> -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Sunday, April 09, 2006 12:46 PM > To: The GURPSnet mailing list > Subject: Re: [gurps] [Yrth] Shipping on the River Smoke > > While this won't answer your question directly, some of the > material at Sophia's web page might be of use for gathering > other data about the river Smoke. Her URL is > http://www.geocities.com/chybisa/geography/currents.html > > I don't know what to tell you about moving a barge up river > other than to say that you may want to research river traffic > circa early 1800's - as that was almost entirely done by > poling or by mule teams pulling on the barge upstream. As > for the knight's horse? If you're using mule power to move > the barge upstream - you might as well walk the horse > unburdened by anything as move it as cargo. One piece of > information I've come across is that transporting a horse via > motor transport is as draining on the horse as walking for > the same period of time as being transported. As Eric > pointed out, horses don't really like being ferried - and I'd > be willing to wager part of that is that the ground is not > "steady" as a four legged beastie might like ;)
I've mentioned before that my father is a professional horseman. He transports horses all the time. Sometimes the drive is only a couple of hours, other times its 12 hours. This is in a modern trailer pulled by a large pickup. The horses are used to it; they "trailer" well. They seldom show any signs of fatigue. They exit the trailer, drink water, eat some grain and hay, and then do some light exercise. After that, they are ready to go. But that's a very short time -- a day at most. Over the course of several days, or even months, I suppose they might begin to show fatigue. I suspect this is because they would not get any exercise. A horse's legs are quite fragile, and the hooves must not be wet for too long. Standing in a sodden stall of wet manure will cause a horse to go lame. Regular walking unpacks their hooves and strengthens their legs. If the stall was properly cleaned, and horses walked as much as practicable on the ship during the trip, and the weather fairly calm, I'd guess the horse would be ok even on extended voyages. A river barge might allow for all this. And given enough trade, I suspect horse barges would exist. They might even be horse- or mule-powered, like the old Chinese (Korean?) waterwheel ships. But if I were transporting horses a long distance, I'd do like the Vikings and put in on the shore every evening. The horse could then walk around, go a for short ride, and graze on fresh grass all night. You'd still move faster than walking speed during the day, and the horse would have less chance of picking up a stone or spooking at a leaf and hurting itself. Of course, if horse trading this much, I'd wonder why they didn't just drive horses to market in herds like cattle. Historically, that's what you did. But, traveling nobles might desire speed and would require a retinue of horses (and they'd have the cash to pay for it), so I could see where a few horse barges might exist on the rivers of Yrth. ----------------------------- Shawn A. Fisher [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----------------------------- "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13 ----------------------------- _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
