# Horses
The medieval noble society is an equine culture. Every noble knows how to ride and how to provide basic care for steeds. A knight normally has at least four horses: their combat horse, riding horses for themselves and their squire, and a sumpter, used as a pack horse. Some horses may wear armor.
A horse is a prized and well-cared for possession. Careless use indicates deficiency of character. All horses need shoeing, regular grooming, hoof inspection and trimming, sore or abrasion checks, and proper feeding. A combat horse cannot live solely on grass and hay. It regularly receives about ten pounds of grain as feed, preferably excellent quality oats or barley, as well as ten pounds of hay per day. “Horse bread” is sometimes substituted for grain, being made of baked beans and peas. It requires about ten gallons of water per day. When a horse is ill, it needs a good farrier to tend it.
Riding properly is not easy or intuitive, and knights learn early, even before being squired. Control depends upon a combination of the rider’s posture, movement, hands, legs, spurs, and intention. Reins are helpful in combat but not necessary, thus allowing the mounted knight to fight one-handed, or even two-handed in an emergency. In fact, stirrups are also secondary, and a good rider can perform any action, except charge, without them. Further, horses have their own personalities and riders must practice with them to attain efficiency.
# Types of Horses
Horses are classified by the type of work that they do, not by breed.
Some of these types are available in varying sizes. They are listed on separate lines to indicate their variances.
Charger: The generic term for a combat-trained war horse; medium size, 15.2 hands.
Cob: The “common horse,” small and stout of build, trained to be ridden. At 14.2 hands, it is larger than a pony but small and compact, with short legs; used for riding or trained to pull a car or wagon.
Courser: Light, fast, and strong; ideal for the chase.
Combat Horse: General term for a horse trained for battle, able to withstand the noise, close quarters, smell of blood, and stress of battle.
Donkey: A small creature useful for bearing loads, poor travelers, and clergy, who associate the animal with Christ’s humility. In terms of comparison, one donkey bears about one hundred pounds, about half the load of a sumpter. However, a donkey can also work much harder and longer on less food than an equivalently-sized pony. They are much more stubborn than horses and may cause problems when working. A male is commonly called a jack or ass, a female a jenny or she-ass, and an immature one is a foal.
Hackney: A riding horse standing 14.2 to 16.2 hands, often with a particularly high-hoofed gait. Hobby or Hob: Small (13–14 hands), light, quick, and agile; a combat-trained horse used in skirmishing (hence the name hobilars).
Jennet: Small, quiet, dependable riding horse, particularly one of Iberian origin, with a smooth ambling gait. Not to be confused with jenny, the term for a female donkey.
Mule: A cross between a donkey and a horse. Sometimes a distinction is made between a mule (borne of male donkey, or jack, and female horse, or mare) and a hinny (male horse or stallion, and female donkey, or jenny). It may be male or female but is always sterile. The difference between mules and hinnies is of no consequence to the game but included anyway as a matter of curiosity. Like their parental donkey, mules are typically stubborn and likely to cause problems when working.
Nag: Originally a term for a small or inferior quality riding horse or pony, now more generally applied to a broken-down horse of any type that is no longer good for its original purpose. Commoners use them as all-purpose horses.
Pony: A general work horse; small, 12–14 hands, with proportionately short legs, heavier coat, mane, and tail. Different types of ponies exist in the Pendragon world (Shetland, hill, Dales, Irish and Cambrian pony). Rouncy: A general-purpose riding horse.
Sumpter: Any type of pack horse or pony, capable of carrying about 200 pounds.
# Combat Trained Horses
All warhorses must be combat trained to withstand the terrors of battle. Any normal steed will bolt at the smell of blood, the screams of terror and shouting of battle cries, and the pain of being wounded. It will not charge straight at something, nor trample on a living being.
To be amid such offences and still obey the rider is a rare distinction, with one horse in a hundred capable of finishing its training. Furthermore, the horse must be trained to react to a rider’s constantly shifting weight, to respond without reins, and know the difference between the rider’s movement commands and his shifting weight from weapon use. The extra cost of a warhorse is due to the extensive training necessary and the relative rarity of suitable horses.
Knights’ war horses are always stallions or geldings. All horses in this category are combat trained.
# Non-Combat Trained Horses
Riding a non-combat trained horse in combat requires the rider to attempt the Control Mount Action each round before attempting any other actions. Furthermore, horses untrained for combat react very poorly to wounds. See the following section for more details.
# Controlling Horses in Combat
If a character rides a non-combat trained horse into combat, the Player must attempt a Control Mount Action with a –5 modifier at the start of each Combat Round. With a success, the horse is under control and the rider may attempt another action this Combat Round; with a critical success, the horse remains under control for the remainder of the combat unless wounded (see below). A failed roll means the character may not attempt any other action this Combat Round, and a fumble means the character is thrown and must attempt an Emergency Dismount.
At the end of any Combat Round when any type of horse takes five or more total points of damage from one or more wounds, check for injury effects, which are the same as for humans and may disable or kill the animal. Assuming the horse is otherwise okay, at the start of the next Combat Round make an unopposed resolution of Horsemanship with a penalty equal to the total Hit Points lost by the horse this combat. Results are the same as those given above, with the exception that a combat-trained horse settles for the rest of combat (or until wounded again) on either a critical or regular success. Otherwise, continue making Horsemanship rolls with the same penalty each round before taking another Combat Action.
