Horses in the Morrow Project

By Mrs K. Darke

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.

Codes

Horse Work

Definitions

A horse will refuse to move if loaded with more than 50% of its body weight.

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:

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

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):

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

Load Guidelines