Horses in Skyrimm have decent animations but, they miss 2 features that, in my opinion, would make the game even better in terms of gameplay and immersion.

a) Mounted combat - the ability to fight on horse, maybe even with a related skill tree implemented. The ability to shoot a bow, cast spells or just melee while mounted.

b.) Barding - the ability to provide protection and cover to your horse/warhorse to make it more resilient. This would be important with mounted combat implemented.

Any ideas/takers? Im sure wont be an easy to do mod, lots of animations involved but well.. if things were easy they wouldnt givve you any satisfaction when done

Mounted combat has always been a huge issue and very difficult to implement. Even Bethesda devs had trouble attempting it if I remember correctly. While it would be awesome to have (Two Worlds anyone?) it will probably be a pain in the ass to even attempt as you'd have to probably add a new mechanic to the game.

As for horse "barding", if you mean horse armor then I can see it being done, perhaps easily too with some scripting, modeling and texturing magic.

Horse combat had been discussed since time immemorial here in this forum. Nearly caused a riot nearing release date because people have been accusing Bethesda for not being able to implement it.

In one of the most hot past thread, Gstaff interfered by giving explanation that Bethesda actually have discussed this seriously to contemplation level. They simply didn't implement it because it might damage TES originality and make the game becoming like other game.

HOSSS AMAAAAAAAAH!

But as far as I can tell, Mounted combat would be tricky. Most Outright mechanical and scripting modifications are without the Script extenders.

I think Skyrim will be easier to do this than previous games. Look at how they did werewolves, they alpha fade in the werewolf over the top of the player model and fade it out at the same time. They disable the menus and add new speeds and attacks which are in the new model.

So as long as this isn't totally hard coded and there are hooks in the creation kit to access how they did the werewolf stuff, it would be totally possible to add mounted combat exactly how they implemented werewolves. Basically I'd mount the horse model and when you unsheath weapon then pull the werewolf transformation trick they used loading a model based on your character and the horse you are riding that is all merged into one mesh/skeleton. Then this new model has special anims it plays when you attack, like attack left/attack right.

Horses are going to need a lot more mod love than just this - which would be cool.

If you are mounted on them they are slug bait waiting to die. If you dismount not only do enemies target the horses, but the horses are uber aggressive. The result is they die quickly. No horse armor either ... watch that be a DLC.

Anyway the point being that since horses can attack - and if one can add horse combat why not include horses in the attacking? Imagine upgrading to warhorse armor with weaponized hooves.

... but why oh why couldn't it be as cool as mount and blade ...

this is why i hate the horses in tes, they are so useless

now if they could make it so that the horses dash also works like a charge, and could knock enemies over, then i would feel a little better. also they need to be able to outrun the damn wolves
also there needs to be a quick dismount that lets you JUMP OFF OF YOUR HORSE WHILE MOVING!
and when you are dismounted, YOU are the primary target, and your horse should RUN AWAY.
there needs to be a way to call your horse. like a whistle.
there need to be more stables.
there needs to be a way to tie up a stolen horse somewhere, so it doesn't run back home.
horses need saddle bags.
when you mount your horse your weapon should not be sheathed, [funky clipping issues]

Probably impossible or very hard to make a decent mounted combat mod. But as things are now horses are more trouble than they're worth, you're attacked by a pack of wolves, have to (slowly) dismount and kill them, then find your horse again because it has run off, then repeat this over and over and over again. Running is easier and horses are just a silly roleplay element instead of being something useful.

Well they are not slowed down by your character being overencumbered and can fast travel if you are.

Other then that yeah they are useless.

I recall reading an interview that they were added at the last minute.

This is something I'd like to see very much

Best mounted combat, hands down, would have to be in Mount&Blade. All forms of mounted combat were a blast in that game. If anyone wants to see how to do mounted combat right, play that game.

Agree

The best non modded medieval combat in a video game and the best mounted combat. That game is so visceral and balanced strategically so.

