The story “Yovvoyi yo‘rg‘a”

The story is set in the American West. A black stallion takes farmers’ mares into his herd, and for this reason there are orders to shoot him. In December 1893 the narrator meets the stallion and, although he could shoot him, points the rifle at the sky and lets him escape. Then the cowboy Wild Jo sets out after the stallion: he catches the mares but cannot catch up with the stallion; his horses wear out, and one breaks a leg and dies. Jo tries a relay chase with fresh horses, but eight horses are lost, five men are exhausted, and the stallion remains free. Then the old cook Kurka Iz (also called Tom in the text) ties a bay mare as bait near the Jayron spring and hides in a pit himself. Trusting the mare’s neighing, the stallion has his leg caught in the noose; Tom binds him and puts a brand on him with a horseshoe. As he is being led home, the stallion breaks away with his last strength, leaps off a cliff and lies lifeless, but free.