Randor’s ride back to his facilities was quick and easy. The Ebony stallion was everything that Glynda had promised and more. Randor enjoyed riding bareback and being able to feel a mount’s muscles working beneath him knowing that he was in control of all that strength. Somehow, though, he always seemed to enjoy it more when his mount was female rather than male. Riding Vixin bareback was most pleasant for him, and he wondered if Glynda had a similar feelings when she rode one of her stallions bareback.

Since it was just after lunch, he guessed that Latkin would probably be in the office going over the books. Randor tied the Ebony to the hitching rail at the main building and went in to find that he had been correct.

“If my guess is right, you probably didn’t have time to take Berin over to Glynda’s while I was gone. Is that right?” Randor asked the older elf.

“No I didn’t and it’s time that I did. Do you want to take over here so I can do that right now?” Latkin asked.

Randor told Latkin in great detail where he had been for the past couple of hours leaving out, of course, the details of what went on in Glynda’s loft. Although quite sexual creatures, elves tended to be rather modest when it came to talking about the subject. There was no doubt in Latkin’s mind, though, why Randor’s visit had taken almost three hours.

“Anyway, I rode her new Ebony stallion back here,” Randor said. “Do you think that Berin might like a visit from him?”

“I had heard that she bought that Ebony from Hrema and Elle, although I haven’t seen him yet. If he’s really anything like you are saying, she would probably kick down her stall door to get to him. She hasn’t had a “friend” for three weeks just like Vixin,” Latkin said with a knowing grin. “Let’s go see.”

“He’s right outside, but why don’t you take him in to her? I think both you and she are going to be impressed” Randor said jovially. “Besides, I’m already late getting back to work with our four new ones.”

As Randor and Latkin stepped out on the porch of the building, and Latkin saw the Ebony for the first time, all he could manage was the elf equivalent of “wow.”

Latkin had untied the big stallion from the hitching rail, and was starting to lead him in the direction of the stable where Berin was kept when Randor called over his shoulder, “Why don’t you try riding him over? He’s very gentle and beautifully trained and will kneel very low for you so that you can easily mount him bareback. When you signal him to rise, he just comes to his feet and picks you up as though you weigh nothing which, to him, you probably don’t. I’m going to teach Vixin how to kneel low like that for bareback mounting the next time I ride her without a saddle.”

“It’s been a long time since you and I have had time to take Berin and Vixin out riding just for fun,” said Latkin. “We really need to make time to do that. Those two mares enjoy it even more than we do. Remember the time when we rode them bareback and didn’t even put bridles on them.”

“You’re right, I had almost forgotten that,” replied Randor. “We just braided their manes and just used the braids like reins to guide them. I’ve seen Bothar’s boys do the same thing with Tei and Lei.”

“Girls all really seem to like being ridden without bridles,” Randor observed. “I’ve never had any real trouble controlling one by her mane, but I still like to have the positive control of a bit and bridle for anything but casual riding. Still, it’s fun to do on occasion.”

“Well, I’d better get this big boy over to see Berin,” said Latkin as he tapped the big stallion’s left calf with his foot causing the Ebony to immediately drop to his knees. “When do you plan to take him back to Glynda’s?”

“I’m going there for dinner tonight, so will come by Berin’s stall and get him early this evening. That is if she’ll let me take him,” Randor grinned. “I asked Glynda if we couldn’t keep him overnight, but she has other customers waiting for him.”

“Oh well, maybe next time,” said Latkin as he turned the Ebony toward stable five where Berin was kept and gave him a light slap on the rump with the reins starting him at a brisk walk.

Before going to the stable to check on the new girls, Randor asked around looking for Prindor and Rolf. Before he could find anyone who knew, he saw Rolf coming toward him driving Tana and Beth hitched to a wagon. Although neither girl appeared to be straining, both had worked up a good sweat, so the wagon was obviously well loaded. Rolf had been to the feed dealer, and was now making the rounds of the five stables unloading sacks of girl feed into each stable’s feed room.

“Rolf, get one of the handlers to do that,” called Randor. “You’re a trainer now, remember?”

“O.K. boss,” he said. “It’s just that I told Latkin yesterday when I was still a handler that I’d take care of it, so figured to just get it done.”

“That’s fine, but now turn the job over to someone else at your next stop, and join me at the stable with the new ones,” Randor said. “Everybody knows you’re a trainer now, but you’ve still got to learn how to give orders. Have you seen Prindor or Lani?”

“I know that Lani came back with Rena from showing off the two buckskins that you plan to sell next week. According to Lani those two “bucks” raised quite a stir when she and Rena ran them at the village track. It’s unusual for fillies that are that good looking to also be able to really run, but those two can do it. They’re probably not quite as fast as Vixin or Lacie, but they’re pretty close,” said Rolf.

