Horses can be earned in Riften by challenging Hofgrir, the stable owner, to a brawl. Once you win the battle of fists, he will offer to sell a horse to you. If you say that you would rather walk then he calls you cheap and you can ride the Riften horses for free. The free horse will walk away after dismounting. Although the horse is not technically not owned by the player, it will travel with you when you fast travel. A benefit to earning and using this free horse is that you can simply go to Riften and take a new horse if yours dies in battle which saves 1,000 of your hard earned gold.

Even though this guide is about obtaining horses, it might be worth adding into this guide a little more information about horses as a companion for your character once purchased.

For instance;

– even if you do not choose to ride your horse across Skyrim, leaving it behind, your purchased horse will always show up outside the gate of whatever main city you exit. Also while exiting caves and dungeons. This is not true with stolen horses, or mounts that are randomly found in the wild.

– horses will defend themselves against wild animals, including dragons! They will rear up and kick, dealing damage to the attacker. However, you must be dismounted in order for this to happen.

– your purchased horse can die!

– you cannot fight enemies while riding your horse even when the attacker is at your horse’s feet dealing damage. No swinging swords or shooting arrows from the saddle. You must dismount in order to engage battle.

– sometimes a horse can get you to difficult places atop mountains where taking foot has failed, ironicaly. I am guessing it is due to the way a horse covers ground as opposed to how your character covers ground. Be careful though, because falling off rocky cliffs to your death is easier done while on horseback.

– A pro to riding horseback is that it gets you to your destination faster, and it is easier to run away from those saber tooth cats and giants that you know you cannot best! However, a con is that you miss so much obtainable stuff while on your journey, such as collectible ingredients and food.

Anon, you should learn to read before questioning the validity of the guide. It simply says you should have enough gold by the time you get to riverwood. Following that it says you buy the horse at whiterun stables.