“So do I. But don’t go out in the paddock and play with her. She gets to play with her peers, but she needs to respect you. You’re not her peer, you’re the lead mare of the herd, and you are not something to play with.” He scratched his head. “Foals play rough, and the bigger they get, the rougher they play. You don’t want an adult horse ‘playing’ with you on her terms; you’ll end up with broken bones. Positive reward from you should come in the form of petting and praising. Later it can come in the form of treats, or being given a toy to play with.”

He motioned to her to come out of the loose-box.

“We’ll start getting her used to the idea of a halter soon, maybe as early as tomorrow. I’ll leave it on the side of the box for her to sniff at today. Tomorrow, you move her around so she’s seeing it, pick it up, put it down. Day after that, you hold it for her to sniff, then rub it on her head. Day after that I’ll show you how to start putting it on her. When I’m ready to let them out in the pasture in the morning and bring them back in at night, that will be the right time to teach her how to be led.”

Delia paused in the door of the stable. “That soon?” she said in surprise.

“It’s easiest now, before they get any bad habits, and while they still accept every new thing that comes to them, rather than rejecting it,” Grim replied. “I was getting her used to being handled last night, while you and the Duke were already in bed. Here, come with me, and I’ll show you just what the results of this kind of early training are.”

Curious now, she followed Grim to another set of stables, the ones reserved for the “heavy” horses—the Chargers, the Tow-Beasts, and the new line that Kordas was experimenting with. Grim stood at the fence around the pasture, and whistled a particular three-note call, and two huge horses that could have been Valdemar Golds if not for their size picked up their heads and came trotting for the fence. The other horses in the field ignored the call.

They were utterly magnificent, with flowing manes and tails that must have taken the grooms hours to comb out, their hides gleaming like liquid sunshine as they slowed to a walk and approached the stablemaster, heads bobbing. They whickered a greeting as they got to him.

“And there’s my handsome lads,” Grim crooned, as they put their heads down so he could scratch their heads under their forelocks. “Delia, hop over the fence, and come up to the forequarters. Doesn’t matter which one you pick.”