Mounts

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Mounts are noble companions that can help you carry things, you can ride them and they can help to fight.

Currently the only mounts in the game are horses. Camels are not yet in the game, but they are in the help files as mounts, so they should come in later, on Thursday.

  • Horses as the first mounts were added on April 2, 2021.

Mount is also a command used to mount the various animal mounts.

For the wild animals, see Horse (Bestiary) and Camel (Bestiary).

For the skills, see Adventuring.movement.riding.horse and Adventuring.movement.riding.camel.

The latest horse changes can be found here: [1], also archived here.

The skillchecks for assessing and grooming horses are now affected by docility, like the others. If your horse has more than 60 docility, they will now be easier compared to before; if it has less, they will be harder.

Unlike priest minions, horses do not drain XP when used in combat.

Horse handling

Horses can be used for riding, carrying equipment, and combat.

To mount a horse, you need to learn the mount command from another player (needs 25 base levels in adventuring.movement.riding).

    • You do not need to be able to mount a horse to use it for carrying equipment, but you still need adventuring.movement.riding to lead it.

Horses provide a fast travel system using the ride command, traversing routes between locations they have been taught at much faster speed than normal travel.

    • Note however that, unlike magical & divine methods of travel, they do actually traverse the intervening space and the trip can be interrupted mid-way (e.g. due to the horse running out of stamina).
    • Horses can also be ridden or led through magic & divine portals, though they cannot remember routes that involve them.
    • This consumes stamina.

Riding locations need to be taught by riding your horse between places they remember (you can remember the destination when getting there).

  • You need to stay mounted while teaching a new route.
  • It might fail if it's too long, so you can put a remembered place in between.
  • With more intuition the horse can remember more locations and routes.
  • Locations learned by horses are case insensitive.
  • The list of locations in "ask my horse to remember" is alphabetized.
  • You can rename a learned location by redoing 'ask <horse> to learn location <location>' at the learnt location.

When mounted, you can also journey <direction>, this will automatically continue to journey in that direction every few seconds until you stop or it is no longer possible.

    • This does not consume stamina.

Horses can fight both alongside their owners and under their owners. The charge and storm commands are combat special attacks that can only be performed while mounted.

    • This consumes stamina.

There are many things you cannot do while mounted. Usually you can dismount, do those things, then mount again. However it is harder to mount while fighting in the same room.

Riding & leading a horse requires adventuring Guild Points. If you run out, it becomes likely that you'll be thrown from the horse, or that it will stop following you. This can also happen even with full GP if your riding skill is too low.

You need to get off your horse to pass through doors.

  • If you ride through a doorway (including portals) while mounted, you will be knocked off the horse and incur minor damage (~200 HP).
  • A riding skillcheck will then be performed to determine if you at least automatically start leading your horse.
  • If you do not, you will silently leave your horse behind (though at least on the exit side of the door / portal).
  • Note that if you have insufficient adventuring GP available, you will likely auto-fail the skillcheck.

You can follow along on a ride if both of you are mounted.

"Stash" and "retrieve" are used for getting things in and out of saddlebags/pack saddles that are equipped on your horse (respectively). This can be done covertly using "stash covert". Non-covert these use ad.mo.ri.ho. Covertly they use both riding and co.ma.passing (both skills confirmed by tms). These appear harder to do while mounted. Failure will result in being kicked, which does a significant amount of damage (protected by TPA).

Horses located in a different room can be summoned to the room you are in, either by playing a "cracked ocarina", or (after using the ocarina enough times), by simply "shout" or "lsay"ing the horse's name. The is checked against ad.mo.ri.ho and uses ad gp (confirmed by tm).

Dressing the horse uses the syntax "put <object> on horse". This is also checked against ad.mo.ri.ho.

Mounting, stash, and retrieve, dressing and undressing, and possibly lead all appear to be more difficult during combat.

How to obtain a mount

  • Horses can be purchased & rented from Prinscilla at the stable on King's Down (northern Ankh-Morpork).
  • You can only own one horse per character. You can sell your horse back to Prinscilla (at a much lower price eg. $75 for a healthy pony) and it will be immediately available for someone else to buy.
  • Default prices before haggling range between &&&&&&&&&+120000 A$300 and &&&&&&&&&+360000 A$900.
  • You can haggle (syntax haggle) to lower the price when buying a horse, this involves a people.trading.buying skill check. After the price has reduced you can accept or reject the offer.
  • Essential equipment (saddles, shoes, ever-stylish jodhpurs, etc) can be purchased around the corner from the King’s Down stable, in the Ridings Bit Shop on The Ridings (northern Ankh-Morpork).
    • You need some crafts.husbandry.animal.grooming to dress your horse.
    • You need to dress your horse yourself with equipment (like the important horseshoes) / clothing. The command is not available to others.
  • You can name your horse. name my horse as Your Horse Name Note the as bit.
    • The name works with a space.
    • If you're getting something like You cannot name a buckskin horse Buttercup. it means you did not put the as before the name.
    • For name already taken there might already be a player with the same name.
    • Anyone can see the name by looking at your horse.
    • You cannot put two saddles on one horse.
  • You can rent a horse. Syntax rent. Haggle with Prinscilla (until she won't lower the price anymore). Mine has cost 22.18 dollars (from 30 dollars she first asked), with level 25 in people.trade.buying and selling. I've been able to have the horse with me for about a week and then the horse dropped everything he was wearing/carrying and went back to Prinscilla. (Sorry, we need better testing with this. I just wanted to add that at the moment -it might change- we can rent a horse, but after a week the possibilities of rerenting/buying are not clear right now. Work in progress).

