The first Roach. Geralt is a young witcher, he couldn’t afford the young four year old gelding or the six year old mare. Instead the second year witcher settled and put all his coin down on a nameless 17 year old mare. She was cheap and story was, “she showed up in town without a rider, but still fit for riding”, that was all Geralt needed to hear. He knew little about horses at the time and honestly couldn’t care. By time the grey became noticeable in her coat, Geralts opinion had changed. Roach had became more than just a horse. She became a friend. When she showed signs of slowing he knew it was time to complete their last journey together. In the foothills of Kaer Morhen Geralt turns Roach free. The mare passes naturally at 25, Geralt at her side to wish her farewell.
I made this at 2am..forgive grammar errors ^^ Also, sorry for the feels <3
Okay, so, I was thinking about Roach, as I do frequently.
Do any of y’all remember that scene in Lord of the Rings where Aragorn’s almost unconscious and his horse, Brego, lies down next to him to help him mount? Given that Geralt spends a lot of time getting himself severely injured while alone, it makes a lot of sense for Roach to be trained to do something along those lines, also. (That sorta thing is absolutely done IRL. I knew a lady, for instance, who was 5 feet tall but rode a draft horse who was more than 6 feet tall at the shoulder. She trained her horse to lower his head so she could hop on his neck and the horse would then lift his head back up so she’d slide down his neck to his back.)
And then I was thinking about what other training a Witcher’s horse would require.
(I have another huge point as well about Roach and Geralt and world-building that is what I’m actually working towards in this very long post. The hint is in the big text up there. Also, there are some fun gifs below you might wanna check out even if you don’t read the post.)
The most obvious is a ground tie, which we actually see used in the show. That’s where a horse is trained to act as though they’re tied to something when they’re not - for instance, you might take a lead rope, let it dangle it down to the ground, and train the horse that they should act as though the lead rope is tied to the ground. Cowboys use it to keep their horses still while they’re dealing with obstacles, working with cattle on foot, etcetera, when they’re out in the middle of a prairie with nothing to tie onto. This would keep Roach put if Geralt needs to do something and there’s nothing to tie to, but also is great to keep her out of danger - she can be trained that if she’s actually being attacked she should GTFO.
Here she is, in fact, doing just that: she had been ground tied, but when the kikimora got closer, she calmly backed up out of range. That calm backing, btw, is 100% a trained behavior. If she were getting out of there of her own accord she’d be spinning around and going both forwards and much faster.
(From this post by @highevre.)
Horses can be trained to track - their sense of smell is almost as good as a dog’s, and Mounted Search and Rescue using horses as trackers is a thing. Not necessarily needed given Geralt’s own enhanced senses, but it might come in handy sometimes.
She’d probably want to be trained in extreme terrain, and you’d be amazed what horses can do with that. Here’s a clip of part of the standard training for US Cavalry from around 1930:
(From here.)
A good trail horse can shift their own weight to keep an inexperienced, exhausted, or, in this case, injured rider in the saddle, so she’d definitely want to know that.
It’s unlikely, but she might even be trained in active combat. Horses have in the past been trained not only to carry their riders into battle, but even to fight themselves. Here’s a gif of one tactic:
That’s a pretty good way to get a drowner off your tail! (It can absolutely be done with a rider on, I just didn’t find any nice gifs for that.)
This one could come in pretty handy too:
Even if she’s not kicking forward with those front hooves - which is, actually, an established move, it’s called “mezair” - if I were a monster I’d be a lot less eager to attack with a twelve foot tall wall of muscle coming at me.
(Look up videos of “haute ecole” or “airs above the ground” and you’ll see a whole lot of breathtaking stuff that Roach could do.)
There are some random fun tricks that might be useful, like picking things up and handing them to her rider.
The absolute number one thing, though, is that she would have to be completely, 100% bombproof, and that’s where I get to my main point.
(Please note for the rest of this post, in case you’re unaware, the name “Roach” refers to several horses, as horses aren’t generally immortal. Geralt names all his horses Roach.)
I used to breed horses, and specifically the emerging breed Drum Horses. They were originally bred to (and are still used to) carry kettle drums in parades. Now, for that you need to be big, since the drums and gear can weigh more than 450lb. But, most importantly, you need to be completely, entirely unshakeable, to a degree that shouldn’t frankly be possible in a prey animal. You’ve got not only the insanity of a parade going on but also a huge loud noise right next to your head, the constant vibration from the drums, AND since the rider’s hands are busy playing the drums the horse is steered using only the feet.
So how the heck do you get a prey animal that’s specialized for millenia in Running the Fuck Away to do that? Well, centuries of selective breeding. Drums are derived from the Irish Cob, which was (and is) used by nomadic people in Europe to pull caravans. They have to be steady, able to deal with kids running around their feet while they work, since the caravans were mobile homes they're very noisy, and, long story short, Irish Cobs spent centuries being bred to be bombproof. The Drum Horses, then, were derived from that breed but with an even stronger focus on being 100% reliable and not-prey-like.
They’re also trained literally from birth; parade horses, police horses, and the like generally are. Within minutes of birth, you start handling them, rubbing them all over so they’re never startled by a touch. You put radios in their stalls playing rock music so they get used to sudden loud noises. You tie brightly colored streamers in their pastures to wave in the wind, pop open umbrellas, toss beach balls at them. Spray perfume and waft popcorn smell. Rub them all over with any equipment you might use, including tack but also things like weapons (mounted target shooting is a sport still done today). Have the equipment make whatever noise it’s gonna make. (Clanging, firing, whatever.)
The POINT being, that for Roach to be able to handle dealing with a new terrifying monster every week, she’d pretty much have to be specifically bred for it.
Well... where do you get horses bred to handle monsters, you ask? They might have had a small breeding operation at Kaer Morhen, but that doesn’t exactly help now.
My conclusion: Geralt must be breeding his own horses.
Roach is always a mare, after all. Maybe that’s not just sentimentality. Every so often, he finds a good, steady stallion - the very best on the Continent, of course, nothing else would do for his perfect girl. She’d be able to keep working most of the 11 months of pregnancy, and then for the last few he’d let her rest, either leaving her with someone he trusts until she’s due or staying with her and only doing day trips on foot.
And when the foal’s born, he starts doing all that training above from birth.
Half of those foals are going to be boys, of course. And he only uses mares as Roach. So what about the colts? Well, he sells them, once they’re old enough to leave their mother. And those horses, damn, they’re bred and trained so incredibly carefully, they must be the most valuable, sought-after cavalry mounts on the Continent. Kings and Queens bid for Roach’s sons to be their noble steeds. Geralt wouldn’t need to take jobs for years after selling one of Roach’s foals, if he didn’t want to.
Sometimes bad things happen, so he’d need to have a spare Roach or two always around just in case his girl retires earlier than planned. (She got a mild injury that keeps her from doing all that stuff above, she didn’t die, I promise!) So there are always a few Roaches around the country on a sort of lease, not allowed to be taken into combat but still being the amazing, perfect horses they are until their Witcher comes back to get them.
Final Conclusion:
All of the most famous horses on the Continent are Roach’s descendants. Royalty riding a horse that wasn’t from her is barely even worth being called royalty at all. And Geralt has raised his girl, and her mother, and her mother’s mother, and her mother’s mother’s mother, and on back, from birth, the first face they ever see and the first hand in their manes.
