Oblivion:Horses

Horses
 
thumb|right|Horses

Oblivion features horses to assist the eager adventurer in exploring the wide and varied lands of Cyrodiil by improving the speed of both regular and fast travel.

Riding
As covered in more detail below, be careful which horses you mount and how. To mount one, press Spacebar (or whatever key or button you have remapped as Activate). Dismount with the same key.  The horse is steered with all four direction keys (W-A-S-D by default), turns rather awkwardly, and backs up very slowly. The mouse pointer has no effect on horse direction, and is simply you looking around while riding.  The horse walks at a brisk pace (though slower than a PC with very high Speed), and can be made to gallop much faster, with the same keys that control PC running.  Same with jumping. The Sneak key has no effect while on horseback (horses aren't exactly stealthy).  You can use the View key while mounted, to switch between first- and third-person views.  Controlling horse movement can be very difficult at choppy framerates; in such circumstances, you may need to stick to the walking speed except on straight, level stretches, and consider temporarily reducing your graphics settings to speed up the game's responsiveness.  The horse scripting itself is decidedly non-trivial, and adds considerably to the framerate load, as does zipping through the landscape more rapidly.

Finding a Horse
Horses can be purchased from stables across Cyrodiil (except from the one in the Imperial City) starting at 500 gold, and can be stolen. Each stable has several types of horses, but only sells one. The price is fixed, you can't haggle, and your Mercantile skills have no effect. After you purchase one, it will be found waiting outside in the corral (not with the stablehand as the dealer says, due to an AI bug), so be very careful not to accidentally take the wrong horse if there are others like it in there. If you try to buy a second horse from the same stable, the merchant will say they have none for sale. When your old horse dies, the stable will have a new one for sale.

This table lists the varieties of horse that are available (in order from cheapest to most expensive).  A comprehensive listing of every horse in the game is provided under Complete List of Horses.



 
 
 

Stealing Horses
Stealing a horse is simple; just attempt to mount one that does not belong to you. Stealing a horse without receiving a bounty for theft is only slightly more tricky. To do this, you must not be seen mounting the horse. Activating the horse to mount it cancels Invisibility, but sneaking and Chameleon both help to remain undetected. However, the cancellation of Invisibility will not incur a bounty on your head, because you were invisible at the moment you mounted the horse. If you do not have a stealth-oriented character, you can also push the horse a safe distance away from NPCs and other horses before mounting it.

Stolen horses are generally only good for one-way transportation, because they will start walking back to their home stable after you dismount. Bay horses and Imperial Legion horses will stick around, however.  Remounting a previously stolen horse will incur another bounty if you are seen; it is best to dismount a stolen horse in a location out of view of others to improve your chances of being able to safely remount.

Horses themselves can witness your theft and report you to the authorities, just like a regular NPC.  If you want to steal a horse out of a group but they can see each other, you can rotate the others so that they all face away from you.  Always steal a horse by approaching it from the rear in sneak mode to limit your chances of being detected. You can be alone with the horse in the middle of the wilderness, but if the horse sees you climb on, you will receive a bounty. If you successfully mount a horse without being detected, you will not incur a bounty, no matter what you do afterwards. You can parade a stolen horse in front of its owner, and you will not get a bounty.

If you are caught stealing a guild horse, you will be kicked out of that guild in the same manner as if you had stolen an object. As usual, the horse can catch you stealing, and can instantly kick you out of whatever guild it belongs to.

Horse Abilities
A horse's primary ability is its speed.  Unless your character has a very high Speed, riding a horse allows you to travel much more quickly.  To take advantage of the horse's speed when fast traveling, you must mount the horse before starting to fast travel.

Horses are incredible when it comes to climbing steep slopes. They can run up slopes you'd never climb on foot.  Horses can also jump, although poorly (and not while stationary).  While descending slopes, it is easily possible to hurt your horse; a "whinnying" sound announces that the horse is taking damage.  To avoid damage, very slowly walk down steep slopes. You can also increase your speed slowly while avoiding any rocks or ledges on the way down.

Horses can swim, but do so very slowly. If you watch carefully, you'll spot a few fords around the Imperial City (one of them on the southern end of the cape with Arcane University) which can be crossed quickly.  If you have trouble leaving water after swimming on horseback, jump a few times to catch traction.

