Yeah, there is that.

It would have been a lot cooler if your horse would just get the hell out of the way and stay alive.

Not a big deal, but it does seem like it would have been an easy problem to avoid. Just keep horses exempt from combat unless you're on one.

It wouldn't be un-killable, it just wouldn't go out of it's way to enter combat.

Does the headless horseman count as well?

The only NPCs that I've seen on horseback were the nobles that you occasionally pass on the street.

I agree OP. I find it kind of strange as well. It would make the world feel a bit more believable if we saw more horses than the one our character might be riding. The horse animations are actually really good in this game too (handling not so much) so I don't know why there aren't more of them. I guess there aren't a lot of people in Skyrim with the coin to purchase one, making nobles easier to spot. I have seen a few people on horseback though, but it's been about 150 hours for me so that's not saying much.

Also, I wish I could give my companion a horse if I'm riding mine. It's a pain to lose them and then have to wait for them to catch up; might as well just walk. Touchy horse handling and no ability to at least shoot a bow from horseback make them simply a roleplaying and travel (I don't fast travel) tool for me more than anything else. Also helpful for getting you back to town when you've got a lot of loot you don't want to drop...but I digress.

because horses svck......

I agree, there should be more npc's riding horses. Though, looking at real history, you would see that the scandinavians (Come on, vikings are the closet we can come to a nord ) Didnt use horses in their warfare in many many years. Only few people had a horse, and the ones who did, used it for farm labour, or was some sort of lord.

The fact was that we didnt really have any horses worth riding into war with... They require training, and you need a proper breed to get proper war horses.

I wonder if it has something to do with available rendering assets, that is very odd though. As large as the land is you'd think it'd be something of a no-brainer.

I think everybody in skyrim owned a horse at the beginning of the game, but after 15 minutes or so they were all killed trying to attack dragons.

true story.

Yep first time I saw someone on a horse (a hunter) was near a vampire cave, Haemar's Shame. Though said hunter usually is on foot it's not too uncommon to see him at a gentle trot on his horse.

Even NPCs in game think Bethesda's horse AI svcks

I have seen a good few npc's on horses, have saved various random horses from being killed by wild animals, and once, a random female bandit. Have found several of the aforementioned riderless horses as well.

Maybe the dragons ate all the NPC's horses. Those dragons are pretty large, they must have got that big somehow

I had a horse once, but it took an arrow to the knee.

Just kidding. The only horse I had i found next to a dead bandit, but it always walked away when I dismounted, and after I fought a group of enemies it was gone.

Horses only fly for very brief periods of time.

Friendly NPC stay in cities/towns mostly or forts.

So yea...

The Nords may not use horses, but the Imperials and Thalmors should use.

In Oblivion there are lots of horse riding Imperial patrols. And the Thamlor thinking themselves to be so "superior" shouldn't have walked around on foot when traveling around.

Shadowmere is invincible in skyrim unless you take a long enough fall to kill a normal horse. Shadowmere is my dragon tank on my Mage.

Maybe the Thalmor believe good strong elven legs are better than those of horses. Those damn pesky horses are keeping the elves from divinity just like the humans...

Just imagine an npc trying to chase you on horseback and constantly trying to get on and off of their horse to attack you.

I'm pretty sure I've seen a hunter near Ivarstead riding a horse.

Oh, that is a lot better. The only time she died is when I fell off a cliff, so I just assumed she could die from enemies.

They fast travel.

I think the scarcity of horses was just another way of reducing the NPC and AI load for the game. Once the CK comes out, there will be mods to add more horse riders.,

I highly recommend the mod Cowardly Horses. It removes their suicidal tendencies so you can use a horse and have a pretty good chance it will stay alive since it will flee off to a safe distance rather than fight in most cases:

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1522

I see horses all the time (ok, not literally, but often enough to where they aren't rare)

I wish my Followers had a horse. Riding a horse and having to wait for my Followers to catch up really irks me.

Dear Sweet Bethesda Programmers, please program some kind of functionality that allows my Followers to ride wit me. I got the money! I'll buy 'em a horse! I'll buy you a horse!