Soldier on horse back

  Kingdoms, Kings Soldiers and horses have always something in common that is energy, valor, guts and a fighting spirit. Horse 🐴 and its power is always seen a sign of vitality and endurance. Horses can gallop at a rapid speed and the deftness with which it can take long strides is well known. That is why horses became a very important part of any infantry or cavalry. The soldier-horse was nurtured by many kings and later when kingdoms were overthrown by the British empire,a Soldier and horse relationship became an effective fighting unit. By. carefully overlapping the civilian and the military,by juxtaposing sense and sensibility,and by considering institutional policy along side individual experience the soldier and his horse are re-instated as co-participants in War. Meaning to say that both needed each other or rather humans needed horses and their running power to fight any war. Let us read a story about a man and his horse.                 .  . . . . . .   

 Once upon a time there was a very powerful king who wanted to conquer as many other kingdoms as possible. He had a strong and loyal army, a troop of cavaly,arms and ammunition and a lot of confidence and vigour. As he thought about expanding his sources of all the above mentioned, he started to tour the country side to find what people thought about him and his ruling. All the citizens obviously expressed their solidarity with him and praised his efforts to spread his power everywhere. The king was very happy and satisfied. Enroute to his kingdom he entered a market where the best breed of horses was sold. As soon as the vendors saw the King they clamoured to sell the horses which were with them. Each vendor tried all sorts of marketing gimmicks to lure the King. Why not? they would get the best price for their sale . Each vendor started praising their horses with the best adjectives. When one of them would say that his horse would be the fastest, the other would say that his horse had no fear of anything,the other would say that his horse had the knack of over jumping all other horses and so on.

Amongst them the king heard a very weird comment from a vendor who said that his horse could fly high in the sky without any fear . Never had the king heard about anything like that. The king even though a bit doubtful about what he heard went ahead and bought the horse at the cost quoted by the seller. He walked around with his new possession feeling elated and proud. When he went back to his kingdom, the horse was kept in a very cozy stable and was fed well and looked after well as per the king's orders. Next day when the King attended his court of the Kingdom he announced to his Ministers and other dignitaries that his Horse can fly. Each one of them were looking a bit surprised and puzzled at his announcement. How on earth can a Horse fly? That was the question that was going on everyone's mind. The attendant tried to fly the Horse which did not move an inch into the air. After repeated attempts failed the king sent a word to the horse seller who was picked and summoned to the King's court. When asked why the Horse failed to fly after so many attempts made by his court men the seller very cleverly tried to skip the topic by saying that what he meant by the statement that he told the king was that the Horse would run very fast. The King felt cheated and very angry and sentenced the horse seller to imprisonment. The chief minister was asked to see that the Horse jumps in the air. The minister tried but in vain. When he complained to the King that the Horse cannot be made to fly, the King became even more angry and sentenced the finance minister to life imprisonment. This procedure continued until all his court members tried and gave up saying the King had got cheated and it is not possible for a Horse to fly in air. The same punishment was meted out to him too.

Now, it was the turn of the chief minister of the king. As he was called by the King to make the Horse fly the chief minister very cooly nodded his head and assured the king that he will make the Horse fly as high as the King wanted. He even added that this will benefit during war as the enemy will not be able to shoot with archery for such huge heights. The King was very pleased and he gifted a gold chain to the chief minister and appreciated his guts and presence of mind in front of the entire court of the king. The chief minister happily went to his home by night only to find his wife tensed up and worried. She had been waiting for him since afternoon after she heard from a neighbour as to how her husband was given the task of making the horse to fly and how he had gotten a year's time to achieve this fest. His wife knew it was not possible now or after an year. She was fuming with anger at her husband who had made a big mistake of accepting the challenge. If the task could not be completed the King had even announced a very severe punishment to the minister. She was confused as to how her husband was so cool and relaxed. That is when the chief minister sat next to his wife and in a gentle tone explained to her that they still have an year's time to achieve this fest and during this gap in time many changes can happen. He continued to say that the King may change his mind,the horse may become weak or sick,the king himself may feel it was enough to wage more wars and instead of war peace would be a better option for the Country, its people,his Kingdom and to himself. With these positive words his wife felt relaxed and went to sleep leaving him thinking about a bright time ahead.