Horses

Charging on horseback gives you the advantage of delivering couched lance damage

Horses are very important as they can give the advantage on speed (both movement speed and attack speed bonus). Each horse has its own stats so you should choose the one that fits your character. The speed of a horse can increase your attack. However, attacking on a horse while stationary will give you a damage penalty. There is an option to see how much penalty you received.

When outside of combat, riding a horse will generally increase your movement speed across the map unless your athletics skill is much higher than your riding skill. The horse's attributes also do not matter, meaning a Sumpter Horse has the same utility as a Charger. Adding horses to your inventory can also further improve your overland speed as well as reduce the speed penalty from carrying heavy items in your inventory. See Party speed for more information.

• Horse type: There are many horse types in Mount&Blade. See below for more info.
• Sell price: The selling/purchase value of the horse. The selling price is always lower than the buying price.
• Armor: Reduces the damage your horse takes in battle. The higher this value is, the better. Typically this attribute is inversely proportionate to speed.
• Speed: The maximum galloping speed of your horse not including riding skill modifiers. All blows delivered at higher speed in the same direction the horse is moving will cause more damage. If a blow is delivered in the opposite direction, it is possible to deal 0 damage, even to lightly armored targets. Higher speed usually comes at the price of lower armor. Couched lance and charge damage (see below) is directly related to this stat. All horses, even lame ones, are faster than foot troops.
• Maneuver: The turn rating of your horse. A horse with a higher maneuver value will turn faster than other horses. This is highly useful for weaving in and out of danger, and dodging enemy strikes. After an initial charge, a higher maneuver value also allows for shorter time in setting up subsequent strikes.
• Charge: Blunt damage dealt by your horse when it collides with enemy infantry when moving at a sufficient speed. This damage is usually low regardless of how high this value is, though your horse will almost always knock your target over if you are moving at full speed. A horse with a high charge will lose less speed when it hits an enemy and will be able to push its way through more infantry before being forced to stop. Additionally a horse with high charge will not have to be moving as fast to successfully knock your target over. This can be an effective way of taking prisoners if no non-lethal weapons are available. It is also useful for getting out of danger, as a horse with high charge rating can force itself through crowds of infantry.
• Hit Points: The amount of damage your horse can take before being crippled or dying. There are no horses with less than 100 hit points in an unmodded version of Mount&Blade.
• Requires Riding: The level of Riding skill you need to mount the horse.

Horse types

There are a variety of horses available with a wide range of stats, your best choice depends on your specific style or needs. Some horses are larger than others, though this is not shown when looking in the item or shop menus, heavier horses are typically larger than lighter horses.

Horse	Armour	Speed	Maneuver	Charge	Hit Points	Riding	Base Value
Charger	58	40	44	32	165	4	1811
Courser	12	50	44	12	110	2	600
Desert Horse	10	42	50	12	110	2	550
Hunter	18	43	44	24	160	3	810
Practice Horse	10	40	37	14	100	-	37
Saddle Horse	8	45	44	10	100	1	240
Sarranian War Horse	58	40	44	32	165	4	1811
Sarranid Horse	10	43	54	16	120	3	700
Steppe Charger	40	40	50	28	150	4	1400
Steppe Horse	10	40	51	8	120	2	192
Sumpter Horse	14	37	39	9	100	1	134
War Horse	40	40	41	28	165	4	1224

With Fire & Sword

Many of the horses in With Fire & Sword have very different stats. Due to the extremely common use of firearms, more heavily armoured horses are less useful than they were in Warband.

Horse	Armour	Speed	Maneuver	Charge	Hit Points	Riding	Base Value
Charger	58	39	44	32	165	4	1811
Courser	8	50	48	9	120	4	3500
Saddle Horse	6	40	40	7	100	1	900
Saddle Horse	7	40	45	7	110	2	1200
Saddle Horse	6	44	40	7	110	2	1400
Steppe Horse	7	47	45	7	100	3	2600
Steppe Horse	7	44	52	7	100	3	3000
Sumpter Horse	6	35	38	7	100	-	300
Thoroughbred Horse	10	46	47	16	150	5	3750
Thoroughbred Horse	10	48	52	22	150	5	4250
Troop Horse	10	42	43	12	140	4	2600
Warhorse	40	39	41	28	165	4	1224

Viking Conquest

The Viking Conquest DLC only has two mounts, with mounted troops being far less common in the game world.

Horse	Armour	Speed	Maneuver	Charge	Hit Points	Riding	Base Value
Pony	10	43	36	12	90	1	3700
Horse	16	50	40	18	100	2	6300

Modifiers

Like weapons and armor, horses can also come with Modifiers. However, horse modifiers are much more varied in what they change, with the "best" modifier being the one that provides boosts in the area you want your horse to excel in.

Modifier	Armor	Speed	Maneuver	Charge	Hit Points	Requirement	Cost Modifier
Lame	-	-10	-5	-	-	-	-60%
Swaybacked	-	-4	-2	-	-	-	-40%
Spirited	-	+2	+1	+1	-	-	+550%
Champion	-	+4	+2	+2	-	+2	+1350%
Stubborn	-	-	-	-	+5	+1	-10%
Heavy	+3	-	-	+4	+10	-	+90%

• A horse ridden by the player's character can be crippled in battle, becoming lame. There is a chance that horses that are downed in combat will be killed, in which case they are removed from your inventory. Lame horses heal over time if they survive for long enough after their initial laming, however. Horses that had any modifier, good or bad, will lose it permanently when lamed, becoming a horse of standard quality when recovered. Lame and Swayback horses seem to be more likely to die when they are downed.

• A horse that is lamed will be unable to reach a high enough speed to couch a lance. The sole exception is the Courser, which has a high enough default speed that the penalty of being lame will not prevent couching.

• Buying a lame horse is very cheap and with time it will recover normal status. If you later sell the recovered horse, it will not sell higher than what you paid for the lame one, even with a trade skill of 10.