Dream in July, of Horses

I was working on land owned by a free farmer with a medium sized stead. I took care of the horses and performed miscellaneous tasks around the place. One particular mare I had cared for and trained since her birth. She was about two years by the time of my dream.
The land was owned by a middle aged couple who had one or two children of their own, but their children were still young, and they were growing old. I was in my early twenties in the dream, and I remembered that I had stayed at the farmstead since I was adolescent, working off some sort of bond. Was it set by my parents, had they given me up as some sort of tribute, or just couldn’t feed me themselves any more? I do not know.

A breach of trust happened, or I perceived a breach of trust as happening. Either way, I decided it was best for me to leave. I gathered some provisions from the store house and readied the horse that I had raised, riding out just as the sun rose in an overcast sky. Though my processing conscious mind was unfamiliar with the culture in my dream, I understood the mare was my due. I had worked off my bond and had been staying there as a free woman, for some time by that point, because the owners of the land were kind to me. At the moment, however, I felt I had been wronged, so I was not thieving by taking the mare; at the same time, I tried to leave without saying goodbye, so in that way I was leaving in shame.

Once I had ridden some distance from the compound, I saw the lord and lady of the land riding hard on my trail, calling after me. Their tones sounded apologetic, and they said things like, “Come back, girl, we need to speak with you – this isn’t what you think it is.”

What was my name? Fiona? Faustina? Freya? I do not remember, and I could be inserting this retroactively into my memory, but they called a name beginning in “f” and ending in “ah” – I slowed, they caught up with me, breathing as hard as their horses. They began to explain their apology, and why they had chased me all that way, when I woke up.

The very first thing I remembered about the dream was galloping through scrub brush (sage?) on low sloping hills under a cloudy sky, with my fibrous (linen?) skirts and my cloak billowing behind me. I saw that my mare was a dusty dapple grey. The woman was astride a pale dun mare, and the man rode a black stallion.

I woke up with the feeling of that dream happening a long, long time ago.