Dumbing it down

[mark12_30]

Originally Posted by davem

whether the Rohirric horses could have charged down a 45% scree slope without all losing their footing & rolling to the bottom in a tangled bloody mass....

Why thankee, davem! I shall do my best.

Let's generalize first: horses are individuals, and not all are athletes, and of the athletes, not all are "gymnasts" or "wrestlers". Some horses are good with rugged terrain, others are not.

Running down a steep scree-hill: Could a pampered, stalled, blanketed Thoroughbred do it? I doubt it. The vet bills afterward would make you rue your foolishness all the way to the poorhouse.

Could an outback-raised Brumby do it? Yep. SIT BACK. (See Man From Snowy River-- or is it Return to Snowy River? One of the two.)

Could a backyard pony do it? That depends on the daily activities of the backyard pony and the skill of the rider. Some could.

Now, could a rohirric horse do it?

I'll say again, that depends. What are their daily activities? If the horse lived up by Edoras-- very hilly; the horse would be well conditioned to the ups & downs.

If he lived always and only on the very-flat plains, then ... I'd be skeptical. But since we are talking about The Movies:

In the movie, Rohan was a very rugged country. There were canyons, rocky outcroppings, little cliffs, big cliffs, little hills, big hills. The Rohirrim lived Not-That-Far from the mountains, some lived in the mountains or at their foot, others were in-and-out of mountainous country. And the herds of Rohan were range-bred horses, not pampered pets. They were workhorses not showhorses, warhorses not race horses. Their riders knew them well.

So-- off hand, I'd say yes, I'd expect them to do pretty well on a steep downhill charge. Because of the scree, you'd have had some injuries, some tender frogs and swollen ankles and maybe a few broken legs.

But on a tough, scruffy, hill-country horse, the hill and its scree would have worried me less than the pikes.

**** story:

I went riding with a friend in Palos Verdes, LA area. It's very hilly. There were trails trough the hills, and there was this one trail with a steep washed-out area, basically a mini-landslide that went down maybe thirty feet. The crumbling sand came halfway into the trail. No New England horse I know would have gone over that without a fuss. "Time to turn around and go back?" I asked. My friend crossed it, and then said, "Huh? What?" I was scared stiff. But the (local, native) horse I was on could have been yawning. I think he was actually looking elsewhere while he crossed it, sending rocks and dirt tumbling thirty feet below.

So back to my point: it depends on what you do day to day, and what you are used to. And a horse raised in Movie-Rohan would, I think, have been very used to the ups and downs.