I've had this game for about a week now. Been wandering around, fighting, stealing, etc.

There's something I've been wondering.
Are horses worth it?
I heard they die easy, they're hard to control, and the speed is just not worth it. But that's just what I've heard.

How do you guys feel about horses?

I like them honestly, I find they have good spead, are easy to handle and just add a bit of immersion to roles depending on which you ride or rustle.
Some players have a huge character story arch going with theirs, I think Acadian is the best example.

I almost never use horses. I have one character-- a haughty Imperial who believes that anything that resembles manual labor is beneath him-- who rides a horse pretty much everywhere. Almost all of my characters just don't bother though.

The biggest problem with horses, to me, is that you can't fight from horseback. So every time you pass something on the road (and in spite of what the Imperial soldiers say, the roads are packed to the brim with bandits and monsters and animals), you have to get off the horse, fight whatever it is that you have to fight, then get back on the horse, ride another twenty yards, get off the horse, fight something else, get back on the horse, ride another twenty yards......

And yeah-- they die. A lot. It's not so much that they're weak as that every single thing that you encounter is going to attack your horse. Even after you hit it, there's still a pretty good chance that it's going to go on attacking your horse. And there's always the risk that, in trying to hit the thing that's determinedly attacking your horse, you're just going to end up hitting the horse instead, which can not only wound or kill the horse, but can get you kicked out of some of the guilds. Seriously.

That and I just hate coming out of a dungeon and having no idea where my horse is. "Now.... let's see.... I left it in some grass next to a tree near some rocks-- that should be easy to find, right?"

LOL A lot of really good points there.

My new (to-be main) character is a Khajiit "Bandit" sort of thing (still haven't come up with a name for her or the class lol). I would think a horse would be a no-no for me.
Be stealthy, stay near but off the paths, etc. That might be hard on horseback. ^-^;
Also, I really don't feel like getting on and off my horse every two seconds.
Also also, I plan on using my Acrobatics skill a lot, just because I like to jump on and off rocks and stuff. So yea. XD

I haven't had many problems with horses but that might be because I have the Safer Roads plugin from Marts Monster Mod, and I usually stay on the road with my horse. For the most part, they're ok even without that plugin but you'll become extremely frustrated when you hear the combat music play while riding. Also, if you have the Boots of the Crusader from Knights of the Nine animals in the wilderness will not attack you, but they will attack your horse, so you won't be alerted to your horse's danger. One great thing about horses is that they make you feel as if your character has an animal companion, but you'll only enjoy that factor of them if you care for that kind of thing.

I've never actually had a horse die though so in my opinion, horses are somewhat worth it.

I really do like the idea of an animal companion. Do want. And horses do have that sort of quality... but I dunno. I'm leaning towards 'no' as of now.

Pros:

1). if you're not into fast-travelling, horses make a convenient way to get from here to there faster.

2). There's a variety of horses available. Not just one type. I won't spoil.

3)> They can jump over fences, rocks, logs, etc.

4). If you buy one, it will faithfully wait wherever you leave it. Usually. There are some horses that you don't have to buy that'll wait around, but (again) I won't spoil unless you want me to.

5). Some horses are given to us for free (again, no spoily).



Cons:

1). They usually cost alot of money (assuming you don't steal). Paint horses are the cheapest, but also the slowest. Faster horses cost more (duh).

2). As gpster says, most enemies (for whatever reason) love to attak horses, even if you're standing there ready for battle, they oftentimes go for the peacful horse instead.

3). They sometimes run away (seriously).

4). During battle, you have to be careful not to hit your horse, or it'll attack you until either you or it dies.

5). Stolen horses will sometimes start walking back to whatever area you stole them from (usually stables) which is a pain because once they leave you'll need to "catch" them or they'll get away.

6). You have to "babysit" them alot.




...basically, it's possible to keep a horse for a long time (I have) if you make sure that you've destroyed any enemies in the vicinity if you're planning on leaving the horse in a location where enemies are about. Like if you go into some dungeon and leave your horse outside, make sure any enemies (even imps) are dead before you go in the dengeon, otherwise you may find your horse dead when you come out.

Well, since I almost always raise speed...

Pros- None
Cons- Everything

For a normal person...

Pros- More speed
Cons- less control, can't fight, horse takes damage and dies too easily unless you get a certain one.

I like horses in concept, but I very rarely ever use them. Controlling them is far more difficult then it needs to be yes they die. Alot. And seeing as how expensive horses are I really don't think they're worth it. It's like spending a lot of money on a new Ferrari and having the engine die on you before you ever get it home. Hopefully if TES V horses they will be improved upon, and maybe if the horses in Oblivion weren't so expensive it wouldn't be so much of an issue, but as it stands now no I don't think horses are worth it.

The pros and cons have been ably outlined above. As you can see, the cons win.

Horses are a pain in the neck. The only real reason to use them is for roleplaying.

Now that said, my character bought a black mare the moment she could afford one. Just like a real horse, they are lots of work and trouble, but she wouldn't trade her horse for anything.

There are mods and console commands that can significantly improve horse play, but there are also some things you can do in vanilla:
Command creature spell to bring them to you as long as you can see them.
Lots of detect life equipment so you can see foes before they get close (much better than spells since you can't cast on horseback).
Water walking spell up to 120 seconds to improve river crossing.
Fortify speed spell for the horse up to 120 seconds. I recommend no more magnitude than 10-15 points of speed.
There are times when you may want to explore on foot. Leave the horse somewhere safe. When you get to a safe map waypoint, fast travel to your current location - you will hardly move, but your horse will be 'summoned' to your side.

