Attributes and Traits

Attribute Rolls
Strength: 2d10+5
Coordination: 2d10+2
Intelligence: 2d10/2
Luck: normal

An animal with Strength 10 or less is poor; 11 to 15, fair; 16 to 20, good; and 21 or more, excellent.

Strength, Coordination, and Luck are used exactly the same as a character’s attributes.

Roll Modifier
2-5 +5
6-10 +3
11-14 +2
15-17 +1
18-20 +0

Horse Skills
Intelligence, determines how many and which skills a horse knows. When creating a horse, make an Intelligence check once for each skill. If the check succeeds, the horse knows that skill; generate a skill score for it by rolling two 10-sided dice.

Horse Traits
To determine whether a horse has any undesirable traits, roll one 6-sided die. On a roll of 6, it has one or more bad quirks. Roll one 20-sided die and consult the table below, to find out what its bad habit is.

Traits
1-2 Bites
3 Kicks
4-5 Steps on feet
6 Won’t gallop
7 Chews fences
8 Stops occasionally
9-10 Rubs against fences
11-12 Bucks
13 Untrained
14 Bone-jarring gait
15 Single rider
16 Rears
17 Headstrong
18 Leaps
19-20 Roll twice

The skills a horse can know are: herding, cutting, swimming, gun, and tricks.

Herding is a catch-all for the skills that make a good cowhorse (they were not generally called cowponies). Because a horse lacks this skill doesn’t mean he won’t be used for herding, it just means he isn’t the kind of horse a cowboy wants in his string.

Cutting is the most prized of all skills for a cowhorse. A good cutting horse was a treasure beyond price. Cutting involved working into the herd, singling out the one beef that was wanted, driving it to the edge of the herd, and then, in one rush, chasing it out of the herd. This last bit required excellent agility, as the cow would try everything to get back into the herd and the horse would spin and weave at top speed to prevent it, plus high intelligence, because the horse had to anticipate the cow’s maneuvers. A good cutting horse could “turn on a quarter and give you 15 cents change.” If a cutting horse’s Cutting skill is higher than its Coordination score, use it’s Cutting skill whenever a Coordination check is called for. Otherwise, it gets a three point bonus when making Coordination checks.

Swimming is not something that a horse is well designed for, especially with a man on its back. A swimming horse can easily roll over or be tipped backward by pressure on the reins. Once swamped, even the best horse is likely to panic and drown or kick its rider to death. A swimming horse must make a Swimming skill check to avoid panicking. A horse without Swimming skill checks against one-half its Strength, rounded up.

Gun skill indicates that the horse is familiar with the sound of a gunshot and probably won’t panic when one is fired near it. Normally, a horse makes an Intelligence check to not panic in a gunfight. A horse with Gun skill uses its skill score instead. If the horse’s Intelligence is equal to or higher than its Gun skill, increase its Gun skill to be three points higher than its Intelligence.

Tricks is a broad category. If a horse makes a successful Intelligence check for this skill, it knows two tricks of the player’s choice and gets to make another check for two more. Each successful check earns two more tricks and another check. A particularly smart horse could know half-a-dozen or more tricks. Each trick has its own skill score.
A player can choose any trick he wants for his horse, subject to the Judge’s approval. Some samples are: coming when the character whistles; picking up a hat from the ground; plucking a pistol from a holster; climbing stairs; counting; bucking off anyone but the PC; stopping when the character whistles; responding to unusual commands (other than “giddyap” and “whoa”).

Horses