I have a question about leveling horses in ESO.

We know there are 2 levels of horses in ESO. The 17k horse (15% to run speed) and the 42k horse (25%run, 15%run/10%stam, or some other mix).

As you level a horse (through feeding,) it's stats will improve. It gets faster, more stamina or a larger carrying capacity.

What I want to know is if at max level will the horses even out or will the basic/starter(17k) horse always be behind?

There is also the free Imperial Horse that has the same stats as the 17k horse. Other than that I don't know the answer to your end-game question.

yes, the 17k horses will always be behind.

My assumption would be the horses do not even out. You can only feed them to a limit, I could be very wrong about a limit but it makes sense, and the higher priced horses with better initial stats will continue to have better stats. Such as buying the Imperial horse or the 17k starter horse, you may feed it up to the initial stats of the better horse, maybe a little higher than the better horse. But, the higher priced horses with better stats will be able to be fed far beyond what you can do with a starter mount. Again, just a logical assumption.

This is what I assume as well.

Which is fine by me. Imperial horse will serve me well until I get around to having the gold to get another one.

Though Im incredibly curious as to where I'm going to get gold if I'm deconstructng everything. Vendor food and quest rewards in the early beta tests were kind of crap in the gold department.

does anyone know if the 'better' horses start at a level other than 1? that would answer this.

The higher horses start with an additional 10 somewhere (speed, capacity, stamina). All horses can be leveled 50 times. So in the end the higher horses will have an additional 10 somewhere depending on the type over a lower type.

Say you buy the capacity higher horse, it has a starting 10 bonus in its capacity. You level it all into capacity for a total of 60. The same amount leveled into a lower horse would end with 50.

Regardless of where you put your advancements the higher horse always has a 10 bonus somewhere depending on the type you buy (speed, capacity, stamina).

they start at level 1 as well.

Thanks for all the info. It makes since that the 42k horse would always be better.
I just wasn't sure and didn't want to rely on my own assumption.
Now I know to save up for the better horse.

Heres two thing i learnef. One in beta i experienced myself. When i bought my imperiel horse for one gold, it came with that 15% speed boost. That boost showed on the speed progression bar. Take that how you will. So the other two progression bars were empty but the speed one had some progression in it.

Then someone from entropy rising who fully leveled a horse said that in the end he kept all those extra percentages. So if he bought a horse with an extra 25% speed boost and 10 bag slots, after he was done leveling/feedinghis horse the 49 times he could end up with a horse that had 75% increase in speed and 10 bag slots. So ya that extra was always there.

Heres the thing i did not like hearing. Say you feed your horse and get the 50 extra slots. Those bag slots are just added to yours. Now lets say you want to go to the stable and switch horse for the one with extra speed but you have a full inventory. You cannot switch until you empty those 50 slots of space that are filled. Kinda svcks.

I agree, it also makes the cash shop horse/imp edition thing more fair. if you want the best horse you need to spend 42k gold in game, there is no other way.

I'm still wondering is it 50 or 49? If max level is 50, then it means they only level up 49 times since they start at lv 1

I guess i cant truthfully say, sufficed to say the math still comes out the same with level 2 horses having the advantage.