Horse Controls, Tips, and Tricks

[BoomBazookaJD]

As horses are vital to the game, here are some things I've learned from controls to controlling the horse. Please add to if you have information. 

1. you can toggle your horse from a slow walk (recommended in town) to a trot. Then to full a full sprint. Many of us already know to press A (for XB1) in time with your horses gallop to use less stamina. It looks like this:

walk-->trot-->run-->full sprint

2. To go from running back down to a trot and to walking, press the RB button (XB1). This is especially handy as you are coming into town or accidentally start running in town. 

This has been the single most important part of handling my horse in the game. 

3. When taming a new horse, ensure you stay with it at all times. Instruct your main horse to follow you and never leave the new horse behind. I have a tendency to find a new mount while hunting, and it comes in handy to have two horses (side note: each horse can carry 1 large animal  like a deer/pronghorn, and 2 small animals such as a rabbit/duck). 2 horses are great when you are out hunting, but they are difficult to control. Your new horse will run off if you do not get your bonding level to 1 and you wander off from it (or it is scared off). 

4. Wash your horse by running it through water or clean it using the brush. Clean horses are happy horses. 

5. Feed your horse often to ensure it stays at a proper weight. If you are on a main story quest, it's a good thing to fortify your horses stamina; good chance you're going to need to make a heck of a break for it. 

6. Upgraded tack items can provide small speed boosts. 

7. DO NOT RIDE IN HEAVILY FORESTED AREAS QUICKLY. It's a good way to plant yourself and your trusty steed into a tree. 

8. Careful going down steep slopes, your horse can and will slide down. 

9. BUY A HORSE RESUSCITATION POTION. You're going to have a horse shot out from under you. If you survive, you'll want to rez the ol' sucker. Nothing worse than losing your fully bonded horse. 

10. Horses no like big drops. 

11. When you think you're going to be in a firefight, or you're unexpectedly jumped by rival gangs, sprint through the contact, find a place to put your four legged friend, and then take cover and return fire if you are going to fight. Personally, I recommend breaking contact and sprinting through ambushes. That said, DO NOT return to your camp. You've likely figured this out if you've been playing over the past week. This way, your horse doesn't turn into your cover and become a bullet cushion. 

12. You can have 4 horses in the stable, and I've personally had 3 horses in camp. 

13. Your horse will show up at your next stagecoach/train destination. Magic. 

Edited November 3, 2018 by BoomBazookaJD

[Jayjoejohnlongsilver]

Maybe this will people help to dont think the law system is broken just because they ride like rambo through the town and wondering why everybody is shooting at them.

[MJROu812]

10 minutes ago, BoomBazookaJD said:

As horses are vital to the game, here are some things I've learned from controls to controlling the horse. Please add to if you have information. 

1. you can toggle your horse from a slow walk (recommended in town) to a trot. Then to full a full sprint. Many of us already know to press A (for XB1) in time with your horses gallop to use less stamina. It looks like this:

walk-->trot-->run-->full sprint

2. To go from running back down to a trot and to walking, press the RB button (XB1). This is especially handy as you are coming into town or accidentally start running in town. 

This has been the single most important part of handling my horse in the game. 

3. When taming a new horse, ensure you stay with it at all times. Instruct your main horse to follow you and never leave the new horse behind. I have a tendency to find a new mount while hunting, and it comes in handy to have two horses (side note: each horse can carry 1 large animal  like a deer/pronghorn, and 2 small animals such as a rabbit/duck). 2 horses are great when you are out hunting, but they are difficult to control. Your new horse will run off if you do not get your bonding level to 1 and you wander off from it (or it is scared off). 

4. Wash your horse by running it through water or clean it using the brush. Clean horses are happy horses. 

5. Feed your horse often to ensure it stays at a proper weight. If you are on a main story quest, it's a good thing to fortify your horses stamina; good chance you're going to need to make a heck of a break for it. 

6. Upgraded tack items can provide small speed boosts. 

7. DO NOT RIDE IN HEAVILY FORESTED AREAS QUICKLY. It's a good way to plant yourself and your trusty steed into a tree. 

8. Careful going down steep slopes, your horse can and will slide down. 

9. BUY A HORSE RESUSCITATION POTION. You're going to have a horse shot out from under you. If you survive, you'll want to rez the ol' sucker. Nothing worse than losing your fully bonded horse. 

