Frequently Asked Questions: Horses and other mounts - Omni-guides/Tuxborn GitHub Wiki

"Do I need a horse?"

Up to you! Some players may prefer to go everywhere on foot, or use transport methods such as the carriages, ferries, the Dev Aveza, or the AHO. And some players may just not care about acquiring a horse, in which case, feel free to skip this entire page.

If you're accustomed to horses being fairly useless in Skyrim, though, consider: the AE Wild Horses content provides you options for horses set Essential, so they cannot be killed. Which makes them a lot more useful, because they can stay around for your entire playthrough.

A horse can help you in combat, which could be critical for the early game. You can move a lot faster on horseback than you can on foot, too. Which can also be critical in the early game, if you need to retreat quickly from something that's about to kill you.

And if you happen to be a loot goblin, and prone to coming out of dungeons heavily overloaded, being able to mount up on a horse and fast travel wherever you need to get to rather than trudging slowly to your destination is very helpful. You will also be able to load your horse up with some of your stuff, if you need to offload things to get back down under your carry weight limit.

Some followers will mount up on their own custom mounts if they see you get on a horse. Auri and Katana are both known to do this, so if you want to see what their mounts look like, you'll need to have one of your own! And if you play either of them long enough, both Lucien and Gore have RP options that will eventually lead to them getting horses of their own.

"How can I get a horse?"

The best and fastest way to get a horse quickly in the early game is to go buy a Wild Horses map from any stable master. This will cost you 250 gold. Once you have that map, then you'll get seven miscellaneous objectives to find and tame seven Wild Horses. Getting one of these is definitely better than just buying a horse directly from a stable, because all the Wild Horses are set Essential and cannot be killed.

To tame any of the Wild Horses, you simply need to try to ride them. This will usually take 2-3 tries, during which the horse will throw you off its back. Expect to see animations of your Dragonborn landing in various uncomfortable ways! Eventually, though, the horse will accept you as its rider.

The two easiest ones to find are the Red Horse just west of Whiterun, and the Dappled Brown Horse, a little ways northwest-ish from Meeko's Shack, south of Solitude. If you do a close to vanilla start, look for the Red Horse. If you do a Solitude-based start, look for the Dappled Brown Horse.

Look on the UESP page for Wild Horses for further info on how to find the rest of them. As that page recommends, consider using the Detect Life spell or the Aura Whisper Shout as aids to help you track down those horses.

Note that while you only need one horse, if you're running Legacy of the Dragonborn, you will get an additional display in your museum for each Wild Horse you tame. And the Wild Horses map is itself a displayable artifact, as well!

It will cost you a bit of additional money if you want to register and rename your horse at a stable, or put a saddle or armor on it. But these things are optional, and can wait until you get enough extra coin.

"What's the best possible horse to get?"

Your three best options will be Shadowmere, the Unicorn, or the Dwarven Horse. They all have comparable stats.

Shadowmere is of course only available if you run the Dark Brotherhood. His stats are comparable to the Unicorn, and while he is technically not Essential and can die, he also respawns, so this is less of a problem than it would be for any other horse.

The Unicorn is AE content available via Wild Horses.

The Dwarven Horse is also AE content, and is a Dwemer construct available via a side quest when you run the Forgotten Seasons AE content at Runoff Caverns.

"How do I get the Unicorn?"

To get this Unicorn, you need access to the Arcanaeum in the College of Winterhold. On the counter near Urag, you should see a book called Soran's Journal. Read that to launch the quest you need, Creature of Legend.

This will give you a quest marker not far from the front gate of Riften. Follow that quest marker to find the Unicorn. You can tame it the same way you'd tame any of the Wild Horses, just by attempting to ride it a few times.

While the Wild Horses being all set Essential makes this less critical, note that the Unicorn does have higher stats, and it's a higher-level creature. So it can do more damage in battle when it fights for you. It's a level 50 creature, versus level 20 for all the Wild Horses. So this is worth considering if you want a mount that'll be more effective for you in battle.

