Automaton Horses: Difference between revisions

** And about as smart as an 8-year-old IIRC (the horse, that is). Which makes iT creepy that we find out later that the people of the future have bio-engineered {{spoiler|human versions which are more or less used as sexual playthings. Conrad winds up with at least one of them, with some implications that even if they're not terribly intelligent, they're more intelligent than their creators thought. And smart enough to hide being that smart.}}

* [[Justified Trope|Justified/played straight]] in ''[[House of the Scorpion]]''. The horses Matt and Tam Lin ride the most often are "eejit horses" - brain-dead horses controlled by verbal commands who can be ridden and overworked to a very high degree. They needed water and/or food, and to rest, but otherwise were Automaton Horses [[Playing with a Trope|played straight]]. Real horses, however, were different.

* The Ring Of Fire (''[[1632]]'') series by Eric Flint et al. uses this one. Although most up-timers' ineptitude with riding and horses in general is constantly mentioned, horses are STILL treated as if they are sort of like motorbikes, even by characters who should know better. However, since the series encourages fanfiction and fanon, this isn't always consistent.

** Interestingly enough, in one of the Grantville Gazette supplements, this is acknowledged, and then possibly [[Justified Trope|justified]] by saying that the horses today are [[Take That|crap]] by the standard of the seventeenth century.

Most fantasy [[Tabletop Games]]. A horse can swim the river with its owner, venture to the 10th floor of the dungeon and climb trees. The inability of horses to do those sort of things leads to player characters who should have horses instead staggering across the countryside on their own two feet.

* Most players ignore these problems in their enthusiasm to play centaurs, forgetting that "half horse" comes with that half's attendant upkeep and maneuvering problems. Just try to imagine a centaur going downstairs ''forward'', and being comfortable to boot. Riiiiiiiiiiiiight.

** The problems with maintaining horses and leading them into problem environments also led to alternate class features and other such options for classes that gained a mount or companion as a class feature. 4th ed dropped this class feature altogether while ''[[Pathfinder]]'' built alternate options into the classes that had them. If you're playing rules as written, horses do have the standard upkeep requirements, food, water, sleep. They have limits on how long you can ride per day and they'll run from combat if you don't know how to handle them (you can avoid this with a trained war horse).

*** The spell ''Phantom Steed'' allows D&D spellcasters to play this trope straight, because the "horse" is a pseudo-real magical creation.

* ''Heavily'' averted on ''[[Mantracker]]'', where the horses' physical limitations—in particular, their inability to safely traverse very rugged and/or slippery terrain—pose a major constraint on the hunters' pursuit of their quarry.

* Daryl Dixon on [[The Walking Dead]] learned the hard way that horses are easy to spook and have no problem throwing the rider off.

 

 

=== Tabletop Games ===

* Averted in the Games Workshop's Warhammer Fantasy spinoff ''Mordheim.'' Horses cannot enter rubble or buildings and non-warhorses can get spooked and run away.

* In ''[[Exalted]]'', some characters have the ability to endow their mounts with tremendous stamina, allowing them to act as this without ill effects.

** The difference between riding a horse normally, using a relay of horses to allow the rider to maintain top speed for longer, and an untiring horse, is explicitly spelled out. The last one travels absurdly fast compared to just about anything else.

[[Category:Equine and Equestrian Tropes]]

[[Category:Cool Horse]]