10. Horses no like big drops. 

11. When you think you're going to be in a firefight, or you're unexpectedly jumped by rival gangs, sprint through the contact, find a place to put your four legged friend, and then take cover and return fire if you are going to fight. Personally, I recommend breaking contact and sprinting through ambushes. That said, DO NOT return to your camp. You've likely figured this out if you've been playing over the past week. 

12. You can have 4 horses in the stable, and I've personally had 3 horses in camp. 

13. Your horse will show up at your next stagecoach/train destination. Magic. 

I couldn't have said that better.....BoomBazookaJD.

[DylBandit]

26 minutes ago, BoomBazookaJD said:

As horses are vital to the game, here are some things I've learned from controls to controlling the horse. Please add to if you have information. 

1. you can toggle your horse from a slow walk (recommended in town) to a trot. Then to full a full sprint. Many of us already know to press A (for XB1) in time with your horses gallop to use less stamina. It looks like this:

walk-->trot-->run-->full sprint

2. To go from running back down to a trot and to walking, press the RB button (XB1). This is especially handy as you are coming into town or accidentally start running in town. 

This has been the single most important part of handling my horse in the game. 

3. When taming a new horse, ensure you stay with it at all times. Instruct your main horse to follow you and never leave the new horse behind. I have a tendency to find a new mount while hunting, and it comes in handy to have two horses (side note: each horse can carry 1 large animal  like a deer/pronghorn, and 2 small animals such as a rabbit/duck). 2 horses are great when you are out hunting, but they are difficult to control. Your new horse will run off if you do not get your bonding level to 1 and you wander off from it (or it is scared off). 

4. Wash your horse by running it through water or clean it using the brush. Clean horses are happy horses. 

5. Feed your horse often to ensure it stays at a proper weight. If you are on a main story quest, it's a good thing to fortify your horses stamina; good chance you're going to need to make a heck of a break for it. 

6. Upgraded tack items can provide small speed boosts. 

7. DO NOT RIDE IN HEAVILY FORESTED AREAS QUICKLY. It's a good way to plant yourself and your trusty steed into a tree. 

8. Careful going down steep slopes, your horse can and will slide down. 

9. BUY A HORSE RESUSCITATION POTION. You're going to have a horse shot out from under you. If you survive, you'll want to rez the ol' sucker. Nothing worse than losing your fully bonded horse. 

10. Horses no like big drops. 

11. When you think you're going to be in a firefight, or you're unexpectedly jumped by rival gangs, sprint through the contact, find a place to put your four legged friend, and then take cover and return fire if you are going to fight. Personally, I recommend breaking contact and sprinting through ambushes. That said, DO NOT return to your camp. You've likely figured this out if you've been playing over the past week. This way, your horse doesn't turn into your cover and become a bullet cushion. 

12. You can have 4 horses in the stable, and I've personally had 3 horses in camp. 

13. Your horse will show up at your next stagecoach/train destination. Magic. 

Awesome tips, I enjoyed the read. Thanks for sharing!

[Skysaw]

I just accidentally discovered that you can ride backwards by double-tapping R1

[BoomBazookaJD]

5 hours ago, Skysaw said:

I just accidentally discovered that you can ride backwards by double-tapping R1

I'll have to use this!

Speaking of which, when operating a coach/wagon, press and hold RB+A to go backwards. I've got my fair share of them stuck. 

[Kean_1]

Great post.

Just a correction......  If you time the button taps right, your horse will not lose any stamina while in a full gallop.  It won't gain any but it won't lose any either.  Not an easy thing to do to get it perfect (I tend to skip a beat here and there myself) but it does work as the tip in the game mentions.

As for ambushes, learn to slow down when you're on the road approaching a line of trees, large boulders, a covered bridge, etc.  Particularly any place that appears to be a chokepoint or, well, a place you might abush someone yourself.  I always get my weapons ready and listen.  If you trot toward and ambush you can usually hear the attackers say something before they pop out into the open.  ....something like "here he comes", etc.  Dialogue you would otherwise miss if you're galloping through.

When confronted, I will usually just plow through as JD mentioned or even take a few shots before I do to thin their numbers.  I will sometimes even turn around and retreat once I hear them talking before they can get the jump on me.  If it's a region with good cover and depending if they are on foot or horseback, I might ride ahead and find a boulder, large tree, etc. where I can dismount and take cover (giving me the edge on the advancing enemy).  When they are on horseback, I dodge them through trees and obstacles that will make it difficult for them to negotiate through or around.  Sometimes they will spread out enough where I can turn around and take them on more easily.  I adapt to what is available to me at the time.

