Related, I remembering reading a book about logistics in the Crusades, and they pointed out just how much time (and squire/groom manpower) was spent grazing horses each day. Almost as many as the traveling.
Yeah, a horse was basically made to eat constantly, and they need 2% of their bodyweight in dry-mass every day. That’s a LOT of grass, especially since grass is mostly water. And you can’t graze every horse next to the camp, so you need to walk them to a site, and then babysit them.
Of course, if you’re travelling solo, that’s not as much of a problem, since the horse will happily graze while you’re making camp, prepping food, etc etc. If you bring 10.000 friends, finding grass suddenly becomes a huge problem.
Related, I remembering reading a book about logistics in the Crusades, and they pointed out just how much time (and squire/groom manpower) was spent grazing horses each day. Almost as many as the traveling.
As Napoleon said, an army marches on its stomach!
Yeah, a horse was basically made to eat constantly, and they need 2% of their bodyweight in dry-mass every day. That’s a LOT of grass, especially since grass is mostly water. And you can’t graze every horse next to the camp, so you need to walk them to a site, and then babysit them.
Of course, if you’re travelling solo, that’s not as much of a problem, since the horse will happily graze while you’re making camp, prepping food, etc etc. If you bring 10.000 friends, finding grass suddenly becomes a huge problem.