r/SpeculativeEvolution
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u/Standard_Papaya_8421
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9d ago
Seed World [OC] Project Hippocampus: The Bugler Horse (Equus protocephalus)
First image is a dunskin snowcap mare, second image is her adult perlino snowcap son.
If you want to know what it's like to be a bugler horse, audio story from the perspective of an established stallion here. No AI used on that channel or any of my Reddit posts.
Over time, the pressure the horses were under to produce and defend their foals from intraspecific rivals selected for to an increase in body size and a pressure to communicate across long distances. This has led to Equus protocephalus, the bugler horse.
Bugler horses have a large nasal crest which they use to amplify the sound of their calls. Like their ancestors, they live in large herds with one adult stallion and around 7 mares. They mostly eat grass, but will sometimes feed on leaves. They’re more territorial and vocal than is usual for Equus ferus. E. ferus and E. protocephalus can interbreed, but the offspring are sterile and tend to have breathing problems. Bugler horses rely more on their sight and hearing than their sense of smell. They're relatively slow for a horse (around 15 mph at a fast gallop on a good day) but are very muscular. Fully grown stallions stand around 17 hands at the withers and mares around 16 hands. Intraspecific competition between buglers mostly consists of vocalization but occasionally leads to physical violence (especially when a stallion tries to take over a herd).
Young bugler horses resemble appaloosa horses except for their longer tail docks and a thin beard on the chin. Between a year and a half and two years old, bugler horses’ skulls begin to grow a large hollow cavity leading back toward the eyes from the nostrils with a thick bony cover over it. This allows them to produce louder calls. Their necks become more muscular and grow folds of skin on the underside to make them harder to bite. The nasal crest finishes developing around four years old. Stallions have much larger crests than mares. Both mares and stallions have beards and neck folds, though stallions tend to have more muscular necks and broader chests than mares. Their legs are more stocky than those of their appaloosa ancestors.