Without giving away any spoilers, I almost lost my horse and my life in a particular region of "hillbillies" where I was ambushed repeatedly in the backwoods.  I had to stop and fight a number of times, seeking high ground where possible to give myself an advantage.  Luckily I made it through but I had doubts I would get out of the region without at least me dying once.

I nearly lost my horse again last night after pissing off local law enforcement in a large, busy town.  I escaped the "red circle" but my horse had taken damage and had nothing left so I parked him and ran into a train yard hiding from cover to cover until the police stopped searching.  I was literally surrounded but luckily the search timer ran out as I hid behind some crates.

I guess the point is that these things are survivable if you simply use some finesse and strategy rather than try to hamfist your way through the game.  This game rewards the former and punishes the latter.

......and for Pete's sake, use the manual save option.  Accidents and unexpected events happen. Some folks are treating the autosave like a death sentence.  Perform a manual save periodically and at certain significant milestones (after difficult missions, encounters, after obtaining a large amount of cash, goods, etc.).  It only takes a moment and even if it sets you back a bit, it's better than permanently losing a really good horse, your funds, etc..  You also have the option to either use the save or not (if you prefer to allow events unfold as they may).

Anyhow, great thread and sorry for the rant.

[Melting Snowflakes]

If you're using multiple horses, it's usually best to ride the new one and let your primary follow, it continues to build a relationship with your new horse - don't forget to load up on weapons before you do this, and whistle for your primary horse often so it keeps following and you don't leave it somewhere.

I agree with one of the poster's above that it's best to leave the horse during engagements and find cover, then whistle for the horse, mount, and run as needed to avoid having your horse shot out from under you.  That said, there are also strategies that can be very effective from horseback - like using a sawed off shotgun and using your horse to close quickly and drive right into the middle of a crowd of enemy.  The sawed off shotgun does wonders at such close range, many headless bodies can result in a very short time.

If you get separated from your horse, at a close distance, say for example you slide down a hill and your horse won't follow after repeated whistling even when it can hear you, simply set up camp and magically it will be beside you.  Useful if you end up on the bottom of a cliff, on the other side of a body of water that you can't cross, a chasm, etc.  This "trick" (cheat) saved me a huge amount of walking to regain my horse in the mountains after I slipped once.

Don't wander away to the restroom, kitchen, etc, while sitting on horseback on a railroad track lol.

When riding with the gang, double tap "X" (ps4) to move up in the formation.

Pushing down on L3 (ps4) to calm your horse if there are snakes, predators, etc, and to give some warm snuggle love to a new horse to increase your bond.

Press "O" (ps4) to have Morgan kick left or right while mounted, it's fun to kick enemies from horseback! lol.

[BoomBazookaJD]

I didn't realize how important the horse would be to you in this game, especially given how you generally completely disregard vehicles in the past R* games I've played. 

Once I adjusted to it, I never, ever, let my horse get to far from me. To the point that I have begun to figure out if I am going to get into a firefight, I position my four legged friend not only to be safe but also in a spot that can give me a solid get away. 

[Lucixir]

On 11/2/2018 at 7:39 PM, MJROu812 said:

As horses are vital to the game, here are some things I've learned from controls to controlling the horse. Please add to if you have information. 

1. you can toggle your horse from a slow walk (recommended in town) to a trot. Then to full a full sprint. Many of us already know to press A (for XB1) in time with your horses gallop to use less stamina. It looks like this:

walk-->trot-->run-->full sprint

2. To go from running back down to a trot and to walking, press the RB button (XB1). This is especially handy as you are coming into town or accidentally start running in town. 

This has been the single most important part of handling my horse in the game. 

Using you own quote, no, you dont actually explain how this works, just how it should look. Do we press the button 1 time to advance to every part of the sequence? Do we hold the button down to start going up through the sequence? Do we keep pressing the button until we get to the final sequence?

walk-->trot-->run-->full sprint

From your perspective, this probably makes perfect sense but to those of us not familiar with it or how you are achieving each of those cycles, it would of been nice to describe which button and how to use the button (press 1 time, press 2 time, hold down, hold down for x seconds, tap button until...)

 

I have found the horse to be extremely disappointing in the game and often times wonder if they purposely made them retarded to add a sense of difficulty to the game.

