Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Recently there have been some amusing comments to the effect that GW horses are too small for their riders, or too small all around.  While it is true that the oversized equipment can make the horse seem small, the amusing reality is that GW horses are on the whole, too large.

 

Heresy you say?

 

http://horsecare.stablemade.com/_articles/size.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destrier

 

Look at these links, the first of which states that a large size for a horse is 165cm at the withers, a spot above a horse’s shoulder.  The second link states that a destrier, the largest riding horse used to haul knights around was approximately 15 hands, or 152.4cm.  Now, I do not know about you, but I am a good deal taller than 165cm, and since the average height of a man in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> is around 5’8”, or 172.7cm, chances are a number of you are taller than that as well. 

 

So a model horse’s whither should be lower than the top an average man’s head, or around 28mm from the base at most. Given that most GW models are rather tall for a standard human, the horses should all be shorter at the shoulder than their riders.  A casual look at the newer horses will tell you that this is not the case.  In addition, unbarded horses should be smaller than barded horses, which were bred to be strong enough to carry a knight, plus armor, plus the barding for a whole battle.  (not as big as a plough horse though) 

 

Just look at these monsters http://us.games-workshop.com/news/sneakpeek/Warhammer/image6.jpg

or these http://us.games-workshop.com/games/warhammer/bretonnians/catalog/images/knights_errant.gif ,

or these http://us.games-workshop.com/games/warhammer/highelves/catalog/images/EllyrianReavers_large.gif  (ok, using the my little ponies was a low blow)

 

Here is a link to a page which discusses the size of model horses better than I ever could: http://wk.frothersunite.com/scale/scalehorse.htm

 

Personally, I think the only good horses GW has ever made are the plastic horses for LotR (sadly too small for Warhammer), all the other ones are decent at best, and at $5 each, not even very affordable.

Just so we're all on the same page, the below circle is where the horse's whither is.  So while infantry should be a wee bit taller than a horse's back, it should not be taller than it's head.

 

exactly so, unless of course the horse is particularly small, say like a mongol pony, or horses used in the new world by conquistadors

so, the GW models are too big?? I think my old horses look fine. Besides, I'm sure that when you're fighting orcs you need something a little sturdier than an average horse.

I think the horse sizes are merely yet another indication of GW's poor scale management in WHFB & 40k's plastic lines, where the proportions are ridiculously exaggerated. It's not like they can't do quality figures to scale, just look at the LoTR lines, as already mentioned. It just seems they choose not to take the same amount of care.

Plus, until the recent scale correction with the BfSP gobbos & dwarves (which were slightly smaller), scale creep has plagued all of GW's plastics. For a game that is supposed to be 28mm Heroic, sure are a lot of figures that fit 30mm and even 32mm scales...

They'll fix it down eventually.

Posted By lasgunpacker on 10/26/2006 2:24 PM
exactly so, unless of course the horse is particularly small, say like a mongol pony, or horses used in the new world by conquistadors

Of course there are larger horses as well.  Clydesdales START at 18 hands (over 6') at the whither.

I once had a dream where I did a spin kick and knocked this dude off his horse.

Awesome.

My girlfriend owns a fresian and it is almost 18 hands. She says they were bred as warhorses once upon a time. Evidentally they almost went extinct so andalusian was bred into them, making them smaller and lighter.

Its not entirely unfathomable to have a horse that is taller in the withers than a human is tall. Especially if we are talking in ancient terms.

Nah horses have been progressively bred larger as time has gone by--for instance in the Bronze Age they where too small to be ridden by a human adult.  

In some cases, but fresians were bred with andalusians to be smaller so that they could make better student horses.

While it may have been a small horse to begin with, it was also much larger than it is now at one point. Look at morgans or clydesdales. Their stock comes from fresians.