Stables & facilities

This table lists stables and horse equipment shops.

Area Location Stable? Facilities Horse supplies sold (unless otherwise noted all clothing are for horses)
Bes Pelargic Highe Redge Street, near the McSweeney estate Yes Horse supplies shop hay, oats, grooming kit, huge brown towel
Ankh-Morpork King's Down stable, 6 s,w from Deosil Gate Yes Horse dealer Prinscilla, Supplies in stable, Horsepital hay, oats, grooming kit, huge brown towel
Ankh-Morpork Ridings Bit Shop, on The Ridings, 2 east of King's Down & King's Way No Horse supplies iron horseshoes, Lancrastian saddle (riding), Genuan saddle (combat), pack saddle (transport stuff, no riding), pair of brown leather saddlebags (transport stuff behind saddle)
Ankh-Morpork sulphurous showroom, on the Street of Cunning Artificers near Bitwash Street (in front of the T-shop stop) No Horse supplies horse ball
Ankh-Morpork Emerald Necklace coaching inn, nw,w from Hubwards Gate Yes Supplies in stable, souvenirs shop, Eaterie hay, oats, grooming kit, huge brown towel,  stylish assassin costume This costume consists of a stylish black silk jumpsuit, complete with a balaclava (with little holes for your horse's ears), a belt of little wooden throwing knives, and just the tiniest hint of pink silk underwear near the tail. ,  pretty Pishite costume Ever been stuck without a Pishite when you need one? Now your horse can be a Pishite whenever you want, with this pretty sequinned blue and grey blanket embroidered with incense blocks and silver flails. Disclaimer: decorative purposes only. Does not confer powers of stasis, healing, or raising dead pets. ,  mighty wizard costume Has your horse ever wanted to be a mighty and powerful wizard? Probably not, but have you ever wanted your horse to be a mighty and powerful wizard? Well, this is your chance. This costume comes complete with a green velvet and vermine blanket and orange silk sash, proclaiming your horse to be a first-level wizard of the Venerable Council of Seers, a little pointy hat, and a fake beard. ,  neighgor costume This outfit consists of a kind of jumpsuit or onesie for your horse, made in a kind of patchwork fashion - the head and neck are a deep rich bay brown, but the chest is dapple grey with a chestnut patch over the heart. Two legs are black with white socks, but the off hind is a kind of yellow that might if you squint be intended as palomino, and the off fore is a splotchy skewbald. Lines of large, awkward black stitches hold the sections together, and more curve decoratively along the neck. ,  cheap skeleton costume This outfit consists of a kind of jumpsuit or onesie for your horse, made from cheap black cotton painted with white bones in the shape of something Mr Dibbler's supplier imagines to be a horse natomy. It comes complete with skeletal hooves and ears. ,  classic ghost costume This is a lovingly tailored costume so your horse can dress up as a ghost. It consists of a large white sheet which drapes down almost to the ground, with holes cut for the horse's eyes and ears. ,  scary witch costume Someone's been studying their boffo, because this costume is the image of a classic witch - pointy black hat, long black cloak, and little black button-up booties around the horse's hooves. A flimsy cardboard cutout in the shape of a broomstick hangs alongside their flank, and the fabric hood is a rather bilious green with a few dozen strategically applied warts. 
Ankh-Morpork Cattle Market stables, Chittling Street, south of Shades Yes Horse supplies shop hay, oats, grooming kit, huge brown towel
Djelibeybi Barracks on Ibis Parade Yes Horse supplies shop hay, oats, grooming kit, huge brown towel
Sto Lat The Palace Inn Stables, Wall Street, from intersection with Heritage Hill 2 e,s Yes Horse supplies shop, Eaterie, frog board hay, oats, grooming kit, huge brown towel
Nowhere Joe's Livery Stable, southwest of the crossroads Yes Horse supplies shop, Freesia the cow  horse This small piebald mare is patched in black and white like a cow, despite still being very much a horse. It's possible that the general air of dairy farming has pervaded Nowhere for long enough that even the one horse looks like a cow.

She is in good shape. She is standing. Freesia moos. 

hay, oats, grooming kit, huge brown towel
Bleak Prospect Stables, from southeast end nw,w,nw,w Yes Horse supplies shop hay, oats, grooming kit, huge brown towel
Genua Musketeers, east end of the courtyard Yes Horse supplies shop hay, oats, grooming kit, huge brown towel
Lancre Town feed merchant, north of Jason Ogg's smithy No Feed shop hay, oats
Ohulan-Cutash Lancre street, just east of the market Yes Horse supplies shop hay, oats, grooming kit, huge brown towel
Uberwald Harvest of Thorns, journey nw,w from Escrow's west exit Yes Horse supplies shop, Misc Shop, Eaterie, Bath, Water, Fire, Lemonery, Tannery, Wood workshop hay, oats, grooming kit, huge brown towel,  impeccable evening dress This outfit consists of a dramatic flowing black cloak with red lining, a martingale resembling a stylish tailcoat and shirt front, and two pairs of white spats. All in all, it will definitely make your horse look like an aristocrat of the night. ,  ridiculous werewolf costume This outfit consists of a kind of jumpsuit or onesie for your horse, the front half of which is sewn from fluffy grey rabbit fur and the rear half is sort of pinkish-beige wool, with a stiffened censor bar covering what on a real werewolf would be a morphologically indeterminate set of genitals. 
Ephebe Stables (3), in the outer part of the citadel, before the maze Yes None None
Tsortean Desert Lower Djel Trading Post, from Djelibeybi north across the Djel and then west Yes Eaterie, traders, shop None

