| Tourist Trap Horses
Excerpt from Tourist Trap
Timi
stood on the crest of the gentle rise, looking northwest, and began waving
wildly. Roi felt the vibration of hoof beats through the ground, and struggled
to his own feet. "All right, Penny," he confirmed grumpily. "But I'm not really
hurt. There's no reason to stick the others with all the work."
"I
think you'll find it's you against the other four of us on that," Penny told
him. Flame's head, hair flying free, came over the rise to his north, quickly
followed by Amber's and those of several horses.
Roi
blinked hard when he saw the horses, thinking for a moment he must have hit his
head on something, after all. They were polka dotted. Flame's mount was white
sprinkled with round copper spots. Amber's, a little bay roan with curious dark
lines on its nose, looked less exotic until it turned as she halted it. Then it
became apparent that it had a large white area, punctuated by dark bay spots, over
its hips. One of the two led horses had a black-spotted white body, but its
neck, legs and chest were a dark mouse gray, set off by a black head and mane
and a black and white tail. The other had markings resembling those of Flame's
mount, but its spots were a lighter, sandy color, with a good deal of black
mixed with the white of its mane and tail. Then Flame and Amber jumped down
from their horses and slammed into Roi, and he had to concentrate on keeping
upright.Summary of the horses: All of the Falaron horses in the story have the leopard marking gene, what we'd call Appaloosa colors. Those important enough to be named are:
Raindrop is Roi's mount, a body-blanketed grulla mare around 15 hands with dark spots. Raindrop is a spirited animal, with a bad reputation among the guides as not just anyone can handle her.
Token is a chestnut leopard mare, around 16 hands tall. She is Flame's mount. Splash is a little over 14 hands, a bay varnish roan gelding with a spotted hip blanket. Amber rides him. Timi, the only one of the travelers who isn't all that fond of horses, rides a buckskin leopard gelding, Dusty. His own horse back on Central is also a buckskin, Butterscotch. Dusty is an exceptionally gentle and placid horse, but not terribly responsive.
Penny, the guide, rides Freckles, a bay leopard gelding.
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