“Anyway,” he went on. “Lani and Prindor got together, and the last time I saw them they were both over at our track riding a pair of four month browns.”

“Is one of the browns that mare that I bought from the traders; the one that’s in her thirties?” Randor asked.

“That’s the one. Prindor is riding her and Lani is on one of the young fillies,” Rolf said.

“Well, let’s leave them to it,” he said. “Four months can be a real critical time in a girl’s training. You and I can take care of the next step with the new four which is to start strengthening their legs and backs.”

“What’s so special about four months that I need to learn?” Rolf asked.

“I’ll start going over all the details with you as you start picking up your new duties as a trainer. You already know all the basics, obviously, or you wouldn’t have gotten the job.” Randor said.

“As you know, most girls train out in about six months,” he continued. “The first three are almost all physical to build strength and endurance to enhance the effect of their diet. Usually, toward the end of the third month, a girl gets ridden for the first time. For a couple of weeks, that doesn’t seem to bother most girls because they just want to please their trainers.”

“Was that what happened with me and the big chestnut last night, she just wanted to please me?” Rolf asked. “She seemed to want me to get on her back.”

“Exactly,” Randor replied. “But what she did last night was out of her fear over what has happened to her. These past three weeks have to have been pretty frightening for an animal like her. Her whole world has changed. You had been very gentle with her right from the beginning, so she sort of sees you as a source of protection from her fear.”

“Anyway, at four months after a couple of weeks of riding, many girls generally start to resent the fact that the little creatures, as they must see us, sitting on their backs are in control everything they do. That’s when some rebellion normally sets in that must be dealt with correctly,” he went on.

“Do you think that will happen with the chestnut?” Rolf asked.

“At some point in her training she’ll probably start to resent being ridden, even by you, and how you handle her then will make a big difference. But don’t worry, when and if that happens we will all be here to help guide you through it,” Randor concluded. “Now let’s get over there and get started with them. Get rid of that wagon and meet me back at stable one.”

“I’ll drop it with the handlers I saw at stable two, and be right with you,” he said flipping the reins across the backs of Lana and Beth to start them pulling the wagon again. He then guided the big girls into a wide left turn towards the stable he had mentioned.

Girls in training were segregated according to the number of months of training they had received, and were moved from stable to stable as their experience increased. Stable one, for new or wild girls, had twelve stalls. Stable two for girls with two to three months of training had sixteen stalls, as did stable three for four and five month girls. Stable four with its thirty stalls housed six month or “graduated” girls that were being readied for sale. It was also used for the girls that Randor took in for re-training.

Stable five, by far the largest, contained thirty six stalls, and was where Randor and all of the employees who either lived on the premises or close by kept their personal mounts. Ten of the stalls in stable five were much larger than the others and that was where Randor, Latkin and the trainers kept their mounts. Vixin, Berin and Lacie all had their stalls in stable five along with Lani’s spirited young black, Topi, and Rena’s older brown, Jengi. Tana and Beth, the two huge pack and draft girls also had large stalls in stable five. The pole barn was primarily used by visitors and for the large number of prospective buyers and the many onlookers who generally attended Randor’s sales auctions.

Back at stable one, Katryn, Madi, Lyra and Cynda had all been returned to their stalls. They had been fed and watered and rested for over an hour. The female handler to whom Randor had spoken when he had dropped Katryn off for exercise had waited to talk with him.

“Mr. Randor,” she said. “You wanted me to wait and tell you about the new girl you hitched to the carousel I was working this morning.”

“Well, tell me, what did she do, try to turn the whole thing over?” He laughed.

“At one point it almost seemed that was what she was trying to do Sir,” she said with a touch of trepidation. “She ran just fine until just after you had left, then she suddenly dug her heels in and stopped, dragging everything to a halt. She stood there and kept the whole carousel from turning. Of course the pull was in the back of her collar where for the others it was in the front, but still, five against one, I could hardly believe it, Sir.”

“Is that all, what happened next?” he asked.

“I knew you wanted them to be run, Sir, so I got after her with my switch, and let her have it. It took about a half dozen good stripes, but finally she started off again. The others were all five month girls, and recognized her right off as a new wild one. They were all pretty upset at having been dragged to a stop, so they all took off and tried to give the new one a run she wouldn’t soon forget,” the trainer reported.