As with the Wild Horses, taming the Unicorn will get you an additional museum display if you're running Legacy of the Dragonborn. It will show up in the Hall of Wonders.

"How do I get the Dwarven Horse?"

If you're a fan of Dwemer stuff in Skyrim, the Dwarven Horse might be a fun mount choice for you. Like the Wild Horses and the Unicorn, it is set Essential.

You acquire this horse by running a side quest as part of the Forgotten Seasons AE content, which you launch by going to Runoff Caverns just a short ways west of Lost Valley Redoubt. At the entrance to Runoff Caverns, you'll see the body of the Dwarven Horse. Activate that to launch the side quest to reassemble it, then look for the rest of its parts as you run the main Forgotten Seasons quest. You'll be able to locate them in the Autumn section of the cavern.

If you are running Lucien as a follower, Lucien gets very excited by the prospect of rebuilding this horse. So it's a fun plot to run just to hear his commentary.

Even though the Dwarven Horse is a construct, it still makes the same noises as living horses. Some players may find this distracting.

It does, however, have stats comparable to Shadowmere and the Unicorn, so it is one of the top best horses to get. Also, unlike any other horse in the game, it cannot take damage. Which has the side effect that if you're riding the horse, and you happen to fall off a cliff, you cannot take fall damage. This can sometimes have hilarious intended RP consequences!

"What horses (or other mounts) are available via Tuxborn mods?"

The following mounts are known to be included in the mods in Tuxborn's load order:

Aerandir is a spectral steed available to you as long as you're in Lastendell, while running the plot for Midwood Isle. Aerandir however cannot be ridden outside of Lastendell.
There is a rideable guar in Raven Rock on Solstheim, added in by the Morrowind Creatures SE mod.
Project AHO includes a Conjure Jumper spell, which will summon a rideable Dwemer construct. See the section below on summonable mounts for more info.
Daumbra, available via the There Is No Umbra mod.

Note that Daumbra is a sword, not a horse or any other kind of rideable creature. However, if you are wielding Daumbra and hold down on your Sprint button, then this triggers an ability to let you jump onto the sword and fly. So Daumbra can function as a mount in a very loose sense. We're noting it here, nonetheless, for completeness of information.

"Does my horse actually need armor?"

If you're riding one of the Wild Horses, or the Unicorn, not really! See previous commentary re: the Wild Horses being set Essential. So armor for them would be purely cosmetic.

Note however that the two types of horse armor, Steel and Elven, are displayable artifacts for the Legacy of the Dragonborn museum. So you may want to pony (aheh) up the septims for each of them, even though your horse won't actually need them.

If you decide to get one of the standard stable horses, though, or have a steward buy a horse for you, then yes, armor will be more critical for any of those horses. Which will not be set Essential.

"Can I name my horse something besides Wild Horse or Unicorn?"

Yes. You have two options for this:

Any stable master should have a dialogue option for you to let you register and rename the horse
Use the multi-purpose H key in the Simplest Horses mod

The stable master option will only give you names from a randomized list. If you're not particular about what the horse is called, you might go this route.

If you have a specific name in mind, though, the H key is a better option. While looking directly at your horse, hold down the H key (or the equivalent button or radial menu, if you've mapped something to act like an H key on your Steam Deck). This will give you a dialog to use to rename the horse.

"How do I give my horse stuff to carry?"

This is another use for the H key. While looking directly at your horse, press H (or the equivalent button or radial menu option). This will give you access to the horse's saddlebag, which you can fill with whatever you deem necessary.

Do not hold down on H, that will give you the dialog to rename your horse instead.

"What about Frost? Is he still an option in Tuxborn?"

Yes. Frost should still be available if you choose to run the plot to steal him in such a way that you wind up with the horse, rather than turning him over to Louis Letrush. Stats-wise, Frost is slightly better than the Wild Horses. But he is not marked Essential, according to the UESP. So longer-term, he may not be a good choice.