If all you hope to ever do is bash heads and run errands for quest givers, then a horse is not just a waste of time and money but an actual negative. you might have to defer combat to protect your horse.

For Angel, there is no better use for idle time than a leisurely ride. This works best on max graphics. She only rides for pleasure, never to travel to a remote dungeon. For those, her horse remains safely at the stable. She does use a horse when traveling from city to city. She generally avoids fights by outrunning them. She has the ability to detect life at a long distance so she can stop, go deal with what's ahead and then mount up again. Her ride was a Unicorn at one time but mods corrupted the game to a point where I had to reinstall. Without the mods, her save games wouldn't load so she lost a little history.

I just set a compass marker on the spot where I've left my horse.

A couple of other pros I haven't seen mentioned:

1) You can climb almost any slope no matter how steep when on horseback, makes traversing mountainous terrain much easier.

2) You can carry huge hauls of loot over long distances much more easily on horseback; once you've mounted your horse, it doesn't matter if you're over-encumbered. So, rather than having to quaff a whole bunch of feather potions to get you home from some ruin in the back of beyond, you only need enough potions to get you to your horse and it can take the load from there.

I tend to use horses more often than not, enjoying the extra challenge that comes from trying to keep them alive. Also, there are some neat things you can do with on-touch spells to boost their usefulness, particularly using a weak fortify speed spell (no more than 5-10 points is necessasry, and even 10 is probably overkill) to make even paint horses as fast as black horses, and (even more so) using water-walking; there's something inherently cool about riding a horse down the Niben (add 3 feet of Light on self at the same duration as the water-walking to give you an indicator of when the spell needs to be re-cast, as horses are lousy swimmers).

I do wish they had saddlebags though, would make them much more useful.

I think it's more of an RP thing. You can just fast travel to cities and that should bring you close enough to any other location in-game. Maybe if you want to just hurry your way over to some quest location out in the wilderness, they are useful. But otherwise, I don't see any real use to them. Besides, walking and exploring is a whole lot better anyway.

As do several other responders, I find horses beneficial primarily for role-play and immersion. During my first play-through (I'm on my second) my knight-errant rode whenever and wherever it made realistic sense. Being quite heavily armored, he simply wouldn't be traipsing all over Tamirel afoot. And as also mentioned, horses add a bit of welcome complexity.

Provided one has proper attire, horse travel can also be quite visually appealing. I'm of the first-person-perspective persuasion and normally shun third-person for all save screenshots. Yet while on horseback I loved to drop to third-person and watch my avatar travel the length and breath of Cyrodiil and beyond. I'd go so far as to say that I almost never used first-person while mounted. In this I am admittedly helped by being a PC player, with access a number of fine horse- and avatar-armor mods, as seen in this capture taken during http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn303/Decrepit_Waste/ESIV%20Oblivion/AnvilCastleDistant_1a.jpg.

I avoid fast-travel, but imagine those who frequently avail themselves of it have little need for horses.

-Decrepit-

Horses aren't necessary when your speed stat reaches high levels, but until that happens, you should get one.

A big con is that you cannot change equipment while riding, only torches I think..

Yeah, I always use the third-person camera when on horseback, in first-person it's just horrible imo, and you get to see some lovely sweeping views...

And on fast travel, being on horseback has the minor benefit of speeding up travel times there too, which could have a bearing if you're on a timer with say, your last feather potion or whatever, or if you're just desperate to get home by dinnertime. (Myself, rather than forego fast travel altogether, I limit myself to only being allowed to use it when 1) on horseback, 2) on a road, and 3) I must only travel to a "safe" location (i.e. city, inn, village), so this is another reason I'm keen on horses.)

My Khajiit assassin who i played wiht until recently used a black horse, and later Shadowmere. Black horse is the fastest you can buy, and Shadowmere is even faster, so i just outran all enemies and left the horse on the nearest town or settelement while appraoching the target location on foot for the rest of the way. And sneaking from Skingrad to Anvil for example isn't really viable

I do buy a horse on pretty much every playtrough as i want to avoid fast travel as much as possible. It is pretty much needed, especially for my Heavy Armor clad Spellsword, who is sloooowwwww. Until i can make a Fortify Speed +100 spell :hehe:

Personally I've never had problems with horses, mainly because I never bought one and got [sp]shadowmere[/sp] instead. At higher levels of speed and speed spells you shouldn't really need it though, and no matter what horse they always wander off alot, taking your horse with you when you fast travel is too annoying to bother if you do alot.

To me horses are really only good for RP

I use a mod that turns Athletics into an extremely important Attribute (everyone begins to walk when their fatigue hits 0; they resume running at 25%, among other effects). In addition to this, I set my character's beginning Speed and Athletics very low (Speed 10 to 15, Athletics 20 to 25) making it crucial for my characters to begin physical fitness training as early as possible. As a result I rarely use horses until very late in a game.

My char has a horse and he goes everywhere on it, if a monster pops up on the road they can usually outrun it.

Oh wow, I didn't know speed spells and water-walking work on horses! Damn, I've had this game almost 2 years and I'm still learning new tricks.

Would you believe that blessings from Altars effect horses too? That's right. If you pray at an altar when your horse is right next to it, the blessing may go to the horse instead of you.

Wow. Crazyness. :bowdown: And yet, there is no way to simply leash-up a horse to a fence post to keep it from walking away.

Yea, but if you park it in a stable, then they'll stay there. Most of the time, atleast. :shrug:

I honestly don't even care where my horse is, I haven't used it in years, literally.