Horse

Horses are lovely but incredibly stupid animals that are good for either eating, farm work or riding. As it so happens, they fill a very specific role in warfare. This page aims not to inform the reader about real life horses, nor be a wikipedia page about horses, but to inform about how horses work in the fantasy setting I've created, both setting wise and mechanically.

Note that while these horse-races are all inspired by real horsebreeds, this is all fiction and very simplified so that even a layman in horse terms can understand it.

History
Horses were used by elves and dwarves before the human race was created. Dwarves used them mainly to pull carriages, while elves used them for riding.

When the human race pretty much took over the surface world, the horses were soon domesticated by them too, using them for farming as well as riding and pulling carriages and chariots.

Horses soon gained a purpose in warfare and humans started breeding them specifically for this, and many regions had variant of the riding horse, but the true achievement of horsebreeding in the west was the Imperial Draft horse, a relatively short but seriously strong horse that can adapt to most climates, survive mainly on grass for a long time and even excelled at climbing the steep mountain slopes found some places in the empire.

The Imperial Riding horse is a dying breed, because it was all but replaced when the empire launched the first expansion war against the barbaric horse tribes of the east, a long time ago. The Empire had severe casualties in that war, because of the vastly superior cavalry forces of the east, but managed to win an unsatisfying victory by gaining some of the territories they were gunning for. While this was a tragic time for the families of many fallen soldiers who did not feel that the tiny victory in any way was worth the price the paid, historians later on recognized the true prize of this war: The Eastern Palfrey horse.

The eastern tribes were master horse-breeders, and their techniques fell into the hands of the Empire, as well as did many of their horses. Realizing that the Empire could never at the time establish enough official Imperial Stud farms, they decided to pass along the secrets for free to their people, and selling all the captured horses cheaply to their own people.

Suddenly the Eastern Palfrey horse was found in all areas of the Empire, and despite the Empire's fall shortly after, these horses were cross-bred with the Imperial Draft, and this resulted in some interesting results. When the Empire was once again reformed, the breeding of these new horse speciments had already changed warfare drastically.

Species
There are several different species of horses in Daeghonia, and others have been discovered on other continents later, but it's too early to say anything in general about their abilities.

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The Imperial Draft is a short and stout horse. It  can adapt to most climates, survive mainly on grass for a long time and even excelled at climbing the steep mountain slopes found some places in the empire. The horse's main quality is it's uncanny endurance and strength.

These horses are widely regarded as the best animals for field work as well as pulling carriages. Most farming families own several of them and they are extremely common in the entire Empire. Halflings and dwarves are also excited about these horses, because of their often short stature (found on both sides of the limit for pony height).

The horse doesn't make a very good riding horse, but some examples were cross-bred with the Imperial riding horse creating a version referred to as the Imperial Warhorse, but that breed is entirely extinct today, but resembled the Imperial Draft more than the now also nearly extinct Imperial Riding horse. This type of horse as the name indicates is a draft, or coldblood.

Imperial Riding Horse
The Imperial Riding horse was not a bad horse. It was completely useless for farmwork, but could be trained for warfare. As the name indicates, it was optimized for riding, but compared to later discovered species, it is now considered vastly inferior. The horse is also fairly short, as it's closely related to the Imperial Draft. It lacks the muscle-mass to wear more than very light barding and has a very long muzzle compared to it's general size. The Imperial riding horse is generally believed to be extinct as true breeds of it don't exist anymore, but some breeds that lean more towards the Imperial Riding horse are still common enough that they are sold cheaply as inexpensive riding animals to poor farmers. Note that there isn't anything wrong with the Imperial Riding Horse, it just doesn't excell at anything and is essentially an evolutionary dead end. They tend to non-spectacular, apart from generally being regarded as ugly due to their inproportionate muzzles but this isn't actually the case, rather a matter of preference. It's believed that this horse was the result of crossbreeding the Imperial Draft with the South-Eastern desert steppe horse, a very tempermental light horse. The Imperial Riding horse is a warmblood.

Eastern Palfrey horse
Known mostly just as the Palfrey today, this horse is the paramount of riding horses. While pure-bred palfrey's are impossible to find in the Empire today, this type of horse gained some very good qualities from the interbreeding with the Imperial horse breeds. The best jumpers and sprinters are found among these horses. They are generally very tall and lean, with a somewhat majestic look to them. From crossbreeding with Imperial horses, they have inherited a powerful neck.

