In marathon (the only mode I've played) it takes 150 horses to make a scout or dragoon. This means that a Colonist represents about 150 people.
A single colonist eats 2 food per turn. Apparently, two single horses require the same amount of food as 150 people? Or am I not figuring this correctly?
Not quite correct. All colonists can hunt/farm/scavenge for enough food for themselves, and do so when not based in a city.
It is only
Working colonists who consume 2 food per turn, and I put this down the cost of giving them one task for the year, forcing the person into settling into a profession and developing/feeding a family
On an aside, I generally think that a colonist represents about a hundred people. Which seems to fit when you remember that horses are a good measured in tonnes not pure numbers...
Using your theory on
pure costing of horses and colonists, a single colonist actually costs 200 food before you get a new one (that is at normal speed - probably more in Marathon), yet the horses required to make that colonist a scout/dragoon only cost 50 tonnes of food.
Effectively the proportion is 1 person eats enough food for 4 tonnes of horses,
not 1 horse eats 75 persons food.
I think a rancher should be able to produce horses at a factory ratio with the tier one building, and then get some sort of bonus on top of this afterwards. I like the game, a lot, but it really takes too long to produce horses in any meaningful way unless you specifically go inland, find a slot with lots of food, and make a ranch colony.
Stables are very cheap structures in vanilla (cost only 30), so you could say you get what you pay for!
I disagree with the point though, but I have been playing with my customized stables (+1 free horses) and ranches (+2 free horses) from LooF mod. I generaly build at least a stable in every coastal town, and have a good steady stream of horses coming in.
I'd like to see this automatic building bonus implemented in AODII - it represents natural breeding in an enclosed small stable/large ranch area, though to balance, the cost of both structures needs increasing slightly from vanilla.
If people still feel this harshly about it I'd consider a +25% bonus to stables, +50% bonus to ranches, but again the costs of the initial buildings would need increasing.