Cricketeers (KRIK-uh-TEERS)

Giant crickets are plentiful in and around the Big Sky Plains and the continent's many grasslands. Used as mounts, they are hardy and tend to fare well even in slightly cooler temperate zones, though they can't be there through a cold winter without considerable accommodation. They are fine year-round from the tropics out to the warmer temperate climes.

For most travelers, merchants, and adventurers, they seem a nearly ideal mount. They are smarter than their smaller cousins and follow simple directions well, their carapaces are fairly tough and protect them like natural barding, and they can graze almost anywhere there's plant life. They are happy to walk or run rather than leap, which takes tremendous energy and would be jarring for the rider, but if needed in order to escape or just to scale a steep hill easily, they have that jumping option (giant crickets are not a flying species).

But the giant cricket would be inaccessible without the cricketeers who raise and train them. Cricketeers, first and foremost, care for their crickets and give them plenty of attention. Those who don't risk raising stubborn creatures who may go out of their way to ignore commands. The crickets are also fed only once a day so they are accustomed to traveling without feeding breaks, though they can go longer than a day if they need to.

Cricketeers also get the measurements for the saddles and break them in (some also make the saddles, but that task generally falls to a saddler).

Though they live longer than their little cousins, the giant crickets still only live for about a year. The females lay about one egg a day, less prolific than their little counterparts, to be sure, but they are far more protective of their eggs, the eggs are hardy, and domesticated cricket eggs are even less likely to run into some of the problems they would face in the wild, so there tends to be no shortage. But again, the cricketeer makes this possible. Generally speaking, males are used on runs to avoid the problems of travelers needing to deal with large eggs that the mother will protect with her life. It can be done if there are no males available, but someone will need a quick lesson on bagging the eggs and caring for them...and that isn't ideal.

However, there are issues with a band of male crickets, as well. Without the cricketeer's training, they would be more likely to fight each other, and they would definitely do it if a female was with them, which is another reason to only take a female in an emergency, and then only alone or with other females. The upshot here is that the males can and will fight if it is required of them, though they are not particularly brave regarding creatures their own size or larger (most are pony-sized, though some rare and prized breeds reach the size of a small horse and can be mounted by most humanoids).

The giant crickets are also nocturnal and prefer riding at night, but again, the cricketeer has made daytime travel possible, subjecting them to training during the day periodically. They are more sluggish during the day but do not otherwise mind being active if they must be. For the fastest crickets with the best reaction times, however, night riding is still the way to go. As they are very popular among the q'tari, who are also nocturnal, this works out well...and most of the world's renowned cricketeers are, in fact, from one of the q'tari cultures. There are some cricketeers of varying quality found as a part of most cultures, but the q'tari are considered the experts by default, having trained crickets for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Those trainers, and the trainers from all cultures, are the vaunted cricketers, whose tireless work often warrants more appreciation than it receives.