I can’t work out why the Light Riding Horse is more than the Medium Riding Horse.
Given the ratio of the price of the Medium Riding Horse to the Medium War Horse, it should be 24gp.
Alternatively, are the prices of the Medium War Horse and Light War Horse the wrong way around?
It is intentional and not a typo. Light riding horses are faster than medium riding horses, and have sufficient encumbrance to carry a messenger or other lightly armored character. If you’re not going into combat, they’re the best option. But they have insufficient encumbrance to carry a heavily armored combatant, whereas medium horses do. Thus medium horses are preferred for war and most valuable in that context.
Doesn’t make much sense in my setting, where “light” horses are basically ponies. And there are lots and lots of steppe ponies which aren’t war-trained around.
Something that plentiful wouldn’t more more expensive than a much more scarce “medium” horse.
Feels like a hardcoded medievalism.
Light horses aren’t steppe ponies. Steppe ponies are listed as “horse, steppe”. They are slower than light horses but faster than medium horses, better at grazing, and slightly sturdier than light horses.
The prices are derived from formulas that combine movement rate, encumbrance, HD, training modifier, and training time. I’ve never consulted medieval prices for horses so I don’t think it’s any type of hardcoded medievalism at all.
Fair enough. Seems strange that there’s no consideration of supply and demand in that calculation, though that might make it more convoluted than necessary.
When did you come up with steppe ponies? They’re not in my copy of ACKS1.