For starters, I was thinking earlier about a variety of steeds, as in horses and their varieties. Oblivion was good to an extent, because there was a variety of different breeds, varying in capability. So speed and endurance and such. Now, I was wondering if there could be yet more factors that make the horses different from each other. An example would be in the current Oblivion system, horses go from Paint Horse (slowest and puniest) to White and Black Horse (strongest and fastest, respectively, while being second best at the other attribute too). I was visualising a less linear progression in breeds. For example, instead of a White Horse, throw in a Shire Horse - it's far larger than normal breeds, a hell of a lot stronger, but also a lot slower. So, playing to specialities instead of simply finding an 'endgame' animal. Perhaps introduce a system where you can choose to specifically play to a certain attribute - a very strong and sluggish horse, or a frail but lightning fast horse. Maybe include the options to purchase a middle ground, which would contain good attributes in everything, but wouldn't be able to out-compete a horse that was specialised.

Also, customising your horses. I can see stables becoming a lot more useful in Skyrim if they're used as more than just a place to buy your horses. Currently in Oblivion, unless you're using fast travel, you'll only use the stables once, ever. I'd propose they become all-purpose horse/steed shops, selling differing saddles, and covers and such. Maybe even armour in specific places (I'm imaging fetch-and-recover quests for materials, or simply back-and-forth between the stable and a forge for armour). This would allow for greater personalisation of horses. Maybe also give stables a feature in which you can purchase a 'deed' to rename your horse. Another use for this shop could be items, such as potions that could affect the attributes of your horse. Maybe a tonic for healing it (more on why it would need healing later), or some other item for temporarily going faster. Having to pay a few coins for stabling would be good for immersion as well, but also arbitrary and not strictly necessary.

Now, another major point I would love to see is mounted warefare. I mean, the amount of times I've been attacked by bandits while riding around in Oblivion while having a bow equipped... It's frustrating to say the least that I can't immolate them with magic, pepper them with arrows or just joust them with my blade, from the security of my horse's back. I'd love to see mounted combat introduced. If a pay-for-combat system like the Arena is introduced again, it'd be really good if you could enter into jousting style tournaments, or fight mounted gladiators. Maybe even have jousting sponsored by local laird's in the cities or near castles. Having horses intimately involved in the combat process would also give an good reason to have healing items for them, that I mentioned earlier.

Then... Pack animals. I'd really like to be able to have the animals I own lug all my crap around. In Morrowind's Tribunal, you could buy pack-Guars. That was a step in the right direction, and could be expanded upon (for Skyrim I'm visualising some kind of Shetland Pony sized overly shaggy pig / mammoth thing, that's been domesticated as a pack animal). Perhaps give the option to opt between armour for horses, and webbing that items could be stored in. That could give real distinction to trader/merchant style characters as well, especially if a regional economy was introduced. Warriors could load up on armour, while mages and merchants could pack extra items. In the name of versatility, there could be middle grounds, with reduced protection and reduced item carrying capacity at the time time. Or you could just get armour and have a baggage-train of pack-animals trailing after you, I guess. Heh.

And honestly, this is almost it. Two final ideas in one paragraph: borrow some ideas from Red Dead Redemption, and make tethering spots (stables) actually relevant. Horses are feather brained at best. They tend to wander around and get lost (by our standards anyway). In Red Dead, unless you tied your horse up, it would wander off without you (although to be fair, apparantly their horse-ears are amazing and can pick out your whistle wherever you are in the world. :biggrin: ). I'm saying, tie your horse up at a stable, or to a tree or something, or face the tedious task of having to check under logs and over cliffs to find your wandering pet (or where-ever it is a horse can hide). This of course would imply a mechanic that would allow you to lead your animal while dismounted - maybe using the move button with the cursor hovering over its nose? Anyway, the second idea. Taming wild horses. Earlier, while wandering around on the opposite bank of the Imperial City's island, I encountered a pack of wild horses. Like some kind of Elf-Dog I gave chase and eventually cornered them at some rocks ("mate, I'm not going anywhere!" "Just run head first into the rocks even harder! They'll break or something!"). Unfortunately, I was lost for options here, and had the choice of either attempting to immolate them, or watch them run away. What I would have liked to have happened, is me singling one out, dropping a rope over its head, somehow coercing it to a stable, and training it and buying it a saddle. Another one of those Red Dead ideas I'm plagiarizing, yeah.

Now, for the tl;dr people:

• More varieties of horses; breeds, what their attributes are, etc.
  
• Let me fight on my damn horse!
  
• Make stables relevant; sell horse related paraphernalia (items, saddles, armour, item-carrying-type-stuff).
  
• Pack mules please. I want to be able to get stuff to carry my gear for me.
  
• I'd like to be able to catch wild horses and train them.

There, that wasn't too painful, was it? :tongue: