goomba Posted July 29, 2017 Share Posted July 29, 2017 A normal size horse shouldn't carry more than 240 pounds, and Gregor is around 420 pounds, probably 500 with his armor and sword Horses probably can carry around 300 pounds if they need to, but to gallop carrying anywhere from 400 to 500 pounds should be impossible How does Gregor do it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trigger Warning Posted July 29, 2017 Share Posted July 29, 2017 Same reason he can exist, GRRM wants him to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cgrav Posted July 29, 2017 Share Posted July 29, 2017 Well I guess he doesn't ride a normal size horse. He probably rides a draught horse or some other kind bred specifically for heavy work. There used to be many different "breeds" of horse back when they were actually used for something other than amusement, hence the many different terms GRRM uses for them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winds of Winter blow cold Posted July 29, 2017 Share Posted July 29, 2017 Gregory's horse pulls a Budweiser wagon! It is known! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elder brother jonothor dar Posted July 29, 2017 Share Posted July 29, 2017 2 hours ago, cgrav said: Well I guess he doesn't ride a normal size horse. He probably rides a draught horse or some other kind bred specifically for heavy work. There used to be many different "breeds" of horse back when they were actually used for something other than amusement, hence the many different terms GRRM uses for them. Yes but you would not use a draught horse to joust, and ideally you would not use your destrier to ride around the country. It comes down to the fantasy element of the books, we know he looses 2 horses at least so he needs a steady supply of super strong horses too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elder brother jonothor dar Posted July 29, 2017 Share Posted July 29, 2017 "He was well over seven feet tall, closer to eight, with massive shoulders and arms thick as the trunks of small trees. His destrier seemed a pony in between his armored legs, and the lance he carried looked as small as a broom handle." By the sounds of it it's just a normal sized horse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goomba Posted July 29, 2017 Author Share Posted July 29, 2017 poor horse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TMIFairy Posted July 29, 2017 Share Posted July 29, 2017 7 hours ago, Trigger Warning said: Same reason he can exist, GRRM wants him to. This! But also, "normal" horses can be quite big: https://www.google.pl/search?q=big+horses&client=firefox-b-ab&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiLwarGka7VAhUEJ1AKHZMWDkcQ_AUICigB&biw=1024&bih=646 Anybody have a photo of Shaq O'Neal (or somebody like him) on a horse? It would be a nice point of reference Ha! Found it myself! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Springwatch Posted July 29, 2017 Share Posted July 29, 2017 Quote He saw the standard first, three black dogs on a yellow field. Ser Gregor sat beneath it, mounted on the biggest horse Tyrion had ever seen. AGOT Horses don't have to be that realistic, any more than Gregor is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zandru Posted July 29, 2017 Share Posted July 29, 2017 Gregor must go through a LOT of horses. The many different descriptions of his mounts ("the biggest horse Tyrion had ever seen", "his desdrier seemed a pony", etc) would seem to confirm this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost Melnibonean Posted July 29, 2017 Share Posted July 29, 2017 Gregor's horse was clearly bred from the same stock as Sandor's horse... The one that carried Sandor about the Riverlands with full kit and 9,000 gold coins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Springwatch Posted July 29, 2017 Share Posted July 29, 2017 His destrier seemed a pony in between his armored legs... Also a 'huge stallion', though. Even so, 'seemed a pony' is an oddity for these books - as a general rule, the horse mirrors the rider. Like this: Quote [Littlefinger] "... Gregor has always favoured huge, ill-tempered stallions with more spirit than sense." And of course they both get their heads cut off. 6 minutes ago, Lost Melnibonean said: Gregor's horse was clearly bred from the same stock as Sandor's horse... The one that carried Sandor about the Riverlands with full kit and 9,000 gold coins. And Arya too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fossoway Posted July 29, 2017 Share Posted July 29, 2017 That horse must have suffered when Gregor ride him. Not sure, but considering he killed it at the joust with Loras, may be a possibility that he didn't use much a single horse until it literally fell down exhausted or dead- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost Melnibonean Posted July 29, 2017 Share Posted July 29, 2017 34 minutes ago, Springwatch said: His destrier seemed a pony in between his armored legs... Also a 'huge stallion', though. Even so, 'seemed a pony' is an oddity for these books - as a general rule, the horse mirrors the rider. Like this: And of course they both get their heads cut off. And Arya too! At that point he had been relieved of the gold. