Horse Physiology (sage ability)
Horse Physiology is an authority status sage ability similar to the study animal physiology, except that it only allow for the maintenance and restoration of health in horses. The character is gifted with knowledge in the following:
- Aid rest: improves the restoration of hit points lost to horses that have rested. Up to one horse can be aided per 5 knowledge points possessed by the character. Thus a character with 37 points could help up to 7 horses. Each horse attended with this skill will heal as though possessing 2 hit dice higher, with an increase of 2 additional hit points healed per day of rest.
- Binding the wounds of a horse more efficiently; if the binding is done carefully, in three rounds, the character can restore 1 hit point of damage that was caused by the wound before binding.
- Diagnose & treat horse-borne diseases.
- Limbering a horse after it has become physically exhausted. This includes doubling the horse's die, intermittently rubbing its muscles over a 24-hour period and treating the horses' tendons over that time.
These skills cannot be applied to animals or humanoids other than horses, though they resemble sage abilities related to animal physiology. To some extent the character can apply their horse-knowledge to centaurs, hippocampi, hippogriffs and pegasi.
Horse doctoring should be treated as more of an art than a science, given that veterinary practices of the 17th century would reflect traditional practices rather than the experimentation and examination of later centuries. In some ways, understanding has been expanded through druidic practices, which would have been part of training for those classes who have acquired the sage ability. We may freely imagine that persons in this environment have fantastical knowledge that would permit excellent treatment of these animals.
See Horseback Riding
