The Horses of SONG

The Horses of SONG are very much Characters in their own rights.

They were in the Story Line/s from the beginning and it quickly became clear that at least some of them would develop into something more than 'just horses'.

And so it was.

Visioning them from the get-go I saw big strong beautiful horses, as much 'larger than life' as our Characters. The first time I saw a photo on line of Percherons I realized that yes indeed they were the Horses of Song I had been visioning.

The other day I went to a shindig nearby, at a historic site called Boggsville (another post on that later) and one of the first things I laid eyes on was this pair of horses.

Seeing Percherons, the Horses of SONG, in photos and videos on line was all well and good, but I had personally never seen any in the flesh ...

Until I did.

I thought I was seeing things, frankly. Shook my head, blinked a couple of times and said to myself, "Nah. It can't be!"

Still, I was enchanted by these big strong beautiful horses. There was this pair of blacks (fictionally speaking the Blacks of Lairdubh/Perth), and another pair of pale dapple greys (the Silvers of Dunnottar).

And I shook my head again.

The Boggsville event was filled with folk from the era the Younglings are taking us into at the moment - the American Wild West days - so it was very much a step back in time for me the way it was. There was a Chuckwagon Cookoff going on so several covered wagons were on site, which definitely caught my attention as I want to make a facsimile of one. Most of the people there were dressed in Old West clothes, and of course the restoration of the houses at Boggsville featured living accommodations of the era. Musicians were filling the air with old songs from times now long gone (but for those who keep them alive for us).

And there were the horses.

The Horses of SONG.

I took a few photos and then finally asked.

"They're Percherons."

Having already fallen completely under their spell, and the thought already having crossed my mind, it still felt a mite odd to have it confirmed.

The owner of the Blacks (never did get his name) bid me get as close as I wanted, and so I did.

Harnessed because they were taking turns with the others providing carriage rides, still the powerful clean lines of them were obvious.

I come to about the shoulder of their owner (above photo) which put my face at about shoulder height (almost) on them. They're tall all right!

Yet when I stood in front of the one without the star on his forehead, he bent his head and oh so very gently put his face against my chest and snuffled quietly, getting my scent maybe. From behind it must have looked as though I had sprouted a pair of big horse ears from the tops of my shoulders. If I hesitated about being too familiar at first meeting, he did not. I could have hung out near these two all day but forced myself away to explore the houses and other things different folk had going on.

And I'm still kind of shaking my head at the sensation of having gone to Boggsville to get a feel for the American West days that I'm supposed to be writing about, only to come face to face with the Silvers of Dunnottar and the Blacks of Perth/Lairdubh.

*smiling*

Why I find that odd I'm not sure.

By now I ought to expect such things.

'THE SILVERS' OF DUNNOTTAR

One of the most fun things about working on this book series has been digging around on line and in books/magazines for photos to use for inspiration in the development of the horses of our Characters.

Being able to envision them helps (more than you'd think) in the writing about them.

Because of their importance in the Story Line, I wanted a couple of criteria to carry through in the lineage of these horses.

1) I wanted a breed that would satisfy both my imagination and my logic. By that I mean they would have to 'fit' at least halfway logically with the 'lineages' of our Characters. Since I went with a germanic mother goddess (Perchta) who met my criteria on another front for the 'naming' of our folk as the Perchtanne it made sense (to me) to have horses that also fit that bill - so I went with the Percherons. Especially when I realized that all of the horses I was particularly liking a lot as I was browsing around for what I wanted seemed to all be ... umm ... Percherons. The name itself hit me like a ton of bricks - so really, I didn't have much choice in the matter  :) 

2) They have to be totally AWESOME. Well, they kind of really do have to be. They are Characters in their own rights. They are Warriors. They are big enough and strong enough to carry the Dananns of our family. They also carry our young Riders. They have 'mystical' traits. Percherons meet all of those requirements and then some. They are beautiful enough to fit the bill perfectly. They are strong. They are tall. They are agile. They are smart. They have personality plus. We need all of those things. They are the Chosen mounts of our human Characters. So we can thank the Holy Trinity for giving them to us in our hour of need, the Mother in particular.

