Chapter 22

We were up early the next morning and nearly through with breakfast before the sun was fully up. Today was for teaching Routata's wranglers to break horses, if you could call the way I did it breaking. All of us were going to be present, even Chiqa. We were taking a big lion fur for her use as crawl space.

I especially wanted Catla, Rayta, and Daro to be there paying special attention to what I was doing and teaching. I hadn't given enough effort toward teaching anyone else my methods before, but I would be this time and I wanted them to learn too.

Our first job was getting the hobbled horses into the riding rotation. I already had a handle on the stallion and lead mare and I fully planned on keeping them for myself, so it left us eight to deal with today. I sent a man each to catch and unhobble them. The rest of it would be me, telling and showing, while the wranglers were doing. I did a lot of telling.

It was mostly a slow ordeal and not only did I have to give instructions to the men, I had a lot of extra explaining for Catla, Rayta, and Daro. I was lucky Catla was with me since she brought up several points which made me realize I was leaving out information the men would need.

Mostly I was feeling my way along since it was the first time I'd really tried to teach anyone to do it instead of doing it myself. By noon I was more than ready for a lunch break, but at least we had the first eight horses with riders on their backs and progress was being made.

After lunch, half the men started leading lessons for the group at the snubbing trees and the other half taught the horses at the hitch rail about hobbles, then after their subjects were hobbled they started leading lessons for the remainder of the tied horses.

After the snubbing trees were vacant I started catching more horses for the standing tied lessons. When I had a full crew attached to the trees again it only left six mature horses who hadn't had any training and it was great by me. What with the new members from the small camp they would be short of horses, but then again they could capture more after most of the men were mounted and knew how to ride.

Actually most of my work was done now. I'd have to hang around and keep an eye on things, but there were ten men now who had at least done it once and even if they didn't know yet they were going to do most of the teaching from now on.

Routata had been right with us most of the day and he'd discovered the drawback his new members were going to cause. I'm sure he knew they would be worth it, but he was wondering how to handle things. He knew he'd need more horses, but he also understood his canyon wouldn't be able to support them, especially during the cold weather.

He meandered over and wanted to talk about things and I was glad to shed some light on his options. I'm not so sure he was happy with what I shared. What the hell, he could like it or live with it. If he wanted horses there was work to be done. Having a horse for every member of his bunch wasn't the most practical scheme to my way of thinking, but I wasn't about to tell him so.

At first the concept of a barn to store food for his stock was hard for him to swallow. In his mind he couldn't get past the fact horses could feed themselves without the help of his people. He couldn't understand why they needed so much attention simply because he and his group wanted to keep them in one place.

I'd seen this type of behavior before. He had his idea of the way the world worked and after I pointed out his mistaken beliefs he wanted to argue me out of it, as if it would make one fucking bit of difference. His horses would damn near starve this winter if he didn't provide for them, and even if he could argue me into saying they wouldn't they would still starve. His labor saving ideas wouldn't work and I knew they wouldn't

"You can believe anything you want to believe Routata. I'm not demanding you do anything and you probably won't lose any horses from starvation this year if you do nothing at all, but you aren't going to like what you have left when the snow melts and new grass starts growing next year."

"What do you mean?"

"If you don't gather food for them in the winter they will looked skinny and starved next spring and it will take them months to gain their weight back. In fact they won't gain it all back before next winter. That is when they will start dying.

"They are able to find enough to eat now, even though you have them captured, but they aren't able to eat what they want to eat any longer. Horses do not roam from place to place just to see what's going on somewhere else. They move along eating the best food and then move on. When you keep them in that small canyon they have food, but they have already eaten the best food and would have gone elsewhere if they could have."

"But how do I know which is the best food?"

"I don't know what they like best and they can't tell either of us. I also know it doesn't grow in one place. You can either keep them in a much larger area or you can provide plenty of the lesser quality food for them. If you want to keep them where they are you must build a barn and then cut and store plenty of food for them to eat during the winter."

"How will I even know how much feed they will need," he asked.

"You will have to remember how much you store this year and if it is enough you should store that much or more next year. If it is more than enough you won't have to store so much next year unless you have more horses."

"I can see that, but how much should I store the first time? I have no way to judge," he said.

"You will have to guess. Any food you provide for them will be better than nothing. And if you store more than you need you can still let them have it after the grass has come again."

He was getting a little frustrated, but I don't know what he expected of me. I didn't have all the answers either. I was also tired of talking it over right now. He didn't even have a barn yet and he was worried about how much hay to store in it. Thankfully the differences between my situation and his gave me an out for the conversation.

"I think you should fully explore the canyon they are in first. After all, there is a chance you might find a cave you can store the food in. Do you even know for sure the canyon is blocked at the other end?"

"No, we aren't sure, but the vines and berry patches are thick near the back and the horses can't get out," he said.

"Then you should check it closely. Suppose there is another opening behind the vines and brush? It might lead to another open plain. Maybe there is more grass on farther back. You could clear out a path for the horses and you wouldn't have to graze your canyon so close. You know the stream comes through and it has to come from somewhere."

"I never even considered it. You are right and I will have some men try to see what is back there," he said.

"You should go with them to make sure. If it is very difficult they may just come back and tell you there is nothing back there. You won't know unless you see for yourself."

He agreed and left then, probably to get started. I liked Routata fine, but his questions could get annoying after a while. I didn't take him to raise after all. I didn't mind helping him out, but I wasn't here to give him lessons in farming. I had my own fish to fry.

Catla, Daro, and Rayta had moved off while we were talking, but I was sure it wasn't so far Catla hadn't heard every word.

"How much will we need for feeding them during the winter," she asked, right off the bat, and I knew "I don't know" wasn't going to suit her.

"My best guess is three bundles per day for each of them. There will probably be two hundred days from the time the grass is mostly gone until the time there is enough for them again. That would mean six hundred bundles for each of them. We will also cut many of the seed heads from the oats."