Horse Food

Assumptions:

A horse requires the concentrates ration and either the grazing
time or the hay ration.
"Concentrates" refers to grain, often oats, although barley or
maize can also be fed.

The quantities given assume average quality hay or meadowland. 
For poor quality, double the quantity of hay or the grazing time. 
For good quality, subtract 25%.

For the concentrates, average quality oats are assumed.
For barley, reduce ration by 10%, and for maize by 20%.
For poor quality, add 50% to required ration and assume the same
quantity for all grain types.
Good quality is usually not used as animal feed, but should it be
in this case, subtract 25% from required ration, also taking into
account the grain type differences (ie -35% for good barley and -
45% for good maize).

Rations are given according to the size of the horse and the
level of work, as listed in 'horse work'.  For level of work,
take the equivalent level once factors such as load and terrain
have been taken into account, but do NOT include illness or
injury in this calculation.

Code:

SP - Small Pony
LP - Large Pony
LtH - Light Horse
MdH - Medium Horse
HvH - Heavy Horse
DrH - Draft Horse
LtW - Light Warhorse
HvW - Heavy Warhorse

Horse Work

Defintions:

Unload:          Horse carrying less than 10% of its body weight
Loaded:          Horse carrying 10-15% of its body weight
Heavily Loaded:  Horse carrying over 15% up to 30% of body weight
Overloaded:      Horse carrying over 30% of its body weight

A horse will refuse to move if loaded with more than 50% of its
body weight.
Easy Work (10-18 mpd): Walking, up to 6hrs/day at 3 mph or walk &
                       trot, up to 2hrs/day at avg. 5 mph
Light Work (28-40 mpd): Walking, up to 8 hrs/day at 5 mph or walk
                        & trot, up to 4hrs/day at avg. 7 mph
Medium Work (42-56 mpd): Walking, up to 12 hrs/day at 4 mph or
                         walk & trot, up to 8 hrs/day at avg. 7
                         mph or walk, trot & canter, 6 hrs/day at
                         avg. 8 mph
Hard Work (50-80 mpd): Walk and trot, up to 10 hrs/day at avg. 8
                       mph or trot & canter, 5 hrs/day at avg. 10
                       mph
Very Hard Work (60-120 mpd): Walk and trot, up to 15 hrs/day at
                             avg. 8 mph or trot, canter & gallop,
                             5 hrs/day at avg. 12 mph

Overwork: A horse can be overworked in one of two ways:
If it is kept in one type of work for more months than it can
comfortably maintain, it suffers the effects of overwork.  If
then kept in that type of work for more than a month longer, it
will break down.
If a horse is made to do more than the equivalent of very hard
work (either because it is overloaded etc., or because it is
pushed on for a longer distance), it will become overworked and
may break down.  Take a cumulative 5% chance of the horse
breaking down for each additional hour of work after the horse
has become overworked, up to a maximum of double the comfortable
distance, when it will stop and refuse to continue until rested
for 1d10 hours.  This may be modified for particularly tough or
weedy horses.

Breaking Down: A broken down horse either dies or is completely
useless for work:

Roll    Result
01-20   Horse dies of heart failure.  Drops to ground.
21-25   Horse bursts major blood vessel.  Thrashes in agony for
        2d10 seconds, then dies.
26-50   Horse permanently strains back tendon.  Lame and cannot
        carry ordinary or heavier again.
51-75   Horse strains leg tendon.  Permanently lame, but suitable
        for easy work after 2 months total rest.  Could be bred
        from.
76-90   Horse temporarily strains tendon.  Lame and cannot carry
        load until rested, or injury becomes permanent.
91-100  Horse utterly exhausted.  Refuses to move for 1d10 hours,
        and will not go faster than a walk for 1d10 days.

Assumptions

Work assumes a loaded, fit horse on good ground.  Decrease
difficulty of work by one for an unloaded horse.  Increase by one
for each level of load extra, and for muddy or rough ground. 
Increase by two for unfit, sick, lame, thirsty and underfed
horses (cumulative).

A horse can maintain Easy and Light work indefinitely, Medium
work daily for six months, hard work 5 days a week for 4 months,
and Very Hard work 2 or 3 days a week for 4 months.  Exceeding
this causes overwork.

