Oblivion had them. I see horses around camps and such, but nobody ever rides one...?

There are a few hunters that ride horses and some randomly generated nobles that ride horses.

That's about it though.

A fellow rides a horse named Frost but you don't see them for long. Also, headless horseman was interesting.

There are a few roaming the wild. I just encountered one this week, whose horse was beaten to pulp by Blood Horkers.

General Tullius rides a horse in the intro, and meets a Thalmor who is also mounted on a horse.

I sort of get the feeling that the Nords aren't big into horses, and many of the horses in the game look like they were bred to work, not to be ridden. This would be in line with real-world Scandinavian culture, which never placed a large emphasis on cavalry or horsemanship.

Well that's true and not true. The Vikings did breed and use horses. They tended to be small, hardy ponies though, not the big draft horses you see.

I think you see plenty of horses in the game. Not everybody rides because they're expensive and only traders would have need for them on a regular basis.

^^^ There are a few random encounters ...

This, plus I think Peddlers roaming the wilderness ride a horse as well.

somebody already said it...

I've seen a few npcs on horse. So they do exsist, rest assured

I just wished they would remove the horse riding aspect rather than the lame implementations. never mind the horse riders after the intro I was expecting to see moving horse and carts in the game. As others have said there are the odd hunters and a noble and his guard (on foot).

Ya it would be nice to come across a roving caravan of carts to rob or be able to jump in one and ride along. Perhaps as you are riding along, the caravan gets weighleighed by some highwaymen and you have to fight them off before they kill everyone.

It's annoying that there's not many of them. Some nobles, hunters and random characters you can see riding with a horse but it makes no sense why soldiers and couriers are not riding and why you can't order your follower to ride.

I wish when I pointed my follower toward a horse that they would ride it instead of attacking it. I hate that I can't buy a horse for my followers to ride.

Well Oblivion had the Imperial Guards and Couriers around all Cyrodiil

I haven't seen any in Skyrim. So yeah it's weird.

This I dont understand why there are no merchants using carts to move goods around.

I came across a Khajit bandit on a horse on the road from Riften to the gate to Morrowind

Because Bethesda

As others have said, Hunters will occasionally spawn with horses. You'll occasionally see a nobleman on horseback being escorted by a Legion soldier. Last night I also saw a hostile, unnamed Dunmer spawn near the Morrowind border (heh, fitting) on horseback. He then promptly jumped off said horse to attack me.

...So I killed him and "borrowed" his horse for the trip back to Riften.


A thousand times this. I've quit using my horse very often and started mostly tromping around on foot just because I feel really ridiculous, galloping around on horseback...then stopping every so often to wait for poor Erik the Slayer to sprint five miles to catch up. Having a dog follower trailing behind your horse is one thing, but you being on horseback while your NPC companion isn't just feels wrong.

I find nobles riding horses from time to time.