These horses are generally reserved for nobility who uses them for displays of horsemanship. Palfrey's are excellent hunting horses and are perhaps the best suited horses for most terrains, apart from mountains. While they can be wartrained, and most of them are, due to their usage in hunting which requires a measure of aggression and bravery found mainly in wartrained horses, they don't make very good warhorses, and are far too expensive (or rather valuable as most noblemen do not pay for such horses, breeding them rather) to risk in warfare.

A subvariant of the Eastern Palfrey horse which is less expensive and also less rare, is the Imperial Hunter. The Imperial hunter is not an official breed, but is rather an Eastern Palfrey that is rather poor in it's original genes, having been polluted significantly by other breeds causing it to lose a lot of it's original qualities (or rather just lessens them). This horse type is much more common, and is frequently used for horse racing. The eastern Palfrey is a thoroughbred. While a palfrey can easily surive on grass alone, they are too valuable not to be subject to a pedigree.

Rouncy
The Rouncy is the result of attempting to optimize the Eastern Palfrey for warfare, by breeding it with the Imperial Draft. This breeding process produced the Rouncy breed, a horse slightly more muscular than the Palfrey, but also shorter, though otherwise fairly similar to the Palfrey. The rouncy is still a light horse, and is commonly used by light cavalry. The horse lacks the temperment of eastern palfrey horse, but is not as docile as the draft either, making it easy to control in warfare, being a warmblood. While the horse is more endurant, a better climber and over all better suited  for warfare, it cannot  jump as high as a palfrey nor can it achieve the same levels of speed and will never be as agile. Rounceys can survive a long time on grass alone, but it's best if they are fed a little grain or oat frequently, to maintain their muscle mass.

Courser
The Courser is essentially also a rouncy, but a perfectly bred rouncy so to speak. It took a few generations of breeding before the coursers started appearing, and there is no sure way to breed a courser, though they are common enough that they cannot be considered rare. Rather than being bred, they are selected from the rounceys that live up to the courser standards, requiring them to be of a certain hight and stature. Coursers are much more prized than rounceys

Coursers are commonly used by medium cavalry or heavy cavalry in some cases. They are naturally still of the warmblood variant. Coursers are fully capable of carrying heavy barding and a rider and essentially make excellent heavy cavalry, but they cannot match the effectiveness in such a role, as the destrier. The only real down-side of the courser to the rouncy is it's more frequent need for fodder over grass.

Destrier
Considered the epitome of war horses, this breed is rumored to have been engineered by magic, though it also decends from the cross-breeding of the Imperial Draft and the Eastern Palfrey. Destriers seem to have the best qualities of both horses, and actually less valuable than a true Eastern Palfrey and also more common. Most Knights own a Destrier, with almost no exceptions as it is expected of a Knight to own such a horse. They are common enough that every Knight of the Empire can acquire one, and inexpensive enough that most can afford to do so, but they are still less common than the courser, and considerably more expensive. The Destrier is taller than the Palfrey, and almost as strong as the draft. It's a warmblood and tends to be black with curley tails and manes, but variants exist. The destrier is renown for being the most suited horse for jousting, and because of it's impressive anatomy they are also excellent for parades and showmanship. Destriers must frequently be fed oat or grain, or similar protein sources, otherwise they start getting fatigued. This is another reason they are poorly suited for low born as such a horse would be too expensive to keep. It's only real application is as a war-horse.

Southeastern Desert-Steppe Horse
The Southeastern Desert-Steppe Horse is a small and agile horse, known for it's cleverness and it's agility. This breed of horse is better able to handle the warmth of deserts and the prolonged times going without water sometimes necessary when travelling the more desolate regions of Daeghonia, but it's still no camel. While these horses are the only horses found in the area from which they originate, they are not common riding animals there, as it takes a gifted rider to master such a tempermental horse. Easily recognized by two factors, one being their black skin (usually only visible upon close examination) and the other being their very characteristic muzzle which bends upwards in a strange angle. These horses are not rare, and during the holy-wars with the middle-east, many were brought home, having been taken as replacements or prizes, and it turned out there were benefits to be had from breeding this horse with other species, though let alone it's not a very remarkable horse, but some riders prefer them.