Thoat

Thoat is the Barsoomian riding animal, ranging from the large, dangerous wild beasts of the Tharks to the gentler domestic bull used as a saddle mount by Red Martians. In John Carter’s story, thoats are not merely transportation: their temper can decide a rider’s survival, but Carter’s patient care wins their confidence and helps make escape possible.

Forms and Uses

The narrative distinguishes the wild thoats kept among the Tharks from the domestic bull thoat supplied to Carter by his Red Martian benefactors. The domestic animal is about the size of a horse, gentle, and similar in color and shape to its fierce wild relative. Red Martians use such animals for riding.

Among the Tharks, thoats serve as mounts, but handling them is commonly based on force. Carter observes riders striking an unresponsive animal between the ears with a pistol butt; if it resists, the blows continue until it submits or throws its rider. A rider unseated in this way may have to fight the animal to survive. The animal’s unpredictability is therefore a practical military danger, not simply a matter of temperament.

Carter’s Methods and the Animals’ Response

Carter’s approach changes after his experience with Woola, the watch animal who guards him. He first establishes that his thoats cannot throw him and uses a sharp rap to make his authority clear, but then gradually builds their confidence as he had with his earthly mounts. He explains to Tars Tarkas that kindness, rather than a supposed power to bewitch animals, accounts for their behavior.

Within a few days, the thoats follow Carter, rub their snouts against him, and respond readily to his commands. Their transformation is conspicuous enough that the Thark community wonders at it. Carter also demonstrates his ease with them by reaching into the jaws of one whose teeth have trapped a piece of stone. The episode gives practical form to his argument: treating mounts with care produces obedience that can be relied upon both on the march and in battle.

For Carter, humane treatment is not separate from the demands of survival. He argues that a trusted mount improves his fighting effectiveness, whereas the customary reliance on violence can leave a warrior vulnerable to an animal’s sudden resistance. The thoats’ response thus challenges a system in which mastery is asserted through repeated punishment, without making their strength or independent temperament disappear.

Escape and the Limits of Trust

When Carter, Sola, and Dejah Thoris decide to leave Thark, their plan depends on two thoats and a distant waterway about two hundred miles away. Carter must retrieve the animals at night from a crowded paddock containing thoats and zitidars. The animals grow restless as they scent him, and he is alert to the risk that their noise could warn nearby warriors or provoke a charge. His two thoats nevertheless come to him through the herd, nuzzle him, and leave the enclosure when he opens the gates.

The journey also exposes the limits of what trust can accomplish. After prolonged travel with little rest, one thoat begins to stumble and finally collapses. Carter removes its trappings and leaves it, choosing not to kill it because he regards that as a cruel response to an animal already too weak to continue. The group presses on with the remaining mount, while Carter and Sola walk so Dejah Thoris can ride. The animal’s collapse makes the cost of the escape concrete: loyalty and training do not protect a mount from exhaustion.

Narrative Significance

Thoats recur as both a source of danger and a condition of mobility. Their wild strength makes ordinary riding precarious, and their uncertain temper can turn against the warrior who depends on them. Carter’s success with his own mounts offers a contrasting model: authority can be established without reducing the animal to a passive instrument, and considerate treatment can yield dependable cooperation.

That contrast is tested in the escape, where the thoats’ readiness to follow Carter helps the fugitives leave Thark, but distance and fatigue still impose a limit. The animal remains a consequential participant in the journey—capable of response, resistant to coercive handling, and susceptible to physical failure—rather than simply a vehicle in the background.