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Post by yosefu on Feb 26, 2020 14:18:14 GMT -5
When you think about it, it is pretty interesting. Their flexibility in tasks and many versatile commands are interesting enough on its own, but there is also this telepathic bond between their owners and themselves.
That being said, is it actually them talking or just the rangers reading too much into it? The quotes of the second Tug put it in the gray area, I think.
There's also the case of replacing the horses. The way they are named the same as the previous horse and have the old horse renamed struck me as pretty weird at first, because it felt like all these horses were in a hive mind or something. Do you think it could be written that way to close up a plot hole or was it intended to be like that from the beginning?
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Post by booklover on Feb 26, 2020 14:42:31 GMT -5
They are certainly more intelligent than normal horses. As for them talking, I think early on it was ‘his eyes seemed to say’, or things like that (can’t think of any exact quotes), but in later books it just had them speaking, maybe just something John Flanagan changes, or maybe because Will (and us readers as well, I suppose) was used to it, and by then they knew each other so well by then, which could explain how Ranger horses know what their riders are thinking, it’s just their intelligence. Alternatively, it could be a fantasy element, since even though the later books don’t show it as much, RA is a fantasy series (though apart from the horses there’s only really the kalkara, wargals, and barrow-wights). I don’t think even the Rangers know for sure. But it seems they can’t always do it when they want to, as in Oakleaf Bearers, Tug tried to warn Halt that they were on Will’s trail, but Halt didn’t understand. That could be because Tug wasn’t Halt’s horse, but the fact they need those trained warnings suggests that there’s more to it. They can’t just talk whenever they want, and there are limits to what they can say.
As for what the second Tug ‘said’, either it is really telepathic, or there’s a small possibility that at some point, he’d have communicated with Tug/Bellerophon. It isn’t too unlikely that at some point they’d have had a chance to communicate, if Will ever visited Bob, given it’s not too far away from Redmont. I know that John Flanagan didn’t plan for the replacing horses, as it says just before The Wolf that he wrote it in reply to an email from a fan, who said that their working life couldn’t be much more than 17 years. I’m not so sure about the ‘hive mind’ thing, but Ranger horses definitely seem to tease each other (like Rangers do), such as when Tug commented on Blaze (? I think it was) carrying a bag of bones (referring to Gilan, I believe). It could be just to add a bit of humour, or it could be a fantasy element. It’s hard to tell, really.
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Post by yosefu on Feb 26, 2020 23:19:17 GMT -5
I agree about the most of what you say, but now that you mention it, Tug not being able to warn Halt feels kind of inconsistent because Will rode on a retired ranger horse on "The Wolf" and was able to hear him. Maybe it is because it doesn't have an owner? I have no idea, honestly.
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Post by Arkos on Mar 3, 2020 9:15:24 GMT -5
When I first read the title I thought you would be asking breed lol Great evaluation booklover
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Post by robsan on Mar 5, 2020 12:10:30 GMT -5
Interesting! I’ve never thought about that before but your answer sounds logic.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 5, 2020 14:35:12 GMT -5
Mmm, maybe each horse and rider has a slightly different way of warning, and since the retired horses can be rode by other peolpe, and every rider is diferent, thus giving (cannot think of horse name) a more general way of warning. (this is not canon, I am just guessing)
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Post by booklover on Mar 13, 2020 12:00:09 GMT -5
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Sebias
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Post by Sebias on Mar 15, 2020 20:50:33 GMT -5
What an interesting topic... To be honest, I was wondering the same thing myself.
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Post by elkifasi on Mar 19, 2020 21:18:04 GMT -5
What puzzles me more than Halt not being able to understand Tug is the scene where, after they'd found Will and were going down the mountain again, Tug was rumbling and the Abelard started doing it too. Halt remarked something along the lines of 'Great, now you've got my horse doing it too' but both horses were actually trying to warn their riders of impending danger, as they found out.
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namelock
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Post by namelock on Mar 21, 2020 18:35:15 GMT -5
What if the rangers never knew their horses would do that when afaid, and so didn't understand the signal?
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Post by Arkos on Mar 23, 2020 9:31:44 GMT -5
It was most likely that they were distracted by banter and dint interpret the signal correctly
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Post by Deleted on Apr 3, 2020 21:37:58 GMT -5
or maybe, they just miss interpreted the signal... Never the less, they're still great horses, even if they are misunderstood..
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Post by booklover on Apr 4, 2020 11:27:53 GMT -5
What I wonder is (this is while watching the (virtual) Grand National) how the Ranger horses would compare to modern horses, specifically racing. It’s whether superior training and breeding, plus being specialised, means that the best modern horses will have an edge over Ranger horses, despite Ranger horses being, well, Ranger horses. And Bob’s training does seem extremely effective. I’m not certain if exact statistics for Ranger horse’s speed, especially as they never seem to go absolutely full out. And I don’t know enough about horses, anyway.
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namelock
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Post by namelock on Apr 4, 2020 11:51:20 GMT -5
I thought in the Ruins of gorlan that Bob said as fast as the racehorses, but they could run longer. Maybe im getting things mixed up.
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Post by Arkos on Apr 6, 2020 8:57:59 GMT -5
Yeah, he said that they could run the same speed as a battlehorse but the key was they could go longer. tbh though I am not sure. Race horses are trained bread for literally one purpose, to race. So lets say a ranger horse could match a race horse. As stupid as it sounds, leg length would be the key. And ranger horses were mentioned to be on the smaller side, while race horses are know to be on the larger side.
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