The best thing about M&B games is that the horse is always a separate creature from your character. If the horse goes down there is not cut-scene.

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Also to the above suggestions. I'd request all the implementation of Kuertee's http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=8766 AND Khettienna's http://tesalliance.org/forums/index.php?/topic/3553-betahorse-management/
Specifically: Irresponsible horses, Stolen horses owned over time, being able to stable horses so you can for once be able to fast travel without the horse showing up.

I mean seriously if you use the in-game cart to travel then why would your horse be there?

I'm starting to think the unused centaur skeleton file (not an undead skeleton, an animation skeleton) is a leftover from when they were contemplating mounted combat.

As people already mentioned, Mount & Blade series games are the ones with one of the best mounted combat mechanics ever implemented into a game and scenes with packs of horses run aside the player are really nice to watch and hear! If anyone would try to implement horse combat system, they should look how it is done in Mount & Blade, it's an experience you must have before even thinking about mounted combat in my opinion.

There has only ever been one melee mounted combat mod for Oblivion: Deadly Reflex 4. Spell wise there was http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=8962.

Middle Earth Roleplaying Project was trying to http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1136004-wip-merp-blade/, but no postings in months.

Hopefully they will carry on in Skyrim. So these things can be done ... but why is it that it must be done by modders.

Horses in Skyrim have less use than Oblivion. They are less responsive as well.

while it is possible, how i dont konw...
i am guessing its more aggravation than most modders are willing to put up with, and at best would be a bit weird.
you would be running scripts against hard coding for the engine, unless the updated engine has been changed to accept new code to override hardcode...
if someone knows how or if this could be done, ill take notes and lessons thanks

agree there.

lots of interesting ideas here, the werewolf overlap looks a good one aswell.. lets keep our fingers crossed and hope someone who knows the engine well becomes motivated to make something like this. Im sure lots of people would like to help making a mod for this.

Amen to that. I had my second horse die. I think anyways. Never saw it die, but it's gone. Not bothering to get another. They are a waste. For all they put into horses, they might as well have left them out all together. I hope someone manages to make an even half decent system to improve horses, even mounted combat is never possible. Your ideas are perfect. Would love to see them implemented.

i would be happy with just Bows and Magic usage on horses

It breaks my heart to say it but I doubt they will be able to bring M&B combat into Skyrim, the new dual wield system really threw a wrench in that plan. But here's to hoping.
To be honest I don't really see a need to mounted combat in Skyrim simply because so much of it is mountainous, one would end up charging an enemy and go flying off a cliff.
But I do think one should be able to ride his/her horse into an enemy and knock them over, it would be a handy get away trick.

It just feels wrong having to get off your horse to fight when you should be able to swing your sword at that annoying wolf thats following you.

Would also be good to get attacked by mounted bandits, or Stormcloaks/Imperials.

Would love to chase a dragon down on my horse shooting arrows at it around whiterun.

Since they don't have lance based combat that too is a huge obstacle.

But swords - why not. Archery why not? Both of those were also done in M&B. But I recognize that M&B had that awesomely high fps which made tight battle scenes and exacting combat so rewarding. Modded Skyrim is not going to have that - plus all weapon lengths mean nothing as I understand it, so much else would have to be modded as well.

I still maintain that horses in Skyrim are worse than Oblivion. No first person. No being able to move backwards. Unresponsive jumps - plus the library of other complaints above.

With mounted combat in Oblivion we had first person spell casting. With Deadly Reflex 4 we had melee from horse back. I think it can be done.

Though the fact that when mounted the character and horse are one unit is another huge downfall. If your horse dies while mounted you will too.

Lot of times I would have liked to be able to chase a Dragon riding a horse and shooting arrows from its back , even a perk tree for horseback markmanship and horsback fighting woudl have been cool , may be even horseback casting ...

then the horses should have been scaled down to almoust weack and scareable creatures , it is totally nonsense that they run into battle befoure me and even put themselves between me and the enemy most of times getting hit ...