I bought my first horse from Whiterun. Had it for some time but it ended up dying during a dragon battle. I went back to Whiterun to buy another horse but the horse vendor there had no option for me to buy another horse. So I ended up buying another horse at a second city (can't remember which).

Fast forward about 10-15 real hours playing Skyrim, and my once-dead horse is alive and well at the Whiterun stable. Is this normal? That horse was dead, no mistaking it.

Yeah, horses respawn after a while.

^ you are correct

Maybe if you had some horse armor....

DLC DLC DLC...it can't get here soon enough..of it doesn't include horse armor I will be one sad person

If you happen to be on PC there's a really great horse armor mod already. Unfortunately I'm on 360 and can't use it but it looks really nice. The armor sort of matches the town where you buy the horse.

And....why does my horse want to fight all my battles for me?

They're nord horses. They're mangy, mean and short-tempered, and they eat barley and piss mead.

Really? Thanks I'll check it out

Haha. Trollin'

Does Shadowmere respawn? I think he glitched away in the last update.