"I like summonable horses! What are my options in Tuxborn?"

You have four:

Arvak, available in the Soul Cairn when you run Dawnguard
A Daedric Horse, available via running The Cause in the AE
A Spectral Steed, available via the Adept level Conjuration spell Conjure Spectral Steed, provided by the Mysticism mod
A Jumper, which is a rideable Dwemer construct

Acquiring Arvak works via the usual Dawnguard means in the Soul Cairn.

Acquiring the Daedric Horse requires you to run The Cause, and specifically, to get far enough along in that plot to enter The Deadlands. You'll see a Daedric Horse running around the area, and will have to fight it and its master as part of clearing the place. Once you do so, you should be able to find a spellbook that will give you the Summon Daedric Horse spell.

The Conjure Spectral Steed spell should be available via any spell vendor that sells Conjuration spells, once your Conjuration is high enough level that the spell will be available in their inventories.

The Conjure Jumper spell is available via a spellbook you can find while running Project AHO.

"How do I get my horse to stop following me everywhere?"

Use the H key to toggle the horse out of the Follow state. You would need to do this while not looking directly at the horse. Hitting H will toggle it into a Wait state.

Your horse will stay in that exact location until you either mount up and ride someplace else, or toggle it back to Follow. So if you happen to fast travel someplace else and then realize you've misplaced your horse, it might be because you told it to wait somewhere and it's still waiting. See below for how to bring the horse back to you, in that case.

"How can I summon my horse?"

Non-corporeal horses are of course their own thing and have their spells for summoning them. But in terms of actual living horses, as managed by the Simplest Horses mod, then you can summon any horse you're currently riding to you if you got separated from it.

This is yet another thing you can do with the H hotkey. A quick press will toggle the horse back into the Follow state, and it will come running to find you. Depending on where you last left it, this may take a bit.

If you want a faster port to bring the horse straight to you, hold down on H instead.

"That H key sure does a lot of things! Can I get a summary?"

The H hotkey is set by default in the Simplest Horses mod, which is what Tuxborn uses to manage horses. It is multi-purpose and does the following things:

If you are looking directly at the horse:

Short press gives you access to the horse's saddlebag
Long press brings up the dialog to rename the horse

If you are not looking directly at the horse:

Short press toggles the horse between Wait and Follow states
Long press ports the horse back to you if you got separated from it

You can change what key this hotkey is mapped to in the MCM for Simplest Horses, if you wish.

If you are a Steam Deck player, or playing on any other handheld device that allows for mapping custom buttons or setting up custom menus, we recommend you use that functionality to make the H key immediately accessible. Steam Deck players in particular may wish to map a back button to H, or include it as an option on a custom radial menu.

"How do I dismount from my horse?"

The same way you would normally do so in vanilla Skyrim, but hold down on the button or key, rather than just clicking it.

If you're on a PC and playing with keyboard and mouse, this means your E key. If you're playing with a controller or on a handheld device, this means your A button.

"I have several horses now because I tamed all the Wild Horses! Can I manage them all?"

Simplest Horses doesn't have functionality for you to manage more than one horse at once. So if you want to tame all seven of the Wild Horses for Legacy of the Dragonborn purposes, you'll need to do a bit of housekeeping to park whichever horse you're not actively using in an easy to reach location.

See above for info about the H key. You can use that for this purpose. If you know you're going to want to switch horses, then take whatever horse you're currently using to a known location, like a stable or one of your houses. Use the H key to put that horse into a Wait state. It'll stay there until you come back and get it.

Then go find whatever horse you want to ride next, or tame the next Wild Horse if that's your objective.

If you don't take this step, then whatever horse you last rode, when you switch horses, will bugger back off to wherever it originally spawned. And if you want to switch back to that horse later, that would make it a bit of a chore to retrieve it.

"Can I take a horse to Solstheim, or to any mod area outside of the Skyrim worldspace?"

In vanilla Skyrim, no.

