Dazzling Horse

The Dazzling Horse (sometimes called the ‘Southeastern Horse’ or the ‘Striped Horse’) is a horse breed native to the vast Grass Sea savannahs of the Southeastern Threshold. It stands 13 to 16 hands in height, with long erect mane and a very distinct pattern of black and white stripes, a pattern which ‘dazzles’ predators, making it difficult to predict its speed and direction as it moves.

Compared to most other horse breeds, the Dazzling Horse has a longer, more elongated head, with flared nostrils and large ears. Its diet consists primarily of grasses, and it can survive for up to a week without water, with some Dazzling Horses seen to put extensive effort into digging and defending their own watering holes in times of need. For the larger predators of the Southeast, the beast is a common prey animal, and while not as fast as a Desert Horse or Plains Horse, it can maintain a good pace, biting or rearing up to smash attackers with its hooves if it is cornered. Humans hunt Dazzling Horses for their hides (whose pattern is popular not only in the Southeast but as far afield as the Dynastic salons of the Blessed Isle) and for their meat, and (particularly in western Harborhead) to cull them to free grazing lands for Cattle.

The Dazzling Horse is a skittish and temperamental animal, and domestication as a riding or pack animal is far more difficult than with other horse breeds. Nevertheless, several tribes and cultures of the Southeast use zebras as mounts and to pull carts or chariots.