Master the Tiger: Horse 8: Old Friends

The Duck is still down, but that's no reason not to update.

This is more or less the final page of the horse story, although I think I'll add one more drawing later. After that we'll get back to something more "classic" - after all, this is Master the Tiger, not Master the Horse.

I'd have finished the story arc earlier, but I desperately wanted to draw Fríða. It was a matter of pride.
I read somewhere (can't really remember where) that an average illustrator will hardly ever need to draw more than the walk, the trot/canter and the gallop. This is of course nothing but the honest truth, but to me it's also a challenge: I am NOT an average illustrator!

This is why Fríða displays a rare gait called the "flying pace" in the last panel. If you imagine a plunkety-plunkety-zoom! sound as in the old cartoons, you'll pretty much get the picture of the way the real thing looks.
It takes an Icelandic horse to do such a thing.* There have always been a lot of them around in my area, and I'm as fond of them as I am of horses in general. Icelandic horses have one or even two more gaits in addition to the others that every horse has. Most of them can only do the more famous tölt, though, so Fríða, who can do both tölt and pace is a rather valuable steed. I will draw her tölting as well, given the opportunity.
The flying pace is almost as fast as the gallop, but the horse can keep it up much longer, and, as in the tölt, it is quite comfortable for the rider, from what I hear. This is because there is no up and down movement as in the normal, natural horse gaits. The soon Sophie has recovered from the sudden acceleration she will find that she goes in a smooth, straight line, without any danger of falling off whatsoever, despite the speed.

It also shows that Fríða doesn't panic entirely, else she'd have probably gone off into a gallop like every other horse. Obviously, she and Tiger have made their acquaintance before.

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* Don't call them ponies, even though many people do so. Granted, they are technically ponies in regard to their size, and they'll more and more assume a pony's habitus the older they get (you can take Frauke by her word; they do get thirty years old and more). However, to the Icelanders, these horses seem to be a matter of national pride. To keep them from mingling with other breeds, there is a ban on introducing horses to Iceland so strict that it verges on paranoia; not even horses that have been born in Iceland but lived elsewhere for a while may be brought there. It might explain Fríða's Icelandic dreams; it's the only way for her to see her birthplace again. How do I know she's born there? Because you wouldn't be allowed to call her an Icelandic horse, if she was born elsewhere, irrespective of whether she's a pure breed.