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A Horse for Bandobras  by Lindelea 2 Review(s)
Reviewed Chapter: 3 on 1/28/2025
‘𝘓𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘳,’ 𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘥, 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘭𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘮. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘤𝘩. ‘𝘎𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘳,’ 𝘉𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘵, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘯𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘦.
Bandobras' attempts to learn the horse's name are as hilarious as they get. Reminds me of Gandalf's attempts to guess the password of the Doors of Durin. xD

Author Reply: LOL! I love where Gandalf throws his staff down on the ground in frustration. It's such a real moment.

I have the feeling that Bandobras is only just passing the time. He has no hopes of actually guessing the horse's name. He was quite surprised when he succeeded!

Thanks for reading and pausing to share your thoughts!

PSWReviewed Chapter: 3 on 1/25/2025
Great name! :-D Glad he got it figured out, though it seems like the horse plans to play along regardless…

Author Reply: LOL! Many of the horses I've known responded to a whistle or "Hey, you!" just as well as or perhaps even better than to their assigned name. However, I've also known a few that seemed to recognise their name and respond to it. (It's also quite possible that they were responding to the carrots they expected to receive for coming when called.)

Apparently, most horses are capable of accumulating a small vocabulary of human words, including their names. When doing the research for this story a few years back, I read that, like dogs, they could come to understand 200-250 words, but that information might have been wrong. More recently, the articles and posts I've found indicate that horses are probably capable of learning 8-15 words, though some of the more intelligent ones were said to acquire 20 or even 30 words.

So we can imagine, at the least, that Friend knows his name in addition to certain commands, such as "down" and "walk" and "go!" and a few others that a Ranger might need to employ in his day-to-day business.

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