Pony
A pony is a somewhat common monster, represented by the letter u. Ponies move quickly and hit multiple times a turn, and may prove troublesome for a low-level player unless they can pacify them or get their pet to kill them. A pony can grow up into a horse, and then into a warhorse; horses and warhorses are especially fast.
As a herbivore, throwing a pony, horse or warhorse a vegetarian treat (e.g. carrots and apples) will tame it. Other vegetarian food (pear, lichen corpse, kelp frond) has a chance of working, too.
Throwing a tripe ration (or any other non-vegetarian food) to a hostile horse will make the horse peaceful, even though the horse will not eat it (and the tripe can be safely retrieved), just as throwing vegan food at a hostile dog or cat will make it peaceful. Vegetarian food will keep ponies fed 5 times as long as players and their larger brethren 4 times as long,[1] with exceptions for starving pets.[2] Chat with your pet horse or use a stethoscope to find out if it is hungry.
Riding a Horse
Pet horses can be saddled and ridden, giving the player the speed of the mount. Because pets feed mostly on the corpses of fallen monsters and few of them are vegetarian, horses are harder to keep fed than other pets. This is especially important for knights, who start their game with a tame saddled pony, though they do have several carrots and apples in their starting inventory; this both makes it easier to mount their steed much earlier and keep them fed long enough to find a more "permanent" source of food. Further details for knights and maintaining horses are provided in their article linked above.
While shopping with pets has certain advantages, it might be best to shut your horse out of the shop, especially in deeper levels. Horses are especially vulnerable to mimics.
Pony
u pony 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 4 |
| Attacks |
Kick 1d6, Bite 1d2 |
| Base level | 3 |
| Base experience | 31 |
| Speed | 16 |
| Base AC | 6 |
| Base MR | 0 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 2 (Quite rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 1300 |
| Nutritional value | 250 |
| Size | Medium |
| Resistances | None |
| Resistances conveyed |
None |
|
A pony:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line913 |
Encyclopedia entry
Hey! now! Come hoy now! Whither do you wander?
Up, down, near or far, here, there or yonder?
Sharp-ears, Wise-nose, Swish-tail and Bumpkin,
White-socks my little lad, and old Fatty Lumpkin!
[...]
Tom called them one by one and they climbed over the brow and
stood in a line. Then Tom bowed to the hobbits.
"Here are your ponies, now!" he said. "They've more sense (in some
ways) than you wandering hobbits have -- more sense in their noses.
For they sniff danger ahead which you walk right into; and if they
run to save themselves, then they run the right way."
Horse
u horse 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 7 |
| Attacks |
Kick 1d8, Bite 1d3 |
| Base level | 5 |
| Base experience | 61 |
| Speed | 20 |
| Base AC | 5 |
| Base MR | 0 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 2 (Quite rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 1500 |
| Nutritional value | 300 |
| Size | Large |
| Resistances | None |
| Resistances conveyed |
None |
|
A horse:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line920 |
Encyclopedia entry
King Richard III: A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!
Catesby: Withdraw, my lord; I'll help you to a horse.
King Richard III: Slave, I have set my life upon a cast,
And I will stand the hazard of the die:
I think there be six Richmonds in the field;
Five have I slain to-day instead of him.
A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!
Warhorse
u warhorse 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 9 |
| Attacks |
Kick 1d10, Bite 1d4 |
| Base level | 7 |
| Base experience | 97 |
| Speed | 24 |
| Base AC | 4 |
| Base MR | 0 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 2 (Quite rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 1800 |
| Nutritional value | 350 |
| Size | Large |
| Resistances | None |
| Resistances conveyed |
None |
|
A warhorse:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line927 |
Warhorses are higher level than large dogs and large cats. They can become just high enough in level to attack shopkeepers, for whom they are rarely an adequate match. Warhorses should be kept out of shops.
Encyclopedia entry
King Richard III: A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!
Catesby: Withdraw, my lord; I'll help you to a horse.
King Richard III: Slave, I have set my life upon a cast,
And I will stand the hazard of the die:
I think there be six Richmonds in the field;
Five have I slain to-day instead of him.
A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!
Body Parts
Horse also refers to the grouping of body parts for the forms of horses and unicorns. It affects the messages referring to the appropriate body parts as follows.
| Bodypart[3] | Description |
|---|---|
| Arm | Foreleg |
| Eye | Eye |
| Face | Face |
| Finger | Forehoof |
| Fingertip | Hoof tip |
| Foot | Rear hoof |
| Hand | Foreclaw |
| Handed | Hooved |
| Head | Head |
| Leg | Rear leg |
| Light Headed | Light Headed |
| Neck | Neck |
| Spine | Backbone |
| Toe | Rear hoof tip |
| Hair | Mane |
| Blood | Blood |
| Lung | Lung |
| Nose | Nose |
| Stomach | Stomach |
References
This page is based on a spoiler by J. Ali Harlow.
This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.
It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.4.3. Information on this page may be out of date.
Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-343}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.