In the course of the Story Line, it emerges that the different holdings of our family tend toward having herds that are rather distinctive. 

Tarnos, home of our tall, red, attitudinal Rogue and Ordha the equally temperamental golden mount of MammTwo, has herds predictably of red and gold.

The Lairdubh holdings of the Perth area breeds blacks to go with their traditional banner colors of black and silver.

Dunnottar's herds are silver. Silver? Yeah, silver. Don't ask me why. It just is.

The horses of Andorra are the 'original' herds and come in all colors. Being as there's something a bit mystical about Andorra in the first place, the horses that are born and reared there cannot be counted on to remain the same color from one day to the next. Don't ask ME how they do it, but (fictionally speaking) they are horses of a different color. Literally. They also wear bells, and I have no idea why that is either. It just is. While I'm yapping about Andorra, yes I realize it's only been 'independent' from The Church and France for a couple of decades and that Charlemagne 'created' it back in the day. That doesn't mean it wasn't 'independent' before that, nor that the people haven't always been 'independent' sorts. Just sayin'. 

The Chattan holdings near Inverness in Fortriu have horses that are also diverse but they don't change colors. They are also not always just one color. Davidson, brother to Mamm of Dunnottar, rides an appaloosa. Whether or not there are actually any appaloosa Percherons is moot. I write fiction and Plusa is black with a white rump covered with black spots. They have dapples and some have 'paint' markings. I betcha they can have a spotted rump if they want. While I'm yammering, yes I realize that 'Percheron' as a 'breed' is only as old as the practice of naming specific 'breeds'. However, Le Perche has apparently been producing horses since ... well, since at least well before the Crusades.

Aquitaine's horses are white.

Now, when it first started out, the horses were supposed to be just horses, right?

Right.

Then came Ordha and Rogue. Then the 'blooded stock' references. Then the matching - 'Choosing' - of Horse and Rider. Then the color coding thing per location. And the thing about them being 'The Chosen of the Mother' for our Sidhe folk.  And their ability to access the Gateways to the Realm of the Gentle Ones. By then it was obvious we were talking about Percherons, with their awesomeness and their mystic qualities (I find them mystical and I write the books, so ... ) and their associations and all that.

I had a moment of panic when Dunnottar laid claim to the Silvers. What the heck. White isn't silver. Was there even such a thing as a silver horse?

Well, kind of. Close enough for fiction.

Blue roans are a kind of dark silver. Dapples and the greys are silver.

Okay, we can live with this.

Here's the horse that stole my heart on behalf of the Percherons:

http://www.draftsforsale.com/ShowAd/index.php?id=5688671527b3e

What lucky folks those are! Nineteen hands, this guy was.

Here's a second photo:

I wouldn't call him 'Moose'. Ri maybe, but not Moose.

Every time I see these pictures, in my head that gal is our own Sass, and that is her mount Sampson, who gave his life to get her safely home from her journey. Yeah, I'm sentimental like that. This guy is gone from us, but in my head he's like the leader of the pack of the Horses of the Sidhe of the Ages.

Here are some other photos I'm finding pretty inspiring, from a simple web search:

How can a person not just fall totally in love with a breed that can produce so much beauty, grace, strength, and flat out Nobility?

What kind of makes me smile is that I found out in the course of the research for the 'old' time of COME HELL AND HIGH WATER (about 12,800 years ago, versus the 'new' time which is only a little over 1,500 years ago) that the horse as we know it originated in what we now call North America. Luckily for us, some had already found their way over to the other side of the world before 'Something Happened' that extincted North America almost entirely (and I mean that literally) about 12,800 years ago. The big mammals all just pretty much ... were gone ...