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A Horse for Bandobras  by Lindelea 16 Review(s)
shireboundReviewed Chapter: 6 on 11/26/2024
Rorric knows an urgent -- and seriously deivered -- message when he hears it. Thank goodness Bandobras made it back to deliver it.

Author Reply: Thank goodness! Without Friend's help, he would most likely have been lost - like too many others. The story gets a bit... whimsical... going forward. Chalk it up to stubborn, insular hobbits to complicate seemingly simple matters.

Thanks so much for reading and taking the time to share your thoughts. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

LarnerReviewed Chapter: 5 on 11/15/2024
Roric is demonstrating that he honor's Friend's care for Bandobras. Excellent!

Author Reply: Rorric is an excellent hobbit. It's no wonder other hobbits followed him from the comfortable Shire into the unsettled North.

Thanks so much for reading and stopping to leave a good word. I am still hoping to see something of yours posted... In the meantime, I will go back and read some of your older stories. I am finding some comfort in fanfic these days.

LarnerReviewed Chapter: 4 on 11/15/2024
Ooh! From mere companion to race-horse in an instant! Love that Bandobras is wise enough to mount at Friend's mere urging. Now--to Long Cleeve!

Author Reply: Ah yes. Race horse. Very perceptive of you!

Thanks so much for reading and stopping to leave a good word.

LarnerReviewed Chapter: 3 on 11/15/2024
Here was the answer to the riddle that the Ranger had already given him! Love Friend literally shoving the Hobbit to that realization!

Author Reply: What a relief it must have been when Friend heard his name spoken at last!

Thanks so much for reading and stopping to leave a good word.

LarnerReviewed Chapter: 2 on 11/15/2024
Love this manner of Bandobras finding himself caring for the Chieftain's horse. And the Hobbit fails to realize the horse's name has been given to him as well!

Author Reply: So good to hear from you. Assumptions are funny things, aren't they? Bandobras assumed he didn't know the horse's name... until he suddenly realized he did.

shireboundReviewed Chapter: 5 on 11/9/2024
Dear Friend, he's so loyal. What a tale Bandobras has to tell!

Author Reply: He's a lovely horse. Even with its dark bits and challenging (for me, anyhow) format, this story makes me smile when I work on it. Not to mention, this is one tale that grows in the telling...

Thanks so much for reading and taking time to leave your thoughts.

shireboundReviewed Chapter: 4 on 8/22/2024
Bandobras froze, but Friend did not: the horse nudged the hobbit, folded his front legs and dropped his nose to the earth.

Such wonderful intelligence and communication!

Author Reply: I find myself wondering about Ranger horses. Did the Dúnedain raise and train their own horses? Did they have contact with the Rohirrim? (After all, Aragorn was said to have lived with the Rohirrim for a time.) Did the heirs of Isildur receive Elvish horses from Rivendell?

In any event, their horses would have to be intelligent and well-trained. They'd probably have to be capable of "intelligent disobedience" as well. (The best example I can think of is a guide dog that disobeys a direct order from its blind partner because it can perceive a danger that its partner can't. I've heard of such dogs taking their partners around obstacles instead of in a straight line, refusing to move forward when commanded, choosing a different route to a destination than their partner directs them to take, or even throwing themselves in front of their partner's knees and shoving them backwards out of the path of some oncoming danger.)

Here's hoping Friend's actions are believable, based on those ideas.

Thanks for reading and stoping to leave a good word. (((hugs)))

DADGADReviewed Chapter: 3 on 3/15/2024
Loved this chapter! Although, all the way through I had 'Horse with No Name' by America stuck in my head: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=na47wMFfQCo

Btw I don't object at all to you reading 'More than Meets the Eye' and 'borrowing' ideas/concepts. We could establish a mini 'Bandobras head canon'

Author Reply: Sweet.

(Want to hear something funny? That song was stuck in my head most of the time I was writing this chapter, and for a long time afterwards! I had to put on a playlist of other songs to drive it out of my head at last.)

shireboundReviewed Chapter: 3 on 3/12/2024
What absolutely darling conversations between Bandobras and this delightfully intelligent horse.

Author Reply: Thank you! I hope he doesn't sound unbelievably intelligent. It's just that I have the feeling that Wanderer is in the habit of holding long conversations with his horse as they're travelling. I read recently that the average dog can learn 165 words, including signals, and "superdogs" (in the top 20% of dog intelligence) can learn 250 words (https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2009/08/dogs-think). Someone on Quora thought horses could learn about 200 words. I've included that link plus two other interesting articles about horse intelligence below, in case anyone else is interested:

https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna35911274
https://equusmagazine.com/news/horses-understand-human-gestures
https://www.quora.com/How-many-words-can-a-horse-understand

DADGADReviewed Chapter: 2 on 3/10/2024
Oooh, I'm enjoying this and looking impatiently for the next chapter! Ever since I wrote my first fic (More than Meets the Eye) back in 2007, I've wanted more stories about Bandobras Took and the Battle of the Greenfields, especially if done on a less jokey way than I did.

Hmm, 'Wanderer' the folk in Bree (presumably?) were somewhat literal-minded even back in the 2700's :)

Author Reply: The next chapter is half-finished and on track to post mid-week!

LOL, I enjoyed playing with Aragorn's alias in Bree in this story, just a bit. Of course, this Ranger Chieftain would have been likely not to give his real name for much the same reasons as his descendant's.

Is More than Meets the Eye about Bandobras? (excited flutterings)
I have added it to my "want to read" list. (Of course, I plan not to read it until after this one is finished to avoid accidentally poaching your ideas. Things muddle themselves together in my brain sometimes, so I've found that precaution necessary since early in my fanfiction writing experience. When I do deliberately adopt someone else's idea, I take pains to give credit where credit is due, but I'm always afraid I'm going to encroach on someone else's creative work otherwise. Poor Larner has waited ages for me to read a story of hers that coincides with one of my WIPs... So I am working on that one behind the scenes while finishing the three that are currently being posted.)

Thanks so much for your encouragement! Your Import Duty is at the top of my reading list if I can just shrug off the tiredness that flattened me today. I'm going to take a nap now and hope that will recharge my batteries, even a little.

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