History Main / AutomatonHorses

* Averted in the ''Literature/{{Elenium}}'' universe, where some of the horses - especially Faran, Sparhawk's loyal mount - are distinct characters in their own right and their needs are mentioned. Actually discussed at one point by the antagonists, when one of them rides a horse so hard it dies and he has to go and steal another.

[[quoteright:170:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/camelgas.gif]]

[[quoteright:295:[[Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/automationCamelOOTS_3767.PNG]]]]
[[caption-width-right:295: Refuelling the Automaton Camel]]

* Averted in ''{{Film/Quantez}}'': after escaping a posse, one of the gang's horses has to be put down, and the rest have to be cooled down, fed, watered, rubbed down, and rested for at least a night before they are fit to ride again.

** ''Videogame/AssassinsCreedOddesey'' in which you travel all over Ancient Greece, island to island, gives you Phobos, also known by players as 'the Horcycle'. You whistle for him, and he comes. He can stumble, and temporarily die if you gallop off a cliff too high, and when you've travelled about 60 seconds he can be called for again.

** This happens in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]]'' too, not to mention that [[SoundCodedForYourConvenience Epona's whinnies get much more strained if you push her too hard]]. The same game features truck-sized boars known as Bulbos, used as mounts by Bulblins and [[TheJuggernaut as battering rams by Link, smashing through gates and palisades without a second thought.]] Crashing into a wall, however, makes them fall down and take a few seconds to get their brain cell back in order before getting up no worse for wear.

In all too many stories, that's really about as far as they take it. [[PerpetualMotionMonster The horse doesn't eat]], [[TheSleepless doesn't sleep]], [[EasyLogistics doesn't need any sort of special care]]. Also known as the Horcycle, because it serves a similar purpose (and frequently reaches similar speeds).

In all too many stories, that's really about as far as they take it. [[PerpetualMotionMonster The horse doesn't eat]], [[TheSleepless doesn't sleep]], [[EasyLogistics doesn't need any sort of special care]].

* The only thing you have to watch out for when you have pet horses, donkeys and mules in ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' is their health bar. [[HyperactiveMetabolism Feeding them only restores health]], much like with wolves.

* Averted in ''Film/Quantez'': after escaping a posse, one of the gang's horses has to be put down, and the rest have to be cooled down, fed, watered, rubbed down, and rested for at least a night before they are fit to ride again.

* In ''VideoGame/NetHack'', horses are just like any other pet, except that they can be ridden. They need a saddle to ride and food to live, but are happy even without shoes, a harness, water, or sleep. (The player character, likewise, never needs water or sleep.)

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'': Horses and [[HorseOfADifferentColor other mounts]] never need feeding or rest. And you can basically keep them in your pocket until you need them.
* Used in the game ''VideoGame/MountAndBlade'': horses can gallop for hours at a time, even when armored.. They can be lamed however. And if a lamed horse is cut out from under you during battle, expect to lose that horse for good. Also, humans in the game need to eat but horses don't. Probably one of the AcceptableBreaksFromReality as the human food alone takes up most of your inventory space.

* Not only do the horses in ''{{Gunfighter}}'' and its sequel never get tired, they don't seem to mind getting shot. If you shoot a horse in the second game it will sometimes give a bemused neigh, but other than that nothing happens.
* ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon'' is an interesting example. The first games that featured a horse only had it there to unlock a sort of mini game, but later versions had them usable for faster transport. It wasn't until more recent installments that this trope was finally averted and the horse became a member of the stable, requiring the same food and sleep and attention that the cows and sheep require (and in the latest console game, all distinction is lost and [[HugeRiderTinyMount you can even ride your sheep.]]) Seeing as how a good portion of the point of the game is to tend to animals, it took a while for the franchise to avert this trope.

* ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption''[='s=] horses don't require feeding, grooming or watering, but they can be killed and riding them too hard (either with liberal use of spurs or by putting them through rough terrain) can cause them to buck you. There's even a slight chance of them getting injured going through rough terrain and becoming lame. If you ride him/her for long enough without giving the Horse a chance to rest (dismounting and hitching, or pausing to save or fast travel from a camp, the horse will simply drop dead mid-trot/gallop. It ''does'' take quite a long while, though.

