A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking

[which_chick]

I picked up this book on spec the other day and steamrolled through it as is my wont. Well worth the read, it is a delightful thing carefully crafted with enjoyable worldbuilding and a well-paced narrative.



Also, the book mentions, in passing, the logistic problem of dead horses in a pre-industrial setting. As not many people have personal experience with horses these days and even fewer deal with the logistics of dead (or nearly-dead) horses, this isn't a thing, probably, that most people think about or might be a thing that people think is "solved now".

But, even in these our modern times, horses don't get to just die most of the time. Mostly we move them when they're alive to where they need to be after they're dead and then end them there. I mean, yeah, you could drag the dead horse around with a tractor or something but that does upset the people who knew the horse, especially if bits got pulled off or the corpse got all mangled. It is a lot easier lead the horse to where she needs to die than to try to move her around after she's dead.



I am, for what it's worth, sitting here with a headache, tears streaming down my face, and snot running down onto my upper lip.

Comments

[omnia_mutantur]

Ack! Even though I recently had a conversation with a friend about the manner in which her horse will be departing, I didn't think to warn you. I'm so sorry.

[which_chick]

I do not expect online folks to mystically know that I have a beloved dead mare that I am still kind of wrecked over losing even though that was in 2018. (Not a lot of people who know me in real life know how upset I still am about the Nicknick.) And I don't post endlessly about it because there's not a whole lot to say. She's still dead and I am still sad. I cry less often these days, which I guess is progress.

But yeah, don't beat yourself up about it. It was a delightful book that I really enjoyed reading... and I only got soppy about dead horse logistics afterwards, when I dug out The Picture to illustrate this. (I cannot look at The Picture very much. It is too sad.)