Disclaimer: I do not own The Lord of the Rings nor any of the names, characters, places, plots, or historical incidents that the genius J.R.R. Tolkien has come up with. But do try not to steal my plot, or my original characters. Ask nicely, and I might let you.

Wild Horse

Chapter V: First training.

Mudolwen was waiting for Legolas by the main entrance when he came.

"I have already placed him in the corral, my prince. Just follow me." Legolas fell into steps behind her and felt slightly stupid about presenting her the pen.

'It can wait till after the session,' he thought. It could wait.

Now they could hear Gladholion's happy neighing and as they turned the corner Legolas spotted him cantering around in a round paddock. The corral was about 15 meters in diameter and was filled with fine gravel.

"Have you had the chance to read the book, my prince?" asked Mudolwen as they walked towards the corral.

"Yes, but the subject is still very fresh to my mind."

"But you caught the basic, I presume?" asked Mudolwen.

"Yes." Did she really expect him to understand at least three hundred pages in one reading? Really!

"You may start," he said instead. The she-elf opened the gate to the corral and stepped inside. With her she carried a long rope.

"Now," she said, "I will ask of you not to interrupt me, even if you do not understand everything. Any questions you may have can wait till later."

"Agreed."

"And would you please step away from the fence? I do not want anything to disturb him." Legolas did as she asked and found another fence to sit on some meters away. Then she began.

As far as Legolas knew, this was one of the most important parts of the training. It was called 'breaking', but it had nothing to do with violence. This was a battle of minds.

First of all, the stable girl had to make Gladholion run next to the fence, so that the horse ran in an even circle automatically. Glad didn't even do that willingly, for round upon round Mudolwen was constantly after him.

After that part Legolas had no idea of how the next exercise was to be performed in action. In the book it had said that that every horse was split into four main parts. He tried to recall the page to his mind.

'Imagine splitting the horse into four symmetric parts, starting from the head to the tail. The other line runs straight behind the shoulder.'

That was what it had said. And so, when you put pressure on these different parts, the horse would react in different ways from what part you put pressure on. If you were in front of the shoulder line, the horse would slow down, back away, or eventually turn from you. If you were behind, you would make it run faster for the horse would think you were chasing it, 'like any predator would.' And if you stood facing the shoulder, the horse would just go on and on and on in the same pace as it was going in, because you then put pressure on the whole animal.

So, if you stepped in front of that line, the horse would turn away from you and if you stepped behind it, the horse would run faster. This was the natural body language all horses used. The problem lay in making the horse understand that you also knew the language. He did not think that could be called an easy task, especially if the horse was Gladholion.

Gladholion was at the moment trotting in nice circles. He had not tried anything for two rounds now, so he seemed to have learnt what to do. Mudolwen was standing in the neutral zone, but then she stepped out of it and was in front of the horse. Gladholion kept running. Mudolwen ran closer, but still no reaction. She waved her arms and yelled. No reaction. Then she took the rope and threw it into the stallion's front legs. At that, Gladholion span around on his hindquarters, thus turning with his head pointing towards Mudolwen, before he ran in the opposite direction. But this was only the beginning.

The turning didn't seem to have impressed Mudolwen, for she ran after the horse, while collecting the rope. She calmed the horse down, by letting him run in even circles, before she stepped in front of the neutral zone again, and in front of the horse. Gladholion sped up immediately. Mudolwen ran closer, but also this time she had to throw the rope to make him turn. This repeated itself until one of the times, when Gladholion suddenly turned inwards, instead of outwards as he had done the previous times.

"Good boy, good boy," Mudolwen said as she let Glad have a small pause. Again, she chased him forward, stepped in front and again, he turned inwards. But she still had to throw the rope.

After a good twenty minutes, when Legolas' bum was feeling quite sore from sitting on the fence, he noticed that Mudolwen only had to put one foot over the neutral line, and Glad would turn without the slightest protest. The one of Glad's ear that was turned towards her seemed to listen to every sound she made. How could this be? That horse had run her down only yesterday!

Mudolwen made Gladholion slow down before she walked out of the corral to join Legolas. He was about to praise her for the excellent work when she suddenly put her whole head into the water bucket placed near the entrance. Chocking on his words Legolas could do nothing but watch as she drank some of the water, before pouring out half and putting it into the corral so that Gladholion could have a good drink.

Both the horse and the stable girl was showered in mud; the corral had been filled with many small ponds after the rain last night. Mudolwen looked at the prince silently, catching the curious look he sent the bucket.

"I do not want him drinking too much during training," she explained. "It can cause colic."

"Oh, right."

"Any questions so far?"

