Gather round little ones and let me tell
\nyou a tale that is sure to warm your hearts and answer every question you ever
\nhad. Well, every question we feel you need answered. Now, if you find some of
\nthe answers a little hard to believe, let it be known that gold as high as a
\nmountain was spent in the making of this tale which should be sufficient to lend
\ncredibility to it’s truthfulness.<\/p>\n
A long time ago there was a man who rode a
\nwild stallion and he loved to engage in competitions with other men, to prove
\nthat he and his stallion were better. His stallion, black as the night, would
\nsnort fire and smoke and, even though the other men would never admit it, it was
\na sight that caused fear and trepidation in their hearts. Many a man would be
\nleading these competitions only to have the man on the black stallion come up
\nfrom behind and cause their own mount to jump in terror, out of the way of this
\nsuperman and his thundering beast.<\/p>\n
This story was the same over many years.
\nMany times the man on the black stallion would fail to win the competition but
\nall the other competitors would leave knowing that he had been there. His marks
\nwere left on various steeds and riders like badges of shame, that he had been
\nallowed to scar them, even in defeat. This man was flocked to by the masses and
\nbecame a shining symbol of their hopes and dreams. Many would part with many
\nhard-earned pieces of gold, just to be able to wear this man’s colors.<\/p>\n
As often happens with legends of this
\nsort, the day came that the mighty man on the black horse met his match. Dueling
\nwith the ferociousness of a cornered lion, against what seemed like an army of
\nangry enemies, he went toe to toe with three in particular. One to his left,
\nriding a bright silver mount, proved to be the fastest of them all that day. One
\nto his right, on a golden stallion, just there to challenge him to the very end.
\nAnd one directly behind him, on another dark mount, almost as intimidating as
\nhis own. As the man on the black steed challenged forth, he could be seen with a
\ndevilish grin on his face, locked in a battle that he would have never traded
\nfor all the gold in the kingdom. These were the battles that he lived for.<\/p>\n
His three closest competitors, in awe of
\nhim in the arena, all considered him one of their dearest friends away from the
\nconflict. But, with the competition coming to a close, all four were locked into
\na violent and epic struggle that man will tell tales about for centuries to
\ncome.<\/p>\n
Within the closing seconds of the
\ncompetition tragedy struck and the man on the black stallion was taken from this
\nlife, his mount expiring along with him. No one is exactly sure what happened
\nbut he and one of his friends came in contact with each other and a third friend
\ncrashed into him, sending both of them and their fine steeds into the barrier
\nsurrounding the arena. The man on the black stallion did not get up and would
\nnot, ever again. His fellow competitor rushed to his side but his heart fell
\nwhen he realized that there was nothing he could do to save this man, his dear
\nfriend.<\/p>\n
There was a cry sent up from the masses of
\nthe kingdom. "How could this have happened?" Were these competitions
\nnot watched over carefully and ruled by the king, so that no competitor would
\nget hurt seriously? It was a well known fact that injuries did, in fact, occur
\nin these competitions on a regular basis but, the king always assured the
\ncompetitors and spectators that all was well and that there was nothing to be
\nafraid of. Other competitors had been stolen from this life; some before they
\neven had a chance to shine for even a single moment on the battlefield. But
\ntheir deaths had been all but ignored. "All is fine in the kingdom."<\/p>\n
With the loss of this hero to the masses
\nthe king could no longer ignore the cries of his loyal subjects. He needed to
\nact and he needed to act fast. He appointed a group of men to study the accident
\nand come up with the reasons that this man had died. He implored them to take
\ntheir time because he would not be rushed into judgment. He told the masses that
\nhe would oversee the study and that there would be nothing released until the
\nstudy had been concluded. However, within days, amid the screams and demands
\nfrom the people for answers, he offered them a small morsel, as if to shift
\ntheir gaze from him and his group to another.<\/p>\n
He called a meeting in the palace square
\nand let it be known that a belt on the saddle of the black horse had been found
\nbroken. He did not make any accusations as to who was responsible, nor did he
\nsay that the broken belt was what caused the death of this hero of millions.
\nBut, this small bit of information had the effect he desired. The focus of the
\nmasses was shifted from the king to the small shop of a saddle maker, the man
\nwho had been making the saddles for the man on the black stallion for years.<\/p>\n
This man, a kindly old gentleman, was seen
\nfor years at the arena, talking to competitors, befriending them and offering
\nhis services to all that would like them. The competitors, seeing that the man
\non the black stallion used this saddle maker’s wares, also used them, hoping
\nthat maybe the secret to winning was in the saddle. The saddle maker toured the
\npaddock area, instructing many on how to properly use his products and would
\neven leave a free saddle or two in the stable of a young struggling rider. He
\nknew his saddles were the best and he wanted all to have the very best when they
\nwere locked in heated competition with each other because he knew that, when
\nused properly, his saddles would go a long way towards preventing injuries.<\/p>\n
It was also known that he would stop by
\nthe stable of the black horse and would comment, many times, that the
\nintimidating rider was not securing his saddle properly. Even though it had
\nworked fine in the past, there was the off chance that in the future, it may not
\nwork the way it had been intended and could result in injury. But the rider
\nalways patted the saddle maker on the back and told him that it was working
\nproperly and that it was just more comfortable for him and his horse to have it
\nsecured this way. The saddle maker always relented, feeling that this man had
\nsurvived many problems in the arena and had walked away from all of them. Maybe
\nhe was right.<\/p>\n
Alas, the king’s study was completed and
\nthe masses fell silent so as to hear the words that would tell them what had
\ntaken their hero from them. The king began his speech by telling his loyal
\nsubjects that much time and expense had been made in the completion of the
\nstudy. Then he let his advisors take over and for the next couple of hours, they
\nspun a tale that was clearly meant to shift blame and cover their tracks. When
\nit was over, the masses were left with more questions than they had ever had,
\nthe most pressing of which was had the king outlived his usefulness?<\/p>\n
The competitors have lined up one by one
\nto say that they support the conclusions of the study but, with the iron fist of
\nthe king held firmly over their heads, it was no wonder that they would agree
\nwith whatever the king said. They competed because the king allowed them to
\ncompete. They competed under his rules and his thumb, knowing that, for the
\nmoment, it was the best thing to do.<\/p>\n
The saddle maker was left to twist in the
\nwind. He was a convenient scapegoat and provided all the target necessary to
\ndeflect any criticism directed towards the king. No substantial mention was made
\nof the improper use of the saddle by the hero rider. It was only mentioned in
\npassing. Though the study made absolutely certain to say that the broken belt
\nmay not have saved the man, it went out of it’s way to make sure that the masses
\nwere left with the idea that the broken belt did, indeed kill him. Whether it
\nsaid it in plain language or not.<\/p>\n
So children, thus ends the fable of the
\nman on the black stallion and his friend the saddle maker. The rider challenges
\nall foes in heaven astride his trusty midnight black stallion and the saddle
\nmaker suffers the wrath of the masses, all because the biggest fable of all was
\nthe one bought and paid for by the king.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gather round little ones and let me tell you a tale that is sure to warm your hearts and answer every question you ever had. Well, every question we feel you need answered. Now, if you find some of the answers a little hard to believe, let it be known that gold as high as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-original-archive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}