Item information

Item Usage Weight Notes
 sacks of hay This burlap sack is the kind used for storing agricultural products. It looks like it could hold a pretty reasonable but not excessive amount of, say, grain. The medium-sized burlap sack is about half full with some hay. It is open. The medium-sized burlap sack is about two and a half feet long and about a foot and a half wide. It is made of jute and looks like you could hold it. It can hold about 17 pounds, or about fifty items.  Feed to mounts to increases fibre. +Expression error: Unrecognized word "lb". 11 2/9 lb 20 handfuls of hay, sack weighs 1/9 lb
 sack of oats This burlap sack is the kind used for storing agricultural products. It looks like it could hold a pretty reasonable but not excessive amount of, say, grain. The medium-sized burlap sack is about half full with some hay. It is open. The medium-sized burlap sack is about two and a half feet long and about a foot and a half wide. It is made of jute and looks like you could hold it. It can hold about 17 pounds, or about fifty items.  Feed to mounts to increases calories. +Expression error: Unrecognized word "lb". 11 2/9 lb 20 handfuls of oats, sack weighs 1/9 lb
 grooming kit This small canvas bag has little pouches with straps on the inside for keeping one's grooming implements safe and at hand. There are three pouches free. It could sheathe a grooming implement. The grooming kit contains: a grooming towel, a body brush, a face brush, a dandy brush, a curry comb, a hoof pick and a mane and tail comb.  Needed to groom. &&&&&+1700 1 8/9 Gets damaged when grooming. Need to fix / repair / mend the tools.
 huge brown towel This horse-sized cotton towel is fluffy and enormous, perfect for towelling off your horse after a run in the rain.  Dry a mount faster than regular-sized towels. +Expression error: Unrecognized word "lb". 2 lb
 iron horseshoes This is a set of four iron horseshoes, worn to protect the hooves of horses from damage.  Protects horse hooves when worn. +Expression error: Unrecognized word "lb". 1 7/9 lb
 Lancrastian saddle This saddle is designed in the Lancrastian style - heavily padded to provide comfort for both horse and rider during a long day of riding.  (riding) Slightly reduces stamina consumption from riding. +Expression error: Unrecognized word "lb". 7 lb
 Genuan saddle This saddle is designed in the Genuan style - relatively lightweight to give the rider more contact with the horse for better control in combat.  (combat) Slightly reduces stamina consumption from fighting. +Expression error: Unrecognized word "lb". 5 lb
 pack saddle Rather than a padded seat for a rider, this saddle is a wooden frame and assemblage of straps used for strapping cargo onto a horse. It looks like it could hold much more than a set of saddlebags, but you couldn't ride with it.  Transport big heavy things on the mount, but cannot ride. +Expression error: Unrecognized word "lb". 10 lb Allows your horse to be given or get things from the room to hold in its own inventory. You do not stash or retrieve onto a pack saddle.
 pair of brown leather saddlebags This simple but appealing pair of saddlebags is meant to be strapped over the back of a horse, behind any saddle it may be wearing, to allow it to carry things. The pair of brown leather saddlebags has one left pocket and one right pocket.  Transport stuff behind saddle. +Expression error: Unrecognized word "lb". 10 lb It can hold about 35 pounds, or about seventy items. Horse must have a saddle in order to dress with saddlebags, and the saddlebag must be in your own inventory. You cannot stash/retrieve from a held saddlebag, only a dressed one.
 huge rubber ball (horse ball) This deflated huge rubber ball would stand above waist height, far too large for most ball games. It smells vaguely like horses, however - perhaps a horse might get some use out of it. A round rubber handle sticks out from the top and a valve on the side allows it to be inflated.  Training aid to increase your mount's intuition. +Expression error: Unrecognized word "lb". 3 lb Other mounts will not touch it. Can be inflated and deflated.
 cracked ocarina This oval ceramic wind instrument looks rather old. At one point, a horse seems to have been carved into the side, but the details are worn away and the deeper etchings are caked black with years of dirt. A hairline crack curls around it, barely missing the horse carving's head.  Summon your horse from anywhere. +Expression error: Unrecognized word "lb". 5/9 lb You need to pass skillcheck(s) for your horse to come to you. Very rarely found on knights in Genua.
 velvet-cushioned saddle Solidly built and luxuriously padded with deep red velvet cushions, this saddle is basically a kind of equestrian armchair trimmed with white fur and glittering baubles.  Saddle with unknown effect.  research If this has been marked on a page, it's because there was something that probably isn't known, that the person who edited the page thinks could be found out. Perhaps you could figure this thing out, and be famous evermore.  +Expression error: Unrecognized word "lb". 7 lb From the Enraged giant Hogswatch tree.
 embroidered velvet saddlecloth Thick and plush, this red velvet saddlecloth has been embroidered all over with a scattering of glittering snowflakes and twinkling stars. The edges are trimmed with white fur, and a golden bauble hangs from each corner.  Underneath the saddle with unknown effects.  research If this has been marked on a page, it's because there was something that probably isn't known, that the person who edited the page thinks could be found out. Perhaps you could figure this thing out, and be famous evermore.  Does not affect cleanliness. +Expression error: Unrecognized word "lb". 3 lb From the Enraged giant Hogswatch tree.
 pair of winter wonderland saddlebags These saddlebags are made from sturdy leather, dyed a shimmering pale blue and decorated with little crystal icicles and snowflakes.  Transport stuff behind saddle. +Expression error: Unrecognized word "lb". 4 lb From the Enraged giant Hogswatch tree. It can hold about 35 pounds, or about seventy items.

