This might be an old topic, not sure, but I think horses need a significant upgrade in Skyrim. (No duh.)

I think to make them more useful, a few things need to be considered.

1: Can I name my horse when I buy it? This might seem minor, but when you name it, it becomes less of a 'vehicle' and more of a secondary companion. It stops being "a horse" and becomes a character. Similar to enchanting weapons and naming them, it gets you into the game. Immersion!

2: Can I interact with my horse? i.e. tell it to go somewhere, to wait somewhere and not attack (ridiculously necessary), hold items?

3: Can I upgrade it at a stable? i.e. increased carrying capacity, increased armor (which would be similar to human armor, with the appropriate levels and types, like iron, steel, ebony, daedric) This would keep it from dying easier, help it deal more damage if it has to. Enchantments could be interesting as well. Imagine, enchanting ebony horse armor with fire, and being able to deal fire damage to bandits you trample under hoof. Badass.

4: Can I attack from my horse? Nothing advanced, but similar to darksiders, whatever my primary weapon is, I can take a swing from my steed as I gallop past. Or draw a bow while standing still. (Camera swings in to over shoulder for aiming).

5: Can the horse have a health and stamina bar while riding? Similar to the enchantment level that appears by your weapon when walking around, this would be useful so you know when you're going to have to save some stamina when galloping from a fight, or to one. Or when you need to get your 1000 septims out of dodge before it goes down.

If anyone has other ideas, feel free to add some. Or, berate me for being an idiot, either one.

limited form of horseback fighting would be nice, maybe with one-handed weapons? I'm not sure people fought on horseback swinging a warhammer, I feel the momentum will throw you off.

horseback archery on the other hand does exist, but it could be unbalancing in the hit and run aspect. or whatever.

I really don't get the point of horses. If I want to get there fast, I use fast travel but can't interact with the world. If I want to interact with the world, I run but don't get there very quickly. Horses seem to combine the worst aspects of either choice. You don't get there all the much more quickly and you're severely limited as to how you interact with your environment. Lose-lose if you ask me.

Naming my horse and first person while riding would be enough for me.

They need armor.

They really need armor.

They really really need armor.

Maybe some DLC?

I think they should be like in Ultima Online:
- You either buy a horse or tame a wild one.
- There are two types of horses: ridable and pack horses. In Skyrim they could be combined though.
- You can name it.
- There are many different kinds of horses, varying in strength and color.
- Horses don't fast travel if you are not mounted on one. If you are not using a horse, pay a local Stables to feed it until you need it (it was 10 gold a day IIRC)
- Ability to fight while on horseback.

How about: make the horses less suicidal?

I stopped using horses in Skyrim. The horses are far too aggressive, often attacking everything in sight, only to die a quick death.
I've only resumed using horses thanks to a mod that pacifies them. I'd much rather have my horse idling while I fight for my (and the horse's) life then to have it die constantly.

Well it`s all been said before-

Horses are crap.

A simple thing like making them flee a battle, 1st person view option, better control and being able to name them (which one guy says you can, but you can`t?) would make all the difference...

Horse armour would solve only one small problem and I hated the last horse armour DLC which was a rip-off anyway. i`ll use Mods.

I think it`s too much to ask for horse combat-ever.

3 very simple changes would make them a lot better in my eyes:

-Ability to store items in their saddlebags
-Ability to tell them to follow you
-Ability to instruct companions to ride horses

Agreed.

Totally will create a new character and find a mod to name my follower Tonto if this happens.

Is it true horses cant walk backwards in Skyrim?

i'm going to keep saying it: 2worlds1 ALREADY had a good horse system. my assumption (obviously, false on horses and so many other things) was that beth would further advance aspects already developed.

As for mounted combat, Mount and Blade has some of the best I've seen, but it's probably too much to hope for.

Mounted combat can be a really awkward control scheme. Two Worlds II had mounted combat but it was easier to get off the horse and fight. It was there you could fight from the back of a horse it just wasn't good.

lord vuk- i haven't played the second, yet, but, people said the same thing about 2worlds1 and i found myself becoming very skilled at it and using it often. it just took the patience of practice, which, of course, is in short supply these days.

but, anyways, the system was intact and needed only revamping, which, i though with beth's cash, would have been done.

2worlds1 had: whistling, 1st and 3rd, they could sprint for longer than a few yards, when you dismounted them they continued on for a distance and cleared out of the fighting area if you could time it correctly, packrat, enemies would attack the horses but only for a limited time before they focused on you, combat archery with perks, combat weapons with perks.

with their limited budget they did a great job.
for beth it's shameful.

edit oh ya, and they stayed wherever you left them, including, during fast travel.

Mount and blade : Warband had good Mount combat on it. I wish it was that way.

Agreed. Did you ever play Red Dead Redemption? if not look it up on youtube. Horse mounted combat in RDR was very well done ....

OP has great ideas, id like to see them eventually, even its in the next game

2 simple fixes that made horses actually useful for my character.

1: Faster Horses. (they are simply too slow as is, and my Dohvakin out performs them once stamina gets high enough)
2: No engaging enemies. (self explanatory)

Both are moddable at the moment so all is good (but since we're naming fixes)

Yeah good idea! why not release a DLC with some kind of horse armor ? I would pay really much for that!

Most have already been mentioned. Saddlebags. Less aggressive. Whistle for them to come. Faster with more stamina. Those are fairly straight forwars and easy to do.

Less easy would be 1st person and mounted combat.

They need to transform into a unicorn with wings (pegacorn) then fly while pooping rainbows.