# Riding to Death
Then it befell that Arthur and many of his knights rode a-hunting into a great forest, and it happed King Arthur, King Uriens, and Sir Accolon of Gaul, followed a great hart, for they three were well horsed, and so they chased so fast that within a while they three were then ten mile from their fellowship. And at the last they chased so sore that they slew their horses underneath them.
—Malory, Le Morte d’Arthur, book IV, chapter 6
A horse, being obedient, will do its best to satisfy its rider, even unto harming itself through overwork. If severely overworked, any horse will never recover and, if it survives, its owner will sell it as a nag. The rider must be aware of his steed’s condition and keep it from destroying itself. It can easily withstand a normal day’s ride, though for rapid speed over a distance, a moderate gait is required.
Overuse can occur from any of several conditions, including galloping for more than fifteen minutes, riding day and night, taking no rest breaks, forced march, or simply because a horse is out of condition from lack of good food or water.
When a horse is overused in any manner, roll CON to check its condition at the end of the period of abuse.
# Horse Exhaustion Roll Table
| Horse CON Roll | Effect |
|---|---|
| Critical Success | No problem |
| Success | Horse is too tired to continue, but will recover with food and rest |
| Failure | Horse is blown (cannot canter or gallop), and will never recover even after food and rest |
| Fumble | Horse drops dead |
# Horse Type Tables
The following tables present all the Statistics needed to cover the many breeds of horses in Britain.
- Type: Function of the animal, as above
- Normal Damage: Damage that the horse would do by stepping on a victim or striking out with its hooves (note that when panicked almost any horse can do damage)
- Charge Damage: Damage done by a spear- or lance-armed rider with a successful Mounted Charge action
- Move: The Movement Rate of the horse
- Natural Armor: Horse skin grows increasingly thicker as they grow larger, and muscle mass adds to this as well SIZ, DEX, STR, CON: Characteristics, same as for humans.
- Comments: Miscellaneous facts
# Combat Horses Table
| Type | Damage Characteristics | Movement Rate | Natural Armor | SIZ | DEX | STR | CON | Hit Points | Comments | |
| Normal | Charge | |||||||||
| Hobby | 2D6 | 4D6 | 18 | 5 | 30 | 15 | 26 | 12 | 42 | |
| Charger, small | 3D6 | 5D6 | 15 | 4 | 32 | 13 | 30 | 12 | 44 | May wear padding |
| Charger, normal | 3D6 | 6D6 | 16 | 5 | 40 | 13 | 32 | 15 | 55 | May wear padding, full, or half gambeson |
# Riding Horses Table
| Type | Damage, normal | Move | Natural Armor | SIZ | DEX | STR | CON | Hit Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jennet | 2D6 | 16 | 3 | 34 | 16 | 30 | 15 | 49 |
| Rouncy | 3D6 | 16 | 4 | 36 | 12 | 32 | 18 | 56 |
| Courser | 2D6 | 20 | 5 | 35 | 16 | 31 | 15 | 50 |
| Dales, Irish, or Cambrian Pony | 2D6 | 14 | 4 | 25 | 17 | 21 | 20 | 45 |
# Work Horses Table
| Type | Damage | Move | Natural Armor | SIZ | DEX | STR | CON | Hit Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cob | 3D6 | 15 | 3 | 33 | 10 | 33 | 12 | 45 | |
| Nag | 2D6 | 12 | 2 | 24 | 10 | 18 | 7 | 31 | |
| Sumpter | 3D6 | 14 | 3 | 30 | 12 | 30 | 16 | 46 | Pack |
| Hackney | 3D6 | 14 | 3 | 34 | 10 | 34 | 14 | 48 | Drayage |
| Donkey | 3D6 | 12 | 3 | 26 | 18 | 30 | 15 | 41 | Pack |
| Mule | 4D6 | 16 | 6 | 32 | 17 | 38 | 25 | 57 | Pack, Drayage |
# Horse Armor
Horses are of great importance and value, and knights protect them with armor if they can personally afford it. (Even household knights do not get it automatically from their lords). Like knight’s armor, the quality of horse armor improves as time passes.
Horses must be of sufficient STR to wear armor. A horse wearing armor heavier than its capacity slows down, tires quickly, and its maneuverability decreases sufficiently to reduce a knight’s mounted Weapon Skills by –5 for every 10 points (or part thereof) of insufficient STR.
Several styles of horse protection are described below.
- Caparison: Not really armor, this is a lightweight cloth cover; does not need padding, and is usually a bright color, design, or coat of arms
- Full: Covers the horse completely, except its lower legs
- Half: Covers a horse’s front half, from the saddle forward
- Open: Caparisons may be open, fully covering only hindquarters, with wide straps in front
# Horse Armor Table
| Type | Armor Point Value | Horse STR Needed | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caparison, Open | 0 | Any | Decorative |
| Caparison, Half | 0 | Any | Decorative |
| Caparison, Full | 0 | Any | Weather protection, decorative |
| Padding, full | 1 | 30 | Can be worn by Small Charger and greater |
| Gambeson, Half | 2 | 34 | Can be worn by Charger and greater |
| Gambeson, Full | 4 | 34 | Can be worn by Charger and greater |
← Armor