Armour

See: Horse Armours

Upkeep

You need to dress, feed, and groom horses to keep them healthy & functional. If you are careless or inattentive, you will also need to get their ailments treated regularly.

Food
  • Basic feed (hay & oats) are available for purchase in the King’s Down stable. Horses have also been known to eat other things, if offered them.
  • Feeding hay raises +20% fibre for one handful of hay. If this raises fibre above 100%, nothing wrong seems to happen.
  • Feeding oats raises +20% calories and +5% fibre for one handful of oats. If this raises calories above 100%, then it becomes overweight.
  • Feeding sugar lumps (cubes) raise calories, about 10% for 20 lumps, but it inflicts the illness toothache after around 40 lumps.
  • Feeding an apple raises fibre by 12% and calories by 3%. It also inflicts between 1% and 2% toothache. Lastly, it increases docility by +5 for about 500 seconds.
  • Horses lose 46% fibre per hour at a constant rate. They do not lose calories unless they take actions that deplete stamina, like combat.
Grooming
  • Your mount needs to be groomed regularly to prevent skin lice.
  • You need a grooming kit. Having the tools in component pouches does not work.
  • The tools in the grooming kit lose condition as they are used. You can repair the brushes, fix the combs & pick and sew the towel. Or just buy another one, they're cheap.
  • Grooming your horses is easier with high docility and harder with low docility, especially below 60.
  • Horses lose 7.5% cleanliness per hour at a constant rate.
  • Grooming costs 50 gp, takes 2 minutes and 22 seconds, and must be fully completed in order to restore your mount's cleanliness. Stopping partway through results in no cleanliness increase.
Illnesses
  • See the #Illnesses section for details.
  • Witches can treat most diseases using turpentine. Witches can fly to you as long as you're outside and not in no-fly zones.
  • There is a horsespital in the south corner of the King’s Down stable, where Doughnut Jimmy offers treatment for ill horses, except for Resurrection sickness. Typically this costs &&&&&&&&&&+20000 A$50 to &&&&&&&&&&+24000 A$60.
  • Horses must be properly shoed, otherwise they will rapidly become injured (cracked hooves).
    • Camels will not require shoes, per the help files, though there is currently no known way to rent or buy a camel mount.
Hit points
  • Horses have finite hit points, and just like players & NPCs their current HP level can be evaluated using the health command.
  • Horses may be healed using most normal means, such as rituals (e.g. Cure Light Wounds) and bandages.
Knowing what's wrong

Since you cannot really ascertain the status, needs, & diseases of your horse until you can assess them successfully, it is recommended you do not buy a horse before developing substantial bonuses in the relevant skills:

  • adventuring.movement.riding.horse at least a bonus of 190 (for very high docility horse) or more like 250 (for a high docility horse), used to assess traits and to reliably lead your horse. Possibly higher if you wish to ride the horse frequently.
  • crafts.husbandry.animal.grooming to assess needs, no matter what uses your are looking for, at least a 215 bonus.
  • crafts.medicine.diagnosis to assess health, strongly recommended in order to detect diseases early, to minimise expense and inconvenience. (210 bonus gives around 20% success rate)
  • fighting.special.mounted to ride the mount into combat and increase your mount's fighting skills.

See the Assess section for more details.

You can practice on any horses you find, such as those sold by Prinscilla. You can use assess on all mounts in the room (assess mounts).

Without sufficient skills, you're unlikely to be able to care for your horse. It will become at first disobedient (walking off on its own, and refusing to follow you or let you ride it) and then ill, eventually leading to the death of the horse. At the very least it will require frequent trips to the horsepital, at significant expense.

Note: horses emit room chats that seem like they might be conveying its needs, such as that their tummy rumbles or they poke around at you for food, but they can be difficult to interpret (and it’s not yet proven that these horse emotes are actually conveying the horse’s needs, it could for example be indicating that the environment of the horse is likely to increase some disease).

Stabling a horse will slowly restore their fibre and calories at a rate of about 35% per hour. It will pause and NOT restore their cleanliness. Stabling costs $1 per hour logged on.

Needs

To be healthy, a horse needs certain things. You can see most of those things with assess <mount> needs.

  • Burden: Must not be too high from stuff on the horse.
  • Fibre: Feed hay, but not too much or it could become sick.
  • Calories: Feed oats, but not too much or it could become sick.
  • Cleanliness: Groom the horse to keep this up.
  • Stamina: Regenerates over time. (sickness probably reduces this)

Illnesses

Illnesses reduce the traits of the mount until it is treated.

  • This often reduces docility, doing anything to the horse including treat becomes harder.

Most diseases can be treated by Treat or the horse doctor at the Horsepital in the stable on King's Down, Ankh-Morpork.

See the notes below the table for more information.

Disease Cause Cured by Not cured by
Overweight Feeding too much oats. Feeding too much hay does not seem to do anything. Treat, Diet (let calories fall to 50%)
Toothache Feeding too much sugar lumps or feeding an apple. Treat, waiting a bit
Colic Allowing fibre to reach zero Treat, feed with hay until fibre is greater than 50
Malnutrition Probably not enough calories. Treat, feed properly with oats
Skin lice Allowing grooming to reach zero Treat, groom and keep well groomed
Pneumonia Wet + cold for too long? There's now a big towel sold at the stable to dry horses. Treat, keep warm and dry but can take a long time
Cracked hooves Lack of iron horseshoes. Treat, Time (not walking)
Concussion Using retro command at a stable. Treat, Time (wait ~5 mins for -3 to -2 and ~10 mins for -2 to normal)
Exhaustion Stamina at 0? Wait NOT cured by Treat.
Resurrection sickness (Dead) ghost horse returned to corporeality. Pale horse's balm or very slowly over time Treat, horse doctor, Soothing Rain, Restore.
Broken legs Horse in the Flight room, falling from high places, Angua Treat, Splint

Broken legs:

  • Doesn't show in assess health, it's visible as a line in the long description: He has broken his left and right legs.