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Springwatch Posted July 29, 2017 Share Posted July 29, 2017 2 hours ago, Lost Melnibonean said: At that point he had been relieved of the gold. Ah, of course. Actually, I like to hope he put some of his gold in the Iron Bank after the tourney. But an even more likely option is that he only got some of his winnings in cash, and for the rest he accepted a promise to pay from the Master of Coin - because Sandor in King's Landing doesn't seem that interested in money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aderyn Posted July 29, 2017 Share Posted July 29, 2017 As someone already pointed out, large horse breeds do exists. For example, the Shire draught horse has to measure at least 66 inches (168 cm) and the stallion weighs between 1,870 and 2,430 lb (840 to 1,000 kg). Now, a study conducted by the Ohio State University Agricultural Technical Institute concluded that most horses can carry up to 20% of their body weight with little to no indication of stress. At 25% they started showing some physical signs of fatigue, and at 30% these signs became accentuated. Let's assume, that the horse weighs 2,000 lb (910 kg). A horse of that size should be able to carry 400 lb (180 kg) with little difficulty. That's already more than twice the weight of a regular man, but with the addition of heavy armour and weaponry the Mountain would weigh more than that. Assuming that he wears full armour, including haubergeon, I'm just going to blindly throw an estimate of 130+ lb (60+kg). Add those together, and the horse would already be carrying over 25% of his body weight. Add to it the weight of the saddle, saddlebags, etc. and some margin of error and it will probably get very close to that 30% (600 lb / 270 kg) or probably even exceed it. The wider the horses loins, the better it can carry weight, which explains why draught horses are stronger. However, these horses are not made for running long distances so riding them across half the kingdom in pursuit of outlaws would wear them out pretty fast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foot_Of_The_King Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 I vote for disposable/ one time use horses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TMIFairy Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 Contrary to legends full plate armour does not weigh that much .c.20kg/50lbs. Arya weighs more than that - the chub! Even assuming that Gregor's armour weighs more than average due to his size it is not a major portion of the weight - a big "most of the weight" continues to be The Mountain himself. Adding to Aderyn's post - I'd shave some 100lbs off ytour estimate. Gregor at 400 pounds, saddle and armour (an asspull guesstimate, I admit :)) - another 100. No need for saddlebags as he has other horses/ a cart to carry stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDrunkenGiant Posted September 28, 2017 Share Posted September 28, 2017 On 7/29/2017 at 3:57 PM, Lew Theobald said: I don't know how much Gregor weighs in armor. But it is not "impossible" for a horse to carry 500 pounds of live weight ... if it's the right horse, large, strong, and conditioned for the task. I suppose the horse would not enjoy it much, but that's another thing. If Gregor can plausibly exist, then so can the horse that could carry him. Indeed, Gregor himself is more implausible than the horse. Gregor is plausible. http://www.thehumanmarvels.com/angus-macaskill-the-cape-breton-giant/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nihlus Posted September 28, 2017 Share Posted September 28, 2017 Gregor's armor is supposed to be so heavy that no other man could even move in it, much less fight. That puts it well beyond 200 pounds- modern soldiers can at times be required to carry ~60 kg in gear for minutes to hours on the march, and they have no trouble moving even if they can't do it too long and may suffer long term health cons. How heavy would a suit, which distributes weight much better across the body than a backpack, have to be that no one could so much as stand while wearing it? I don't know, but let's just say incredibly heavy. Just scaling up regular plate armor (which was about 1/4 of a knight's weight) to a 440 pound man would give you a ~110 pound suit. Gregor's armor should be at least twice that thick, more likely thrice that thick, so 220-330 pounds. Add the full mail armor and full leather armor he's stated to be wearing under that double to triple thick plate and Gregor is easily around 800 pounds. The dude is a damn Chaos Warrior. Even the largest 1-ton destriers would have no chance of going into battle carrying him. Pair that with his demonstrably superhuman strength (just being able to fight normally in such a suit has hilarious implications) and you're probably better off giving him a giant bow and using him as a medieval ballista machine gun. The guy is absolutely ridiculous. Twice to thrice thick plate is something that actually existed in history (and exceeded 50% of the soldier's weight), but it was meant to be used as jousting armor or, later, as bullet-resistant armor in the 15th-17th centuries. It was for cavalrymen, you weren't supposed to fight on foot while wearing it. But Gregor can, while wearing full mail armor underneath, meaning he's proportionally stronger than pretty much any human to ever exist on top of being nearly three times the size of an average soldier. Even if Westeros had guns he'd be pretty much bulletproof to anything man-portable before the advent of rifles. The only thing stopping him before the 19th century (bar drowning him in bodies) is a cannon. Or poison. Or a very lucky ballista shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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