At The Riding School
Well, I can certainly say I’ve never read anything quite like “At the Riding School” by Cody Goodfellow.
I’m not sure I’d say I enjoyed it—but it definitely left an impression.
The story is told from the point of view of a veterinarian who’s called to an eccentric woman’s girls-only riding school in the middle of the night. There’s been an accident involving one of the students—and one of the “horses.” The vet brings along her adopted son and heads out to the school.
SPOILERS AHEAD
The “Madame” of the school and her students don't ride horses. They ride some kind of human offshoot that is twice the size of a normal human with stunted arms and a (deliberately?) low intellect:
“Though he stood on two legs and had hands, he had no thumbs, whether from selective breeding or post-natal surgery, I didn’t care to guess. His barrel torso was rudely muscled, covered in sleek black hair like a goat’s, and his shoulders were broad enough to carry a full-grown woman up a mountain on the elaborate saddle perched upon his slightly hunched back. That those mighty shoulders produced such puny, almost flipper-like arms screamed selective breeding over hundreds of centuries from proto-human stock, perhaps even the last Neanderthals. A Greek myth that Bulfinch left out, for better or worse…”
One of the girls has been assaulted by one of the Madame’s “mounts.” The Madame blames the victim and orders the vet to “put her down.”
The vet refuses, arguing that the mounts are human and that the Madame is responsible for what happened. Their confrontation is interrupted when the vet’s son appears. Furious that a boy is on her grounds, the Madame demands his death—until the vet reveals he’s the child of a student and one of the mounts.
The Madame attacks, but the mounts break free and kill her. When the vet later returns, she discovers the Madame’s remains—and the truth that the woman herself was one of the same altered humans she enslaved.
…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…
Yeah, I left out a lot of what happens between the “mounts” and the girls—it’s pretty graphic and intense. The revelation that these “beasts” are actually an offshoot of humanity being kept as slaves was horrifying, and the whole thing really unsettled me.
I doubt I'll read anything else by Mr. Goodfellow. I love a good horror story but I do have subjects I'm not into for various reasons. Slavery and sexual assault are two of them.
If you want to read the story, you can find it on Nightmare Magazine's website.
I give this story 2 skulls 💀💀
