Horses of Skyrim
Adds uniquely coloured standalone horses & new saddlery.
HORSES of SKYRIM
Please DO NOT select Download (NMM) – read the entire description & determine which file you need then click on the file tab & select which ones you want (you can still choose to download with NMM this way).
Remember to ALWAYS take precautions before installing or updating a mod just in case something goes wrong – make & keep a back up game save before installing, & if updating also make & keep a back up copy of your old mod file.
UPDATE INFO
The most recent update simply corrected the file path for the optional saddle retexture, so it should now work properly.
If you are using an HSCH file prior to v3.3 please update to v3.3 – an errant script was accidentally included in some of the older files that will make it impossible for you to purchase the Hearthfire Houses – (the previous v3.2 fix has been replaced as some people may have had trouble installing it with their mod manager).
Please let me know if there is still a problem!
HSIH & the optional files were not effected by this error, so v3.1 is currently the most up to date version for these files.
v3.1 updates HSIH to be compatible with v2.3 of “Immersive Horses”. It should also still be compatible with the latest update v2.5.
If you download HSIH your ReadMe will now include information on how to add the standalone horses from this mod to the ini file in your “Immersive Horses” folder – it is not necessary for you to do this unless you want to adapt the stats of your standalone horses. You will be able to copy & paste the necessary data directly into your “Immersive Horses” ini.
The HSIH patch has been removed, however I will create a new one if requested.
Thanks to both madmodderjess & pvpgirl for bringing the need for these respective updates to my attention!
HORSE MANAGEMENT MODS
“Horses of Skyrim” may be used on its own, but I recommend the use of a horse managing mod to get the most out of your horses.
To use no horse manager you must choose an HSCH main file.
If you prefer an easy & convenient equine experience I recommend “Convenient Horses”, which must be used with an HSCH main file.
If you prefer more immersion & realism I recommend “Immersive Horses”, which must be used with the HSIH main file.
HSCH DESCRIPTION
HSCH requires both the Hearthfire & Dawnguard official DLCs.
HSCH optionally retextures the vanilla horses, adds 25 uniquely coloured standalone mares, 4 standalone stallions, gives horses Old Norse names, retextures the vanilla tack & adds some new saddlery.
If you use the Retex file Frost will be white with a black & white “native” mane & tail, & Shadowmere will be a dim “shadowy” black. No other horses will have these colours.
The Hearthfire horses will be “native” versions of the Riverwood grey, Riften dark bay & shadowy black. The names of these horses will not register, however you can use a naming mod such as “Name Your Horse” or “Convenient Horse Herding” to name these three horses yourself – if you would like to use the Old Norse names that I would have given them they are listed in the ReadMe on this page, as well as in the ReadMe included with your mod file.
There is also a file that will restore Arvak to a fully corporeal form after you have completed his quest & are able to summon him. With this file he will be a normal bareback horse with glowing blue eyes that give away his supernatural nature. He will be a unique flecked white with a pink muzzle.
The standalone horses are free to take at the players discretion & are located at city stables, in town paddocks or outside country inns (either hitched out the front or under shelters out the back). Some locations have had hitching posts, overhead shelters & piles of hay added.
HSCH STATS
Player horses are extremely hardy & can only be killed by the player. All horses are removed from the prey faction, they can’t be enchanted by spriggans, they will not effect your sneak bar & they won’t report your crimes.
Additionally the stamina & speed of all horses has been increased, but it will also take longer for their stamina to regenerate.
All standard horses have the same stats. The only difference is that mares will run to safety if threatened while dismounted whereas stallions will stand & fight.
To determine which HS horses are stallions refer to the ReadMe’s, additionally Frost, Shadowmere & Arvak are all stallions, as are any bareback Bethesda placed horses.
Frost, Shadowmere & Arvak all have higher stats than the standard horses.
If you use “Convenient Horses” your stat settings in the MCM menu will override the HS stats, giving any horse that you ride the same stats as each other & making them all either fight or flee when threatened while dismounted.
HSCH SADDLES
With “Convenient Horses” you will be able to saddle your horse with either the tack it was originally wearing, any of the vanilla saddlery, or completely bareback. Without CH you can only use the tack a horse is initially equipped with.
The Imperial saddle has been given a clean brown retexture & the Dark Brotherhood saddle has been given a true black & deep red retexture. Additionally there are optional files that will allow you to give either of these saddles the plain black texture from the screenshots.
