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Old 03-03-2014, 09:58 AM   #2
Icelander
 
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
Default Specifics related to the herd the PCs are stealing

The ten thousand horses being stolen are around 75% cavalry remounts and 25% fine warhorses or palfreys, of fairly light breeds. The specific breeds have a lot in common with Arabian, Turkoman and Nesean horses, but there are some similarities to the New South Wales 'walers' sent to India as well.

There are three main types, two kinds of purebreds and one catch-all category of less pure bloodlines. The purebreds are Semphari and Raurin horses, which are both highly sought after in the region. The less-pure have some blood from these types, but are also mixed with steppe horses and all kinds of imports from east and west both.

Semphari horses weigh between 700-900 lbs., stand around 13-14 hands tall and are usually very fast, agile and intelligent. Their gait is comfortable and they are quite pretty. They resemble Arabian horses and make good palfreys or jennets.

Raurin horses are pretty much super-horses and have elements of Nesean chargers and the speed of the best Arabians as well as legendary endurance and ability to survive in harsh environments like the Turkoman horses or the more modern walers. They are usually between 900-1200 lbs. and between 15-16 hands.

The mixed-blood horses actually fall into several different sub-types, but most of the ones being given in tribute this year are ones that make good cavalry remounts for un- or lightly armoured outriders, mounted archers or skirmisher cavalry and thus fall into a size range of around 13-15 hands and 800-1100 lbs.

Around a quarter of the horses are fully trained cavalry mounts, another quarter have been used as riding horses and have some limited cavalry training, yet another quarter are recently broken for riding and the last quarter have only around 2-3 months of riding training, some of which was obtained during their drive to where they were being fattened and some of which was obtained during their time there.

Many of the horses are young, but there are no foaling mares there, as these were kept seperately and the PCs didn't steal them. None of the horses are old, crippled or weak, as this is not a random collection, but horses that have already been approved for military service. The bar for service is quite high, as the empire is deliberately trying to strengthen their own calvary relative to the levies of their vassals by taking as many of their good horses as they can get away with. None of the nobles give away their best horses, perhaps, but they've been unable to palm off any inferior ones either.

So, assuming that no horse has to bear a burden or rider for more than two or three hours a day, how fast can the PCs drive them away from their pastures and into friendly lands?

Would an 80 mile run the first day exhaust any of the horses, considering that that considerable efforts have been made to ensure that they were fat and in excellent fettle for a planned journey (in the other direction, true, but not relevant to the horses)?

Is taking 1000 of the best endurance horses and striking out over 200 miles of desert (much of it without oases) practical at all? Probably not, as the horses would have difficulty carrying their own water and the camels that the raiders arrived on need rest after crossing that self-same desert earlier.

What about taking the hardiest horses over a mix of desert, dry prairie and grasslands, cutting the distance they need to go from 350 miles down to 300 miles?
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Last edited by Icelander; 03-03-2014 at 10:26 AM.
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