Having played 10-12 hours with the 1.6 patch I'll say this: Horse combat needs work.
At first, it actually got me using horses again. Now that the novelty has worn off, it's just "meh". I can't hit crap with a sword. The bow is either dead on or way off with no consistency. Enemies either run right up on you where you can't see/hit them or they run up but don't attack at all. Definitely needs polishing.

Yeah, it could use some improvements. Maybe if horse speed were increased a tad... then I wouldn't have wolves snapping at my horse's tail all the time while I'm pretty much unable to do anything.

I also wish you could interact with the world from horseback, like in Oblivion - talk to people, pick up ingredients within reach, open containers within reach, etc. The fact that you can't do this is probably what leads to the situation where a roadside assassin will run up to you and... stand there.

Really? The assassins I've encountered have no objections to carving a piece out of my horse first; so frankly mounted combat is a plus for me! I'm trying the beta atm and haven't really got the hang yet (targeting and controls have a different feel to on foot) but so far I like it. Also got me using greatswords, which I never really found a use for before

As for realism, I never realised how many people on these forums were experienced in riding while wielding swords, impressive I'm just guessing, but all the times I swing and miss, I'd probably do that IRL too, on foot never mind from the back of a galloping horse.

Meh... I like that they are adding it but its not like its critical or anything. Just a nice feature that will probably shine mostly in mods.

Bethesda didn't have to ad this feature, but guess what, they did. Sure, you can always think that the system could have been better, but if you complain at somebody who gives you something for free, then you're basically just spoiled. I'm not saying that you have to like what they give you, but I'm getting annoyed at all people who can't show a bit of gratitude when somebody does something nice.

And the PS3 users got free games in compensation, so yeah, they shouldn't complain either.

I honestly don't think I'll ever use mounted combat ... but I think you have a good point, at least they are updating some big things.

Yep, really - not all the time, mind you, but it is frequent enough that it's noticeable.

The problem with the controls doesn't have anything to do with my admitted lack of experience in real life mounted combat - I mean, I don't have any experience fighting with swords on foot, either, but when I swing a sword on foot in Skyrim I can sort of predict when I am going to hit the guy in front of me. When I whiff entirely on foot, it's because my reach was too short or he dodged back out of the way.

On horseback, however, I don't get the same kind of consistent feedback. I think I *should* be hitting, but I whiff.

Then there's the crosshair-aiming thing when you're using archery... sometimes the arrow flies in the right direction, sometimes it's off by quite a bit.

I'm not saying we should hit all the time, I'm just saying that the controls and aiming could use some more work to help them feel as consistent as what you get on the ground.

Actually, they probably had to. Not because they wanted to please us but because we'll need it in the future, when we'll have to mount... dragons!

oh, I hope not ...

...I'm just assuming that we won't mount dragons...

Dragon mount was in the jam video...

I doubt that everything from the gamejam will be added

Well, that just seems over the top ... it'll just be another thing I won't use, so I'm used to it by now. but there are so many more things I'd rather see

Let's be optimistic! I would love to mount a dragon. These creatures are so mighty...

True

I wouldn't mind Dragon mounts if the DLC included a new area which wasn't a new loading area, so that you could use a dragon to fly to the new area...

compare RDR's horses to the horse from Shadow Of the Colossus (PS2 game, i might add). (I assume RDR = Red Dead Redemption)
Shadow of the colossus had the best horse mechanics i've seen. That horse was so epic. it looked a bit funny, because it was like 6x bigger than the character xD

I kind of agree. When I started watching the gameplay footage of mounted combat, I thought it seemed kind of low-grade, looked more like somebody modded it in, tbh. That said, its still a great addition.

I can't wait for modders to start working with it I'm sure they'll help improve it. PC FTW! lol.

Not really. That armor on the rear legs looks rather painful. The pointy parts of the front leg armor are fine; the knee actually bends that way.

Back legs don't bend the same direction; the pointy parts could end up hurting the horse. The hock bends like your ankle; the "knee" in the back leg is called the stifle, and its higher up the leg, closer to the body. From what I can recall, most of the surviving examples of real barding didn't cover much of the legs.

The armor overall though is nice.

all said but still for the first time it looks good we should be happy, because bethesda just wanted to put this featured at least we have finally horse combat so know i dont have to go out of my horse kill a wolf 10 meters away there it is another wolf here we go again ,.....

LT makes you lean left

RT makes you lean right

While dual wielding, you only attack with your right hand.

2h is best for horse combat besides bow.

seriously why complain about this?

it could be worse, they could be releasing a patch of basic interface useability but only for a small favored son segment of the market..

We can dream. Though there are a few things that definitely shouldn't be added. And I'm not talking about the King Crab either.

You mean the xbox? After all, they do get a game primarily designed for them, get the dlc first, and now kinect support...yeah, favored son, huh? But hey, I'll settle for a proper user interface, the one that they gave us totally blows..

Really, honestly, why even bother bringing up thigs like the favored son stuff, all that does is invite platform bashing, flaming, thread locking, and then other stuff that the mods love to hand out like it's candy. We are all here for Skyrim, regardless of the platform which we choose to play on.

If there's one thing that I don't want, it's more kill cams, they're annoying enough as it is. I would like an option for everyone to have them shut off...much the same as New Vegas gave us a toggle on/off for kill cams, but I won't hold my breath on that.

Just imagine strolling out to the northern coast, and taking a dip in the frigid waters for a swim only to be greeted by the grandaddy of all mudcrabs. Horse Armor, eat your heart out, now we've got the giant killer king crab!!!

I've been begging for this feature since the game released, so I'm thankful they are adding it.. but all that said, coming off of playing hundreds of hours of Red Dead Redemption, I found the horses overall in Skyrim to be very dissapointing.. the look; like an over grown pony in my opinion. The speed, or lack there of.. And the lacking combat aspect. I'm glad this is getting addressed.. the only other thing I would like to see them add for horses is the ability to whistle for it after a battle, and the ability to have it carry some stuff for you, but that one is not even that big of a deal, as you can already carry an obscene amount of loot on your person.

If they really wanted to get geeky with it, add the ability to smith saddles for your horse, which would then give your horses different capabilities, like more stamina, or life, or ability to carry stuff...

They are actually similar to Shire Horses.
http://www.pferde-rassen.de/bilder/s/ShireHorse.jpg

And yes, Shire horses do look like they have boots on.

I was disappointed when I got the game and there was only 1 horse type. They look kinda lame and lack speed. I plan to get Skyrim for computer after GoTY comes out and all Skyrims failings will be unofficially addressed.