On the vague topic of it being sad there are no horses in patho, there's so many fun Russian breeds and during that time period horses were super-duper important to people. Like as food and personal and cargo transport. Or who knows, maybe that's why we don't see any, they kladruber'd them all offscreen. Which is to say. Ate them. Bc they tended to be the first to go in famine otherwise they'd eat you out of house and home, or even eat you, did you know horses are opportunistic omnivores? I think Daniil would find that fun. Anyway.
You can treat this as your horny interlude, if you want. Or ignore it. Idm.
There's the Yakutian which is a breed out to the far-east, and they're shaped like ponies but if you made them accidentally slightly bigger in photoshop while keeping the proportions the same, and they're incredibly fluffy for surviving the steppe & siberian winters. Please look them up, they're adorable and have convergent evolution with mammoths. They're raised mostly for meat and milk but can be hardy little fuckers for riding as long as you're on the smaller end *coughDaniil*. They're literally one of if not the most widespread breed in Russia and are beloved by local cultures. So I think it's only right the Kin should be required to have herds of these guys in a semi-feral setup, kinda like exmoor ponies. Give Mishka a fluffy pony, 👏 Give Mishka A Fluffy Pony 👏 GIVE MISHKA A FL
Then ofc you've got the big boys, the Russian heavy draft is currently the most popular I think, but turn back time and Patho would most likely be viewing the Vladimir (now critically endangered) and Soviet heavy draft's (now endangered) the latter of which being far larger than their Russian counterpart (they're not the same !!) as their farm workhorses of choice (even though they weren't official recognised as a breed until like 1945 alongside every other Russian draft who came onto the scene late). For the oldest there's the Kuznetsk slightly big boy's, super mega resilient horses that used to be preferred for good delivery and were The Horse of choice for Siberian living, they were cut in numbers during the first world war and basically obliterated during the second, bc the army loved them too much. I assign Block and the army with them as pack horses.
But Russia hasn't stopped giving yet!! It's also home to breeds with the curly hair gene, that's right! Poodle horses! Hypoallergenic and adorable. The Bashkir occasionally come in curly (not to be confused with the American Bashkir which is totally unrelated and stole their name). They're one of the most widespread breeds in Russia still and have a history going back to before 1850 and are closely linked to the steppe's and cultures there. If there were horses in our Town-on-Gorkhon, genuinely, they'd probably be Bashkir's—you can use them for almost anything, they know how to dig through snow to eat, and their endurance is off the scales. The Transbaikal is another curly haired horse that's got an even thicker coat and related to the Yakutian's above and come with a bonus gait. They're incredibly rare these days, to the point I can't find literally anything about them online, I cracked out my horse illustrated breed guide just to make sure I didn't hallucinate them.
Of course there are lots more breeds and Russia has since taken up the mantle of Akhal-Teke breeding which honestly if you're going to steal an entire horse breeding industry from a country the Akhal-Teke is probably also the one I would choose. But to get this back to Patho related—would Daniil and Artemy be able to ride horses? I know we're all asking it ravenously, so I shall do my best to provide.
Artemy: I want to say no, any amount he might have learned young would have a likely been lost during his time in the Capital. At his final stature, he's also not fit for many of the native breeds that tend to lean smaller. With the Kin not being nomadic, (I think??) they likely also wouldn't press importance on horseback ability more than the general use the Town would also see. I think he'd be an adept horse-driver though and understand the push and pull of training horses better, and I think post-canon Daniil and him should absolutely get a horse that acts as a mobile pack for medical stuff, especially when going out into the Steppe to tend to the communities there or collect herbs.
But also I want Artemy back on a horse to get them on romantic horseback hacking trips. So many difference between them, but at least they both understand one thing together: Horse.
Daniil: Absolutely. Horses are more than just tools for use but status symbols as well, and for many families and groups (especially in ye olden) riding is a matter of respect and teaching of self-discipline
Horses in the Army interlude-
Budyonny and Don horses are old and were The Russian Army Horse after the 1917, the former being a crossbreed of the latter and a now extinct breed and then onto further crossing with thoroughbreds and Arabians which is nothing special because they're the outbreeding whores of the horse world. The Russian army literally ate-up entire horse breeds en-masse or outbred them so much they kinda nibbled on other breeds to find more good traits, generally ruining their bloodlines in the meantime, (always in my heart purebred Tuvinskaya.) Then sometime after the wars they forgot about the Budyonny horse and left the breed at a petrol station (Ukraine.)
End Horses in the Army interlude-
So, that is to say, Daniil's father, at whatever the fuck high rank he's at I can't remember right now, would definitely ride horses, and know his way around them, and would absolutely want his son on a stallion asap and if you want to really torture Daniil get him doing dressage 'for the discipline' (I have many thoughts about this as a concept). Now, whether Daniil rides any well today is up in the air especially considering, like Artemy, he likely lost a lot of knowledge during his education and work at the Thanatica. But from personal experience you never really forget a lot of the stuff taught, kinda like riding a bicycle, so in my heart I know he'd have a grand old time re-learning in the steppe, there's a metaphor for freedom in there somewhere probably. I think Daniil deserves how to ride horses well, as a treat to impress Artemy.
But also, riding crops and whips are tools (I use both), so Daniil would definitely know his way around them the proper way to hold them when riding (there's a fun technique for moving a long whip from one side to another without losing control of the reins at any point, there's probably a competency kink for Artemy in there somewhere if you dig.) And he's doing a rising trot because I'm not letting Daniil do anything but a rising trot, fucking, sitting trot heathens, not in European riding, and think of what we can do to his thighs. And I mean Daniil already has the leather gloves for the reins, And he finally has an excuse for shoes with a big heel, for the stirrups, obviously,,,, nothing else.
basically. Daniil should be a horse girl as a treat.
This was going to go somewhere but forgot where, hope you enjoyed my horse facts. This can be the titanic door in the ocean of all the piss asks, like I haven't also contributed one or two of them.
If you ever want more horse fun facts i'm always around and at your beck and call.
do you love the color of the horse