“We ran them just like you said for half hour intervals with water breaks, and the little strawberry kept pace with those five month girls right up until the last interval when she finally began to fade. When she finally started slowing the others quit trying to hurry her and just seemed to match her pace for the last ten minutes or so. In five years of working here, I’ve never seen anything quite like it. A wild girl keeping pace with five month girls, it’s unheard of,” she said.

“But it gets even more unusual,” she added. “You know, Sir, how experienced girls usually treat the new ones. They really look down on them and treat them something awful.”

“I know, that’s why we keep them in separate stables as they progress,” Randor injected. “What happened?”

“Well, when we unhitched them all from the carousel all five of the experienced girls came up to the little strawberry and nuzzled and rubbed against her. It was like they were telling her what a good job she had done,” the young trainer commented.

“What did the little red do then?” he asked.

“At first she didn’t like it, but once she seemed to understand that they were being nice to her, she nuzzled them right back like they were old friends,” the young elf said.

“After that I brought her back here and the handlers that had been running your other three new girls showed up about the same time. We unbridled, fed and watered them and left them to rest to be ready for you when you got here,” she added.

“Well thank you. Ani, isn’t it? You did a good job this morning. Mr. Rolf and I will take over from here.”

“Oh, were you able to get their bridles back on them after you fed them?” He asked and she turned as she was leaving.

“Yes Sir, except for the red.” Ani answered. “She just wasn’t about to let me do it. I kept trying up until just a few minutes ago. The other three all just opened up when we presented the bits to them and let us bridle them right up, but not the red. I figured that I’d better wait for you. And, yes Sir, Ani is my name, I’m just surprised that you remember it. I’ve only worked here for a few months,” she said with obvious appreciation.

“Well, good job, Ani,” Randor replied. “You were right not to try to force her. She and I have been having a contest of wills ever since we first caught her, and it doesn’t look like it is going to end soon.”

“Thank you, Sir,” Ani said as she turned and left the stable to return to her duties elsewhere.

“OK, Rolf, let’s get these four harnessed and out pulling the sleds,” Randor said to the young elf. “They’ve been on girl feed for over three weeks, now, and we need to start giving them some real heavy exercise.”

The feed that Randor spoke about was, of course the sole diet that all of the elves’ girls received. Bad tasting as it had been for them at first, all of the four had grown to actually enjoy it. In addition to being extremely nourishing, the feed also contained a number of herbal and mineral additives that, along with very rigorous exercise, produced a variety of physical changes in the girls’ bodies that the elves desired in their mounts and draft animals. One of the most significant of these changes came in the form of greatly extended life expectancy, and significantly delayed ageing. On average, elves’ girls lived around one hundred and thirty years while maintaining much of their youthful strength and appearance until well over one hundred.

Although this diet and exercise program greatly increased the expected lifespan of their livestock, of even greater importance to the elves was the very significant increase it brought about in physical strength and endurance. A human’s muscles, bones and connective tissue underwent a major change resulting in a near tripling of strength. The change began so quickly and was so significant that it likely took place on a molecular level.

The muscles of most animals are several times stronger pound for pound than those of humans. A deer or even a house cat can jump over an obstacle several times its own height. This was the nature of the physical changes that the elves’ animal feed brought about in the humans that consumed it. When combined with exercise of increasing intensity over several months, the results of the regimen were quite remarkable. Katryn’s musing that Vixin might be capable of carrying the overweight Elder on her back was not a bit far fetched as she had thought. Even with her smaller stature, by the time she finished her training and conditioning, Katryn herself would be capable of carrying a normal sized adult male for some distance provided she wore a well fitted saddle to properly distribute his weight.

After inspecting the four girls in their stalls, Randor and Rolf went to the stable’s tack room together to get training harnesses for them. Rolf knew what type of harnesses were required for the afternoon’s exercises, but Randor accompanied him just to make sure he selected the right sizes. Shortly, they were back at the girls’ stalls.

“Rolf,” said Randor. “This time I’m going to take the little red first. She will expect to be last and going first may catch her off guard before she has figured out how she wants to be ornery this time. If she does behave, the two blacks may do the same. Do you think you’re going to have trouble with your big chestnut?”

Until that point, Rolf had never thought of Cynda as his big chestnut. The idea began to take root. After all she was big and powerful like Vixin, and although not a thoroughbred like Lacie, was certainly a beautiful animal. She was also a dream to ride, or so he thought from last night’s brief experience.

The exercise that the girls were going to get this afternoon, they were probably not going to like much. They were going to be harnessed and made to draw heavy wooden sleds around on the soft earth of one of the paddocks. Elves would be riding on the sleds controlling the girls with reins and whip. The sleds would be weighted with bags of sand at the rear. The real load would be controlled by how far forward each elf driver stood on the sled. The farther forward the driver stood on the sled, the more his or her weight would bear down on the front of the sled’s skids increasing the load. This allowed a driver to keep the effort required of a girl near her physical limit which greatly accelerated the development of her strength.

