HELP! Anyone work on a farm/zoo?

Google beast of burden rations and there should be some easy formulas. I've done them for cattle and horses in the past. The thing about herbivores and omnivores is the terrain. How much can they graze and how much grain to carry to cover that portion, etc.

Also take proportion in to mind. An actual balanced ration might work out to 3# ground corn and 34# of ground corn cobs, but no animal is going to eat 34# of gpound corn cobs. That's like old school rice cakes.

No beast you want assistance from should ever be subjected to that kind of cruelty.
 

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As for not being able to ride a horse all day, that sounds off. By that logic the west couldn't be won because stage coaches and cattle-drives would be constricted on their usage. Now you can't ride a horse hard, or put a heavy guy on them all day, but a lighter rider on the right sized horse could be done all day. just make sure they get breaks to eat and water.

Of course, what you did to keep up the pace was either changing the horses for fresh ones, or work relays.

For example, in Sweden year 1280 we got a law that the villages along the road had to supply a wagon with driver(s) and horses every 20 km (12 miles), standing prepared and ready in wait for anyone on the King's business. What was new with this law was the farmers actually were supposed to get paid for this, and the nobility was forbidden to force the farmers to provide free rides at sword-point. Note that the wagons belonged to the farmers, so that if you used this service, you had to unload and reload your luggage at every relay point... (By law, you could only bring 170 kg of luggage.)

In 1442 the requirement to provide an inn at every 20 km was added to the law.

In 1620 it was noted that the depletion of manpower due to the great wars resulted in the drivers mainly being "girls or stable-hands".

In 1649 the major responsibility for providing relay was changed from the local farmers to the inns.

In 1662 the relay distances were reduced to 10-20 km, depending on terrain.

In 1734 we got a speed limit. The drivers were prohibited from going faster than 10 km in 1.5 hours, out of concern for the horses. The roads had by then improved so much that a 220 km (130 miles) journey only took 3 days, and only involved switching wagons and horses 15 times.

Appx 1830 the official stage coaches arrived, and the whole system was finally scrapped in 1934.
 
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My horses thrive on 3 pounds of quality grains and about 10 lbs of alfalfa per day. They also get to graze, but it is not a great field, being in AZ. As for water, when being ridden, I would guess 8 gallons a day is a good estimate, especially in hotter climates.

The problem is feeding can vary greatly between the horses, their breed and size has a lot to do with it. For example, if I feed my Quarter Horse as much as I feed my Thoroughbred, he would get very fat. If I fed my Thoroughbred like I do my Quarterhorse she will look skeletal very fast.

As for goats mine are doing well on about 5 pounds of feed per day, with no graze, and the feed is alfalfa bales. Since they are not eating all day long they look like they may be starving because they are not bloated up with all the digestive gases they produce, but they do have plenty of good meat on their bones. As for water they do well on about 4 gallons per day, but then again I don't force them to travel all day either. Plus they certainly do not like working for a living. If there is plenty of graze around then goats probably don't even need to have feed brought, if it is a plant they will likely eat it. There is very little a goat will not eat. So if its a well forested land, or lots of grasses and bushes, don't worry about feeding them, just make sure they get to graze for a couple of hours per day.

How far can you go on a horse in one day? Well, if riding hard, with good food and water for you and your horse, you can cover over 100 miles (Endurance riders know what I am talking about). Both horse and rider better be in great condition too. Normally you can probably cover 40 miles over decently flat terrain without hurting you or your horse.

The biggest issue with horses is their hooves. They split/crack, and can do so badly enough to lame the horse, even to the point of having to put it down. This is a large part of why horse shoes were created. So every rider should have basic knowledge of horse hoof care. Basic shoeing, trimming of the hooves, cleaning stuff out of the shoes regularly, etc... this is all very critical to keep your horse from coming up lame, especially when being ridden hard, on a regular basis, and most especially when the terrain is hard, like rocks, etc... Nice soft grassy plains and similar would be much less likely to damage hooves.