The saddlery them is Nordic & most horses will have the fur tack, however some NPC horses, the HS stallions, Frost & the Hearthfire horses will have a higher class leather version (Shadowmere will still have the Dark Brotherhood saddlery).
If you dislike the vanilla fur tack & would like to actually RETEXTURE it with the leather version please go to; install Valachiim’s original retexture mod.
HSCH COLOURS & NAMES
Please click on the images tab on the top of this page to get an idea which horse colours you will find in each location.
A complete list of names & colours can be found in the ReadMe on this page, & will also be listed in the HSCH ReadMe included with your mod file download.
HSCH FILES
All HSCH files are compatible with “Convenient Horses”.
ONE of the HSCH mod files from the Main File section must be used as they include all the base mod content.
Vanilla files do not retexture the vanilla horses, although they do change which colour is located at each stable to make the horses look more indigenous to the area they are in.
Retex files give the vanilla horses HS colours, including Frost & Shadowmere.
If you want to use external mods to retexture the vanilla horses you MUST use Vanilla files.
HSCH RetexDG is identical to HSCH Retex except it also retextures Arvak.
HS BlackIC retextures the Imperial/Cyrodilic tack with a plain black texture.
HSCH INSTALLATION & LOAD ORDER
* Install before starting a new game, OR
* At a point in your game that you are completely happy with your progress go to an interior cell, save, then exit the game
* Make & keep a back up copy of the save you just made, as well as your current mod folder if you are updating
* Install & activate your HSCH mod file
* Optionally install & activate your chosen patches & retexture files
* I recommend using LOOT to sort your load order, manually moving any HS files if it places them incorrectly
* In game load your interior save, save again, play from this new save
If you use “Convenient Horses” it should be above “Horses of Skyrim” in your load order.
If you use a patch it should be below “Horses of Skyrim” in your load order.
HSIH DESCRIPTION
HSIH is for use with “Immersive Horses” & will not function properly without it.
HSIH does not retexture the vanilla horses & is designed to be used with the Primitive Horse Breed version of “Immersive Horses”. However you can run it with the Non Retexture version of IH & either keep the vanilla horse textures or use another external mod to retexture them.
“Horses of Skyrim” adds 25 uniquely coloured standalone mares, 4 standalone stallions, gives horses Old Norse names, retextures the vanilla saddles & adds 13 sets of new tack.
For maximum player choice in if/when/how the standalone horses are obtained they automatically belong to the player faction & are free to take.
As the colours of wild animals have evolved to match their environment I have attempted to do the same with the horses, choosing horse colours that look indigenous to the region that they are placed in.
There will be no need to adopt the HS standalone horses as they are designed to be taken at the players discretion & will belong to you the first time you interact with them – it is up to you if you already “owned” some before your arrival in Skyrim, “receive” a few as rewards or “buy” others from NPCs of your choice.
As HS horses are intended to be uniquely acquired rather than purchased from breeding stables they are not set to respawn, which means that if they die you lose them for good. For this reason they are set to protected (meaning only the player can kill them) – consider them to be particularly hardy!
Horses are located at city stables, in town paddocks or outside country inns (either hitched out the front or under shelters out the back). Some locations have had hitching posts, overhead shelters & piles of hay added.
HSIH STATS
HS stats will only apply to the HS standalone horses. By default each colour has identical stats – essentially making them another unique breed with many different colours.
If you want to adjust the standalone horse stats in your IH ini there is actually a separate breed for each of the 25 colours & 4 stallions, meaning that you can choose to make them all completely unique if you wish – information on how to do this is included in the ReadMe that comes with your mod file.
HS Standalone Mare Default Stats
* Level 10
* Height 1
* Speed 100
* Stamina 600
* Health 500
* Unaggressive & cowardly
* Protected
* Removed from the prey faction
* Can not be enchanted by spriggans
* Will not report crimes
HS Standalone Stallion Default Stats
* Level 15
* Height 1 (or 1.06 if an ini file is used)
* Speed 105
* Stamina 800
* Health 750
* Unaggressive & cautious
* Protected
* Removed from the prey faction
* Can not be enchanted by spriggans
* Will not report crimes
IH must be placed below HS in your load order for all the IH features to work as intended. This means that there will be some inconsistencies between vanilla & HS horses. I am prepared to make another patch that addresses this if requested, I removed it as it isn’t necessary & IH is being fairy regularly updated.