However, in Tuxborn, there are some workarounds for this. If you take the Dev Aveza anywhere, including to Solstheim, Wyrmstooth, Midwood, etc., whatever horse you last rode will port in with you as soon as you disembark from the airship. (We leave it as an exercise for the player as to how exactly you got your horse onto the Dev Aveza!)

The Simplest Horses mod should also let you summon your last ridden horse to you via the H hotkey, as described above. This should still work even if you're on Solstheim or in any mod area with its own worldspace (as long as you're actually outside).

And, of course, the three types of summonable horse are an option in these various spaces as well. If you want to specifically not take your living, physical horse with you to these areas (for example, if you want to RP that you do not in fact have a way to get your horse on board the Dev Aveza), then you can use any of the summonable horses for riding.

If you want to explicitly not take your horse to Solstheim or other such areas, make sure to put your horse into Wait mode via the H key, in whatever spot you want to leave it in. We suggest a stable, or one of your houses.

"My horse has no stamina! What's wrong?"

It's possible that your horse may have contracted a disease, probably from fighting with a bear or sabre cat that attacked you. The UESP page for horses says in its Notes section:

Horses can catch diseases. When a horse is in combat with an animal, there is a chance that your horse will catch a disease (your horse will exude a whitish glow similar to when you catch a disease) from whatever animal he was fighting. The disease does affect the horse, although some (such as Witbane) will not have a noticeable effect, some others can be especially detrimental in Survival Mode, such as Clipping Rattles which permanently disable the horse's Stamina regen, as there is no way to cure them. Disabling Survival Mode doesn't seem to remove the disease from horses/followers.

So if you see your horse having less stamina than usual (including no stamina at all), or regenerating it more slowly than it should, there's a fair chance that it's contracted a disease.

Vanilla Skyrim does not provide any means of curing a disease contracted by your mount, or any useful way of seeing if they're ill to begin with. Known methods to deal with either of these questions rely upon the console, and ideally, upon the More Informative Console mod, which the Tuxborn load order includes.

Checking to see if your horse has a disease

If you need to check whether your horse has caught a disease, we recommend these steps:

Stand somewhere near your horse
Open the console and click on the horse to make sure it's the current active thing for the console to process
You should get a popup that contains a bunch of information about the horse, including an "Effects" section that's last in the list. If your horse has a disease, it will probably be listed there
Make a note of any disease you see, especially any associated ID for it

Curing your horse of a disease

The best known means of curing your horse of a disease also requires you to use the console. We recommend:

Again, stand somewhere near your horse, open the console, and click on the horse to make sure it's the active console target
If you've just used the console to see that your horse's active effects include a disease, that should already have given you an ID for the disease in question
If you didn't get an ID already, look at the UESP page on diseases, which includes a chart that has IDs for all the various diseases
Using the ID for the disease your horse has, use the removespell command

So for example, if the console showed you that your horse has Bone Break Fever, with the ID of 000b877e, then you would enter this command:

removespell 000b877e

Putting the horse out of its misery

In certain RP situations, you may decide it's more appropriate for your Dragonborn to just shoot a horse with a disease, and put it out of its misery.

If you want to do this, though, and it's one of the Wild Horses or the Unicorn, you'll have to remove the Essential flag first. Which also requires the console:

Open up the console and click on the horse
Type in: setessential 0

What to do about a horse with a disease if you can't use the console

If for some reason you can't actually use the console (for example, you're a Steam Deck player impacted by the known issue of the console crashing on Steam Decks, and you don't have a physical keyboard), then your only real option for dealing with this is to get another horse.

For RP purposes, you might leave the horse at a safe location such as a stable or one of your houses, and decide that your Dragonborn realized the horse was too fragile for active adventuring. So maybe you decided to leave it in the care of a stable master, or your personal steward. Whatever works! You can use the H hotkey described above to tell the horse to wait in whatever safe location you choose.

Once you do that, then you can go acquire whatever new horse you want next, whether it's another of the Wild Horses, the Unicorn, the Dwarven Horse, Shadowmere, etc.