Plus people seem to think riding a horse is easy. It isn't, even after you become a seasoned rider. You ride a horse for an 8 to 10 hour day you will be sore, if your new to it, you may become bed ridden from it just to recover from it and let raw spots heal. The key reason for having a good posture while on horse back is not only an issue of balance, it will also help you be in less pain as the day wears on. You have bad posture you will be in a bad way by the end of a long day.

So there are a lot of things to know and be aware of. Usually we just put all of this in the back ground, and we just assume everyone knows what is needed, what supplies need to be carried, etc... but to be fully prepared, especially on multi day journeys, you best have good farrier tools, know how to use them in most cases, be able to build a good hot coal fire when it comes time to shape a shoe for a horse, and have the hammer, tongs, and probably most important fo all, a horse shoe bar. This is a 18 bar that covers a wide range of horse shoe sizes, so one end will be narrower than the other. So when you shape the shoe you find your horses hoof size on this bar, and that is where you shape it after heating it up. The bar is expensive, but if your mission is time critical, you want to have one along with you, and have someone who knows a decent amount of farrier work.

Again, this is if you really want to illustrate how challenging just riding 200 miles to the next town can be without Orcs attacking you. Most of us just ignore such trials and tribulations because they are so boring, but they are real potential obstacles. Things I have begun to pay attention to since starting up my Aces and Eights game several months ago.

I mean think about it, if your horse comes up lame while trying to outrun a group of 20 Orcs, your in big trouble.
 

Thank you for all the replies. I was sick over the weekend, and am just now checking in.

The supposition that I can only use OGC material is correct, if taken from another source. I have had Noble Steed for some time now, but am purposefully not using it (or even looking at it) because of the paucity of OGC.

EDIT: If you haven't received XP for responding to this thread, it's because I've XPed you too recently.

RC
 
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treebore's info sounds about right (I can't confirm exact amounts, but it meshes with what I recall from 20 years ago).

On horseshoes:

as I recall the horses I worked with, none had shoes, but they were almost always on grass, not on rocky ground or roads.

The guy who owned them would maintain their hooves with a special curved knife with the tip bent up (presumably so it would touch the inner part of the hoof)

but for horses getting regular riding, or are on harder ground, definitely agree it would need shoes.

I don't know if everybody hit traveled with a full farrier's kit on them. I suspect more regular riders know to check the feet of their horse, and maybe trim them. Not so many would have shoeing experience. But I am only speculating. Otherwise, farrier wouldn't have been a trade, as everybody would be self-maintaining.
 

treebore's info sounds about right (I can't confirm exact amounts, but it meshes with what I recall from 20 years ago).

On horseshoes:

as I recall the horses I worked with, none had shoes, but they were almost always on grass, not on rocky ground or roads.

The guy who owned them would maintain their hooves with a special curved knife with the tip bent up (presumably so it would touch the inner part of the hoof)

but for horses getting regular riding, or are on harder ground, definitely agree it would need shoes.

I don't know if everybody hit traveled with a full farrier's kit on them. I suspect more regular riders know to check the feet of their horse, and maybe trim them. Not so many would have shoeing experience. But I am only speculating. Otherwise, farrier wouldn't have been a trade, as everybody would be self-maintaining.

I have heard it called a "hoof knife', "hoof scraper", and similar, I don't know if their is a more official kind of name. Even a good pocket knife will work to take care of most simple problems.

The hardest thing about shoeing a horse (other than getting the horse to co operate in the first place) is shaping the hoof, usually with a huge file, I think it is normally called a rasp, is used for this. You literally use this to file the hoof into the desired shape, with smooth edges, and an over all conformity. After that it is simply a matter of nailing the shoe to the hoof. Not all that hard. Again, the hardest part, by far, is going to be getting the horse to co operate. Donkeys, mules, etc... require far less hoof maintenance.

As for carrying a hoof care kit, I don't know how many people ever carried them around, but I ride around the rocky terrain of AZ, so I carry such a kit in the bottom of my right saddle bag. Now I do not carry around the horse shoe bar, I carry pre sized horse shoes that I know will fit my horse, nails, hammer, rasp, and a hoof knife.
 

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