It costs 1000 gold for a horse. I am on my third horse and have yet to even ride any of them. Every other time time I return to the house at Lakeside Manor a dragon shows up and kills it. I fight the dragons away from the house and they circle around back to the house and kill the horse.

Kinda pointless to put a feature into the game if you do not get to use it because the player has no control over the horse dying constantly.

i pefer my ghost horse myself,fits a battlemage wearing deadric armor

Well those are dragons for you. They literally attack everything BUT you (unless you're a vampire, and it's a fire-shouting dragon. THEN they seem to always want to attack you). Expect lots of casualties, like your horses, for example. That's why dragons annoy me.

The problem is not the horse or the dragon but the shortsightedness of making the world revolve utterly around the player. Normally it works out but with the spawn system the game has, it turns the player into a harbinger of death, dragons and orphaned children.

A giant managed to scared my cow away, that was also a waste of money.

yeah they need to tone down the attacks
i find the carriage is waste
if you had a town fort or castle, maybe but not a house in the middle of nowhere
but to each his own

Dragons fly away when they see me. I even try to conjure up dragon chew toys but they ignore them. I literally have to chase one down if I want it's bones and scales.

Get Shadowmere. You'll never have to buy a horse again when it dies. Or you can just conjure Arvak at your disposal. Or if you don't use horses, then don't buy one.

Speak for yourself. I never go far enough for dragons to spawn, and I use horses and carriages for immersion reasons.

the dawnguard killed my horse and my steward...i cant seem to replace the seward either so...ooh well

ghost horse? did you find a way to take the headless horsemans horse?

I think he's referring to Arvaak.

As far as I am concerned 1k gold for a horse is a very small amount. I have 800k gold and fully building the 3 houses barely put a dent in my fortune My horse got chewed by a dragon twice already. Gave me an excuse to spend gold

Strange I have seen no giants but one of Braggen's cows has been rounded up and brought back several times. Aela had to go a long way to get it last time.

Braggen still has the original horse at Lakeview Manor, despite its mistaken belief it is up to fighting dragons. Usually Braggen kills the dragons a fair way from the horse, but the last one had the cheek to land in front of the house, right near the front door, so the horse decided it wanted to fight a dragon. Gave me a fright that did, thought the horse was going to be roasted.

the carriage driver and horse are immortal only two that never get spooked or die.

but on the topic of dragon attacks at lakeview my adopted daughter saw the dragon and yelled "go away" everyone came running to slay the dragon.

Even her - she pulled out her wooden sword and started swinging it was awesome!

After that I reloaded to a previous save before i gave her the sword and I upgraded it for her.

The child is Lucia from whiterun. Only adopted one leaving the second bed open in case theres the possibility to adopt a mini Kajiit in a future dlc expansion.

A giant attacked my animal pen, killing the cow and two of the three chickens.

My steward gave me the option to buy another cow, but not any of the slaughtered chickens. Annoying bug.

It's like a role playing game, where a dragon kills things.

this has been tested, you can replace your steward.

I had a giant pulverize two of my chickens with his hammer. That really upset me so now his carcass is fertilizer for my garden.

At least you can replace your horse lol. My steward and family got wiped out so the option to buy a horse isn't even there for me. My horse died on the way to town, I hit a boulder in the road at night and he fell right over.

They SHOULD let you hire respawnable guards or something to help with that. Heck, hire an unkillable companion. Everyone acts like they're the kill alls of the lands of Skyrim.
And build a thick fence (since no one else can jump/step over them but you).

I've had my horses fight everything from a dragon (along with the Bard), bandits and wolves. They're pretty tough. Haven't lost any yet, but I'm sure this will jinx that. I did lose a cow by Giant. PITA. Ah well, living in the wilds of Skyrim.

Diet Mt. Dew through the nose. It burns! It BURNS!

Same horse, different game, was roasted by a legendary dragon, in a different attack by multiple groups of enemies the cow went missing and a chicken was killed, and the chickens also managed to get themselves killed by the first giant I had attacking Lakeview Manor. Second time doing Hearthfire with my first character it is certainly getting challenging to keep the livestock alive. When Braggen left, everything was still alive, I am dreading returning, because there is bound to be something even more challenging waiting to have a go at those chickens. Braggen will go back with Meeko the champion chicken guard in tow, see if he can get adopted again. What brief look I got, the dynamics seem a bit different with two children so not sure what Meeko's chances will be.

Reading theses post... Am I to understand the main quest in Heartfire is to keep your livestock alive?

Well one character has it easy, and one had it challenging the first time, that same character on replaying is definitely having a battle to keep the livestock alive. He lost none the first time, never had to reload to save anything. This time he has managed to lose the lot at different times. He is learning though, but I would think if two legendary dragons ever turned up there would be no way to save them.