Back in Oblivion I thought the idea of horses was genius, but was quite disappointed when I aquired one.
Mainly because once you had one, it would never leave you alone. If you left it in the stables of a city and decided to fast travel somewhere on foot, suddenly next to you, there he would be. "No Dobbin, I left you at the stables, go back".
So, does this problem exist in Skyrim. What I want is to be able to leave my horse somewhere and expect him to stay and then know he is there if I want him back.
Also the fact that you couldnt fight whilst on a horse was a shame. Is this possible in Skyrim?

Can't fight while on a horse, no, but jump off and you'll watch your horse go nuts on an opponent. And generally they will (for the most part) stay where you left 'em, unless you fast-travel. Horse I have right now is a special horse, and he kicks butt. Wouldn't wanna travel without him.

It will follow till it dies. On top of that, it will try to fight EVERYTHING!!! I spent most of my last play-through just defending it. It's too much of a pain imo. Great concept, but annoying overall.

They've got their own new set of annoyances. They will fight for you, even if not attacked; despite the game saying they're hardier than the ones from Cyrodiil, they're in fact much more fragile and will die much easier. They're easier to navigate but you can't walk them backwards or rotate them at a dead stop; to go backwards, you have to cause them to rear up with the jump button, which results in about a 1/4 horse-length backwards motion. Do that if necessary, then walk them around in a tight circle, then you can run again.

If a horse dies while you're riding it, you'll fall off and may think you died; the first few times, I thought so and reloaded a save before it forced me to; then I finally realized one time that I didn't die when my character got back up; but if it's a monster that kills your horse, you're pretty vulnerable until you get up. Mine were only ever killed by falls while I was riding, or monsters when I wasn't riding the horse.

I think the horses were much more useful in Oblivion. The horses in Skyrim are just so slow and fragile. And on top of that, you are forced into 3rd person while riding them and there still is no mounted combat. There's one horse that's not too bad, but once my character had over 300 stamina, I avoided using all of them. They're too much of a hassle for my taste.

Hmmm. Such a shame. The potential of having a horse is huge and I really hoped it would have been improved from Oblivion.
Looks like I shall be avoiding them.

If you go the assassin route you do get Shadowmere again, though. And that's one kickass almost unkillable horse that's perfect bandit and dragon fodder.

Horses are useful as they come equipped with a mounted grappling hook, rope, and crampons.

Yeah, that is very annoying that horse just pops up everywhere you go whether you bring it or not. And it certainly is a problem that the thing will fight anything. very annoying...I am gonna try something out. I want to see if I travel by horse and wagon will the damn horse still be there. I am willing to bet it will. Also, really annoying is the fact that you cannot ride with your follower on the back of the horse. It makes no sense that they must walk or spring behind you as you haul A$$ on a horse...

Get it together.

Even my Shadowmere is gone I visited the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary after completing the quest line and I found Shadowmere walking back into the pool it once gave life to it. When it came out of the pool it was just a normal horse. I haven't seen my Shadowmere ever since so I'm really annoyed about that one. Now every time I travel a normal horse spawns next to me and it's walking right back from where it came from. I want my Shadowmere back!!

HaHa, thats funny.