistoric wild horse … that’s just how things were between horses and humans 20,000 years ago.

In Eclipsed by Shadow, the first book of “The Legend of the Great Horse” trilogy, young Meagan Roberts takes the ride on a prehistoric wild horse. (excerpt of the scene)

According to fossilized bones and cave paintings, that’s just how things were between horses and humans 20,000 years ago.

Our clear understanding of the distant past remains shrouded by the passage of time, but there are two important facts we can know about prehistoric horses:

1) Horses have always been with us. Early man spent many thousands of years watching, stalking, hunting … and painting horses. The horse has been part of humanity’s story since the very beginning.

2) It took thousands of years for primitive humans to even begin to learn to use horses to assist in work. Man’s journey from the caves required a change in attitude to seek forms of cooperation, away from seeing horses as only a form of prey. This new outlook took an amazingly long time to happen, especially considering that it was so tangibly rewarded by a horse’s willingness to share his strength with mankind.

Perhaps we can’t know details about how mankind’s attitude toward horses shifted from meal to tamed beast — but the change is a case of old ways of thinking being replaced by new and better ideas. In this way, horsemanship is a living demonstration that cooperation brings new possibilities to human life and can open entire new worlds.
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Copyright © 2010  John Allen Royce, Jr.

The Road Slowly Traveled: the artist’s view

A scene in “Eclipsed by Shadow” involves a prehistoric horse hunt, with man as the predator. This hunting scene took place in the same era that prehistoric cave paintings were being created, art still visible to us in places like the amazing caves of Lascaux, France.  Even in prehistoric times we have Man the predator … and Man the artist.

Are these the same Man?

Much cave art is utilitarian and crude. Only a few “works” stand out … could it be some artists saw the horse differently — as something to be admired and approached for qualities beyond that of mere food?

If so, the artist’s path was not quickly taken:  mankind crouched and crept through his world for many thousands of years, scrounging a life as both predator and prey. Yet eventually, somehow, the idea of using horses for limited work prevailed, and later the concept of the horse as a partner opened possibilities unknown by our distant ancestors.

It would be hard to argue with the primitive hunter “in the moment.” There is clearly a meal on the hoof, it tastes good: an undefeatable argument. It was a limited, self-serving failure of an argument … but undefeatable at the time! The use of horses cannot happen if your fellow caveman simply kills them.

It mirrors the age-old problem of progress, of mankind bound by its own ignorance and short-term, “greedy” impulses. We have left the caves, but this basic conflict still echoes.

Still, there was a moment when a human didn’t kill a horse he was able to. People did begin to stop hunting/killing horses, and learned better ways of being.

The artists saw the horse as something other than quarry. Art can truly be a window into new reality.

Another outcome …

Strangely, even the best cave art discovered in North America is more crude and hunter-focused than that found in caves of Europe. Illustrated animals in cave art of North America are usually depicted being pierced by arrows.

Horses evolved in North America, but disappeared long before European settlers arrived … and evidence suggests equines may have been hunted to extinction by natives. If so, whether resisted by a more ‘artistic’ view or not, heedless hunting had its way.

Horse-using cultures outstripped others in the development of civilization — American natives were overrun by people who had benefited from their association with the horse. What difference might horse domestication have made to the cultures of the native American had the horse survived … if, perhaps, the artists had won?

There are too many generalizations to make a point, only a question…