I am a prince among horses. You wouldn't think it now, not after months of riding through the wilds with little time to spare for grooming. My coat flashes like fire in the sun when I am properly polished, and my hooves are bright jet. Now, the rough coat of winter grows through in straggles and my mane is tangled into snarls that will not come free without much pain.

But I am still a prince. I can gallop for seven days and nights, and still go on. I can outrace the winds and race faster than the flowing waters. Nothing can escape me when I am set on it by my master.

I am a prince, and I know duty and loyalty. I am not quite certain whether I chose my master, or whether he chose me. But whatever it is, I am bound to him until the day I die. No other can tame me or ride me, not now that I have bent myself to his will. He and I are like one creature, with one mind and purpose. I will go wherever he commands me. For him, I would go on forever. Together, we are invincible.

I am a prince, and I know that to gain what you seek, you must work for it. When first I met my master, we had a great race ahead of us, one that would take us across every country of Middle Earth, galloping, always galloping. Yet when we reached our destination we found our quarry had already gone, and we had just missed him. Questioning an old Halfling revealed the direction he had gone, and we were galloping again. In Bree, I thought we had finally caught up with them, but no. The Ranger had taken them under his protection and we missed them again. Then on to Weathertop… Weathertop, where my master was attacked by the enemy and was forced to flee. It shamed me deeply to run from the enemy, but I knew it must be so, for the one we sought was coming behind us.

I am a prince of stallions, and I know that whatever the circumstances, whatever the cost, your rider's command must be obeyed. I have never galloped as I did the day we reached the Fords. No horse could ever have gone faster than I did in that last mile, fighting to reach the Fords before the enemy did. It was close. Very close. But I am a prince, and I succeeded, reaching the Fords even as the enemy came behind us with fire and light, driving me into the River with my master.

But though I am a prince of stallions, I can still know fear. I knew fear that day, when the shining of the Elf behind us drove me mad with terror so that I leapt into the very water I feared, and the white water stallions poured over me until my Rider was washed away in the flood.