Take a Horse to Water

Felm loved his job as a horseherd. He had four horses to look after, which he did so very well. He kept them groomed, fed and watered and they loved him in return for it.

Unfortunately, the great storm hit the homestead one Summer night. The drinking well was struck by lightning, with everywhere else suffering from only minor damage.

The stables themselves were fine, but the drinking trough outside had also been struck by lightning, and it had been broken into two pieces. The villagers couldn’t believe that two watering places had been struck on the same night, and instantly thought the weather gods were not pleased.

Felm walked the horses across the fields to the banks of the River Slax. The two brown horses, Clemarine and Sylv stopped short of the water’s edge. Tentatively, Old Una, one of the white horses, dipped her hoof into the water for some reason. Blanche wouldn’t even attempt to go to the riverside and stayed quite a way back.

As much as he tried, Felm just couldn’t get the horses to drink, so reluctantly walked them back to the stables, where they all tried to drink from the broken trough.

Felm looked up to the sky, and muttered, so the weather gods didn’t hear, ‘never work with animals, they say, lightning never strikes twice, they say, and you can take a horse to water but cannot make it drink, they say. At least they’re right with one of them.’

With a sigh, he found his largest bucket and joined the queue of villagers who were waiting in line for the well to be fixed.