It is possible to go underwater with your horse, but be warned; horses can't breathe underwater and tend to end up in a watery grave. This can be avoided but it is tricky to get a horse back above the water.

Combat
Without mods, it is impossible to fight from horseback in Oblivion. Would-be knights must dismount to fight on foot, although their horses will do their best to defend themselves against attackers if their rider decides to pursue enemies into the undergrowth. With the exception of Shadowmere - who is essential - it is not recommended that horses be actively used in combat, as even the hardiest are easy prey.

If you have purchased the Horse Armor Pack, the armor rating of your horse is not affected by buying horse armor. Instead, your horse's health is increased, as shown in the tables of horse statistics.

Many enemies can simply be outrun, especially if you have a fast horse.  If you stick to the main roads, you should eventually pass one of the Imperial Legion Soldiers, who will kindly help get any hostiles off your tail. In a mountainous area, you can try riding your horse parallel along a cliff (be careful not to fall!). Usually, the hostiles will slide down the slope and be unable to reach you, or even plummet down and die. Getting back up may be tricky, but horses are better at climbing up slopes than you are.

Steer clear of wolves and mountain lions whenever possible: if you see one in the distance, it is often best to get off your horse ahead of time, run up and kill the animal, then continue.  Unlike most creatures, they can keep up with most horses, and will pursue you relentlessly.  In addition, they often prefer to attack your horse, rather than you, and they will do so by hiding underneath their legs so that it is nearly impossible to fight them without accidentally hitting your horse several times in the process.  The biggest problem is that this can result in a bounty.  If you happen to hit your horse enough times to make it fight back, yield to it (Block + Activate) to calm it down.

Taking Care of Horses
Horses in Oblivion do not require food and do not seem to become fatigued regardless of how hard they are pushed. They can however be mauled by bandits, monsters and wild animals, as well as by their owner's errant blows.  They can also take damage from jumping down too steep distances.  Horses will heal slowly over time (resting or waiting for an hour will almost always heal your horse).  You can heal your horse more quickly with Restore Health effects, or instantly and completely at a wayshrine (see below).

Horses can be poisoned by strikes from poisoned weapons or weapons that cause drains. Horses can also contract at least one type of disease. Unfortunately, they can't tell you about it. If you find your horse has low health and is not healing, it probably caught a disease. Sometimes they seem to get over a disease in several days, but to cure all these things you may want to try a wayshrine blessing. It may be a good idea to just do a wayshrine blessing on your horse every once in awhile to remove unknown ailments -- but there is a side-effect (see below).

Useful Spells
The Convalescence spells available for purchase are relatively inefficient and wasteful (instant, on target, lots of magicka, low healing value), and too weak (15 points of healing) to be helpful with horses, whose health ranges from 200 to 500.  Therefore, using the Spell Making altar to make a custom spell is highly recommended: make the custom Restore Health spell be on touch (1/3 cheaper), and distributed over time (8 points for 8 seconds or 4 point over 16 seconds are both cheaper than 64 points instantly). Alternatively, you can also take advantage of the ''Mara's Mercy Greater Power, obtained by activating the Ritual Stone, which offers 150 points of healing, on target, daily. In the Knights of the Nine, one can obtain the Merciful Touch'' spell, which has the effect of Restore Health 50 points on touch.  This spell has a base cost of 25 magicka, making it quite efficient in keeping one's horse alive.

Horses have an impressive speed multiplier - a Speed of between 23 and 33 for them is the equivalent of about 70-100 for the player.  Therefore even a relatively weak Fortify Speed spell (e.g., 15 points for 30 seconds) is highly effective and significantly shortens travel times, even if you need to get off the horse's back to cast it.

Wayshrine blessings can be applied to horses.  Any wayshrine blessing on a horse acts identically to all the other wayshrines: it will instantly cure all damage, disease, or poison effects, and give the horse a permanent Fortify Speed +110 bonus.

Fortifying the speed of your horse can be very handy, although risky.   The horse's speed will increase dramatically and it will certainly become difficult to control fall damage.  The horse will walk very quickly -- much faster than the fastest wolf or troll can run.  So it is best to keep your speed down to a super-speed walk on any hilly terrain. If you can see a flat path in front of you, you can gallop for an instant. Since water is flat, combining Water Walking with Fortify Speed, and then using the lakes and rivers as galloping highways works very well.

