Smoke without fire?

On various occasions rock-n-roll singers have questioned the wild horses' ability to drag them away (and the answers vary, depending on whom you listen to). However, back in the old days horses were used to pull heavy sleighs through thick snow. It's unlikely skinny singers would be too much challenge. However, they could have a hard time pushing them. Unless we're talking about drugs.

But we're not. We're talking about sleighing in the Russian countryside. The grand nobleman is smoking big cigars and enjoying the crisp freezing air while the Baroness snugged in fur seems to not enjoy very much the company of her husband. She's secretly thinking about enjoying the coachman later during the night, when the nobleman is out for a game of cards at the neighboring castle, wasting away her inherited fortune; alas, life is really dull in the countryside during winter. Meanwhile, the coachman is shivering at the front struggling to handle the horses and enjoys neither of his passengers. He doesn't have a warm coat nor a cigar. The only things keeping him from freezing are handling the harnesses and the seldom warm air coming from the horses. He knows he'd have to go out again at night to take the nobleman to his game, when it's even colder. And he knows afterwards he may have to go... inside -again- which on second thought is considerably less bad than the merciless frost.
Even more at the front of the convoy there are the horses for whom the ride is a pointless stroll while carrying along useless weight. They are completely oblivious of the triangle of plots and deceit going through the heads of the people they're carrying. If anything, they're slightly bemused by the peasant trying to tell them where to go; they know the road better anyway. Should they get lost in the wood, they'd be home well before the coachman and passengers froze to death on the road.
They have more important things on their mind. Matvey, the horse on the left, is suspecting that Kostya -the horse on the right- has found its stash of cigarettes hidden in the barn (on the beam above the hay stack) and it's skimming it. It can't put his hoof on it, but last time there were ten cigarettes missing. Horses aren't very good with numbers, though, and it's not polite to make accusations without solid evidence. In the meantime, Kostya is wondering whether Matvey suspects anything. Luckily in winter time you cannot really tell from distance the difference between cigarette smoke or steam you're exhaling in the cold air. But still, it's been six cigarettes in ten days only this week. Horses are not very good with numbers, indeed.
Back in the sleigh, the nobleman's mind is now working frantically. He's suspecting the baroness is having an affair with Egor, the coachman. He's considering coming back earlier from the card game to catch her in the act. But the road is difficult at night, and who's going to drive the sleigh? He cannot keep Egor with him to bring him back, the whole plan would fall apart. And even if he makes it home on his own, and he does catch her, then what? Scandal, gossip, humiliation. And ruin. Everything is hers: the money, the land, the castle and the land (Nadzieja, the baroness, has land in two places). He'd lose everything. A thick puff of smoke from his expensive cigar brings him back from his thoughts. He wouldn't even afford the expensive cigars he enjoys so much.
Nadzieja, near him, can't stand them. They are one pestering vice in the long list of vices her husband is a slave to. All day long they make her cough, and smell badly. On the other hand, she has vices that smell badly, too. Egor, for instance.
And all this time Egor, the centerpiece of all this drama, is blissfully oblivious to everything around him. His only qualm is the cold. And still, it's not that bad. It will be even colder at night on the way to the nobleman's card game. But it will be nice and warm when he gets back. Ah, if he could only get a cigarette. Would there be any left on the beam above the hay stack in the barn?

This twisted yarn would quickly unravel if they all knew what Fedor knew. Fedor is a little white horse. It's not here now. It's at the castle, waiting in the stable for Matvey and Kostya to return. The day is long without them. One day when it was alone, Fedor borrowed a GoPro Hero camera from a rabbit from another dream. While playing in the forest behind the castle, the camera caught Nadzieja and Egor together. The video is blurry and shaky, as horses' hooves are not naturally developed for handling action cameras. But Nadzieja and Egor were shaky, too, and there is enough evidence on the camera. Fedor hid it in the manger, which seems to be a better choice than the beam above the hay stack in the barn. Someday, it may use it. Maybe when it runs out of cigarettes.

Matvey, Kostya and even little Fedor would have no problem dragging Mick Jagger or Garth Brooks.