At the center of the story “Free Horses” is the conflict between the young huntsman Andrei Bratko and the senior game warden Temnikov, who, in fact, became the main poacher in the reserve. Faced with the cruelty of people exterminating a herd of free horses, Andrei tries to figure it out, to understand why a person so recklessly destroys all living things that guide him in a mad pursuit of imaginary well-being.