Horse Sense

knights on bicycle! A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Here you go! This should tell you everything you need to know.


http://www.horseandmuletrails.com/Packh.htm

You can also check the web for "hunting outfitters" and call one or two in your area to give you some hints and tips that this website might not include. But it's pretty detailed!

Actually more knights fought on foot than on horseback - it wasn't all charging around with lances.

Had you ever considered getting riding lessons?

I've never seen a horse try to run from a storm. Might depend, though, on how big an enclosure they're in, or the particular horse's temperament. I've seen horses huddle up together under a small shelter, or stand under trees. I guess horses don't know lightning strikes the tallest object ...

TheIT said:

Let's talk horses. They're absolutely indispensable in certain genres. Whoever heard of knights in shining armor jousting on foot, or cowboys jogging into the sunset? Problem is, it's difficult to write accurately about characters who deal with horses when I've never ridden a horse in my life. So, I'm opening this thread to improve my "horse sense". I know a lot of AW members own/have ridden horses, so perhaps they could provide information which can't be found in a library. If anyone else has horse questions, please feel free to add to this thread.

Thanks in advance for any replies!

I'll start. I've got questions about using a horse or mule as a pack animal. If you're loading a horse, how do you put the stuff on the horse so you don't hurt the animal? What if you have bulky objects like boxes? How much weight is acceptable? I'm guessing at least as much as a rider, perhaps 150 to 200 pounds? How will the horse react if you try to overburden it?

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Riding a horse is nothing. It’s easier than a camel or an elephant, and way easier than an ostrich. But if it isn’t your horse, you must first establish a relationship. Talk to it, give it an apple, breathe into one of its big nostrils. Yes, that last thing is most important.



For carrying bulky objects, camels or elephants are better.

TheIT said:

How do fearful horses react, say to a thunderstorm? Would they try to run away from the noise?

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Horses often get struck by lightning. You’d think they’d learn, but they don’t.

TheIT said:

Interesting. What does breathing into the horse's nostril do? Make the horse recognize your scent?

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Exactly. And you're acting like a horse, so they're impressed.

TheIT said:

What do horses do if they like you? If they don't like you?

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They will bite you, or “accidentally” step on your foot. Or they will stop suddenly, or pretend to be afraid of a piece of paper and bolt into the tress. Trees with very low branches.

Horse Sense?

There was a very good thread about horses a while back. Mac came up with most of the good answers. He also mentioned a good article for Fantasy writers at Rumour Mill. Search the AW files for the thread as it's worth it for what you want.

Horses I can do.

The important thing to know is that a horse is a prey animal. Other animals eat him. He will tend to assume that the scary noise/object/thing flapping in the wind is a horse eating monster, and he will react by doing his best to get out of Dodge. He can be trained to do otherwise, but his natural instinct is to bolt.

Horses are herd animals. Like every herd, there is a pecking order. He needs to know where he is in the order. If you are to have any hope of controlling him, you must be higher in the order than he is.

Horses are naturally curious. Once he is convinced that the thing in question is not going to eat him, he will want to check it out.

A horse who likes you will want to be near you, bump your arm for affection, sniff around your pocket for treats. He might attempt to play with you by grabbing onto your sleeve with his teeth. My daughter's paint will steal her hat or anything she has sticking out of her pocket and run off with it. He will lean over and blow in your face or rest his head on your shoulder. Ever seen 2 horses nose to tail in a field? That's what they do.

Packing a horse is easy, assuming that the horse is broke and accustomed to having someone reach under his belly. You can put bags on your saddle to hold things. You probably could strap boxes to the saddle but it's harder. Distribute the weight evenly and the horse shouldn't have trouble as long as he's sound.

If I had to ride a horse that didn't want to be ridden - well, it depends on how much time I have to convince him otherwise. Ideally I'd act like a dominant horse, move him around the field, circle him around me. I can make you move says in charge to a horse. I'd wait till he's ready to submit and then get on him. If I didn't have any time, I'd lure him to me with some food, jump on, hold on tight, and pray. If he really wants you off, he'll get you off.