Toothache:

  • Feeding an apple gave 1% toothache, feeding another apple put it at 3%, but after a couple of minutes it went away on its own.

Pneumonia:

  • After riding, it is important to rub your mount dry with a towel so that it does not get pneumonia. (from mount riding help file)
  • There's a big towel sold at the stables to dry horses.
  • The rate at which pneumonia progresses has been tweaked. (from horse changes)
  • Horses will now be dried off by the blessing of Fish after passing through His passage room. Additionally, they will not get pneumonia until they leave the water. (from horse changes)

Resurrection sickness:

  • The horse recovers progressively very slowly over time.
  • It took between ~2.5 and 3 hours to be fully cured but improvement is gradual.
  • Pale horse's balm has to be purchased from the T-shop, which means it is very difficult or very expensive to obtain.

Death

Unfortunately mounts can meet the grim Reaper.

When you're not in the same room, you'll see:

 The ghost of a bay horse drifts in mournfully.

Ghost horses will still follow you around until you get them into more corporeal form.

  • Find corpse cannot be perfomed on horses
  • You can get your horse raised in a stable.
  • You can also ask a priest to perform one of Raise dead or Resurrect rituals on the ghost horse.
  • After returning to life it will have Resurrection sickness. If the horse was returned using Raise dead or a stable, the sickness will result in -9 to all stat points. If the horse was returned using Resurrect, then the sickness will only result in -4 to all stat points.
  • The Raise Dead Pet ritual does not work on the ghost nor on the player for mounts.

Otherwise you can try to sell your dead mount, but that's unlikely to give you much money in return.

  • Dead horses will now be taken by Death immediately after being sold, to prevent shenanigans.

Traits

There are five traits:

  • Vitality determines the stamina of the horse. Stamina is consumed during fast travel, regular travel while burdened, and combat - if it runs out, the horse may stop mid-travel, or be less effective in combat.
    • Stamina is not consumed during unburdened regular room-by-room travel (including journeying in terrain using “journey <direction>”).
  • Docility determines how easy the horse is to use (i.e. adjusts the skillchecks up or down).
    • At least one player has reported that docility lowered and another trait increased while doing things with a horse. This made doing everything harder and the player could no longer ride their horse.
    • You can visit a stable to 'retro' your mount to be more docile, adding to docility and reducing another trait, or less docile, reducing docility and increasing another trait.
  • Speed determines how much the horse can carry, how quickly it travels, and how far it can travel before becoming exhausted (in concert with vitality - faster horses cover more distance per unit of stamina).
  • Strength determines the horse’s effectiveness in combat (in combination with your fighting.special.mounted), and how much it can carry.
  • Intuition determines how many routes & places the horse can remember, and how engaged it can be in combat (from weakly fighting beside you at low intuition, to being a powerful warhorse upon which you trample your enemies, at high intuition).
    • A riding skillcheck opposed by the (inverse of the) horse's intuition is required to engage the horse in combat (and perform specials like charge and storm).
    • Riding in combat confers a "significant height advantage" over foes, according to help mount fighting. Attacks tend to be aimed at opponents' upper bodies, such as their chest, arms, and head. It's unknown if there are additional benefits to this height advantage  research If this has been marked on a page, it's because there was something that probably isn't known, that the person who edited the page thinks could be found out. Perhaps you could figure this thing out, and be famous evermore. .
    • At 60 intuition and above, the rider will get slightly increased attack speed, and both rider and mount will get a chance to avoid some attacks
      The scruffy shopper kicks out at you but the attack goes wide due to the blood bay horse's movements.
      The flustered civil servant kicks out at the blood bay horse but the attack goes wide due to the blood bay horse's movements.
    • At 80(? seen at 81) intuition and above, the mount will sometimes perform a charge attack of its own, knocking the victim to the floor, and possibly going on to trample them too.
      The liver chestnut horse charges at the tricky monk, knocking him to the ground with a lash of her hooves.
      Before the tricky monk can get up, the liver chestnut horse tramples over him with her hooves.
    • Any ailments of the horse - including simply exhaustion (low stamina) - reduce its effective intuition, potentially making the horse unexpectedly unwilling to fight.
    • Horses roll to trample opponents every round.
    • If your horse is attacked and set to assist you, you will assist your horse automatically (regardless of its intuition).

Thus while vitality & docility apply universally, only two of the other three matter for each of the horse’s three uses:

  • Speed and strength are important for carrying.
  • Speed and intuition are important for riding / fast travel.
  • Strength and intuition are important for combat.

Adjusting traits

Horses’ traits change only through use, or (in a limited fashion) through using retro command at a stable.

  • For a change through exercise to occur the horse needs to have exercised enough, for example fought a couple of opponents, this is indicated when you see ++ and -- with accurate assess traits.
  • Trait change through exercise seems to only happen a roundworld hour of playing after the last change.

Horses have a fixed amount of points to spread amongst the five traits (similar to the 65 point system for player stats).

