. EQUINE . RACES .

[Strong Hold Administration]

At the moment there's not very many races, but soon there will be. Keep your eyes pealed for updated race info, and new races.

Normal
Just your every day horse. They can be arabians, or gypsy vanners, or shetlands or icelandic ponys or any breed you could think of! They come in black, bay, white, pallomino, grey, spotted, they have socks, blazes, pibald and stars. There's an endless variaty of colours and shapes and sizes. They are never more than 18hh. Normal equines live to about 30 years of age.

Unicorns, Duocorns, Tricorns and Snowcorns
Unicorns and Duocorns have the same body shape as an Arabian or a lipazziner, but they have long cat like tails, and no mane or fur on their tail like a normal horse. Instead they have a ridge of long hair sticking up in the air all the way down their spine ending in a lion like tuft at the end. Unicorns and Duocorns have one or two [uni=1, duo=2] backwards pointing horns comming from between the ears or behind the ears. 'Corn horns can grow up to a meter long, sometimes two. They are rarely more than one and a half meters, and never less then three quaters of a meter in length. There are two subspecies of 'Corn, the snow and the tricorn. Tricorns have three horns, two inbetween the ears, and one from inbetween the nostrils and are increadably rare. The Tricorn's horns are more like swords than horns however, and the males are oftern seen scraping them allong rocks ready to spar with rival males. Snowcorns are found in the mountains, and have no horn, but they live five times longer than normal equines. All of the 'corns' come in mostly black, white, red, pastle shades of green and yellow, midnight blue and sometimes pibald. On rare occasions they can be pallomino or another equine shade. They tend not to have the usual normal markings either, but sometimes they have 'helmets' of a different shade on their faces, and swirling patterns on their shoulders and flanks. The males are more commonly called stags due to their more robust build, and they rarely grow more than 20hh, but can be up to 24hh. The mares usualy grow to 18hh, but can reach 22hh. The average age for a 'corn' is about 40, but there are slight variations between sub-species. Snowcorns can live to be 900 years old if they never leave the mountain's slopes.

Kelpies
Kelpies have the body shapes of an Akhal-Teke, very slim and light horses. There are two variations of kelpie- a full blood, or any version of half blood (i.e, any horse with 1-99% kelpie blood is a half blood). The full blooded kelpie has,on it's back legs, scales and fins. It also has a tall fin that rises from it's back, and two more small fins on either front hoof. The fin and scale colors differ per kelpie just like the coat colors differ per horse on an ordinary beast, though kelpie scales can be almost any color. A full blood will have gills, but no lungs. A half-blooded kelpie will have both lungs and gills, but the half blood lacks scales. Instead, it retains its full pelt, these also have fins.
Both variations have gills, smooth and oily skin (which keeps them warm in even the coldest water) and many helpful fins which enable them to move swiftly and easily through water. The average age for a pure blood is 25, but half bloods live to 30 sometimes. Pure Bloods cannot stay out of the water for long. They can stray but it's risky. Ie, it would be stupid for a pureblood to get out the lake or pond they live in and stroll into a desert.

Draconian
Draconians are generaly built like an Andalusian. Instead of grinding vegetarian teeth they have sharp preditory fangs. Their manes are usualy short, like a zebras, but their tails are like a normal horses. They have scales all over their body, and snake-like eyes. Some Draconians have small horns running down their spine and one on their nose, but many do not. An even rarer occourance is for them to have wings. An air borne draconian is a fast, elegent and deadly creature. All draconians have posionous fangs wich they use to bring down their prey. Draconians eat flesh, but very rarely attack other equines. Dragonians do not have hooves, but paws with four sharp retractable claws. They can still gallop at imence speeds, but they can slash at their victims and behave more reptillion like. Draconians can be most shades of green, but none brighter than pea green, they have also been known to be many shades of dark blue from ocean to midnight. On some occasions draconians can have brown or red or orange scales, but it's not as common as green and blue. These equines live in tribes similar to the Tribal Sub-race. They will also tattoo themselves and they are always at war with the Tribals and each other. Draconians are the largest of the equines, reaching at least 24hh. But some have been known to grow to 28hh, the longer they live, the larger they grow for draconians never stop growing. This is usualy how you determine age, but females can sometimes stop growing when they become too old to breed. One draconian, many years ago, was said to have reached 32hh, but he died a year later. The average age is 50, but they can live up to 75 years old.

Fairy ponys
These seclusive equines are the smallest in the lands. Standing at only 3hh, they are true fairy mounts. They have large black eyes, and butterfly-like, translucent wings with spiraling patterns. They sometimes have the charictaristics of a 'corn' or draconian, but usualy resembal a normal with wings. They come in all pastle colours, and any pattern resembling a flower. Rarely you will get ones that are similar to preying mantis, with leaf like groths on their bodys that are coloured like a leaf or a flower's pettle. They rarely live more than 14 years. They are generaly recruited as spys.

Pegisi
These magnificent animals are, in short, normals with wings. However they have some charicteristics that are unique to them. The wings are the first and most noticeable. The wingspan of a pegisi has several variables. These are diet, size, weight and gender. Male pegisi have smaller wings, but they are still massive. The females have much larger wings to allow them to fly even whilst pregnant. Pegisi foals can fly about a month after birth but they cannot fly too high for their lungs are not yet fully developed. Pegisi foals are born with pretty average lungs, but after about a month they become much larger than a normal's, and they obtain a shiny coating. This allows them to take in the necissary amount of oxygen needed for powered flight. Pegisi have been known to fly over the top of the highest mountain, and beyond. The average height is about 16hh, but they can reach 20hh. Pegisi don't stop growing when they reach sexual maturity. They tend to keep growing till about the age of seven, but after they are five years old, they grow much much slower. The pegisi has the most interesting and unusual bone structor of any equine. It is ringed like a tree, each ring is a year untill they are seven, when they stop growing, but you can see tiny tiny rings that are less than a mm in diamiter for the rest of their life. The average age for a pegisi is only 20 years.

Sub races

Tribal
Very similar to the normal race, and so they should be, for these are decended from them. Tribals started as herds of horses that got isolated in corners, cut off from the world. They adapted slowly, getting slightly smaller slightly, for no obvious reason. Except for that of their legs. They grew in length, longer than any normal horse's. It gave them longer, faster strides, enabling them to run faster and escape predators. They all are given the tatoo of their tribe when they are young, and these get added to. Some in memory of wars, others thoughts. But each will have them, and collect them. And each will serve a purpose:.