* ''Videogame/AssassinsCreedIII'' takes this UpToEleven. Horses can get shot by a musket volley, lay down on the ground for three seconds, and then get back up and ride normally as if nothing happened. The only time when a horse actually dies in the game is in a cutscene.
* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'', your horse (or hart, or dracolisk, or [[AscendedMeme war nug]]) can be ridden at a hard gallop from one end of the map to the other and back without issues. However, while they can't be killed, they can be attacked by enemies and throw their rider; once they take enough damage from whatever's attacking, they will disappear and have to be re-summoned after the fight concludes.
* In ''VideoGame/GoVacation,'' horses are considered "gear" or vehicles, and are thus as tireless as a car or snowmobile.
* The horse you can obtain in ''VideoGame/StardewValley'' might as well have been a motorcycle. The horse doesn't need food, water, grooming, or rest. It moves faster than a running human, can turn on a dime, and navigate any terrain that a human could (including board bridges a foot wide) at full speed. The horse will patiently wait in the exact spot you left it in when you dismount, no matter how long you leave it... unless you get back home and advance to the next day, in which case your horse will have returned to its stable and will be patiently waiting for you there. Definitely worth everything you pay for it.

* Calvary horses in the early days of ''VideoGame/Battlefield1'' were notorious for being these. They had the ability to [[MadeOfIron soak up bullets]] (and even ''cannon fire'') without any form of crippling effects, gallop indefinitely and even leap over vehicles or onto buildings. Occasional wonky Frostbite Engine physics also sometimes allowed them to win a ''head-on collision'' against '''ARMOURED CARS'''.[[note]]Admittedly, all these quirks could be explained from a coders standpoint as the horses being classified in the engine as "vehicles" and thus play by those rules.[[/note]]
* In ''VideoGame/RavenswordShadowlands'', horses (and later pterodactyls) effectively function as summonable vehicles that don't ever need to be tended to.
* The only thing you have to watch out for when you have pet horses, donkeys and mules in ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' is their health bar. [[HyperactiveMetabolism Feeding them only restores health]], much like with wolves.

* Roach[[note]]Geralt calls ANY horse he's riding "Roach."[[/note]] in ''VideoGame/TheWitcher3'' downplays this. While he can't be killed, doesn't require any maintenance regarding food and water, and can gallop indefinitely as long as he's on a path or road of some sort, he will run out of stamina from galloping ''off'' the beaten path, he's finicky about terrain, and will buck you off and bolt if his "Fear Gauge" is filled.[[note]]It fills when close to hostiles, [[FridgeLogic freaking him out equally]] if it's some [[GoddamnBats pisspot bandit with a wood club]] or a Royal Griffin.[[/note]]

* Garami Manga/TheArmsPeddler has a cart drawn by a zombie horse, which never needs to eat, rest, or actually ''stop moving'', if it comes to that. However, it isn't as fast as a regular horse, allowing for chase scenes.

[[folder:ComicBooks]]
* ''ComicBook/LuckyLuke'''s horse Jolly Jumper is less an automaton and more "just that badass". One sequence shows him running at full speed nonstop over several days, once with Luke sleeping on his back in the saddle, and another running ''while sleeping''. It must be said that this is the same horse that fishes, cooks beans, smokes, and regularly beats his rider at chess....

* As with quite a lot of lazy fantasy tropes, Creator/PoulAnderson attacks this trope in his essay "[[http://www.sfwa.org/2005/01/on-thud-and-blunder/ On Thud And Blunder]].":
--> As for the latter choice, writers who’ve had no personal experience with horses tend to think of them as a kind of sports car. ‘Tain’t so.
--> You cannot gallop them for hours. They’ll collapse. The best way to make time in the saddle is to alternate paces, and have a remount or two trailing behind, and allow the animals reasonable rest. Don’t let your steed eat or drink indiscriminately; it’s likely to bloat and become helpless. In fact, it’s a rather fragile creature, requiring close attention — for example, rubdowns after hard exertion — if it isn’t to fall sick and perhaps die on you. It’s also lazy, stupid, and sometimes malicious. All of these tendencies the rider must keep under control.
--> You cannot grab any old horse and go to battle on it. It’ll instantly become unmanageable. Several of us in the Society for Creative Anachronism tried a little harmless jousting, and soon gave up … and this was with beasts whose owners were already practicing the more pacific equestrian arts, such as tilting at a ring. War horses had to be raised to it from colthood. The best cavalrymen were, too. For lack of that tradition, the vikings, for instance, never fought mounted. Upon landing in a victim country, they’d steal themselves four-legged transportation, but having reached a scene of action, they’d get down.
* ''Literature/HouseOfTheScorpion'': Justified, as the horses were all eejits- meaning they had computer chips in their brain that made them only able to do one command until they are told to stop, and thus if you never told them to eat, sleep or drink, they wouldn't.
* Played straight with Valadan in the Warhorse of Esdragon books, especially ''The Wind-Witch''. Druyan and her family, being avid horse-breeders, know perfectly well how to care for horses and what they are and aren't capable of -- but Valadan himself, being sired by the North Wind, breaks all the rules. He can and will run Druyan across half a continent in a single day to warn the Duke of an oncoming viking attack. After one especially hard run Druyan spends an hour walking and rubbing down Valadan as she would any other horse before admitting to herself that it's totally unnecessary. For every other horse in that world, however, it's an important plot point of ''The Wind-Witch'' is that none of the other Riders can match Valadan, and they have to play some shell-games to keep them in the saddle at all, as they keep exhausting and foundering their mounts trying to keep up.