One month doing no work or two months doing Easy work will rest a
horse.  One month in Light work following by one month in Medium
work will get a horse fit (this does not count towards the work
period).

Hours worked (see Horse Work): 

Easy work:    2-6 hours
Light work:   4-8 hours
Med. work:    6-8 hours
Hard work:    5-10 hours
V.hard work:  5-15 hours

A note on how long a horse would need to graze to maintain itself
if in Medium work without being fed grain (not possible for Hard
or Very Hard work):

Horse    SP   LP  LtH  MH  HH  DrH  LtW  HvW
Hours    5    6   7    9   10  15   9    12

Remember that after grazing the horse would need « hour to
digest.  Also, any horse will need at least 2 hours sleep per
night.

Tables:

There are two tables, one giving the ideal rations to keep a
horse in top working condition, the other giving the rations that
a horse could get by on.  The times that the difference would
come into play would be during a match of some kind between
horses, when the one on ideal rations would have the edge over
the one that wasn't (eg pulling, racing, or stamina contest), and
when a horse is being pushed hard.  If a horse is on 'get by'
rations, halve the time that they can comfortably stay at a given
level of work, and double the effects of being heavily loaded.

The figures on the table are in the order:

No. Of hours grazing/ pounds of hay/ pounds of concentrates

Ideal Rations

                           Work:

        Easy     Light     Medium     Hard     V. Hard 
SP      4/9/-    3/6/2     3/6/3.5    3/6/5    3/6/6
LP      5/10/-   4/8/2     3/6/4      3/6/6    4/8/7
LtH     6/12/-   4/9/2.5   4/9/5      4/9/7.5  5/11/9
MdH     7/14/-   5/11/3    5/11/6     5/11/9   6/13/11
HvH     8/18/-   6/13/3.5  6/13/7.5   6/13/12  8/17/14
DrH     10/22/-  8/18/5    9/19/10.5  9/20/16  11/24/20
LtW     7/15/-   5/11/3    6/12/6.5   6/12/10  7/14/12
HvW     9/19/-   7/14/4    7/15/8.5   7/15/15  9/19/15

Bearable Rations

                           Work:

        Easy     Light     Medium     Hard     V. Hard 
SP      4/9/-    4/9/-     4/8/2      4/8/4    4/9/4.5
LP      5/10/-   5/10/-    5/9/2.5    4/9/5    5/10/5.5
LtH     6/12/-   6/12/-    5/11/3     5/11/6   6/13/7
MdH     7/14/-   7/14/-    7/14/4     6/13/7   7/15/9
HvH     8/18/-   8/18/-    8/17/4.5   8/16.5/7 9/20/11
DrH     10/22/- 10/22/-    11/24/6.5 11/24/13  13/29/16
LtW     7/15/-   7/15/-    7/15/4     7/14/8   8/17/9
HvW     9/19/-   9/19/-    9/19/5     9/19/10  10/23/12


Load Guidelines:

Load in lbs         Loaded     Heavily      Weight
Horse type                     Loaded

Small pony          50-75      75-150       500 lbs
Large pony          60-90      91-180       600 lbs
Light horse         80-120     121-250      800 lbs
Medium horse        100-150    151-300      1000 lbs
Heavy riding horse  130-195    196-390      1300 lbs
Draught horse       200-300    301-500      2000 lbs
Light warhorse      110-160    161-350      1100 lbs
Heavy warhorse      150-225    226-450      1500 lbs

Small pony:        "Native" type, wild or semi-wild, herded
                   Eg Shetland, Dartmoor, Tarpan
Large pony:        Selectively bred for size and quality, may be
                   herded eg New Forest, Haflinger
Light horse:       Ladies or pleasure mount, or nomad cavalry
                   type Morgan, Hackney, Mustang, Arab
Medium horse:      Light hunter type
                   Eg Trakener, Andalusian
Hvy. Riding horse: Heavy hunter, carthorse or large cob
                   Eg Hanoverian, Hoistein, Russian trotters
Draught horse:     Cart/plough horse eg Perceron, Shire
Light warhorse:    Light cavalry mount eg Thoroughbred
Heavy warhorse:    Heavy/ armored cavalry mount eg Destrier