For buggies and the like, speed was what drivers was generally seeking, so whether hitched individually or in teams, girls and males could run faster in a more upright position providing that the load was light enough. These “buggy harnesses” as they were called, placed the load on the hips and lower abdomen of the animal. They did include light lined and padded shoulder straps that crossed the chest and back connecting to the hip belt at the sides where the animal was hitched to his or her load. These shoulder straps helped to distribute the load whenever it might become heavier such as when climbing hills or handling rough terrain.

For drawing really heavy loads such as wagons or plows or training sleds, quite different types of harnesses, generally called “wagon harnesses”, were used. For a two legged animal to pull a really heavy load they must be able to lean forward and really “put their backs into it”. The wagon harness was designed for just such service.

Wagon harnesses had a rigid lined and heavily padded so called “draft collar” which was not a collar in the usual sense but more of a yoke-like device. It was made of a very light but strong hard wood contoured to fit the shoulders then heavily padded and leather covered with the underside where it rested on the animal’s shoulders lined in soft suede. The opening in the center of a draft collar was large enough that it was put on simply by lowering it over the head until it rested on the shoulders. Heavy straps, each with a buckle for adjustment, brought the load being drawn to the draft collar from a wide padded “hip belt”. These straps crossed the body both in the front and back and joined the hip belt at the sides where heavy metal rings were attached. The traces, usually chains, attached to these rings and then to the load generally through a singletree for a single animal or a doubletree for a pair or team.

On harnesses for males, the heavy straps between the draft collar and the hip belt simply crossed the body in the front as well as in the back. Harnesses for females were made somewhat differently due to her breasts. In most cases, a girl’s breasts would interfere with the crossing of the heavy straps between the draft collar and hip belt. Therefore instead of having a horizontal front bar like one made for males, the front bar of a draft collar for females came to a point in its center pointing downward between her breasts. From that point, a short length of thick leather or polished chain depended between the breasts to a point just below them where it terminated in a metal ring about two inches in diameter. Two heavy adjustable straps then connected this ring with the sides of the hip belt where the trace rings were attached.

As a result of their carefully controlled diet and almost constant exercise, most of the girls used by elves had firm but small to medium sized breasts. However, even medium sized breasts rarely have sufficient space between them for the straps of a male’s harness to cross in comfort. Some small breasted girls could wear harnesses made for smaller males, but these girls were an exception, not the rule. Also, even with diet and exercise, some girls were just “big chested” as Bothar had described the black that Rolf had ridden to his place two days earlier. Girls like her definitely did not have much space between their large breasts, and definitely required harnesses made for females.

Large breasted girls also required breast support to prevent the discomfort and possible injury that could come from excessive bouncing when ridden or driven at a fast pace. Leather half cup brassiere-like support halters were often used on such girls to protect their breasts. However, when he rode her to Bothar’s, Rolf had not used such a device on the black. Instead he held her back and only allowed her to pace rather than run as she would have preferred.

The black, like all humans on the elves’ diet and exercise regimen had developed a real desire to run. Running or any strenuous exercise produces an endorphin “rush” in a human body in good physical condition producing feelings of pleasure and well being. The elves’ training regimen also increased endorphin production, so that such feelings were significantly enhanced. This, of course, fit the elves’ purposes perfectly as traveling faster was a primary reason for their use of girls for riding or drawing their conveyances.

Selecting a wagon harness and set of reins from the tack room, Randor carried them out and laid them on the stable floor next to the hitching post just outside of Katryn’s stall. The young filly had been standing in her stall watching him through the bars. When in the tack room, Randor had also picked up a riding whip which now hung from his belt, which she had not failed to notice. Walking into her stall, he untied her lead rope from the wall ring and grasping it right below her collar, led her out and tied her rather closely to the post.

Katryn was surprisingly fully recovered from her morning run, and was still feeling the endorphin induced pleasure from the workout. That combined with the elf’s sense of purpose and the presence of the whip caused her to think, “This may not be the best time to test this elf. Besides, I’m just a bit curious as to what they are going to try next with us.”

Katryn knelt quickly for Randor and offered no resistance as he put her bridle back on. Randor was totally surprised when he presented the bit and the filly promptly opened her mouth to accept it. She then lowered her head allowing him to easily fasten the buckles. As he presented the bit and prior to lowering her head, she had locked eyes with him as if to say, “OK, I won’t fight you this time, but it is my choice, not yours.” Randor smiled, and tousled her hair after buckling on her bridle.

