Questions tagged [horses]
For questions about the domesticated work animals used in transportation and agriculture. This tag is relevant to questions about horse transportation logistics as well as biological alterations to horses in fiction. This tag is not relevant if horses are included in the setup of the question (i.e. story) but do not matter to the answer.
31 questions
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What are some alternatives to horses in a medieval world? [duplicate]
Assuming horselike animals do not exist on the planet where my story is set, what would be the most effective way to travel as fast as possible over land in a medieval world?
In terms of animals, they'...
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What settings would you need for a useful nanotech horse?
In a future society, nanotech and super science has made a thing called horse bags. You buy a bag from the store, stuff some dirt in there, and a few hours later a trained horse comes out. You can ...
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Horses or ATVS? [closed]
Writing a setting where people have access to modern technology from the greater world, but the people of this land haven't really developed yet; there isn't a rail or road network connecting the ...
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Horse Exoskeletons?
Working on a society a society that was never centralized or peaceful enough to invest in rail and road networks, even as the rest of the world developed. They've imported camels, donkeys, and horses ...
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Piezoelectric Horseshoes?
New here, so forgive me if I commit a faux pas or two
So I wrote a society that, never being wealthy or organized enough to invest in rail and road networks, stuck with beasts of burden, even as the ...
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Eject the horses, animal safety first! How would a coachman arrange for a quick release mechanism to free the beasts?
An 18th century coachman, who really loves their horses and won't allow any harm to come to them, needs a mechanism to instantly disengage their four-wheeled carriage from the horses midride, setting ...
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How would one sabotage a horse-drawn carriage to break down a distance later
Is it possible to sabotage a horse-drawn vehicle in such a way that it fails a bit after leaving town? If so, how precise can this delay be and how would it be done?
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A world without horse [closed]
Imagine that in ancient times, long before homo sapiens even exist, a certain, or a chain of certain events caused Equidae (horse family) creatures to go extinct, globally. So since the beginning of ...
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Could genetically engineered horses make cavalry survivable on a battlefield with modern technology?
Could genetically engineered horses make cavalry survivable on a battlefield with modern technology? While machineguns made cavalry obsolete, could there be a way that horses could be modified to be ...
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Is it possible to ride a giant running llama?
I’m thinking of replacing horses with an extinct llama from North and South America called Hemiauchenia. Hemiauchenia is about the size of a camel and is more adapted for running than any other ...
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What physical and medical problems do wild horse twins suffer from? [closed]
Twin foals are uncommon and undesirable, or so I read. They have retarded growth and developmental problems, and require additional care. (Assuming they survive to term, which they may well not.)
The ...
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Horseback Travel in an Unpopulated Pacific Northwest
I'm writing a novel that takes place in a very sparsely settled coastal PNW, and the MCs have two horses that they use for transportation and as their carrier animals (Bedrolls, tent, some rations). ...
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Is a predatory horse plausible?
I’m curious - does anyone with knowledge about animal/evolutionary biology think that predatory horses, akin to the Mares of Diomedes from Greco-Roman mythology, are plausible?
I’ve found tidbits of ...
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Color blindness and sentient animals co-existing with humans
So, I am writing a world where most mammals, birds, primates, and a few reptiles have been sentient since an 'event' of some sort happened in the late 1700s. This means that something like 'Mr. Ed' is ...
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Modifying horses to be able to digest a broader variety of plant material. How?
"I defy anyone to tell me they have a pasture with zero poisonous plants," said Dr.J.
"Then I reject your reality and substitute my own!" shouted
Dr.[Redacted].
So, I wanted to ...
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Could a nomadic group build a portable library on wheels pulled by horses?
A fictional nomadic group lives in vardos much like the Romani people.
Could such a nomadic group build a giant library on wheels like a giant vardo capable of carrying 50,000 books? This giant ...
- 4,454
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How would a horse-like animal fly using artificially engineered wings?
This animal is built similar to a earth horse. The bone structure is more like a deer or gazelle then a horse. The artificial wings were made by the people in my fantasy world, and they're more like a ...
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What happens when a horse steps in a hole while running? [closed]
The good guy (GG) in my story is trying to make the bad guy (BG) ride his horse off a cliff.
GG has prepared the ground ahead of time by digging a series of holes (each one the size of a gopher hole) ...
- 101
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A Horse of Many Different Colors...Out in the Open Plains
In mapping the ecology of an alternate Earth where the family Equidae still exists but the genus Equus does not, it is usually difficult to find a biologically suitable mythological horse as a ...
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Can bringing 2 extra horses while traveling be considered realistic?
In the novel "The Emperor" by R.D. Villam there is a scene where 6 people are traveling somewhere riding horses but each of them also brings 2 extra horses, with a horse running at either side of each ...
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A Horse of A VERY Different Way to Live the "Plains" Life [closed]
How the horse evolved to deal with life out on the open plains is...an odd story. Whereas other ungulates could walk through the hard ground with several hooves without problem, the horses couldn't. ...
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Would a warhorse allow its rider to approach a Dragon at all?
Would a horse (trained or otherwise) not be wholly spooked by a Dragon merely flying overhead, even more so trying to enter combat with it or just trying to approach it under any circumstances?
What ...
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Horses vs. Bicycles in a soft post-apocalypse
I want to ask about the utility of bicycles vs. horses, but in a rather specific circumstance.
In the future, there is war (the particulars are irrelevant), and it causes the usual loss of population ...
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How many horses would be required to pull a modern Caravan
I'm currently investigating a post-apocalyptic novel and wished to know if Horses could be used to pull a modern Caravan and if so how many. Furthermore what would the potential daily range of such a ...
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Ice Age Cavalry
The history of horse domestication, according to recent research, starts somewhere on the plains of eastern Europe 6,000 years ago. Since then, cavalry had become a major turning point in Old World ...
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How far can you travel on horseback while pushing the horse to the brink?
Wanting to keep my writing realistic, I try to keep distances traveled in the humanely possible range.
The current setting is thus:
Medieval style world, roads available, they are travelling north, ...
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Plausible reason why the organization wouldn’t use horses? [closed]
So, after the apocalypse, there is this charity organization, ORE, that has set up HQ in Des, Iowa. They have about 3,400 members, with about 1,000 of those living somewhere outside Des. They need to ...
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The Multi-Purpose Horse: Stage II: The Shiring [duplicate]
Last time, I asked if it's possible to breed a five-gaited horse as hardy and adaptable as a Yakutian horse. Turns out that it's not as straightforward as initially assumed. It seems that not all ...
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The Multi-Purpose Horse: Stage I: Icelandic x Yakutian
I am in pursuit of, as the title says, a multi-purpose horse, a single breed that can do all the things that the others were only specialized for: travel, labor, companionship, war, speed, strength.
...
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Horse-logistics for a militia of 350
There is a walled town, situated at a river ford, which maintains a militia of ~350 for a regional population of ~1000 farmers, rivermen, minor estates, townsfolk etc.
I feel that I'm getting the ...
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Reasons for my dark ages world to have no horses at all
I am writing a fiction set in the 'dark ages', a pre-industrial, pre-gunpowder world. On Earth that would be no later than 800 AD, but this doesn't have to match Earth. There is no magic, and I won't ...
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