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little_details2025-01-21 02:08 pm
alnaperera) wrote in little_details2025-01-21 02:08 pm
Question about horses
I am writing a sort of fantasy adventure thing and it involves horses. I have no experience with them whatsoever, so I have a few questions.
1) would a horse be okay with a trip that's ~15km, roughly 100m drop but with minor ups and downs and a pretty low grade throughout (say a maximum of ten degrees for very short stretches, sustained is more like one degree)? How long will this take? What about the return trip?
2) how would they react to this being at 2 in the morning? One horse is the rider's best friend pretty much, the other horse has never met the rider before but assume it's a nice horse. The second rider is also very experienced, just not with this horse.
3) how will the react to a bicycle being a part of the party?
Editing to add a bit more context.
The party consists of the following:
1. Horse A and character A, both used to each other (in town, around town, exploring hills, committing crime together).
2. Horse B and character B. Horse B is my biggest variable because they will appear for just this trip, that's it. Generally used for riding around farms and getting to nearby cities and stuff, I don't imagine this horse being one of those big farm horses. Character B is from a culture that is very horse based and has been riding since she feasibly could, mostly training with war horses.
3. Character C and bicycle. Character C has no riding experience whatsoever and needs to arrive at the destination in reasonable shape, hence the bicycle.
The trip happens early in the morning what would be the rough equivalent of northern hemisphere early March, temperatures would be in low single digits C and warming up slowly to low double digits.
The roads are reasonably well lit for established cultural reasons.
Character A and Character B can both see in the dark much better than the average person.
They also need to start the return trip almost immediately afterwards, though they can reasonably get some rest about 2 kilometers in.
1) would a horse be okay with a trip that's ~15km, roughly 100m drop but with minor ups and downs and a pretty low grade throughout (say a maximum of ten degrees for very short stretches, sustained is more like one degree)? How long will this take? What about the return trip?
2) how would they react to this being at 2 in the morning? One horse is the rider's best friend pretty much, the other horse has never met the rider before but assume it's a nice horse. The second rider is also very experienced, just not with this horse.
3) how will the react to a bicycle being a part of the party?
Editing to add a bit more context.
The party consists of the following:
1. Horse A and character A, both used to each other (in town, around town, exploring hills, committing crime together).
2. Horse B and character B. Horse B is my biggest variable because they will appear for just this trip, that's it. Generally used for riding around farms and getting to nearby cities and stuff, I don't imagine this horse being one of those big farm horses. Character B is from a culture that is very horse based and has been riding since she feasibly could, mostly training with war horses.
3. Character C and bicycle. Character C has no riding experience whatsoever and needs to arrive at the destination in reasonable shape, hence the bicycle.
The trip happens early in the morning what would be the rough equivalent of northern hemisphere early March, temperatures would be in low single digits C and warming up slowly to low double digits.
The roads are reasonably well lit for established cultural reasons.
Character A and Character B can both see in the dark much better than the average person.
They also need to start the return trip almost immediately afterwards, though they can reasonably get some rest about 2 kilometers in.
no subject
15km is about 9 miles: a horse walks at about 4 miles an hour on the flat (slower if there's much incline). If they can trot or canter for stretches, the trot gets up to about 12 miles an hour for moderate amounts, canter is more like 16, but for shorter distances. (And neither will do well with incline or decline or less great footing.) Given the night part, you're probably looking at walking the entire way, though.
If the second horse is used to having different riders, *but* used to doing things with the first horse, having the first horse and rider go first might help a lot. (Horses are herd animals, having a trusted source in the front helps.) How the horses react to a bicycle depends a lot on their previous experience, if the bike produces unusual sounds, etc. It might be better to have the bike go first, so that it's not weird noises behind them.
You might want to look at endurance trail rides to get an idea of speed, scope, etc. and what's involved in doing that.
(Former Horse Girl, not up on all the details at this point.)
no subject
I would also generally add that horses are very individual, and so a lot will depend on each one's personality and what they're used to. Which means you can get a certain amount of mileage out of "thankfully, X was a very calm horse" or "thankfully, X seemed to be used to bicycles; she swiveled her ears warily but did not freak out as Y had feared she might" or whatever if you want them to be relatively chill about the time and the bike.
no subject
no subject
The road condition should be good and well lit (mostly used by horses, buses, sheep, and a very occasional car). The second horse would be used to the same set of different riders more or less, and the horses would know each other well. They should be used to the bike (though not taking a trip with them) so I'll probably have to figure that one out (can't put character 3 on a horse because it's established they have zero riding experience).