Black and royal blue

III. The taming

I had language lessons with Mitsunari twice a week. He taught me Japanese, I taught him English. The weather was so nice today, I asked him to keep the class outside and he agreed. So we strolled around the gardens. He pointed at things and I had to say them in Japanese. In exchange I taught him those words in English. We had fun. I really enjoyed learning the language. Mitsunari always complimented on my progress. He was like an angel in human form.

We were in the courtyard when I heard the sound of hooves and someone cursing. Mitsunari and I spun around at the same time. Masamune was dusting off himself.'You spawn of hell! If I catch you, I swear I'll...' The horse must have bucked him off.

The horse galloped past us and got stuck in the courtyard. His eyes were bulging and his body was dripping with sweat and foam. He was cantering and kicking around in panic. The poor thing was clearly in pain. I saw bloody foam around his mouth. Masamune caught up to us.

'You said you were a skilled rider.' I giggled.

'This piece of... This horse is a demon. I got him as a gift recently but I think it was a trick from one of our enemies. I swear the beast wants to kill me. I've never been thrown off this many times ever in my life. I had enough. We are having horse meat for dinner.' And he reached for his sword.

'Oh, no! Don't even think about it! Put that away, big guy! I can catch him!'

'Lady Ana, what are you doing? You might get hurt! Lord Masamune, we absolutely cannot let her near that beast. It's too dangerous.' Mitsunari stared at Masamune.

'Hah, let's see what the lass can do. Or cannot do.' Masamune let out a sulky snort.

I pushed back my kimono sleeves and twisted my hair up to a bun as I started walking towards the horse. Easy peasy, I've done this many times before. I didn't spend my teenage years in a stable for nothing.

The horse was cantering around in the courtyard. He was a gorgeous dapple-gray stallion and seemed to be about 3 or 4 years old. His gaits were long and stunning, the way he carried himself was breathtaking... When I was a couple meters away from him I whistled to calm him down. He flattened his ears back and charged in my direction. I didn't budge, I knew he was just trying to scare me. I kept whistling and waved my arms in the air. He stopped right in front of me and reared up. I knew he was more scared than I. I had to keep cool. I heard Mitsunari was gasping for air somewhere. I managed to catch the reins. He was in my hands now, but he was strong and pulling. I kept whistling and hushing him and gently shook the reins to distract him... It worked, he got down to all fours. I immediately started to spin him around in small circles so he wouldn't run away again. I quickly checked him. The saddle was poorly positioned and the girth was way too tight. The bit was cutting into the corner of his mouth. 'Poor baby, no wonder you were in pain! Let's get rid of these!' I routinely loosened the girth and the breastplate with one hand... I pulled off the saddle, slowly put it down and patted his neck. The horse was much calmer already. Now the bridle. 'Shhhshhh' Suddenly, he flattened back his ears again and bit my arm. 'Ouch! Hey!'

'Are you all right, Lady Ana?'

'Don't worry Mitsunari, I'm fine.' But it really hurt actually.

Where were we? Oh, the throat latch, yes. It was way to tight as well as the cheek piece. That's why the bit was causing him so much pain. I unbuckled the throat latch and spun the stallion the other direction a couple times and slid the bridle off of his head. I stepped back one step and he galloped away bucking and kicking. But these were bucks and kicks of relief. I gathered the tack and walked back to the two men. They looked stunned.

'Someone did a really poor job tacking up this horse. He was in so much pain, no wonder he wasn't cooperative.'

'Lady Ana, you are marvelous!' Mitsunary was amazed.