Just doing some playing today and I noticed something about horses. My elf/mage has a couple horses she's managed to hold onto for awhile now (which means more than a week): a black horse and a paint horse. Today She's running back and forth from the Cloud Ruler Temple and Bruma doing Main Quest stuff.

I've been in the habit of thinking the fastest horses are always the best ones to ride, but as the elf was cruising thru the Jerall Mountains today on her Black horse, running into rocks and trees, I finally found an advantage that Paint horses have (besides cheaper price).

Paint horses aren't nearly as fast as black horses obviously, but their advantage is manuverability!

I'm whipping thru tight turns, zipping between rocks on the paint horse at full gallop, zinging right thru the Jerall Moutains after collecting Azura's Star. It's way more fun to ride a black horse if the road is straight and well-tended, but the paint horse is way better areas that are twisty and difficult to run thru.

Yup, the worst horse has to be the Chestnut ones

How come?

My character generally walks her horse. Detect life rings normally give her plenty of warning to dismount and clear threats ahead. She normally only runs her black mare for reasonably short bursts when they need to escape danger or to exercise the horse. Where I'm headed with that is that I agree that all the horses run fast enough, but that they also all walk too slowly.

In view of her preference for walking the horse, we have upped her horse's speed from 33 to 45. The mare now moves at a nice reasonable walking pace, yet is still controllable (with a little care) while running.

I agree with you that the running speed of the paint is nice and controllable and a pleasure if you do lots of horse running.

Before my characters reach the stage of having insane amounts of wealth, I generaly buy Chestnut horses because I resent the amount of times my thousands-of-septims steed goes gallivanting off into the forest or down a troll's gullet. As I find horses die reasonably often, price is a huge advantage.

So thats why the Brother at Weynon Priory has a Paint Horse..

yup, and that's also why most people now own that same horse ^_^

I have my Wood Elf ride a chestnut stallion, due to the fact that he's based off of Legolas from the lord of the rings, who rode a chestnut horse from Rohan through much of the movie.

I'm confused, what do you mean?

It's more of a joke than anything, but if you're interested; open if you've completed the game.

Ok, I understand

Really?

Why wouldn't I?

The Paint Horse is the best value for money by far. For a mere 500 gold, it has very respectable hit points and its speed is only marginally slower than the Bay Horse (1000 gold). The Chestnut Horse at 2500 gold has nice speed but is woefully fragile.

White Horses and Black Horses are great, but take some saving.

Incidentally a little word on the 'manouverability' you mentioned, Renee Gade, I think that may be something of an illusion - the Paints aren't more manouverable as such, (in my experience) it's just that they're easier to handle due to their lower speed making turns more accessible.

My explanation was quiet horrible, I read it and didn't understand myself.

Bah, I can maneuver a black horse just fine at top speed. Just takes some thinking in advance.

That and I'm a speed demon, I can't even deal with white.

Then allow me to introduce you to http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Shadowmere

and..

No it was fine

Yea, that's a good way to put it. Was trying to think of a way to explain why sometimes a slower horse is suited to a different purpose than a faster one, and the word "maneuverability" popped into mind. But you're right, black & white horses are probably just as maneuverable...but the paint's slower pace is easier to handle thru hairpins & slalom areas at full gallop.


...And

Yes and like I said, faster horses are great for open plains and long, wide roads.

In real-life, horses run at various speeds (trots, canters, etc) while in Oblivion (Vanilla, anyways) we're limited to just walking and galloping, with none of the varieties of speed a real horse can carry in between. While I could certainly walk my black horse and not run into stuff so often, it gets annoying holding the PS3's anolog stick *just so*, otherwise the horse will break into an uncontrollable run while I'm trying to skim thru a bunch of trees & boulders

Outside imperial city?? Is there a quest or something you do to get horses from there?

Horse Armor DLC... if you go directly to Chestnut Handy Stables with the Horse Armor Letter without buying a horse first, you can get "An Old Nag". (It probably has teeth marks. Orc teeth).

You may as well just get your atheletics up, then you'll be faster than any horse!

I agree that objectively speaking, horses are more trouble than they are worth. Their beauty lies pretty much exclusively in roleplay for certain characters. Like any animal, they are a big responsibility with plenty of downside.

That said, Buffy wouldn't trade her black mare for all the Tamika's in Skingrad.

Bah! I've ridden em both!

I'd like to make a comment about it- but I can't figure out how to do that nifty spoiler thing.