  • Increasing one trait requires taking points from another trait. Thus if you e.g. take a horse bred for riding, and use it instead mostly in combat, it will over time increase its strength trait at expense of its speed trait (potentially among others) until reaching the trait limit for the breed.
  • The less expensive, high docility horse breeds have 220 trait points.
  • The more expensive, decent docility horse breeds have 230 trait points.
The dapple grey horse puffs a breath out of her nose and gazes at you.  Somehow, you can tell that she has more strength and less intuition now.

Using retro at a stable can adjust only the horse's docility trait directly, lowering it - and thus adding a point into one of the other four traits - or increasing it (by reducing one of the other four traits). Consequently, your riding skill is crucial in determining the ultimate capabilities of your horse, as a higher riding skill allows you to work with less docile horses, freeing up trait points from docility to be spent elsewhere.

Each use of the retro command at a stable moves 1-5  research If this has been marked on a page, it's because there was something that probably isn't known, that the person who edited the page thinks could be found out. Perhaps you could figure this thing out, and be famous evermore.  trait points, and costs &&&&&&&&&&&&+200 A$0.50. It results in a concussion to the horse (or, if the horse is already concussed, increases the severity by approximately 13 percentage points - repeated concussions may cause the horse to turn ghostly). Horsepitals & witches can treat concussions.

  • Furthermore, you can only retro a limited amount of docility into the other traits. The breeds that naturally have high docility cannot have it lowered as low as horses that naturally have decent docility.
  • There are no known stat modifiers for horses. Bless, for example, gives the appearance of succeeding but has no actual effect.

Temporary trait effects

There are temporarily changes to horse traits that apply bonuses or penalties, similar to stat effects for other characters.

Traits are (temporarily) reduced while a horse is sick. The most obvious manifestation of this is increased difficulty getting the horse to do what you want (i.e. reduced docility).

Feeding an apple to a horse increases its docility by 5 for about 500 seconds (8 minutes, 20 seconds).

Using warpaint on a horse increases its intuition and strength by 5.

Breeds

The following table uses the information from the breed that can be seen by looking at the mount.

By default, the table is sorted by putting at the top the breeds with higher docility, then the breeds with more poor skills, then those with less poor skills.

Sum
of
traits
Breed Carrying
Suitability
Riding
Suitability
Combat
Suitability
Vitality Speed Intuition Strength Docility Price range (before haggling)
215 April foal poor poor poor 3high 1poor 1poor 1poor 3high &&&&&&&&&&+47624 A$119.06
220 Pseudopolis pony poor poor poor 3high 1poor 1poor 1poor 3high &&&&&&&&&+120000 A$300
220 Pumpkin pony poor 1poor 1poor 3high 1poor 3high &&&&&&&&&+120000 A$300
220 Copperhead mining pony poor 2decent 1poor 2decent 1poor 3high &&&&&&&&&+120000 A$300
220 Llamedos pony poor 2decent 1poor 1poor 2decent 3high &&&&&&&&&+120000 A$300
220 Chalk pony decent 1poor 2decent 1poor 2decent 3high &&&&&&&&&+120000 A$300
220 D'reg warpony decent 1poor 1poor 2decent 2decent 3high &&&&&&&&&+120000 A$300
230 Tsortean horse poor 3high 1poor 1poor 2decent 2decent &&&&&&&&&+380976 A$952.44
230 Hillshire horse poor 2decent 1poor 1poor 3high 2decent &&&&&&&&&+380976 A$952.44
230 Ephebian horse poor 3high 1poor 2decent 1poor 2decent &&&&&&&&&+380976 A$952.44
230 Sum Dim horse poor 3high 2decent 1poor 1poor 2decent &&&&&&&&&+380976 A$952.44
230 Morporkian puller poor 2decent 3high 1poor 1poor 2decent &&&&&&&&&+380976 A$952.44
230 Sto Plains charger high 1poor 1poor 2decent 3high 2decent &&&&&&&&&+380976 A$952.44
230 Munz charger high 1poor 1poor 3high 2decent 2decent &&&&&&&&&+380976 A$952.44
230 Il Drim dreamhorse high 1poor 3high 2decent 1poor 2decent &&&&&&&&&+380976 A$952.44
230 Hunghungese golden horse high 1poor 2decent 3high 1poor 2decent &&&&&&&&&+380976 A$952.44
230 Bad Ass horse decent 2decent 2decent 2decent 1poor 2decent &&&&&&&&&+380976 A$952.44
230 Al-Khalian horse decent 2decent 2decent 1poor 2decent 2decent &&&&&&&&&+380976 A$952.44
Sum
of
traits
Breed Carrying Suitability Riding Suitability Combat Suitability Vitality Speed Intuition Strength Docility Price range (before haggling)

While there are only three trait categories shown connected to each breed when looking at horses, the traits actually have numeric values that are much more detailed.

  • The mount fighting help file refers to the levels: basic, low, moderate and high, but those do not seem to correspond to the look breed levels. It does fit to vague assess values, with basic = very low.

Trait limits

The breed's known trait categories are used for more than the starting traits. There are limits to which you can modify each trait according to the breed trait category.

There limits prevent you from changing docility with retro as well as trait changes due to doing activities with your mount.

The high docility breeds are called ponies. They have a total of 220 trait points. Their trait limits are:

  • High - stay within a minimum of 60 and a maximum of 100.
  • Decent - stay within a minimum of 30 and a maximum of 70.
  • Poor - stay within a minimum of 0 and a maximum of 40.

