You want power over horses. Everyone in the county wants power over horses, and there is exactly one way to get it, and it is not a nice way.
Kill a toad. Hang him on the blackthorn until the wind has taken everything but the little architecture of him. Then, at midnight, carry the bones to running water and drop them in.
Most sink. Most go where water goes. But one — one will turn and swim against the whole weight of the stream, and that one is yours, and you must snatch it up quick and never say where you got it.
The horses will obey. They will stand for you like they were carved.
And every night after, something waits at the field gate for you to walk home.
