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Hi, I am looking for some help with barding for animals. I know in the book that there is living hair barding and the status for that. Also in the mount description there are comments about barding but no where can I find the cost for barding and weight for it. Can someone shine some light on this question? thanks

There's barding on Page 143 of the Cathay Player's guide, but to the best my knowledge not elsewhere.

For a horse standard Barding (horse armor) weight was about 60-70 lbs. There was also lighter padded or leather barding. As it was easier to make than armor for human but also more material was needed, i would say that chainmail barding would cost about 270 silver, plate mail 2000.

As far as I can find, over most of the world throughout most of history, people actively tried not to kill the horses. As far as I can tell, it was only as heavily armored Knights became common enough that killing the horse was the only viable option for anyone on the other side, that barding became necessary enough to become a Thing, and that only happened in a couple of cultures.

So I'd always assumed it was left out on purpose, as something Barsaive never invented. I hadn't realized they actually talked about it so much, like specifying that War Horses can wear it. Huh. My vote would still be to just say it's not even really a concept in Barsaive. I can't see any good reason why it would be.