I thought this story was well-written, and the decision to tell the story from the point of view of a horse led to an interesting perspective on the narrative.

The quote prompt felt a little shoe-horned in. The challenge was to use it as inspiration for your entry, and the story didn't feel so much "inspired by" as "dropped in to technically meet the minimum requirements of the contest." If that line of dialogue were removed from your entry, it wouldn't make any tangible difference to the story you were telling, and I was looking for the prompt to be a little better incorporated.

Overall, the characterization and the story were solid, and it was a polished read. As a standalone story, I think it works fine; but as a contest entry responding to a specific prompt, I found it a little lacking on that front. But good job overall!