Last night I was on a new character was was going from Whiterun to that pair of towers with the bridge over the river. Going down the path I spotted a horse just standing there with a dead bandit next to it. I assumed the horse killed the bandit and that the bandit killed whoever was riding the horse, but I couldn't find a body anywhere.

Well clicking on the horse didn't give me the 'Steal' option, so I jumped on and rode for a little bit. I took some pictures of my character on the horse, then I got off and ran on down the road.

I wish, really wish horses had some kind of usefulness in this game so i would have had a reason to keep the thing (I did look good on it), but I've yet to be able to keep one alive. Even Shadowmere jumped off a 3 foot ledge, tripped and killed itself. Since they can't carry loot they are all but useless.

So has anyone else found a free horse? What did you do with it?

Yeah, the horse with the dead bandit owner is a random encounter. It's free, but once you dismount it, it starts walking back to the dead bandit you found it near. So usually when you enter a city or dungeon or anything, by the time you re-emerge the horse is looong gone.

I'm just happy horses are cheaper in Skyrim, makes me feel less horrible when mine inevitably dies. I think I've lost 12 horses on my current character, hopefully Shadowmere doesn't derp around and die falling from a small ledge.

I did exactly what you did. I rode it for a bit and then got off and it left. It sure was a beautiful horse and I really like the way they look. When I fast-traveled it went with me for a while too; has that happened to you? I love horses but won't own one unless I have the Essential Horses mod because I hate it when they get killed. I had one of the Solitude horses (Palomino) in one game but now I just walk again so I don't have to worry about the horse and Argis doesn't have to run behind me. There's a mod so followers can ride too but I haven't tried it yet.

There are a few of these free horses around. You can find them at forts and walking along the road. You can ride them as long as you want, but when you get off of it, they typically start walking back home.

I tried the horse, found it to be the same experience as Oblivion so I got off the thing and let it go. Only it Fast Traveled with me for several game days until I waited somewhere for 72 hours so the horse could go home.

The only time I found one useful was when I took one from a Stormcloak camp and used it to chase down the Empire courier I needed documents from for the Stormcloak quest. Course I still had to run up ahead of him, then dismount to attack him. That kind of took away the thrill of it.

I'll have to look for the essential horse mod. At least with that it may be worth it to use it to travel with occasionally.

I had the same sort of hing occur at a stable.. can't recall which one right now. I was talking to some guy that I just did a quest for and noticed that the horse that was in the stable didn't show up as being owned already and let me take it without stealing it. There were two horses there and neither of them were marked as owned. Now the horse I took travels with me, but he always starts walking back to the stable that I took him from right away.. he must be homesick lol.


Horses are really only good for climbing mountains or traveling if you don't use fast travel. They're pretty much annoying as hell otherwise. I mean, they can't even back up! To go backwards, the horse has to take a step forward and then turn around which is really stupid when you're standing right on a ledge and your horse just jumps off when you tell him to go backwards.