In my fantasy/western, there's a part where a monster forces one of the main characters to drive a stagecoach for a week. Neither the monster nor the character have any experience with horses, and I need suggestions on how to make this realistic, heart-breaking (we are supposed to haaaaate the monster), and still allow the horses to live at least seven or eight days. I want them to be in a state where they could recover once they are rescued. The MC & monster do know how to feed/water them properly because the monster made a casual study of how that was done before it killed the prior driver. (It cares more about keeping the horses alive than comfortable.)
It's a six-horse stage, so that's a lot of tack and horse juggling for someone who doesn't know how any of it works. Currently, I have the monster force the MC to leave them in the harness during the whole journey. I assumed it would begin to rub too much and the horses would get blisters and raw, exposed wounds, which causes them to be irritable, reluctant, and depressed. It is hot out, and I have them being slow, but still moving forward.
If some horse people could weigh in on how close/far I am to how this would reasonably work, and if I've failed, what I could do to adjust it to more believability, that would be awesome. <3
(And sorry for such a downer post. Remember, they do get rescued!)
It's a six-horse stage, so that's a lot of tack and horse juggling for someone who doesn't know how any of it works. Currently, I have the monster force the MC to leave them in the harness during the whole journey. I assumed it would begin to rub too much and the horses would get blisters and raw, exposed wounds, which causes them to be irritable, reluctant, and depressed. It is hot out, and I have them being slow, but still moving forward.
If some horse people could weigh in on how close/far I am to how this would reasonably work, and if I've failed, what I could do to adjust it to more believability, that would be awesome. <3
(And sorry for such a downer post. Remember, they do get rescued!)