Horses Aren't Medieval Motorcycles

[Blood Legend]

I was wondering if there were any extensive rules on horse riding and care. Average speed, more specific and detailed uses of the horses written in basic and so on.

At Move 6 Enhanced 1, these things are moving at 24 MPH pretty casually.

[Walrus]

Originally Posted by Blood Legend

At Move 6 Enhanced 1, these things are moving at 24 MPH pretty casually.

"Free" horses with no harness, pack and rider certainly can run in such manner.

[Layander]

The walk is a four-beat gait that averages about 4 miles per hour (6.4 km/h).

The trot is a two-beat gait that has a wide variation in possible speeds, but averages about 8 miles per hour (13 km/h).

The canter is a controlled, three-beat gait that usually is a bit faster than the average trot, but slower than the gallop. The average speed of a canter is between 16–27 km/h (10–17 mph), depending on the length of the stride of the horse.

The gallop is very much like the canter, except that it is faster, more ground-covering, and the three-beat canter changes to a four-beat gait. It is the fastest gait of the horse, averaging about 25 to 30 miles per hour (40 to 48 km/h), and in the wild is used when the animal needs to flee from predators or simply cover short distances quickly. Horses seldom will gallop more than 1 or 2 miles (1.6 or 3.2 km) before they need to rest

[cybermancer2k1]

Not sure if this is what you're after; this old Roleplayer Magazine article might help a little.

[DanHoward]

http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html/?id=4776

[ClayDowling]

That pyramid article is excellent even without using GURPS.

[Cheomesh]

Originally Posted by DanHoward

http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html/?id=4776

Thank you very much for this, Dan!

I have a would-be knight(ess) in my group and I've been trying to figure out just how to handle her horses.

I'm that jerk-level GM who will let you have nice things only if you take care of them.

I worked on a horse farm about 10 years ago and that article just goes to remind me how fragile a horse can be. It really is a completely different case (dare I say...animal?!) than a bike - petrol powered or otherwise.

I recall having read a fair number of Standard Medieval European Fantasy novels, plus some REH stuff. Oddly enough, only the grim-and-gritty tales of High Adventure by Robert E. Howard mentioned killing horses by overriding them.

M.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Blood Legend

At Move 6 Enhanced 1, these things are moving at 24 MPH pretty casually.

Moving at Enhanced Move replaces the +20% from Sprinting with +50% (for a half level) or +100% for the full level like ahorse. That's not "casually", that's "sprinting" (or galloping if you prefer).

"Walking" is casually :D

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Moving at Enhanced Move replaces the +20% from Sprinting with +50% (for a half level) or +100% for the full level like ahorse. That's not "casually", that's "sprinting" (or galloping if you prefer).

"Walking" is casually :D

Enhanced Move isn't necessarily equivalent of sprinting, though. More obviously true for flying things and vehicles than for walking animals, though I suspect horses are quite casual about exceeding their Basic Move.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Moving at Enhanced Move replaces the +20% from Sprinting with +50% (for a half level) or +100% for the full level like ahorse. That's not "casually", that's "sprinting" (or galloping if you prefer).

"Walking" is casually :D

Since there is no extra FP cost or other limitation on Enhanced Move its pretty casual as RAW.