In need of reference materials for writing (about horse breeds)

[CheertheDead]

If you can, please suggest me one.

I need to know about the general appearance and facts regarding their health, stamina, rarity.

 

[AnnonBee]

Of what?
And it is your world, make them as you like. There are many dnd site out there you can use them as sample.

 

[Ai-chan]

General facts:

1. Knights actually had more than one horse, unless the knight is extremely poor, which would be strange.
2. Tournament horses and riding horses are two completely different horses.
3. Contrary to modern sentimentality, medieval knights did not keep 'special horses'. While the lord would of course have the best horse, for long distances, they would have changed horses at public stables because horses can't gallop for too long. So a knight on his way to London on an urgent trip would have exchanged 'Josephine' for 'Coltmere' at Northampton and he will likely never see Josephine again because someone else would've exchanged their horses for 'Josephine'. That being said, if speed is not an issue, they did use the same horse for the entire journey, with plenty of rest in between. There are also cases where a very wealthy nobleman would bring spare riding horse, so that they can switch to that horse when the one they use is tired.
4. For long distance riding, you would ride a shaggy, kind of gentle horse, that allows you to ride for a long time comfortably as it canters or trots at a sustainable pace.
5. For tournaments, you would ride a big, tough and strong horse. But these horses are very hard on your butt. You definitely need a padded saddle with them.
6. For races, you generally use small but fast horses which can't take much of a load but is made for speed.
7. For horseback knight battles in the late medieval era, you'd preferably want big, tough horse capable of taking on at least 100kg of load without being encumbered. In some cases such as the heavy cataphracts, this could go as high as 150kg. This is because knights of this era typically wears full plate armour, with a thick heater shield, a long sword and sometimes a lance as well. Not to mention the horse too wore heavy armor, either chain or plate.
8. Destriers can't charge at full gallop for more than 2-3 minutes. They have to rest after a full charge. So you will never charge, fall back, charge, fall back and rinse and repeat like in Total War games. They can charge a short distance after the first charge, but their performance significantly drops after charging for 2-3 minutes. Once the charge is broken, fall back and stay out of the battle for at least half an hour.
9. As stated above, a knight would not have only one horse. A knight would be accompanied by his warhorse, his riding horse, is draft animals and his pack mules.
10. A horse had more value as pack animal, so men at arms generally would not fight on horseback. They would dismount and then fight on foot. Because having to carry those heavy armour, supplies and weapons on their own would be very, very tiring.

 

[CheertheDead]

Of what?
And it is your world, make them as you like. There are many dnd site out there you can use them as sample.

It's my world but there is something called the standard. If you want to describe something to the audiences, the easiest way is to use something they know or can find out about in real life and build your fantasy upon it.
People know what a skirt like, what is a shirt, Japanese kimono, chainmail...
I ask for description of horse breeds because I would use them as the standard and also for inspiration. A mere picture tells nothing if you lack the vocab to make it poetic. What I asked is to help me address that shortcoming of mine.

General facts:

1. Knights actually had more than one horse, unless the knight is extremely poor, which would be strange.
2. Tournament horses and riding horses are two completely different horses.
3. Contrary to modern sentimentality, medieval knights did not keep 'special horses'. While the lord would of course have the best horse, for long distances, they would have changed horses at public stables because horses can't gallop for too long. So a knight on his way to London on an urgent trip would have exchanged 'Josephine' for 'Coltmere' at Northampton and he will likely never see Josephine again because someone else would've exchanged their horses for 'Josephine'. That being said, if speed is not an issue, they did use the same horse for the entire journey, with plenty of rest in between. There are also cases where a very wealthy nobleman would bring spare riding horse, so that they can switch to that horse when the one they use is tired.
4. For long distance riding, you would ride a shaggy, kind of gentle horse, that allows you to ride for a long time comfortably as it canters or trots at a sustainable pace.
5. For tournaments, you would ride a big, tough and strong horse. But these horses are very hard on your butt. You definitely need a padded saddle with them.
6. For races, you generally use small but fast horses which can't take much of a load but is made for speed.
7. For horseback knight battles in the late medieval era, you'd preferably want big, tough horse capable of taking on at least 100kg of load without being encumbered. In some cases such as the heavy cataphracts, this could go as high as 150kg. This is because knights of this era typically wears full plate armour, with a thick heater shield, a long sword and sometimes a lance as well. Not to mention the horse too wore heavy armor, either chain or plate.
8. Destriers can't charge at full gallop for more than 2-3 minutes. They have to rest after a full charge. So you will never charge, fall back, charge, fall back and rinse and repeat like in Total War games. They can charge a short distance after the first charge, but their performance significantly drops after charging for 2-3 minutes. Once the charge is broken, fall back and stay out of the battle for at least half an hour.
9. As stated above, a knight would not have only one horse. A knight would be accompanied by his warhorse, his riding horse, is draft animals and his pack mules.
10. A horse had more value as pack animal, so men at arms generally would not fight on horseback. They would dismount and then fight on foot. Because having to carry those heavy armour, supplies and weapons on their own would be very, very tiring.

