Horse Jumping I (sage ability)

In order to jump a horse, the horse must be ridden at a canter or a gallop. This is not due to the speed of the horse but due to the horse advancing one foot first as part of the horse's gait.

Limitations

Jumping a horse is a very strenuous activity for the horse and can be dangerous to the rider, particularly if the obstacle being jumped over is in rough country with free stone on the ground. Horse-jumping at an authoritative level, as Jumping-I indicates, limits the rider in two ways: the first is that the horse being ridden must be trained to jump, as the rider has no personal experience in enabling such training; the second is that not all obstacles can be jumped or even attempted, as the horse will refuse to attempt the obstacle.

If, however, the rider is upon a horse trained for jumping, then it is judged that the rider can jump an ordinary fence, either of wood or stone. That is, a fence that is no more than a hand-span wide and no more than mid-drift on an ordinary man, a maximum of about four feet. It is judged that the rider cannot perform a "bounce," which is jumping two fences that are less than 15 feet apart (three strides).

It is also judged that the rider can jump over a ditch that is up to five feet wide (1 combat hex), without a refusal from the horse, so long as the ditch does not occur in combination with a fence.

Horses will jump into and out of water that is no deeper than 18 inches without adverse risk.

Injuries

With this level of expertise, any jump can cause an injury, though the likelihood is low with most jumps and the injuries most likely to occur will not long damage the horse. When attempting to jump a fence, the character should roll a d20. On any roll except a natural 1, the horse will be fine. A 1 indicates that the horse has damaged a tendon, leading to its inflammation or strain. The horse will have suffered a 1 point injury. This roll is due to horses accumulating strain on the forelegs, leading to injuries over time.

Horses that have been injured will refuse to jump over any obstacle.

A horse can be made to jump over a ditch or fence that can be dangerous if the horse cannot see that there is a ditch on the other side or a drop of some kind (deep water, a sunken road, a falling away bank, etc.). This requires that the horse must make a dexterity check. The same is true of any situation where the horse has been made to jump something for which the rider is not prepared - remember, it is the rider's failure to prepare the horse for the jump that causes the injury. A jumping-trained horse is judged to have a dexterity of 2d4 +10.

Failure to succeed at a dexterity check will mean the horse suffers an injury of 4-14 hit points of damage and 1-6 injury points. If the hit point damage is 13-14 and the number of injury points suffered are 5-6, then the horse is made lame (though it can be cured with a restoration spell).

See Horseback Riding