The decent docility breeds are called horses, pullers or chargers. They have a total of 230 trait points. Their trait limits are:

  • High - stay above or at a minimum of 62. (Maximum to be determined.)
  • Decent - stay within a minimum of 32 and a maximum of 72.
  • Poor - stay within a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 42.

Once a trait is at its minimum, it will not schedule a change to lower it. Same thing for a trait at its maximum, it will not schedule a change to increase it.


Theoretical example Morporkian puller (decent docility - 230 trait points):

This brindle mare's copper brown coat has faint yellow stripe-like markings across her body and legs.  She is of the Morporkian puller breed, which is known for high speed, decent vitality and docility and poor intuition and strength.

It has the following starting traits, which are within 1/3 of the 0-100 range, according to the categories of its traits.

The brindle horse (Morporkian puller):
  Vitality .................. 54 (decent)
  Speed ..................... 78 (high)
  Intuition ................. 21 (poor)
  Strength .................. 19 (poor)
  Docility .................. 58 (decent)

It also has maximum and minimum based on its known trait categories.

  • Vitality (decent) stays within a minimum of 32 and a maximum of 72.
  • Speed (high) stays above or at a minimum of 62.
  • Intuition (poor) stays within a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 42.
  • Strength (poor) stays within a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 42.
  • Docility (decent) stays within a minimum of 32 and a maximum of 72.

If you retro the Morporkian puller's docility to 52 and do lots of combat, then it will eventually reach this state:

The brindle horse:
  Vitality .................. 32 (decent - at minimim)
  Speed ..................... 62 (high - at minimum)
  Intuition ................. 42 (poor - at maximum)
  Strength .................. 42 (poor - at maximum)
  Docility .................. 52 (decent)
  • If you retro the horse to have higher docility, then the points for it will be taken from the traits that are not at their minimum.
  • Conversely, if you retro the horse to have lower docility, then some of the traits that are not at their maximum will increase.

Another (real this time) example with a Bad Ass horse (decent docility - 230 trait points):

Frazyl's Hon the bay dun gelding's coat is a creamy tan all over with a black mane and tail and faint black striped markings on its legs.  It is of the Bad Ass horse breed, which is known for decent vitality, speed, intuition and docility and poor strength.

Frazyl's Hon the bay dun horse (Bad Ass horse):
  Vitality .................. 32 (decent - at minimum)
  Speed ..................... 32 (decent - at minimum)
  Intuition ................. 72 (decent - at maximum)
  Strength .................. 31 (poor, near maximum)
  Docility .................. 63 (decent)
  • Even when doing mounted combat, strength does not increase, even though it is not yet at the maximum, because vitality and speed are at their minimum, docility does not decrease when performing activities [*] and intuition is also used in combat, so it does not decrease. To increaes strength further one would have to lower docility to have more points available or lower intuition.
  • Even when using the horse ball intuition does not increase, even when vitality and speed were higher, because it is already at the maximum.

[*] There was a report that docility did lower when doing activities. It might have been a bug. Cannot reproduce.

Appearance Colour

The types of horses are mare (her), gelding (it/its) and stallion (him/his).

<type> <pronoun> <possessive>
mare her her
gelding it its
stallion him his
Colour Description
bay This bay <type> has a chocolate brown body with a black muzzle, eartips, mane, legs and tail, like the markings of a fox.
bay dun This bay dun <type>'s coat is a creamy tan all over with a black mane and tail and faint black striped markings on <possessive> legs.
black While called black, this black <type>'s coat is actually a deep, dark brown, bleached by exposure to the sun.
blood bay This blood bay <type> has a rich red body with a black muzzle, eartips, mane, legs and tail, like the markings of a fox.
blue roan This blue roan <type>'s deep brown, almost black, coat is intermixed with a speckling of white hairs around <possessive> body, giving <pronoun> a silvery brown appearance.
brindle This brindle <type>'s copper brown coat has faint yellow stripe-like markings across <possessive> body and legs.
brown This brown <type> has a dark brown body with a black muzzle, eartips, mane, legs and tail, like the markings of a fox.
buckskin This buckskin <type>'s coat is a cream yellow all over with a black mane and tail.
chestnut This chestnut <type>'s coat is a coppery brown all over with a slightly lighter shade on <possessive> mane and tail.
dapple grey This dapple grey <type>'s copper brown coat is dappled with starry white spots around <possessive> body and legs.
dark This dark <type> has a deep brown, almost black coat with white "socks" on <possessive> feet and white markings around <possessive> muzzle.
dun This dun <type>'s coat is a creamy tan all over with a slightly darker shade on <possessive> mane and tail and faint striped markings on <possessive> legs.
grey While called grey, this grey <type> is actually what most people would call a white horse. However, <possessive> skin under the white coat, visible around <possessive> eyes and muzzle, is black.
piebald This piebald <type> has a deep brown, almost black coat with large white patches around <possessive> body and legs.
liver chestnut This liver chestnut <type> is a dark brown all over with a slightly lighter shade on <possessive> mane and tail.
red roan This red roan <type>'s copper brown coat is intermixed with a speckling of white hairs around <possessive> body, giving <pronoun> a silvery brown appearance.
rose grey This rose grey <type> has a grey coat with a slight pinkish tinge and a mane and tail in a dark shade of chocolate brown.
skewbald This skewbald <type> has a chocolate brown coat with large white patches around <possessive> body and legs.
sorrel This sorrel <type>'s coat is a reddish tan all over with a slightly lighter shade on <possessive> mane and tail.

Assess

GP cost: 25 gp.

