Encumbrance of a horse

[Ze'Manel Cunha]

Originally Posted by Wraithe

Imagine riding a WWI-WWII era tank at car speeds, with just a saddle as your cushion.

It's a jarring, very rough ride. As I understand it, it's got something to do with the leg shape, from breeding with a focus on pulling strength, rather than speed.

Or think about trying to get a backhoe to drive at highway speeds, it just ain't going to happen.

[korbeau]

The reason why it should be useful to have a cart to move the stock. Thanks you all for advices. Edbert will consider what bring in to adventure and what left home.

[OldSam]

Originally Posted by korbeau

Edbert weight 230lbs and wear an heavy armor (including heavy gauntlets, heavy plate Arms, Heavy plate legs...) for a total of 102,5lbs.

Wow, I'd really consider using lighter armor at some locations, that guy is fully covered in solid steel, he probably needs a crane to get on his horse anyway... =)

Personally I'd go with Medium Plate for the limbs, hands and feets as that is still _very_ good armor but it would clearly reduce the weight.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Kazander

Since most of aren't likely to ever have that opportunity, could you be coaxed into expanding on that?

I've ridden a misbegotten quarter horse-Clydesdale crossbreed. It's a lot like sitting on a very hard bicycle seat on an old bike with little or no suspension and hard tires, and driving over the worst potholes ever. It HURTS.

It hurts you from the front of your groin to the back, and all over the buttocks, and up your back, if you make the mistake of *sitting* in the saddle with this horse, even for a walk.

It hurts your calves, knees, thighs, and parts of your back if you stand in the stirrups and try to use your own poor legs as shock absorbers - which is the only way to do it if you try to canter because sitting in the saddle while being jolted around like that in that evil horses canter would have been torture.

Maxwell was an evil evil horse, and may have been deliberately using a horrible gait, but he had a totally horrible gait.

[Ze'Manel Cunha]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Maxwell was an evil evil horse, and may have been deliberately using a horrible gait, but he had a totally horrible gait.

Heh, those types of horses are good for pulling wagons, not for riding, using Clydesdales as war horses is a modern fiction.

The example I tend to use to portray war horses is the Lusitano and the Andalusian, at 15-16 hands tall, bred for riding, they're my primary reference point on the genre.

Oh, and if anyone cares, I also set encumbrance at:
0-4% body weight, No Encumbrance
5-9% Light Encumbrance
10-19% Medium Encumbrance
20-29% Heavy Encumbrance
30-40% X-Heavy Encumbrance
40%+ get a wagon.

I then use extra breedable Lifting ST added to that for determining what a given horse can carry, by default the base ST without extra Lifting ST gives the encumbrance listed above based on horse weight instead of the listed ST.
It's a bit simplistic, but it works for me.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Ze'Manel Cunha

Heh, those types of horses are good for pulling wagons, not for riding, using Clydesdales as war horses is a modern fiction.

I have no idea why they even HAD a half-quarter-horse-half-clydesdale, let alone why he was being used for riding lessons. I copped him because I was the tallest and the only kid who could actually get up on him... once the instructor came over and gave him crap for walking off every time I tried to get up on him.

He then proceeded to nibble on my toes to get my feet out of the stirrups and then try to scrape me off on every upright or overhanging object he could find.

Evil horse.

[Anders]

OTOH, they're usually broad enough that you can lie down on them...

[Crakkerjakk]

My uncle had a very sweet, very gentle Clydesdale named Whiskey who I'd always ride. He didn't ever go faster than a trot, but that was fine with me, and mostly we just moseyed around. He liked wandering around and I liked bribing him with apples. It was a good partnership.

[cosmicfish]

Originally Posted by Bruno

I copped him because I was the tallest and the only kid who could actually get up on him... once the instructor came over and gave him crap for walking off every time I tried to get up on him.

He then proceeded to nibble on my toes to get my feet out of the stirrups and then try to scrape me off on every upright or overhanging object he could find.

Evil horse.

You have to admit, though - he had personality!

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by cosmicfish

You have to admit, though - he had personality!

Hey, I remember him by name almost 17 years later years later, which says quite a lot!

Thanks to him, I also learned to hipcheck a horse when they start pushing me around, which turns out to be even more effective on pushy Great Danes than on evil horses. (since the dog is almost half my weight, and the horse was six times my weight or more...)