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D&D – Horse Descriptions

2 Comments Posted by Ronny on August 24, 2015

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Horses

I have been looking through my files and ran across several that you might find useful. I will make adjustments for 5E as necessary and share them. First here is one I ran across a couple of years ago.

You can use these tables to determine exactly how tall, what color, and what distinguishing markings were on the horses at the stables when the characters go shopping.

Hands	Light (1d10)	Medium (1d8)	Heavy (1d6)	Draft (1d6)
13-3 (4′-7″)	1 – 1,050 lbs.
14 (4′-8″)	2 – 1,100 lbs.
14-1 (4′-9″)	3 – 1,150 lbs.
14-2 (4’10”)	4 – 1,200 lbs
14-3 (4’11”)	5 – 1,250 lbs.
15 (5′-0″)	6 – 1,300 lbs.	1 – 1,400 lbs.
15-1 (5′-1″)	7 – 1,350 lbs.	2 – 1,425 lbs.
15-2 (5′-2″)	8 – 1,400 lbs.	3 – 1,450 lbs.
15-3 (5′-3″)	9 – 1,450 lbs.	4 – 1,475 lbs.
16 (5′-4″)	10 – 1,500 lbs.	5 – 1,525 lbs	1 – 1,550 lbs.
16-1 (5′-5″)		6 – 1,550 lbs.	2 – 1,575 lbs.
16-2 (5′-6″)		7 – 1,600 lbs.	3 – 1,625 lbs
16-3 (5′-7″)		8 – 1,625 lbs.	4 – 1,650 lbs.	1 – 1,875 lbs.
17 (5′-8″)			5 – 1,675 lbs.	2 – 1,900 lbs.
17-1 (5′-9″)			6 – 1,700 lbs.	3 – 1,925 lbs.
17-2 (5′-10″)				4 – 1,950 lbs.
17-3 (5′-11″)				5 – 1,975 lbs.
18 (6′-0″)				6 – 2,000 lbs.

The height of a horse is measured by hands at the shoulder, with the number of hands followed by the number of fingers. There are four fingers to a hand, and in modern times each finger is equal to an inch.

It is apparent that horses of the same height may fall into different categories. The girth and weight of the horse and its overall build and musculature have as much to do with the “size” of a horse as its height.

The color of the horse and its markings may be rolled on this table. This is not an all-inclusive collection; some horse colors may have black markings (socks and stockings, mostly), and all markings are individual to the horse, but this list gives sufficient variety for play. 1d20 is rolled to determine what color the horse is (the first two columns), and the remaining columns express the probability of the indicated markings. If the horse has socks or stockings, roll 1d4 to determine how many it has. Socks and stockings are rolled separately and, although a horse may have some socks and some stockings, it can’t have a sock and a stocking on the same foot….

1d20	Horse Color	1d8 White Star	1d10 White Splash	1d6 White Socks	1d6 White Stockings	1d20 White Mane & Tail	1d6 Black Mane & Tail
1-2	Brown Pinto	–	–	–	–	–	–
3	Black Pinto	–	–	–	–	–	–
4-6	Chestnut	8	10	6	6	–	–
7-10	Bay	8	10	6	6	–	–
11-12	Buckskin	–	–	–	–	–	–
13-16	Gray	–	–	–	–	–	5-6
17-19	Black	8	10	6	6	20	–
20	White*	–	–	–	–	–	–

*White horses are rather rare; most “white” horses are light-skinned Grays, and the referee may allow a roll to determine whether any particular Gray horse appears white, especially if it does not have dark markings.

But is it a boy or a girl horse? From an historical perspective, occidental cavalry at the time of the Crusades rode stallions almost exclusively, while their mid-eastern opponents had an equally strong preference for mares; however, the first battle fought in the spring gave both sides an understanding of the disadvantages of this situation, and more geldings appeared (on both sides, I suspect) thereafter. These balances reflect more the modern situation than the historic ones; the referee might determine that characters of a particular class or race will always ride one or another type.
1d6
1 Stallion
2-3 Gelding
4-6 Mare

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2 responses to “D&D – Horse Descriptions”

Anonymous March 25, 2020 at 6:25 am
Weight is important. When a dragon picks you and your horse up can it lift you both?

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- Ronny March 25, 2020 at 10:09 am
  What an excellent idea! I just added it to the table in the original post (refer to the post above).
  Thank you very much.
  
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