To apply a blessing to a horse, you need to get your horse to stand on top of the wayshrine's altar, i.e., by jumping the horse up onto the altar, then dismounting when its rear legs are still on top of the altar.  You also need to stay on top of the altar yourself, and the horse needs to be at least slightly between you and the center of the altar. Activate the altar to receive the blessing, and you should see the spell animation circle your horse (in 3rd person view). Of course, if you don't get the blessing, then that means the horse did.  It is a little tricky to do, so saving and reloading on a failed attempt (if the blessing hits you instead) may be wise.

If you cast a 100 point Fortify Acrobatics spell on your horse, it will be able to perform the water jump perk. The horse will bounce on the water at the same speed it took off, so taking off on land and then bouncing on the water will make your horse bounce at the same speed it normally runs; however, taking off from underwater will make your horse bounce slowly, since all horses are slow swimmers. This takes quite a bit of practice to master, but it sure beats swimming.

Some other useful spells to consider for your horse are:
Command Creature: All horses are level 1 except Shadowmere (level 10) and the Unicorn (level 15), so even very weak  ("up to level 2") spells will make most horses fight by your side.
Water Walking works nicely instead of swimming.

Notes
Your Athletics and Acrobatics skills will not increase while on horseback.  If you want to improve these skills, you will need to travel on foot.
You can still talk to characters, pick up objects and pick plants while on a horse.
You can't mount a horse while over-encumbered. If you become over-encumbered while riding a horse you can continue to ride it, but it won't be able to jump and you can't fast travel. 
It is possible to hold an item using the grab button while on a horse, by grabbing it and then mounting your horse. It may be tricky to make sure you don't pick up the item instead of mounting the horse, try walking close to the horse and pushing the item against it or moving quickly to the side. This is helpful when you are over-encumbered.
If a horse you own wanders off, it usually makes its way back to the stables where you bought it or where it was given to you. A horse that dies along the way will disappear from your Horses Owned stats listing.
Your horse lands at your destination of fast travel. If you travel to a city, the horse will be found outside the city gate closest to your previous location, not necessarily the one with the stables near it.
Your horse will not follow you through doors/portals that require a loading screen to enter (i.e. entering a dungeon or city, using a portal).
If you are on the PC version you can give a name to your horse by opening the Console, clicking on your horse, and typing:  .
You can only own one horse from each stable. If you already own a horse from a given stable, inquiring about another will produce the message "You bought our last horse." You can only buy another horse from that stable if your previous one dies.
Your horse is in danger of attack even when you are not around, so when entering a dungeon it is a good idea to check the local area for hostile creatures before leaving your horse behind.
If you own two or more horses, the one you rode last is "active", meaning it will be the one that appears by your side when you fast travel. Your other horse(s) will make their way back to where they originally came from—unless they're armored, in which case they will stay wherever you left them indefinitely.
A stolen horse becomes your "active" horse.
However, a stolen horse will not follow you when fast-traveling. If you want to make your horse stop following you for whatever reason, stealing a horse will do the job.
If you place a horse under a high cliff or building, you can jump off that cliff or building and mount your horse just before you hit the ground. This results in no damage to you, so long as you time it right.
All player owned horses - with the exception of Shadowmere - are part of the HorsePC faction. All other horses, with the exception of  the Unicorn, are part of the Prey faction. Prior Maborel's Paint Horse does not count as player owned.
Horses grow or shrink in size slightly, depending on the height of the race who last mounted them.

Bugs
 
 
 
 
 
 
If on PC however this bug can be fixed by simply closing to the desktop and starting the game again from your recent save. 
 
Oddly, horses that have been rendered unconscious from a damage fatigue spell/poison or a drain fatigue spell can still be mounted, resulting in a humorous sight. Although this glitch has no practical use in gameplay, it does allow easy access to a unique ragdoll camera without the use of mods when performed on top of a cliff or steep hill.

Complete List of Horses
Armored horses, as provided by the Horse Armor Pack official plugin, are identifiable by the fact that the horse's name changes to include the word "armored" in it (for example, from "My Paint Horse" to "Armored Paint Horse").  In the new ID, "xx" depends on the order you have your plug-ins loaded in; see Formid.
All of the horses are also listed in the category Oblivion-Creatures-Horses.
All stables only sell one type of horse; the Old Nag from the Chestnut Handy Stable can only be acquired with the Horse Armor Pack plug-in.