Horse (Skyrim)

Horses in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim offer more gameplay options, on a whole, than did Horses in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. There is only one breed of horse in Skyrim, but it comes in five different colours. All horses have the same base health and stamina, with Shadowmere and Frost (quest-obtained horses) being the only exceptions.

Loot

 * Horse Meat
 * Horse Hide

Purchasing
With the exception of the two unique horses Shadowmere and Frost, horses are available for purchase at any of the stables listed below for 1000 septims regardless of your Speechcraft skill. Here can be seen how to obtain Shadowmere.

Ownership
Once purchased, the horse is considered owned and can be identified by the "[Player]'s horse" label on the HUD. You can own multiple types of horses and multiple horses of the same type. The horse that you have ridden and fast traveled with most recently is the one that will accompany you; other owned horses return to the stable where they were purchased.

Borrowing and Stealing
Stealing horses is considered theft and is therefore a crime against the owner. Mounting a horse that is labeled "Steal horse" will result in a crime and therefore a bounty. Common places to find horses to steal include military camps (both Stormcloak and Imperial) or forts, as well as being located within war encounters. Each time you mount a stolen horse will add 50 gold to your bounty which can make horse theft a highly expensive crime. However, it is possible to mount a stolen horse and not incur a bounty if you are not witnessed by anyone, anyone including the horse, as it was in the previous games.

Seldomly you will be given the opportunity to borrow a horse. A horse that is available to borrow is indicated in the HUD by the simultaneous lack of the "Steal horse" label and the "[Player]'s horse" label.

Arguably, the easiest horse to borrow is from the Riften Stables. After completing the quest for the stable hand Shadr, he will allow you to borrow a horse from the stables. However, this horse will walk away after dismounting, as stolen horses do.

If you're lucky enough you can find bandits on the side of the road dressed as a faction and will say that this is none of your business and they will attack you. Once you kill them there will be a horse there indicating to ride it, and this doesn't count as stolen but will run away from you when dismounted as stolen horses do.

Horses can be earned in Riften Stables by challenging Hofgrir, the stable owner, to a brawl. Once you win the battle of fists, he will offer to sell a horse to you. If you say that you would rather walk then he calls you cheap and you can ride the Riften horses for free. The free horse will walk away after dismounting. Although the horse is not technically not owned by the player, it will travel with you when you fast travel. A benefit to earning and using this free horse is that you can simply go to Riften Stables and take a new horse if yours dies in battle which saves 1,000 of your hard earned gold. (Confirmed and )

It is also possible to "borrow" a horse from multiple forts which are raided during the civil war quests. While capturing the forts, there is often a horse inside running away from the battle. Upon approaching the horse, it should display as "Ride horse" on the HUD. The Dragonborn can mount the horse, and provided it survives the battle, use it afterward. (Said horse usually appears after fast traveling to most locations.) It seems that the game treats it as an owned horse, except that it will not wait for the Dragonborn, as owned horses do. (Confirmed, , )

Riding and Mounting
You can walk (by toggling run off) canter (run) and gallop (sprint) at speeds equal to your own best unmounted walk, run and sprint speeds, but you possess greater stamina and strength while mounted that allows for greater load capacity and sprint time. This increased load capacity while mounted allows for fast traveling while overburdened. In addition to their increased strength and stamina, horses can also charge through and leap over obstacles with similar restrictions as the unmounted player character. As with unmounted navigation, larger obstacles will pose similar problems. If a player presses the jump button while the horse is walking or standing still, the horse will rear and neigh. This has no effect whatsoever, except to slide the horse backwards a little. Horses can also swim, although they are slightly slower than the player.

Horses are mostly non-aggressive and will often flee when you dismount in combat situations. However, horses have been regularly observed attacking aggressors or even defending the player character which can lead to their untimely and expensive death. Horses often pursue the target and are sometimes hard to find after doing so. It is not advised to let your horse to go anywhere near a dragon as even the weakest dragon will be able to kill the strongest horse in one gust of breath. * This is not true with Shadowmere and Frost, but care should be taken nonetheless.

Followers cannot ride horseback and will quickly fall behind if you travel while mounted on a Horse. To compensate for this discrepancy in traveling speed the player can utilize the "wait" feature to allow for the Follower(s) to catch up.

There is a glitch where if the Dragonborn mounts his/her horse while wielding a torch, it will stay wielded while riding the horse ( confirmed).

Another bug that may occur is sliding a long way back while rearing. This will usually put you about seven or eight strides behind where you reared, and happens most often in rough or hilly terrain. ( confirmed)

There is another bug, if you ride your horse to the water he will start to swim, but if you get down and climb again, he will start walking like if he were on ground and you will be able to canter and gallop as long as you stay on the water, but if you come out of the water and enter again, you will have to do it all over again. This is very useful when you have to travel a long distance over water. (Confirmed, , and )

An uncommon glitch will occur while dismounting a horse. The horse will slide away from the Dragonborn, regardless of terrain. It can slide up mountain sides, but will float on air if the ground slopes beneath it. The camera will also follow the horse until it stops sliding. The Dragonborn can also be attacked and killed while the horse is moving, and will be unable to respond or perform any actions until the glitch stops. ( and confirmed)