Don't get me wrong I love my horse but the mechanics are terrible.

Controlling the horse is awful, after coming from Red Dead Redemption, you would know what I'm talking about.

The camera control is terrible, I can't enjoy the scenery and control the horse at the same time, the camera always goes crazy.

I also wish there was a feature for calling your horse, I hate going all the way back to where I left my horse, it takes away from the immersion.

The only thing I don't like about them is they're too slow. I seem to recall having a lot of trouble controlling my horse in RDR. I think you have to keep tapping the A button to keep your speed up or you just coast to a stop. So you can't look around and enjoy the scenery in that game either. Although the horses were unbelievably lifelife.

I'd be happy with the Skyrim horses if they were faster.

You do that to get up to a certain speed (or sprint). After that you can hold A or X to keep the horse at a steady pace.

On topic: Horses take too long to mount/dismount. Move too slow, and always seem to get in the way. I just buy them to flaunt wealth in people's faces.

one of the most annoying shortcomings is the inability to walk backwards. seriously. what the hell

Actually their speed is the least of my concerns, because I'd ride them just for the RP if not for the fact that:

1. you can't pick flowers on horseback. Not as big a problem for miners because you don't find veins every 5 seconds.
2. if you're a ranged class and you come across an enemy, by the time you've dismounted he's on top of you.
3. horses in this game are possessed by satan and can singlehandedly (hoovedly?) wreck a whole fort full of bandits or tank dragons. No horse of mine is going to ruin my fun.

They seem to be made out of Play-Do to me. I don't like the way they move, either. To much bouncing up and down. Horses have a very natural forward motion, Skyrim's looks so awkward.

Horses are really only useful to subvert the damned annoying "cannot fast travel while overburdened" bit.