Working with horses is a mental game. He weighs 1000 pounds. You weigh what, 1/5th of that? You're not going to strong arm him into anything. Horses definitely have different temperaments and personality. Just like dogs, certain breeds tend to have certain temperaments, but there's always the exception to the rule.

Even if you can't ride, go to a place that gives riding lessons and hang out. You'll learn a lot.

TheIT said:

How do fearful horses react, say to a thunderstorm? Would they try to run away from the noise?

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It depends. My small herd is led by a horse who is terrified of thunder. During thunderstorms, when the others would be inclined to use the run-in, he chases them all into the open and then runs them around the pasture in near panic. Since he's the dominant horse, when he gets scared, the others do, too, and soon they're all in a frenzy. Truly panicked horses are completely oblivious to their environment, and will run straight into solid objects--trees, fences, buildings--or other hazards, and injure or kill themselves, so this is serious.

5KidsMom gave a really good short summary, and Mac's link is a godsend of info. Julie's note about blowing into a horse's nostrils is something that many people still believe, but which some modern horsemen believe is actually rude behavior if the horse doesn't know you--sort of like being hugged and kissed by a complete stranger. Even horse experts don't agree on a lot of things.

TheIT said:

How do horses establish their pecking order? What about horses interacting with mules?

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It's very complex. Not only do horses have individual status (lead mare is lead mare because she knows the best grazing sites and when to move where for water; lead mare's foals are likely to grow up having higher status than foals of subordinate mares; and so on), they have status related to certain activities (Horse A drinks first, but Horse B eats first, and Horse C gets the best place to sleep) and status related to who their pair bond is (Horse A is best buddies with Horse D, so even though Horse D is dominant to no one, he probably doesn't get picked on much). Pecking order is often established through biting, shoving, and kicking, or threatening to bite or kick, and reinforced by the dominate horse proving it can place the subordinate's body anywhere it wants to relative to the dominant's.

In my WIP, one of the main characters has a mule. She gets a visitor who then stables his horse with the mule. Would the mule defer to the horse? Would they need to be separated?

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Whichever is dominant will depend on the personalites of each. My 7-year-old, 16-hand horse was bullied unmercifully by a 3-year-old, 13.3-hand pony. Any equines you put together are going to have an adjustment period when they work out who's in charge. Keeping them physically separated (like with a fence, or in separate stalls, where they can still interact) while they get to know each other lessens the chances that one of them will end up injured when they finally do get together.

How much space do you need to keep a horse/mule? Would it have problems being stabled in a cave (at least part of the time)?

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Keep them, how? Keep them stabled? Modern stalls are usually 12 feet by 12 feet, with 10 feet by 10 feet considered the minimum. This size lets the horse move around and lie down (horses can doze standing up, but can only sleep lying down; a too-small stall can result in a horse getting "cast," or unable to get back up). For a long time, especially in Britain, stalls were barely bigger than the horse, and horses were tied when standing in them. How the poor things slept, I don't know.

As for caves, horses have Issues-with-a-capital-I about enclosed, dark places. Getting them to load into horse trailers can be a real adventure. Getting them to walk into a dark cave which probably smells like lots of predators (because good caves don't go unused)...um. I don't know. If the horse was very easygoing and trusted you, maybe. Keeping it in a cave is going to bring up other problems, too, like waste disposal (horses drink gallons of water per day, which is going to become urine in due time, and they eat lots and lots of roughage, which becomes bulky manure) and carrying food and water to it. Nor is air circulation the greatest, which leads to respiratory problems. And if the floor is uneven, not only would that make cleanup harder, but you'd stand a good chance of their bruising the soles of their feet, and you really don't want to have to deal with abscesses and the like.

Have I mentioned that many things can go wrong with horses? Many, many, many. Feet and digestion are often the biggies. Horses can die of colic, they can founder, they get splints and ringbone and azoturia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and I have to stop before I cry.