Too Damn Slow No Wonder We're Late

It was truly embarrassing.  At first, I'd never been so frightened - I'm sure they gave me the tallest horse just for the fun of it.  I'm a little shorter than the Hznaman, as you've probably gathered, but I'm broader set across the shoulders which makes up for the lack of height.  But it's completely useless on horseback.  They pulled up the straps with the foot rests on them as high as they could and then helped me on board.

I cannot honestly say I was 'riding' the horse.  It was more like I was just 'sitting on' it.  I tried to steer, I really did, but it wouldn't obey my instructions.  Mullory, who was patiently teaching me, pointed out that normally they respond to movement from your legs, but as mine don't reach as far down the horse's flanks as theirs do, I was struggling to get my message across to the animal.

Fortunately, their natural environment is to live in herds, so mine naturally followed the others as we moved out.  As the morning passed by, so did the wilderness, but not as quickly as Elenhugh wanted.  It took me a while to gather the courage to allow my horse to pick up pace, it reached a canter at one stage, and the wind whistling through my beard was quite alarming.  But it wasn't quick enough for the others, who were insisting that we gallop the beasts for stints throughout the day.  When I really pushed the speed out the inevitable happened.  I fell off.  I went over the back of the animal and landed on my back in the mud and dirt of the roadway.

We had to slow down after that.  I was making it look like I was a slow learner, but really I was struggling to become comfortable with the speed and control of it.  I was just starting to get the knack when we broke for lunch later than normal, as we'd reached the small town mid way between Sparren Marsh and Fornan Bay.

We picked the pace up this afternoon.  I was finally getting a bit of speed out of my animal for periods, but we still weren't covering the distance we'd have liked.  We did get some galloping done towards evening, but the others were clearly frustrated.  We had to stop for an evening break too.  We did this as dusk rolled in, and the temperatures dropped.  We fed and watered the horses, and took some food ourselves.  I had to suffer the indignity of being the butt of the jokes (I'm starting to understand their humour a little, now), and it was all good natured.

We resumed our journey with lanterns and it was soon dark.  We'd probably have stopped and camped if we'd been anywhere else, but Elenhugh and Mullory are very familiar with Fornan Bay, and knew exactly where to take us to find lodgings at this time of night.  We've hired some rooms at the Woodleigh Inn, which is a quite an up-market place.  We don't have a suite as we'd normally choose, but we had to take what rooms were available.  They've stabled the horses and they've served some supper, mostly cold meats, bread and some cold meat pie.  There's also a couple of flagons of beer, which are very welcome.

We have no chance of visiting Elenhugh's friend at the Viscount's office tonight - we'll be heading there in the morning.  But not particularly early - we've had a long day in the saddle, and it has left me quite stiff in some unmentionable places.  I hope I'm still capable of moving in the morning.