I've had bad things happen shortly after buying a horse before, but this was the first horse for this character. I had one or two places to the NE of Markarth with quests, so I decided to check one of them out. My route was a bit unclear, but I chose the road leading north. Somewhere near the mining camp I came across three forsworn attacking the place. I turned about to get the horse some distance back up the road before dismounting and investigating. Well, it was a helluva fight, I nearly didn't make it. Man, they were pumping out serious damage and I was barely dealing any! Tidying up the place and throwing the bodies into the river, I found the corpse of my horse. Sigh. So I resurrected him via the console and decided to go back south, then east.
At the next fork I got on the road to Karthspire (or the camp). I seemed to recall this was Forsworn territory, so I left the latent glue pot well east and crept in. I'm not exaggerating when I say that if I could just see the head of a Forsworn at extreme bow-shot range, and he was facing me, my stealth went from hero to zero just like that! Moreover, every other Forsworn came at me at once. If I was setting off fireworks I couldn't be more visible. I checked my sneak, and it was at 100. I had no other enhancement. I was wearing the DB muffled boots, but that doesn't increment sneak. I had to plink away using my bow, and running for cover at every other shot. Later, in a dungeon, things seemed normal again.
I just wonder if it was a freak glitch, or something to do with a rat-fink horse broadcasting my whereabouts? The horse died again later. That's the last one I'll ever have. Useless beast.