"I have as many questions as there are leaves on the trees," said Legolas, making Mudolwen smile. "But tell me, why do you take away the pressure? If you did not take it away he would only do it faster, would he not?" Why do you put your head in water buckets?

"First, the pressure is not there to make him do things quicker. It is there to say "you have to do something, because I don't want you to stay where you are." Then the horse tries different things, and each time he does the wrong thing I do not take away the pressure. But when he does the right thing, I take it all away. Then the horse thinks "Oh, is that all I have to do?" To the horse it is a relief to be rid of the pressure, therefore it is used as a reward. Each time I try to make him turn, or do anything else, I start with the smallest amount of pressure possible. In the end he will then react if I so much as raise my little finger."

"Oh," said Legolas, who had been able to process about half of that information before his brain came to a dead end. "I understand…some of it."

"It will come, my prince, I promise. Now I will go in and repeat the process, after giving him this time to think, and then continue until he surrenders."

"Surrenders?" asked Legolas.

"Until he accepts that I am his Master, we call that to surrender," she answered as she took out the bucket Glad had emptied.

Now it only took a number of five turns before Glad did turns as if it was the only thing he had done his whole life. Then came the hard part, Legolas could not explain it, be it to save his life. Somehow she had to drag Gladholion out of the circle and make him pass over the centre of the circle (only the Valar knew for what reason) and without any help from a rope, the only thing she was to use was the much discussed pressure.

Mudolwen knew what it was all about however. The horse had to be so focused on her the first time that he followed without thinking about it. When he had crossed the circle she had to get back in to the middle, putting pressure on his hind quarters to that he turned in towards her where she would be waiting with open arms.

By a miracle or not, Glad trotted over the first time she tried. They practised that bit for a while, taking a few normal turns in between.

Then came the signs she had waited for. Gladholion dropped his large proud head a little lower than normal and started licking his lips. Fast as lightning Mudolwen did and extract turn, as it was named. Gladholion trotted over and before he knew it himself he was facing Mudolwen who stood in the middle of the circle. Her shoulders were let down, her arms were open and she had dropped her rope.

"Come here," her whole being seemed to utter and Gladholion did just that. One step became two, two became three. He softly shoved his muzzle against one of her hands. Her hand reached up to scratch his forehead in slow precise movements.

"Good boy," she muttered in his ear as she stroked his whole head, even made him close his eyelids. And so she continued over his whole body. When she came to areas where he didn't liked to be touched she went back to a safe area and stroked him there and then tried at the unsafe area again, repeating this process to she could touch him everywhere; under his tail, between his ears.

She ended up by Gladholion's head again. Snapping her fingers she immediately had the horse's attention. Taking a step forward while clicking her tongue; Legolas watched hypnotized as the horse followed her. No ropes, no nothing! The horse was following her of its own free will!

Right then Mudolwen felt as if she was smiling from somewhere deep inside her. She looked into Glad's big black eyes.

"You are an intelligent young man," she whispered into his ear as she combed her fingers through his mane. The rope she had thrown down lay at her feet and she picked it up, making a halter out of it with a few knots. She slipped it on the horse and headed for the gate. Glad followed her without even the smallest snort.

Legolas opened the gate for them, not realising he had done a servant a favour before the moment was gone.

"He needs walk with to cool down, my prince," said Mudolwen, "and I still have a quarter of an hour before I need to get back to my work."

"Let us go then," said Legolas. "What you achieved in such short space of time was completely… astonishing. I could not take my eyes of what was happening." He had in fact forgotten all about his bottom being little sore.

"You should come and see when Serondrych works; he is truly brilliant!" said Mudolwen enthusiastically. "I think he is breaking some of the one year olds next week."

"Is it like that every time? That the horses seem to change before our very eyes?"

"No, it is not like this with the horses that has been trained her in Mirkwood way since the day they were born. But some of them still put up quite a show. I am actually surprised that Gladholion took it so fast, my Prince, I had counted on that he would at least fend me off until tomorrow. He is more sensitive than I believed."

"If you say so," agreed Legolas.

They continued to walk in silence through the forest, all three lost in thought. The path they took was one created especially for this purpose, cooling down horses after training, and it lead right to the courtyard in front of the main entrance to the stable.

As the door opening came into view Legolas heard Mudolwen utter a none too mild curse. Looking ahead his eyes came upon Turgon, who was looking straight at them, with a less than pleasant look on his face.

A/N: So how long has it been since I updated? Years? Yes, something like that actually. Sorry… There are many excuses and I bet you have all heard them before, so I will not mention them here. All I want to say is this; do not for a second think that I put this story on hold on purpose. Just let us agree that life has surprises for us all.