* Played horribly straight near the end of the Literature/ColdfireTrilogy. The protagonists are on an extremely tight schedule with a lot riding on them making it to the destination in time, so Tarrant, despite being quite a horse aficionado himself, works an enchantment on the horses that turns them into unstoppable riding machines even as their bodies are slowly consumed by the enchantment. Vryce can feel his horse disintegrating underneath him as they ride up the final slope, and it's rather awful.
* ''Discworld/RaisingSteam'': Played with by being discussed. Moist is granted the use of a rare and valuable {{golem}} horse--a [[MechanicalHorse quite literal automaton]]--but the lack of "all those fussing little rituals that defined horsemanship" rather unnerves him. He feels that having a mount that can travel faster than any living animal without ever tiring or needing food or water, and which just stands there dutifully when not in use, is getting something for nothing; that all that power should come at [[PowerAtAPrice some kind of price]]. What makes it even weirder for him is that like all golems, [[SapientSteed the horse is entirely sentient]], but still doesn't mind its lot--when he tells it to go frolic in a field when he's not using it, it takes this as an order.
* ''Literature/ProvostsDog'': Subverted in Mastiff. Beka is miffed when Sabine's horses are added to the Hunt because she thinks they'll slow them down, being such high-maintenance animals compared to Achoo.
* ''Literature/TheToughGuideToFantasyland'': Discussed:
--> "[Horses in Fantasyland] are capable of galloping full-tilt all day without a rest. Sometimes they do not require food or water. They never cast shoes, go lame or put their hooves down holes [...] Horses can be used just like bicycles, and usually are."
* Entirely subverted in ''Literature/TheThreeMusketeers'' where horses regularly keel over, get shot, and get ridden to death, with the careful planning of replacement horses at regularly-placed intervals being an integral part of any high-speed chase. Of course, the novels were written when horses were the only form of personal transportation.
* ''Literature/TheMarvelousLandOfOz'' justifies this in the case of the [[HorseOfADifferentColor Sawhorse]], which, being made out of wood, requires neither food nor sleep.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* Lampshaded in the first series of ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'' by the immortal phrase, "[[Creator/BrianBlessed Chiswick!]] [[LargeHam FRESH]] [[NoIndoorVoice HORSES!]]"

[[folder: Western Animation]]

[[folder: Real Life]]

* Roach[[note]]Geralt calls ANY horse he's riding "Roach."[[/note]] in ''VideoGame/TheWitcherIII''' downplays this. While he can't be killed, doesn't require any maintenance regarding food and water, and can gallop indefinitely as long as he's on a path or road of some sort, he will run out of stamina from galloping ''off'' the beaten path, he's finicky about terrain, and will buck you off and bolt if his "Fear Gauge" is filled.[[note]]It fills when close to hostiles, [[FridgeLogic freaking him out equally]] if it's some [[GoddamnBats pisspot bandit with a wood club]] or a Royal Griffin.[[/note]]

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda'' has several examples:

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'': Horses and [[HorseOfADifferentColor other mounts]] never need feeding or rest.

* The horse you can obtain in ''VideoGame/StardewValley'' might as well have been a motorcycle. Doesn't eat, drink or rest; moves faster than a running human, can turn on a dime, and navigate any terrain that a human could (including board bridges a foot wide, at full speed); and will patiently wait in the exact spot you left it in when you dismount, no matter how long you leave it... unless you get back home yourself and advance to the next day, in which case it will have returned to its stable and is waiting for you there. Definitely worth everything you paid for it.

* ''ComicBook/LuckyLuke'''s horse Jolly Jumper is less an automaton and more "just that badass". One sequence shows him running at full speed nonstop over several days, once with Luke sleeping on his back in the saddle, and another running ''while sleeping''. It must be said that this is the same horse that fishes, cooks beans, smokes and regularly beats his rider at chess....

* ''Literature/TheMarvelousLandOfOz'' justifies this in the case of the [[HorseOfADifferentColor Sawhorse]], which, being made of out of wood, requires neither food nor sleep.

