VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, [3], 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 10/23/03 9:35pm
Author: Ashley
Subject: Popping in unwanted. : )
In reply to: Lara 's message, "ok, yeas>" on 10/23/03 7:15pm

If I may allow myself a two minute rant, I will take it. I know neither of you asked my opinion, but with such debate I could not resist giving it. You can ignore this if you wish, but DoT at least needs to read the very last paragraph in this post.


Horses are herbivores. Their teeth are blunt, made for chewing grass, not for ripping meat like a carnivore. They cannot rip flesh more than a slight cut.
My actually paid job is with horses, and I have seen plenty of fights. Between those other than stallions, fights exist to assert dominance and are very short-lived. Almost all of the fights (that aren't between two stallions defending their herd/terra) use bucking as their sole attack. Back up, buck; move forward, buck some more. Chance of contact is about 50/50 even if the horse receiving the buck doesn't move. Horses don't aim much, because a buck is for show and not for damage. If the receiver DOES choose to move, they can almost always evade the buck.
On the bucks that hit, even the ones that solidly hit in the barrel, chest, hindlegs, etc., they are NEVER EVER bone crushing. It just does not happen. The kicks hurt, yes, but they do not break bones in other horses. They are sturdy little critters. It may bruise a little, but nothing more. Horses aren't out to kill each other, unless they have rabies. Luckily I've never had to see that.
Biting is used primarily as a threat or reprimand. Bites are placed anywhere easily accessible: the face, side of the neck, barrel, hindquarters. Anywhere else is not easy to get to without twisting the neck awkwardly. Bites often break skin, and I see a lot of injuries that way. Such bites occasionally need some treatment, but they are not bad enough that they need anymore more than to be thoroughly cleaned and treated (water, iodine, neosporin-type gel) and left to heal. A bite will never do more than that, because again, they cannot hold on. They can bite and hold, but if either horse pulls away, the grip will instantly slip.
I have seen a pony whip a shire. I was very surprised that the shire was not sticking up for herself more than a single, half-hearted buck, but the reason for that is because of dominance. Size and strength are not equal to dominance, because it is entirely attitude that determines it. That same shire will stand up for herself against other horses, but the pony was higher up socially.
Now as far as stallion fights go, I have no actual experience. I've seen videos, but no one is silly enough to keep two stallions that would fight in the same pasture or even adjacent pastures. From what I've watched, they are usually rearing at the same time, because the one rearing has the advantage. No, it does not expose the neck, because the other horse would have to rear to reach the neck. Which it does. So both horses are rearing, pawing at each other, but they are usually too close to do any damage. They bite at each other, but they aren't predators that instinctively dive for the jugular vein.

I understand that role playing games are not intended to be realistic. Your horses can have entirely different motives than just to prove dominance, and it can take longer to solve than just a minute or so of a fight. But you cannot ignore the physical facts that kicks don't break bones and teeth don't rip flesh. Unless you have a mutated character. I have seen a character that had carnivore teeth, but there is problems with that as well. That horse would be unable to eat grass and would be an outcast from any herd because it would be feared as a predator. But that's another story.


Oh, and DoT. You will have full healing capabilities formally given to you after this fight. Whether or not DoT can heal herself is a personal choice. I usually said that DOL recovered quicker and more thoroughly than normal horses would when left without healing, but it wasn't the instant type of healing that she could give others, because she cannot apply her magic directly to herself by her own consent. However, neither can she help being healed, because it draws it out of her automatically. I *never* healed her in the middle of a battle, because I think that's just wrong. If she wanted to heal anyone else mid-battle, she had to first step in and fight off the person battling before she could heal, or had someone else fight the horse while she healed.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.