HSIH SADDLES
There are 13 new saddles added with the HSIH files. You will also find that the Imperial saddle is now clean brown leather & the Dark Brotherhood saddle is deep black & red.
One new set of tack is a leather version of the fur saddle. All other new saddles use the Imperial/Cyrodilic mesh – these include: black, fine, fine silver, noble, & quilted variants in off-white, beige, brown, grey-brown, red, purple, blue & green.
Tack is not overly easy to obtain. HS standalone horses will all begin bareback, & vanilla horses will initially be equipped with the basic fur or Imperial/Cyrodilic saddlery.
All tack variants can be crafted at a forge (providing you have the steel smithing perk) & all but the Dark Brotherhood saddlery can be purchased from blacksmiths (although less common varieties will only appear occasionally). You can then use IH features to equip any tack in your inventory on your horses.
Purchasable tack is added to blacksmiths through levelled lists – if it isn’t appearing for sale you probably have a conflicting mod & will need to use a bashed patch from a tool such as “Wrye Bash” to be able to buy saddlery. Before generating your patch ensure that Relev is selected as a bash tag for your Horses of Skyrim esp. If you still have problems ensure that you use LOOT to sort HS & the conflicting mods, remembering to ensure that IH remains below HS.
You will always be able to purchase basic fur, Imperial/Cyrodilic & light (off-white) quilted tack. There will be a 75% chance of black & coloured quilted variants appearing, a 50% chance of leather & fine, & a 25% chance of noble.
Tack prices are determined by crafting price, quality & rarity. Saddlery is valued as follows: fur – low class; Imperial/Cyrodilic, black & quilted – middle class/common merchant; leather & fine – upper class/wealthy merchant; noble – elite class; Dark Brotherhood – extremely rare.
Crafting recipes will only appear if you have the book “Saddlery in Skyrim” in your inventory, which will always be available for purchase from blacksmiths.
Tack Values & Ingredients:
* Fur/50 – 2 wolf pelts, leather, steel ingot, large antlers
* Leather/160 – 4 leather, tundra cotton, steel ingot, large antlers, wolf pelt
* Quilted/90 – 3 leather, 2 linen wrap, tundra cotton, steel ingot, colourant
* Imperial/Cyrodilic/70 – 5 leather, tundra cotton, steel ingot
* Black/70 – 5 leather, iron ore, tundra cotton, steel ingot
* Fine/120 – 3 leather, 2 linen wrap, mora tapinella, tundra cotton, steel ingot
* Noble/195 – 3 leather, 2 linen wrap, mora tapinella, dragons tongue, tundra cotton, steel ingot
* Dark Brotherhood/1200 – 3 leather, linen wrap, 2 iron ore, tundra cotton, steel ingot, black soul gem
HSIH HORSE COLOURS & NAMES
Please click on the images tab on the top of this page to get an idea which horse colours you will find in each location.
A complete list of names & colours can be found in the ReadMe on this page, & will also be listed in the HSIH ReadMe included with your mod file download.
HSIH FILES
HSIH is the “Horses of Skyrim” main file for use alongside “Immersive Horses”. It is the essential file with all the “Horses of Skyrim” base content.
“Immersive Horses” must be placed below HSIH in your load order or you will not be able to adopt unowned or stolen horses.
INSTALLING
If you want HS horses to have unarmed damage consistent with those in IH you MUST add the standalone HS horses to your IH ini before activating your main file to guarantee that all horses will get the adjustment.
If you are updating the mod in an existing game horses you have already encountered will not register changes to their unarmed damage, this is not something that I can control.
Make a back up copy of your original “Immersive Horses” ini before installing the ini files – this way you can revert back to it if you decide to uninstall this mod.
To install HSIH:
* Install HSIH before starting a new game OR
* At a point in your game where you are completely happy with your progress go to an interior cell & save, then exit the game
* Make & keep a back up copy of the save you just made, as well as your current mod folder if you are updating
* Install & activate HSIH, placing it above “Immersive Horses” in your load order – if LOOT places it below IH manually move it so that it is above IH yourself
* In game go to your interior save, save again, play from this new save
UNINSTALLING
With the exception of mods that only include texture replacers I do not recommend uninstalling any mod in an existing game unless you can revert back to a save that was made before installing it.
If you follow my installation guidelines you will be able to do this!
