Availability of Horses & Ponies

[PencilBoy99]

Horses and Ponies significantly obviate the challenge of journeys - cutting the time (and thus reducing Hazard rolls) and reducing Fatigue. Do your players usually have them available? Also, many journeys have a boating part - can you put horses and such on boats?

[Otaku-sempai]

Also, many journeys have a boating part - can you put horses and such on boats?

I can't speak to your first question, not being an experienced Loremaster (though I've seldom seen much of a problem in acquiring ponies or horses in-game). But, yes, it is not uncommon to be able to transport horses and even livestock on large rafts or river barges (or sea-going ships). Ferries are a good example of this. Small boats are another matter. Keep in mind that you need to at least be on a large, navigable river to be able to do this for any distance.

Horses, mules or oxen might be carried on a barge so that they may be used to pull the vessel upstream across some stretches of a river or canal.

[Deadmanwalking]

Ponies are explicitly available based on Standard Of Living (so usually, for many characters). Horses are harder to come by.

And they can go on ferries across rivers, or on large boats on big rivers, but not on long trips in little boats.

[Glorelendil]

Ponies are explicitly available based on Standard Of Living (so usually, for many characters).

If you're talking about page 160 in the main book, I interpret it to mean that if ponies are available you can afford them based on your standard of living. Not that they are automatically available in a settle of Free Peoples.

Or is there another reference somewhere that I've forgotten?

[Deadmanwalking]

If you're talking about page 160 in the main book, I interpret it to mean that if ponies are available you can afford them based on your standard of living. Not that they are automatically available in a settle of Free Peoples.

True, but I find it deeply implausible for any settlement of any size to not have a few available. Especially ones named on the map or ones where the PCs ended their last pony trip (which are, IME, where PCs almost universally start out a trip from).

Or is there another reference somewhere that I've forgotten?

I don't think so.

[Glorelendil]

I find it deeply implausible for any settlement of any size to not have a few available.

Huh. Interesting.

It's not clear to me that Woodmen, Beornings, or Mirkwood Elves are particularly keen on ponies. Or that they have extras for sale.

Bree, Laketown, or Dale, sure.

[Deadmanwalking]

I find it deeply implausible for any settlement of any size to not have a few available.

Huh. Interesting.

It's not clear to me that Woodmen, Beornings, or Mirkwood Elves are particularly keen on ponies. Or that they have extras for sale.

Bree, Laketown, or Dale, sure.

Well, Beorn has ponies he can loan you explicitly (at his house), and I can't imagine Thranduil's hall doesn't have a few as well. Given that those are the only large settlements of those peoples, I tend to think that qualifies. Plus, both are Martial cultures. They'd logically need to be Frugal if you can't borrow any ponies anywhere, since the ability to borrow ponies/boats in your homeland is all that separates those two levels of wealth mechanically.

As for the Woodmen, I suppose that's a bit more debatable, but I tend to think their relative poverty would make them more willing to sell rather than less, and they surely have some pack-horses or they can't meaningfully engage in several forms of trade they clearly do (between Mountain Hall and the rest of their settlements, for example).

[Otaku-sempai]

The Wood-elves certainly kept horses, if not ponies; Thranduil and his folk would ride out to hunt. And as already pointed out, Beorn kept horses and ponies; why wouldn't his followers?

[Glorelendil]

The Wood-elves certainly kept horses, if not ponies; Thranduil and his folk would ride out to hunt. And as already pointed out, Beorn kept horses and ponies; why wouldn't his followers?

Beorn had ponies as friends. He didn't sell them.

In martial/frugal cultures ponies would be valued possessions. There wouldn't be extras for selling to every stranger who came through. Not at market prices, anyway.

Likewise I don't see an obvious correlation between Thranduil keeping elven horses for the royal hunts and wood elves in general breeding ponies. Let alone selling them to strangers.

I'm not saying ponies can't exist in any of those places, I just think it easily fits the narrative that there aren't any for sale (if the LM doesn't want the heroes to have ponies, that is).

Anybody have the relevant quotes handy from LoTR when the heroes needed ponies in Bree? That's a major settlement, at a crossroads relatively used to trade, and still the only ones for sale were kept in the Prancing Pony's stables.

[Jussi Marttila]

‘Can’t we get a couple of ponies in the village, or even one just for the baggage? I don’t suppose we could hire them, but we might be able to buy them,’ he added, doubtfully, wondering if he could afford it.

‘I doubt it,’ said the landlord unhappily. ‘The two or three riding-ponies that there were in Bree were stabled in my yard, and they’re gone. As for other animals, horses or ponies for draught or what not, there are very few of them in Bree, and they won’t be for sale. But I’ll do what I can. I’ll rout out Bob and send him round as soon as may be.’

Of course, Bree is Bree and out in the middle of nowhere compared to places like the Wilderland.