Twisting the creature's ear to keep it still wasn't as easy as I have imagined. In time, my hand had started getting tired. When it started shaking, the beast noticed. She still couldn't move her head but she moved her leg and... stepped on my foot. It turned out my shoe's quality wasn't that good. But surprisingly my foot didn't hurt much. It took me a while to get to pull it from under hers, though.
When she was all prepared for the ride, I let go of her ear and grabbed the reins. She was still calm and allowed me to pet her and hug her face. That's how I knew she forgave me for twisting her ear. Maybe it didn't hurt as much as I had imagined...
I mounted her and led her to an open area. She refused to run at first. No matter what I did to urge her, she was only walking. Then she got accustomed to the place and to being mounted and she started reacting more actively and acting so energetically that I almost fell off. She was running so fast and then she suddenly changed direction without my permission just to get to look behind her and check on her newborn daughter running behind us.
"Welcome to the new age, Human! I'm not the kind of horse you can ride wherever you want anymore. Now I'm a mother. And just like every mother, my daughter comes first in my priorities orders."
I had to apply all my reflexes to stay sitting on her, and that was only the first challenge. The second challenge that almost had me smashed under the horse's feet was when the saddle's stirrup leather got ripped by the violence it had to suddenly endure after so much time of rest. This time I had to cling to the horse's neck with one arm and pull the reins with the other to make her stop so I can get help to seat myself back up.
We removed the ripped leather with a rope and I resumed my dance with the beast under the burning son's heat.
By the time the dance was over, the horse was all tired and sweaty that it was safe enough to be mounted by my friend's young brother... and I had bruises all over my thighs and all along my leg where the rope has replaced the stirrup leather. Those bruises are still hurting me now, more than four days after that dance.
This was a freewrite using @mariannewest's prompt "new age". It's a continuation of my last two freewrites about my friend's horses.
Cover photo made by @saffisara and the two others are taken by my friend, Nefaa.