Forest Pony

Forest Ponies are a small breed of horses found in the forests of the the Northeastern Threshold. They are short, stocky horses with silver-grey coats and coarse forest-green manes, tails, and hair around the hooves, growing long and shaggy. They are neither large not fast, but are surefooted and able to bear great loads, making them popular animals for trade caravans braving the forest floor. They are highly intelligent, considered by the people of Halta to be san-beasts, and sometimes ata-beasts.

The roots of the breed are uncertain, though some posit they were the result of Biogenesis engineering or breeding of Mountain Horse and Island Pony stock over many generations during the time of the Shogunate. Some breeders have attempted to match them with Desert Horses in order to produce a fast riding animal with a green mane, that might capture the same high prices as the Firemane breed from the Blessed Isle, but the resulting horses tend to be temperamental and aesthetically ugly, with short legs and weak backs.

Some mine owners and lumber barons in the East have attempted to use forest ponies systematically to provide workhorses for their industries, but the horses are highly clever, able to make their escapes from many pens and (in the case of those lowered into deep mines) becoming dangerously violent and self-destructive.