Horse Breeding (sage ability)

Horse breeding is an expert-status sage ability that enables skill in selective breeding of horses. The study incorporates methods by which specially desired characteristics of domesticated horses are enhanced through their offspring. The ability also grants superior skills in ensuring a healthy pregnancy and successful foaling.

The character is able to recognize the pedigree of horses upon examination, determining with sight and skill those characteristics that make a specific horse a good candidate for breeding. This knowledge is then applied when inducing a stallion and a mare to mate and reproduce — not only so that their pre-existing traits can be shared by the offspring, but also to ensure the highest possible chance of a giving pairing producing a positive-mutation.

Pedigree

For game purposes, a simplified method is used for the pedigree of horses. Each horse is scaled according to its health, robustness, speed, courage and fertility. Health registers the resistance of the animal to disease and fatigue; robustness, the overall strength and endurance of the horse as a working animal; speed, its value as a racehorse; courage, its temperament when exposed to combat; and fertility, the ease with which it procreates and the chances of a positive mutation.

All horses, wild or domestic, already have specific characteristics relating to their type. These types are the result of thousands of years of breeding; any horse, therefore, is compared by its pedigree. Thus, a workhorse is bred primarily for robustness and health, while warhorses are bred for courage, and to a lesser extent, speed.

Rolling Characteristics

Each of the five characteristics above is rolled for on 4d6, the average of which is 14. These numbers are not applicable from one breed of horse to another. A "warhorse" with a speed of 14 is NOT as fast as a racehorse with a speed of 14. A typical warhorse is much slower than a typical racehorse; therefore, speed and other characteristics aren't applicable from one breed to another.

Each point above or below 14 indicates a 1% adjustment from the "average" health, robustness and so on of that breed.

For example, a pony with a health of 12 would be 2% less resistant to disease than a pony with a health of 14. A pony with a 16 robustness would be able to haul a 2% greater load with regards to encumbrance. A pony with a 16 speed would be 2% faster; one with a 16 courage would have its morale improved by 2%; and one with a fertility of 16 would be 2% more likely to reproduce and 2% more likely to produce a mutation in its offspring.

This seems a minor adjustment — yet when applied to millions of domestic horses, slight improvements give the ability to win races, survive a fight or produce new and more robust and healthy breeds entirely. This is how wild, lean horses were eventually bred to be heavy, strong-boned warhorses.

Mating

The formula enables the creation of a wide distribution of unusual horses, potentially adjusting a horse's price or giving a tremendous credence as to why persons might sincerely treasure their beloved mounts. Breeding is therefore easily managed in game terms, since it's presumed the horse breeder is fully aware of the horse's pedigree as described above. Therefore, the stallion and mare are selected, with the resultant offspring randomly assuming the pedigree of one horse or the other. The mutation for the offspring is rolled on a percentile die; if the mutation occurs, then the highest two pedigree characteristics of the offspring will be raised by 1-2 points. If more than two pedigrees show as the highest number, a random roll determines which two are raised.

If "00" is rolled on the mutation die, then the mutation is negative. If so, two random pedigree characteristics, regardless of importance, are each lowered by 1 point.

Obviously, the bloodlines of stallions and mares must be kept clean. Second cousins increase the chance of a negative mutation to 10%; first cousins, to 20%; and between siblings or direct ancestors, to 40%. Normally, horses won't mate willingly with their siblings and direct ancestors.

Example

A male stallion with 18 health, 15 robustness, 9 speed, 10 courage and 16 fertility is mated with a female mare whose like characteristics are 16h, 10r, 10s, 16c and 18f. We roll a 50% chance for each to determine the dominant partner in each characteristic, and find the dominant is the female, male, male, female, female. Thus, the offspring's characteristics are 16h, 15r, 9s, 16c and 18f — which, rolling randomly, chances to be markedly better than both parents.

The total chance of a mutation is 6% — 2% from the male and 4% from the female, based on their initial fertility. In this case, if a successful mutation occurs, the offspring's fertility would be improved by 1-2 points; and likewise with either the offspring's health or courage (random 50% chance of each). If a negative mutation is rolled, two random characteristics lose a point each.

The chance of a negative mutation is made lower than a positive because it's assumed poorly bred horses have been consistently culled from the breeding pool for millennia (and, with the help of magic, better than was done in human history).

Purchasing

If a horse is not purchased in a market, or if the number of horse references in a given market is less than 1, then the pedigree of a horse is rolled upon 4d6 without adjustments. For every full reference point, add +1 to the total rolled for each pedigree characteristic. Thus, if a given market were to have 4 or more reference points for horses, the average pedigree for each characteristic would be 4 pts. above normal. This assumes that the number of horses, and the ability of the character to discern good horses from poor, enables the character to find the better horses among the much larger population. For any other unskilled person purchasing horses in a larger market, the pedigree of the horse is not given this bonus.

A horse breeder will be able to examine the horse and know in advance the quality of what is being bought. It can then be decided if the purchase is desirable. Unless the seller is also a horse breeder, it is likely that the character will have some trouble haggling over the price, though this remains possible through role-play. A non-horse breeder will, if encouraged, drop their price at least 5% if the buyer is obviously a horsebreeder and the overall pedigree of the horse is less than 70 pts. combined.

Horse breeders can be commissioned to buy better horses, if others wish to spend a 10% fee over the value of the horse.

The very best horses are purchased at auction.

Bloodlines

Numerous horse breeds already exist, possessing a standardized pedigree that could be established through the list above. I have no specific intention of doing so, unless it is needed for a specific campaign I'm running. However, it is imaginably possible that characters, through true-breeding characteristics over a number of generations (where the stallion and mare have interchangeable characteristics so that it matters little from which the offspring takes its pedigree), could establish a unique or semi-unique bloodline. In which case, it would be sensible to establish specific coat colors and distinctive markings as the bloodline is established. This could probably be done ad hoc, with the player's input, since it would have little game effect.

See Horseback Riding