The Eager Newcomer
In a busy stable near the old city gates of Bremen lived a young man named Klaus. He was new to the stable hands, full of energy and even fuller of ideas.
Klaus loved horses. He loved the smell of hay and the creak of leather. But most of all, he loved to think he was smarter than everyone else.
The stable master, an old man named Johann, watched Klaus with a patient eye. Johann had seen many eager young men come and go. He knew some lessons had to be learned the hard way.
One crisp morning, Johann gave Klaus his first independent task: “Klaus, saddle old Bruno. The merchant needs him ready by sunrise.”
Klaus puffed out his chest. “Consider it done, Master Johann! And perhaps, done even better than usual.”
Johann simply grunted and went back to sharpening a shovel.
A New Method for an Old Task
Klaus walked into Bruno’s stall. Bruno was a sturdy, calm horse, used to the routines of the stable. He turned his head slightly, expecting the usual approach.
Klaus, however, had spent the previous evening observing. He had watched the other stable hands wrestle with bridles, trying to get them over a horse’s head. He had seen saddles shifted and adjusted, often with the horse twitching impatiently.
“Inefficient,” Klaus muttered to himself. “All that pushing and pulling at the front. The horse gets restless.”
He stroked Bruno’s flank. “The back,” he reasoned, “is much calmer. A horse’s tail doesn’t move much when you approach it. The rump is wide and steady.”
A revolutionary idea sparked in Klaus’s mind. Why start at the difficult end when the easy end was right there?
He would saddle Bruno from behind.
The Absurd Attempt
Klaus first picked up the bridle. He walked to Bruno’s tail end. Bruno shifted, a flicker of confusion in his eyes. He expected a scratch or a brush, not a leather strap.
Klaus tried to loop the bridle around Bruno’s tail. The leather straps were far too short. The bit, designed for a mouth, dangled uselessly near Bruno’s hocks.
Bruno, with a swish of his tail, knocked the bridle from Klaus’s hands. It clattered to the straw-covered floor. Bruno looked back with an expression that plainly asked, 'Are you quite well, human?'
Undaunted, Klaus decided to tackle the saddle next. He dragged the heavy saddle to Bruno’s rear. He strained, trying to hoist it onto the horse’s broad rump.
The saddle, made to fit snugly over a horse’s back and shoulders, simply slid off Bruno’s rounded hindquarters. It thumped against the stall wall.
Bruno snorted. He took a nervous step forward, then another. This was not the usual morning ritual. This was strange.