I have bought three horses in Skyrim and much to my chagrin I have had all three die. I realize the usefulness of a sinewy, muscle laden steed carrying amongst the mountains, eager to vanquish foes by your side;but the reality is that these beasts of burden have cost me two thousand gold, (one of the horses I received from a thieves guild mission, thusly it was free). My Wood-elf is perfectly fine with scaling the harsh mountains with nothing but 345 pounds of gear strapped to his back… or entire body?

Why would you need a horse? Well, it depends on the type of gamer that you are and quite frankly, and please let me be frank, I used more of the horses in Oblivion than I have in Skyrim. Thanks but no thanks; that is all there is to it when horsing around in Skyrim.

All i can say to that is....
Iron daggers + 100 in enchantment + banishment enchantment + the merchant perk = unlimited gold. Or you can just ride Shadowmere, that mofo has a huge amount of hp (compared to other horses).

After I found out I couldn't get another horse after mine died (I was thinking like a videogame not an Elder scrolls) I just haven't bought another since. It was pretty expensive and I am always broke in the game. I have 13,000 on me right now and that is the most I have ever had. I think I'll save for the achievement before I buy my next house.

I am sad though my display cases and weapon racks don't work in my Windhelm house. :(

@EightBitShik: Mine worked and then suddenly stopped. So the Ebony blade just fell to the floor.

I just don't use horses at all. Maybe I'm a lunatic.

You're right, the horses are pretty terrible in this game. Not only do they completely incapacitate you while riding (can't shoot or really even look around) but they also allow you to scale sheer cliffs to an extent that I'd argue breaks the immersion of the game.

I'm playing through Shadow of the Colossus again after the HD collection came out, and that's a proper horse. If you don't tell it where to go it just paths automatically and does a reasonable job of avoiding obstacles, giving you time to aim your bow and shoot from horseback. Mounting and dismounting is very quick too, whereas in Skyrim it seems to take half an hour for me to painstakingly dismount and mount just to slay an irritating lone wolf.

I'd hoped that there would be a way to deter wolves and bears by dropping venison while riding along, but that doesn't work either.

As for the expense of your horses dying it really doesn't matter - the economy of Skyrim is such that whatever you do you'll end up with more gold than you know what to do with, but by that point you've probably got enough stamina and weight reduction perks that the horse is rendered useless anyway. You'll also find special mounts as rewards for some quests, and these will apparently respawn if you return to the place they died after a week of in-game time has passed.

I haven't bought a horse yet, but I was wondering what happens to your companion when you ride on a horse? I've seen that when I get separated from Lydia, she can take additional time to catch up since she needs to find a logical route back to me. If I took off on a horse, what would she do? Run behind me or do companions get their own steeds?

Now that I think about it, it would have been cool to be able to use bow and arrow while mounted, or one handed swords/axes. Full gallop towards an enemy, chop their head off sending it flying to the air. That would have been cool.

Exhibit A: Shadowmere leaping into the air and punching out a dragon.

Defence rests.

i bought one and it died soon after, i would rather, in a fight with something, it would run away and wait for me than take the enemy on itself with me trying to break up their fight then take the enemy down myself

the only good horse mechanic was red dead, it was my favourite part of a game i didn't like much but because of the mostly flat landscape and ability to attack while on the horse, it was easy to keep one through the whole game

i just don't use horses in skyrim, the terrain is too uneven, though that picture of the horse taking on the dragon has me thinking about buying another one

@Jimbo said:

Exhibit A: Shadowmere leaping into the air and punching out a dragon.

Defence rests.

There really is no other argument that needs to be made here.

I'll just wait till there's some good invincible horse/ summon horse spell mods. *smug pc user face*

I don't use horses. Also, money is so easy to make that 2,000 gold isn't much.

This is bumming me out now. Shadowmere died while descending a mountain that was steep. Is there anyway to get him back? I mean he's basically an evil ghost horse that has lived for hundreds of years.

I stopped buying horses after the last one stepped on a bear trap.

@yoshimitz707 said:

@TheDudeOfGaming He had so much health I thought he was invincible like the last game! But then I jumped off a mountain with him.

I believe she is invincible to all but fall damage. Threw him down a waterfall once but reverted my save, she's too badass. (And she's a she in this game. Apparently).

@BraveToaster said:

I don't use horses. Also, money is so easy to make that 2,000 gold isn't much.

Ya i don't know how much of a hoarder the OP is, but i am at roughly 5k gold and have become extremely choosy on what items i pick to sell etc. and this is only like 5 hours in. Gold in this game, as it is in all the FO games, becomes insignificant as long as you're always on the prowl for shit to sell

@Chavtheworld said:

@yoshimitz707 said:

@TheDudeOfGaming He had so much health I thought he was invincible like the last game! But then I jumped off a mountain with him.

I believe she is invincible to all but fall damage. Threw him down a waterfall once but reverted my save, she's too badass. (And she's a she in this game. Apparently).

Incorrect! She was female in the last game but in Skyrim: "Astrid calls Shadowmere a "he" even though Shadowmere is identified as a "she" by Lucien Lachance). Most likely this is because Shadowmere is a spirit and takes on the form of a male, due to the horse breeds being different to those in Cyrodiil)."

@yoshimitz707: I had assumed he was as well. Good to know!

All kidding aside, I don't uses horses either and just nab one from a military camp to push him off a cliff. They are really just useful when you are starting a new game to get to places fast.

@yoshimitz707 said:

@Chavtheworld said:

@yoshimitz707 said:

@TheDudeOfGaming He had so much health I thought he was invincible like the last game! But then I jumped off a mountain with him.

I believe she is invincible to all but fall damage. Threw him down a waterfall once but reverted my save, she's too badass. (And she's a she in this game. Apparently).

Incorrect! She was female in the last game but in Skyrim: "Astrid calls Shadowmere a "he" even though Shadowmere is identified as a "she" by Lucien Lachance). Most likely this is because Shadowmere is a spirit and takes on the form of a male, due to the horse breeds being different to those in Cyrodiil)."

Really? I swear someone referred to her as a "she" in Skyrim, and I thought it was Astrid. Maybe some other NPC?

Who needs horses when we have fast travel? My Ps3 lags a lot when i'm riding one anyways, it has trouble rendering the area when going too fast.

Well if you're not a mage... you probably have nothing much else to spend money on. They're pretty cheap.

Still, I never bought a replacement for my first one.

@Jimbo: Hmm... This is interesting, but I would like to see what happens when that horse is thrusted in to battle with a Giant because you wanted to see what would happen.

I've only had one horse die in my 70 hours or so playing the game. I find them useful for exploring, especially since figuring out you can fast travel while over encumbered on a horse. That plus their speed and climbing ability, with no real negative qualities to speak of, at least makes them more than a "mockery".

To have the most fun in Skyrim you just have to let the chips fall where they may. When my horse died I wasn't thinking about reloading a save or about how much gold it cost me. I let out a savage war cry at the tv as I exacted my revenge on the bandits that killed her.

@TheDudeOfGaming said:

All i can say to that is.... Iron daggers + 100 in enchantment + banishment enchantment + the merchant perk = unlimited gold. Or you can just ride Shadowmere, that mofo has a huge amount of hp (compared to other horses).

Can that thing even die? Mine has been fighting multiple dragons at once and lived to, uh, talk about it.