It didn't answer my real question but I got something else. Thank you. ( ^ . ^ )

 

[Ai-chan]

It's my world but there is something called the standard. If you want to describe something to the audiences, the easiest way is to use something they know or can find out about in real life and build your fantasy upon it.
People know what a skirt like, what is a shirt, Japanese kimono, chainmail...
I ask for description of horse breeds because I would use them as the standard and also for inspiration. A mere picture tells nothing if you lack the vocab to make it poetic. What I asked is to help me address that shortcoming of mine.



It didn't answer my real question but I got something else. Thank you. ( ^ . ^ )

To talk about horse breeds, you need someone who raise the many varieties.

So to partially answer your questions, Ai-chan thinks this guy can help. He's an actual knight. Just browse his videos.

 

[autumnveir]

General facts:

1. Knights actually had more than one horse, unless the knight is extremely poor, which would be strange.
2. Tournament horses and riding horses are two completely different horses.
3. Contrary to modern sentimentality, medieval knights did not keep 'special horses'. While the lord would of course have the best horse, for long distances, they would have changed horses at public stables because horses can't gallop for too long. So a knight on his way to London on an urgent trip would have exchanged 'Josephine' for 'Coltmere' at Northampton and he will likely never see Josephine again because someone else would've exchanged their horses for 'Josephine'. That being said, if speed is not an issue, they did use the same horse for the entire journey, with plenty of rest in between. There are also cases where a very wealthy nobleman would bring spare riding horse, so that they can switch to that horse when the one they use is tired.
4. For long distance riding, you would ride a shaggy, kind of gentle horse, that allows you to ride for a long time comfortably as it canters or trots at a sustainable pace.
5. For tournaments, you would ride a big, tough and strong horse. But these horses are very hard on your butt. You definitely need a padded saddle with them.
6. For races, you generally use small but fast horses which can't take much of a load but is made for speed.
7. For horseback knight battles in the late medieval era, you'd preferably want big, tough horse capable of taking on at least 100kg of load without being encumbered. In some cases such as the heavy cataphracts, this could go as high as 150kg. This is because knights of this era typically wears full plate armour, with a thick heater shield, a long sword and sometimes a lance as well. Not to mention the horse too wore heavy armor, either chain or plate.
8. Destriers can't charge at full gallop for more than 2-3 minutes. They have to rest after a full charge. So you will never charge, fall back, charge, fall back and rinse and repeat like in Total War games. They can charge a short distance after the first charge, but their performance significantly drops after charging for 2-3 minutes. Once the charge is broken, fall back and stay out of the battle for at least half an hour.
9. As stated above, a knight would not have only one horse. A knight would be accompanied by his warhorse, his riding horse, is draft animals and his pack mules.
10. A horse had more value as pack animal, so men at arms generally would not fight on horseback. They would dismount and then fight on foot. Because having to carry those heavy armour, supplies and weapons on their own would be very, very tiring.

Thank you so much for sharing these. It's my first reading these tidbits and my novel just happened to include horses! These moments just proves I didn't do enough research yet.

 

[K5Rakitan]

 

[TheDerpieGod]

To talk about horse breeds, you need someone who raise the many varieties.

So to partially answer your questions, Ai-chan thinks this guy can help. He's an actual knight. Just browse his videos.

That horse's eyes are horrifying

 

[AnnonBee]

Try to do this in this way. Your world is a fantasy world get some fansy name for them.
Pony<Grade horse<gaited horse<draft horse<cob<baroque horse. The chart is arranged from weakest to strongest (as per knowledge and their strength). You know about pony, grade horse is a half breed, draft horse is strong but used for pulling etc.
They are all real life horses. You can find about them online. Now give them some fantasy names. Then you have make the horse hierarchy. Like grade horse is used by commoner, the king uses baroque.
P.S. you can give your mc a feral horse. They are the wild descendants of once domesticated horse. It will give mc a Mystery. And you might even letter reveal that it was a descendant of once famous horse breed of forgotten empire.

 

[CheertheDead]

Try to do this in this way. Your world is a fantasy world get some fansy name for them.
Pony<Grade horse<gaited horse<draft horse<cob<baroque horse. The chart is arranged from weakest to strongest (as per knowledge and their strength). You know about pony, grade horse is a half breed, draft horse is strong but used for pulling etc.
They are all real life horses. You can find about them online. Now give them some fantasy names. Then you have make the horse hierarchy. Like grade horse is used by commoner, the king uses baroque.
P.S. you can give your mc a feral horse. They are the wild descendants of once domesticated horse. It will give mc a Mystery. And you might even letter reveal that it was a descendant of once famous horse breed of forgotten empire.

That’s less than ideal but I believe there would be people finding it useful.

 

[BearlyAlive]

Wow, a dozen posts in and nobody was funny enough to try to link horse porn. Time to change this!

Anyway, yeah. Just think of your own breeds. Use the names of places or things in your story or something to give them flavor. And I don't mean to just prefix "magical" for isekai or "heavenly/infernal" for cultivation stories.

 

[doravg]

https://book4you.org/s/horse%20breeding

Knock yourself out. Don't forget to check the articles' subcategory too.