#I realized I've never like. actually introduced khait as animals. They aren't Just like Horses But Different (though definitely did draw

[serpentface]

Khait overview:

Khait are domesticated bovids. Their wild ancestors were a wildebeest-like antelope standing an average of 48-55 inches at the shoulder, while modern khait exist in a variety of sizes and forms. The majority of riding khait average out at 55-65 inches tall, though exist in small but exceptionally hardy 'pony' forms adapted to harsh terrain, and (much less commonly) as very large draft animals. Their horn shape, coloration, and mane shape/length/texture varies tremendously across the domestic population, as a result of both natural development and active selective breeding.

They were first domesticated on the vast western steppes in a slow process of accommodation to caelin scavenger-nomads that would follow their herds to consume their dead. Their use was initially solely for meat and hides (and being passively ridden by their 20-30lb handlers), and gradually came to encompass carrying packs, plowing, pulling carts, and eventually pulling chariots and being actively ridden when their domestic population came into human and elowey possession. Their ability to carry large riders shaped the trajectory of human and elowey history and spread, and they remain the key and most widespread mounts used by the large mammalian peoples.

Their usage is functionally near identical to horses in real life- most of the domestic population are large, strong animals capable of carrying grown humans on their back, pulling carts and hauling packs, etc - but they have significant behavioral differences to anatomically modern horses (and the small, three toed horses in the setting).

When left to their own devices, mares and their young will form loose, overlapping territories. Females form strong social bonds amongst themselves and their herds may retain the same members for life, but they do not form permanent attachments with males. Young males are driven off by their mothers at adolescence, and will coalesce in bachelor herds until they are mature enough to compete for mating rights. Adult bulls establish their own territories and defend these from other males during the breeding season while females pass through at will.

In captivity, the majority of males will be gelded. Geldings are typically unaggressive and adopt female-esque social behavior, developing strong peer bonds with mixed herds of females and other geldings. Intact adolescent males can be kept together until they are fully mature (4-5 years old), while bulls are typically kept apart from all other intact males (though in practice, many individuals may coexist peacefully if not in the presence of receptive females). An optimal captive setup is to keep a herd of up to 30 females and geldings on the same land as a single intact bull. If breeding is to be avoided, captive herds should be separated into mare and gelding bands during the summer months (ideally with both groups able to see, touch, and smell each other), with the bull kept with the geldings. Fully separating a bull from contact with a herd is damaging to the animal’s health- they are highly social prey animals and will suffer from severe stress if deprived.

Khait maintain social bonds primarily via grooming, spending much of their time at rest meticulously licking each other. This strengthens their bonds and relieves stress and physical discomfort. They retain some juvenile behavioral traits well into adulthood as a byproduct of domestication and will readily engage in social play while at ease- chasing, headbutting, kicking, mud rolling, and scraping dirt with their horns.

Herds maintain stable dominance structures. The dominant individual is typically the eldest mare (though in captive herds a gelding may take this position) while young individuals and immigrant members are at the bottom of the social structure. Hierarchy is maintained through ritualized displays rather than overt aggression, though dominant individuals may be physically aggressive towards unfamiliar khait, and introductions of new animals to a herd must be done cautiously. Bachelor herds have only loose social ties with no real hierarchy, and territorial bulls have no distinct place in the dominance hierarchy of associated herds. Mares are known to frequently mount each other (and geldings) as an aspect of dominance behavior, while bulls are occasionally known to mount other males during socialization and play.

Mares have a seasonal breeding cycle determined by daylight hours (going through estrus cycles in the summer and anestrus in the winter), but their receptive period is far longer than that of their wild ancestors (which would have only bred for a month-long period in late summer) as a byproduct of domestication. Dominant mares get first dibs on breeding and may attempt to prevent low ranking mares from mating (though a bull will usually attempt to mate with all receptive members of the herd).

In the presence of receptive mares, bulls put on elaborate performances to advertise their health and willingness to mate. They aggressively scent mark their surroundings with glands on the hooves and below the eye, urinate with an erection to spray their leg and chest hair, toss their manes, scrape the ground with their hooves, dig out tufts of dirt and grass with their horns, and chase females around with a very silly looking, high stepping trot. When two bulls compete, they will perform these behaviors in each other’s direction while periodically stopping to investigate each other by scent. If one does not back down during this challenge display, they may fight. High intensity fights involve both animals dropping to their knees and locking horns, shoving until one falters or flees. These shoving matches may be physically intense, but are ritualized and rarely result in actual injuries. Bulls are occasionally known to get their horns locked together (particularly in the context of domesticated khait having a variety of horn shapes), which can be fatal if not intervened with, and attempting to untangle two very large, panicked animals can be fraught.

Mares investigate a bull’s condition by observation and scent before allowing a close approach, and may mate with the same male multiple times in one estrus cycle. Gestation lasts about 10 months, and foals are born capable of standing and running within hours. Pregnancies almost always produce one foal, with twin births being very rare but not unknown.

Khait are fully domesticated and come from long lines of ancestors accommodated to extensive handling, but their instincts as prey animals make the process of 'breaking' a khait can be complicated. The halter, bit, and saddle is unsettling for unaccommodated animals, and the sensation of being mounted by a rider resembles being pounced on by a predator and may be distressing. The methods used to train a khait for riding vary tremendously across cultures- existing anywhere on a spectrum between wrestling a yearling down, mounting it, and holding on for dear life until the khait calms (perhaps a briefly traumatic approach, but often necessary to the demands of life in a khait-based nomadic context) to extremely gradual accommodation processes lasting years.

Human (and other sophont) keepers benefit from the khait's proclivity towards dominance hierarchies, but cannot fully fill roles in the khait social system. Khait behavior towards handlers differs strongly from behavior towards other khait, as they conceptualize people as non-threatening predators. However, khait can still form strong and trusting bonds with handlers. A comfortable, healthy, well bonded khait will implicitly trust their handler in matters of watching for predators, and will usually tolerate annoyances in handling that they would otherwise react to aggressively. They will attempt to bond with handlers by grooming (ie: licking them), and are known to produce wholly unique contact calls reserved for their associated sophonts and never used towards other khait. A handler responding to in kind (scratching and brushing, speaking and singing to it) will reinforce this bond, which can last the khait's entire life.

Khait are socially intelligent animals, and adept at reading body language and emotional cues (scent, tone of voice, etc) of the sophonts they are accommodated to. This is partly instinctual behavior developed over generations of living with a specific sophont, but largely a learned process- a khait born to human-accommodated parents growing up with elowey handlers will eventually become 'fluent' in their handler's body language (it just may take longer to do so).