  • Each additional target uses 25 gp.
  • The type of gp used is the same as the skill, crafts gp for needs & health, adventuring gp for traits.
  • If you are out of GP, then you can still get good results if you have enough skill to always succeed for that type of assess.
  • Assess is easier with high docility and harder with low docility, especially below 60.
  • Sick horses have lower traits, lower docility makes assessing them harder.
  • All the tiers of assess moved result down by one rank - if you could get a vague result before, you will be able to get a semi-vague result now, and if you could get a semi-vague result you will now get an accurate one. It is now impossible to get the unknown result, regardless of how ferocious your horse is.

Vague results

The values in numbers format (e.g. 10) in the table also apply to percentages (e.g. 10%).

Value Range Name Used in assess <type> Comment
? Beyond maximum traits
? Maximum traits
100% Full needs
80 - 99 Very high all
60 - 79 High all
40 - 59 Moderate all
20 - 39 Low all
1 - 19 Very low all
0% Empty needs
0 None traits
... -1 Negative traits Below zero

Values to be determined: negative in traits, 100 in traits, Maximum in traits, Beyond Maximum in traits   research If this has been marked on a page, it's because there was something that probably isn't known, that the person who edited the page thinks could be found out. Perhaps you could figure this thing out, and be famous evermore. 

Semi-vague results

What's shown is basically the rounded up value.

Value Range Shown Comment
105-114 ~110
95-104 ~100
85-99 ~90
75-94 ~80
65-84 ~70
55-74 ~60
45-64 ~50
35-54 ~40
25-34 ~30
15-24 ~20
5-14 ~10
(-5)-4 ~0

Assess needs

Assess needs uses crafts.husbandry.animal.grooming (confirmed by tm)

  • For 60 docility, getting a semi-vague result starts around a 215 bonus.
  • For 60 docility, getting an accurate result succeeds with a 276 bonus without gp.
  • For "low" docility, a 299 bonus is not enough to see above vague.
  • For "low" docility, a 329 bonus is enough to always see semi-vague result, but not accurate results.

Vague result (if you fail)

The sorrel horse:
  Burden ..................... Empty
  Fibre ................... Very low
  Calories ............... Very high
  Cleanliness ................. High
  Stamina .................... Empty

Semi-vague result

The dark horse:
  Burden ....................... ~0%
  Fibre ....................... ~90%
  Calories ................... ~100%
  Cleanliness ................. ~90%
  Stamina .................... ~100%

Accurate result

The liver chestnut horse:
  Burden ........................ 0%
  Fibre ........................ 89%
  Calories ..................... 50%
  Cleanliness .................. 65%
  Stamina ...................... 20%

Assess health

Assess health uses Crafts.medicine.diagnosis (confirmed by tm)

  • For 60 docility a 210 bonus gives 9/44 ~20% success rate to see semi-vague, a 226 bonus always works.
  • For 71-76 docility, a 273-289 bonus usually succeeds to see accurate results, but returns semi-vague results without enough gp.
  • For "low" docility, A 294 bonus is not enough to see accurate semi-vague results.

Vague result (if you fail)

The dark horse:
  She is in good health.

The bay horse:
  It has the following illnesses:
  - Overweight

Semi-vague result

The dun horse:
  He is in good health.
The brindle horse:
  He has the following illnesses:
  - Concussion ................... Low
The red roan horse:
  He has the following illnesses:
  - Concussion .............. Very low
The rose grey horse:
  He is in good health.
The red roan horse:
  She has the following illnesses:
  - Concussion ................... Low
  - Malnutrition ............ Very low

Accurate result

 The dark horse:
 She is in good health.
 The liver chestnut horse:
 She has the following illnesses:
 - Colic ........................ 20%
 - Skin lice .................... 20%
 The blood bay horse:
 It has the following illnesses:
 - Pneumonia .................... 23%
 The bay dun horse:
 She has the following illnesses:
 - Cracked hooves ............... 18%
 The buckskin horse:
 She has the following illnesses:
 - Toothache .................... 18%
 - Malnutrition ................. 17%

Assess traits

Assess traits uses Adventuring.movement.riding.horse (confirmed by tm)

  • With a 243 bonus you can always see at least semi-vague results and often accurate results for horses with 71 or more docility, but fails all the time for horse with "low" docility.
  • For horses of "low" docility, more than a 277 bonus is required to see accurate results.

Vague result (if you fail)

The red roan horse:
  Vitality ............. Very high
  Speed ................ Very low
  Intuition ............ Very low
  Strength ............. Very low
  Docility ............. Very high

Semi-vague result

The blue roan horse:
  Vitality ................. ~20
  Speed .................... ~50
  Intuition ................. ~0
  Strength ................. ~50
  Docility ................. ~90

Accurate result

Horsey McHorseface the bay dun horse:
  Vitality .................. 38 (-2)
  Speed ...................... 1 (-2) --
  Intuition ................. 40 (-2)
  Strength .................. 53 (-2) ++
  Docility .................. 78 (-2)

The numbers in parenthesis show the temporary modifiers that are in effect, usually from diseases (in the above example, a mild concussion from recently being retro'd).

  • This is similar to how score stats show temporary modifiers for player stats.
  • In the above example, vitality is going to be 40 when the concussion is treated.
  • In the example the -- indicates that the next stat change will include a decrease from speed and the ++ an increase for strength. (This can change via exercise before the stat change occurs.)

Help files

Discworld object help: Horse Dealer

Discworld object help: Mount

Discworld object help: Mount Fighting

Discworld object help: Mount Riding

Discworld object help: Mount Carrying

Discworld object help: Horse Doctor

Discworld room help: Stable

See also