Horses in Fantasy

 Nothing more has happened on the querying front, so I have actually gotten back into writing the sequel. For a while there I was contemplating writing an entirely new book because it could be queried simultaneously once it's done, but I am so invested in these original characters that I want to finish their story before moving on.

Plus, I've been with these characters for so long and I know their personalities, histories, etc. so well that it is very overwhelming to contemplate going through that all again. I know exactly where I want the sequel to go and what the series of events should be, so it's only a matter of putting it down on paper. My only struggle is reverting back to writing for a first draft, when all I want to do is edit as I go. So I've adapted a method where I will just write for a while, then I go back and add in the description, make the dialogue more realistic, and do little touches.

I am now over 20,000 words in the sequel and it is coming along pretty nicely. I'm expecting it to be equal in length to the first book - KINGDOM OF SAND, but we shall see. I don't want to artificially drag it out, or condense it so that there is too much "telling" and not enough "showing".

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No matter how strange and unique a fantasy world, there are always horses. It's one of the easiest things to keep from our world, and how else are the characters supposed to get around if there aren't any cars, bicycles, airplanes and what have you?

One of my biggest hesitations in writing is when I have to describe something in which I have no experience, or one of my characters are an expert in something I have no knowledge in. So when it came to horses, sadly my first instinct was to write, "the brown horse" and the "the white horse", and leave it at that. But now that I am going through with edits, I need to make sure that I am actually describing these animals accurately, especially because the character from who's perspective I'm writing from would know more.

So I found this blog post which describes the colours of horses that I found particularly useful. Of course, as I expand my ability to feel comfortable in writing about horses I will have to increase my vocabulary and adjectives of them so that I am not always calling a horse "the pinto", which would become repetitive and boring. But for now, I am trying these out.

Another way to describe horses is by their gender. So here are a list of the ways to refer to horses based on age and gender:

Foal - young horse

Female: 
Mare - an adult horse (over the age of three), are known to be cranky or unwilling when they come into season
Filly - under the age of three
Broodmare - a mare used for breeding
Dram - a horse's mother

Male
Stallion - uncastrated adult male horse
Gelding - castrated horse, well mannered because they have little to no hormone-driven behaviour
Colt - young uncastrated male, usually under three years old

If I've made any mistakes in this, please feel free to let me know because this is only what scavenging on the internet has shown me.