* In ''VideoGame/NetHack'', horses are just like any other pet, only that they can be ridden. They need a saddle to ride and food to live, but are happy even without shoes, a harness, water or sleep. (The player character, likewise, never needs water or sleep.)
* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'':
** Throughout the series, this is Played Straight in every game that horses appear. They can be ridden indefinitely with no signs of fatigue, never require food or water (but then again, neither does the PlayerCharacter), can survive attacks and falls which would kill (or at least severely lame) real horses, and, in some games, can be ridden up near-sheer surfaces in gravity defying fashion. [[SomewhereAnEquestrianIsCrying Many Equestrians have shed tears]] over the portrayal of horses in the series.
** The loading screens in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' even [[LampshadeHanging Lampshade]] this property:

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda''

* ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption''[='s=] horses don't require feeding, grooming or watering, but they can be killed and riding them too hard (either with liberal use of spurs or by putting them through rough terrain) can cause them to buck you. There's even a slight chance of them getting injured going through rough terrain and becoming lame. If you ride him/her for long enough without giving the Horse a chance to rest (dismounting and hitching, or pausing to save/fastravel from a camp, the horse will simply drop dead mid-trot/gallop. It ''does'' take quite a long while, though.

* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'', your horse (or hart, dracolisk or [[AscendedMeme war nug]]) can be ridden at a hard gallop from one end of the map to the other and back without issues.

* Calvary horses in the early days of ''VideoGame/Battlefield1'' were notorious for being these. They had the ability to [[MadeOfIron soak up bullets]] (and even ''cannon fire'') without any form of crippling effects, gallop indefinitely and even leap over vehicles or onto buildings. Occasional wonky Frostbite Engine physics also sometimes allowed them to win a ''head-on collision'' against '''ARMOURED CARS'''.[[note]]Admittingly, all these quirks could be explained from a coders standpoint as the horses being classified in the engine as "vehicles" and thus play by those rules.[[/note]]

* ''ComicBook/LuckyLuke'''s horse Jolly Jumper is less an automaton and just that badass. One sequence shows him running at full speed nonstop over several days, once with Luke sleeping on his back in the saddle, and another running ''while sleeping''.

* {{Discussed}} and {{Averted}} in ''Literature/TheHorseAndHisBoy'', one of ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'' books - naturally, since the character discussing the issue is a horse. When the heroes find out that Prince Rabadash is going to ride out with his cavalry, they all freak out, but as Bree the horse points out, lots of provisions will need to be gathered, and the progress of the force will be not be especially fast since men, armor, weapons, food, and water are heavy and the desert is dry and hot, so they can't just gallop all day long across it. So, the threat goes from "really really scary" to "still dangerous, but manageable".

* ''ComicBook/LuckyLuke'''s horse Jolly Jumper is less an automatan and just that badass. One sequence shows him running at full speed nonstop over several days, once with Luke sleeping on his back in the saddle, and another running ''while sleeping''.

* Used in the game ''VideoGame/MountAndBlade'': horses can gallop for hours at a time, even when armoured.. They can be lamed however. And if a lamed horse is cut out from under you during battle, expect to lose that horse for good. Also, humans in the game need to eat but horses don't. Probably one of the AcceptableBreaksFromReality as the human food alone takes up most of your inventory space.

** ''Ocarina of Time'' had nods to reality: Making Epona gallop too long would tire her out and reduce her to a trot for a while. Otherwise, the game played this trope dead straight. You also have to line Epona up correctly to jump a fence and be going a decent speed, or she balks and won't jump; and she can't climb stairs or swim. She also won't get too close to Hyrule Castle without pitching a major fit about it.
** This happens in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]]'' too, not to mention that [[SoundCodedForYourConvenience Epona's whinnies get much more strained if you push her too hard]]. The same game features truck-sized giant boars used by mounts by Moblins and [[TheJuggernaut as battering rams by Link, smashing through gates and palisades without a second thought.]] Crashing into a wall, however, makes them fall down and take a few seconds to get their brain cell back in order before getting up no worse for wear.

* The horse you can obtain in ''VideoGame/StardewValley'' might as well have been a motorcycle. Doesn't eat, drink or rest; moves faster than a running human, can turn on a dime, and navigate any terrain that a human could (including board bridges a foot wide, at full speed); and will patiently wait in the exact spot you left it in when you dismount, no matter how long you leave it... unless you get bacjk home yourself and advance to the next day, in which case it will have returned to its stable and is waiting for you there. Definitely worth everything you paid for it.

** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'', horses never need to eat, drink, sleep or relieve themselves (but then again, [[BottomlessBladder neither does the player character]]).
** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'':
*** Continues this trope in the series, [[http://i.imgur.com/Xaoka.jpg with interest]].
*** The loading screens for ''Skyrim'' even [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] this property. "What the horses of Skyrim lack in speed they make up in stamina."

* ''Literature/TheMarvelousLandOfOz'' justifies this in the case of the [[HorseOfADifferentColor Sawhorse]], which, being made of out of wood, requires neither food nor rest.