Stepping behind her, he began to massage her shoulders to loosen them up for the hard pulling she was soon going to be doing. Once he felt her muscles relaxing he picked up the harness and lowered the draft collar on to her shoulders, letting the opened hip belt, as it hung from the straps and chain, drop to her waist in front of her. Hip belts all buckle in the back out of the reach of the wearer’s hands which are, of course, connected to their security collars. The filly immediately turned her head to look at him, but still offered no resistance.

All the while that he was working with her Randor was constantly talking to Katryn in a soothing voice. “Good girl, good girl, relax girl, I’m not going to hurt you, girl.” She could not understand what he was saying, but was beginning to recognize certain repeated sounds, and she did like the soothing tone of his voice.

“I wonder what that one sound means that he keeps saying over and over,” Katryn thought to herself. They all certainly speak differently to us than they do to each other.” In working with their animals, elves had learned long ago to speak to them slowly and in a lower register as the normal high pitch and very rapid delivery of elf speech had a tendency to make them jittery.

Since arriving at the elves’ village she had seen other girls wearing similar devices and also remembered the four males she had seen drawing the heavy wagon. “This thing is a harness,” Katryn thought to herself suddenly. “I don’t want to be hitched up and made to pull something for him.”

As she started to move her left foot to get it beneath her to rise from her knees, Randor, still standing behind her, placed his left foot on top of the back of Katryn’s calf, and pressed down gently which caused her to hesitate. At the same time he put his left hand on the draft collar on her left shoulder pressing down gently while saying in his softest voice, “Hold girl, easy girl, easy girl.” He also began stroking her head with his right hand.

This response from the elf rather than a forceful yank on her lead rope or a cut with his whip caught Katryn off her guard. She had really wanted a fight with him over whether or not she was going to be harnessed. Her plan had been to get to her feet so that she could bend over and shake the thing off of her shoulders as it was only resting there and had not as yet been fastened on her. She again turned her head to look back at Randor over her shoulder and stared at him. Katryn well knew that she was certainly strong enough to overcome the pressure on the back of her calf and shoulder and could easily have forced the elf back and risen to her feet. However, he had not attempted to force her leg back down with his foot. He had only placed it there to show her that he did not want her to stand, and the pressure on her shoulder was gentle as well. Realizing that she was not going to get the fight that she wanted right now, Katryn hesitated.

Randor seemed to completely ignore the filly’s attempt to rise to her feet and proceeded with her harnessing. While Katryn was trying to decide whether or not to resist him at this point, he quickly buckled the harness on her body. In the tack room earlier, he had selected a harness and adjusted it to where he felt that it would fit her short stature. His estimation proved to be correct, and only minor final adjustments were required which Katryn allowed him to make.

In the tack room Randor had unbuckled and removed the center strap that normally ran between the legs to keep the hip belt settled on a filly’s hips. This was because he knew that new girls often wet themselves under the strain of pulling a training sled for the first time. Also the pressure of that strap when precisely adjusted provided a pleasant stimulus for the girl wearing one, and he preferred to save it to use as a reward for good performance.

Clipping a set of ten foot reins to Katryn’s bit, Randor tied them to the post ring then removed the lead rope from her collar. At this point she was on her feet standing near the post and Randor simply turned from her and walked to the next post where Rolf was finishing harnessing Cynda. She had not resisted his harnessing her. While he was working on her she had continuously tried to nuzzle and rub her body against the elf. Cynda had received several stripes from the handler’s switch this morning when she had tried to slow down on the carousel which had brought her to tears as usual. Since it had been the handler who had switched her, not Rolf, Cynda was trying court his affection as usual.

“He has never hurt me where some of the others have. If I can only keep him interested in me maybe he will keep the others from switching me like they did this morning,” she thought to herself.

“I know I didn’t want the others to see him riding me last night, but maybe I shouldn’t have stopped there outside the door. Maybe he wanted to show me off to the other elves, and I didn’t let him do that. I should have just carried him right back inside,” her thoughts continued. “I do so want him to take care of me and protect me.”

In trying to curry Rolf’s favor, Cynda offered no resistance whatever to his harnessing her. She knelt when he pulled down on her lead, and stood when he pulled up. As a result, he was quickly finished and had her tied to her post by the long reins just like Katryn.

Randor and Rolf actually had more trouble with Madi and Lyra than they had had with the other two. The sisters had become somewhat accustomed to the attentions of Latkin and Prindor and having two new trainers caused a little resentment. However, in fairly short order the two young blacks were also harnessed.

The four girls were about to begin their training in earnest.