Anytime I whistle for my horse, if he comes, eventually - he never gets close enough for me to mount him, I have to walk a short distance to actually get on him.
Once called, he takes his time getting to me and usually picks the dumbest path to me.
Anytime I focus someone and hold down button to match speed and semi follow those people, the camera view constantly changes to the side/top view and since no roads are perfect here, my guy is constantly swaying off side to side and actually tripping up and killing other players in the process of this "follow feature"
Cant count the amount of times he runs into something or falls off something to kill himself or me with him.
Trying to use the cinematic view, to enjoy an easy long distance run - all goes quite peacefully until he just runs smack dead into the side of a moving train.
When I get jumped into a gun battle from horseback, it is amazing how accurate and movable the enemies are from this mounted position, whereas a human player has to maneuver around with all the sticks and it is damn near impossible to have an actual gun fight on horseback - unless you use a bunch of slow motion, which runs out quickly.
You get knocked off your horse during battle quite often, either bucked off, or shot off.
No matter what type of enemy you encounter, your horse will always be slower. Riding my legendary horse, you would think this "race" horse to be quite a bit faster, stat wise they are, but of many missions where I have to chase someone, or I am being chased, it's pretty obvious how slow you are.
Of many missions where you have to drive something back, the dumb horse wont continue to follow you even though you told it to.

That's just some of the things off the top of my head I deal with on a daily basis. So to say how awesome the horse is... makes me laugh and scream on the inside when I come across posts glamorizing game play or specific elements of the game.

[MJROu812]

23 minutes ago, Lucixir said:

Using you own quote, no, you dont actually explain how this works, just how it should look. Do we press the button 1 time to advance to every part of the sequence? Do we hold the button down to start going up through the sequence? Do we keep pressing the button until we get to the final sequence?

walk-->trot-->run-->full sprint

From your perspective, this probably makes perfect sense but to those of us not familiar with it or how you are achieving each of those cycles, it would of been nice to describe which button and how to use the button (press 1 time, press 2 time, hold down, hold down for x seconds, tap button until...)

 

I have found the horse to be extremely disappointing in the game and often times wonder if they purposely made them retarded to add a sense of difficulty to the game.

Anytime I whistle for my horse, if he comes, eventually - he never gets close enough for me to mount him, I have to walk a short distance to actually get on him.
Once called, he takes his time getting to me and usually picks the dumbest path to me.
Anytime I focus someone and hold down button to match speed and semi follow those people, the camera view constantly changes to the side/top view and since no roads are perfect here, my guy is constantly swaying off side to side and actually tripping up and killing other players in the process of this "follow feature"
Cant count the amount of times he runs into something or falls off something to kill himself or me with him.
Trying to use the cinematic view, to enjoy an easy long distance run - all goes quite peacefully until he just runs smack dead into the side of a moving train.
When I get jumped into a gun battle from horseback, it is amazing how accurate and movable the enemies are from this mounted position, whereas a human player has to maneuver around with all the sticks and it is damn near impossible to have an actual gun fight on horseback - unless you use a bunch of slow motion, which runs out quickly.
You get knocked off your horse during battle quite often, either bucked off, or shot off.
No matter what type of enemy you encounter, your horse will always be slower. Riding my legendary horse, you would think this "race" horse to be quite a bit faster, stat wise they are, but of many missions where I have to chase someone, or I am being chased, it's pretty obvious how slow you are.
Of many missions where you have to drive something back, the dumb horse wont continue to follow you even though you told it to.

That's just some of the things off the top of my head I deal with on a daily basis. So to say how awesome the horse is... makes me laugh and scream on the inside when I come across posts glamorizing game play or specific elements of the game.

I think you mean, BoomBazookaJD….he said that in the first thread, so I will let him answer that?

[BoomBazookaJD]

41 minutes ago, Lucixir said:

Using you own quote, no, you dont actually explain how this works, just how it should look. Do we press the button 1 time to advance to every part of the sequence? Do we hold the button down to start going up through the sequence? Do we keep pressing the button until we get to the final sequence?

walk-->trot-->run-->full sprint

From your perspective, this probably makes perfect sense but to those of us not familiar with it or how you are achieving each of those cycles, it would of been nice to describe which button and how to use the button (press 1 time, press 2 time, hold down, hold down for x seconds, tap button until...)

 

I have found the horse to be extremely disappointing in the game and often times wonder if they purposely made them retarded to add a sense of difficulty to the game.

Anytime I whistle for my horse, if he comes, eventually - he never gets close enough for me to mount him, I have to walk a short distance to actually get on him.
Once called, he takes his time getting to me and usually picks the dumbest path to me.
Anytime I focus someone and hold down button to match speed and semi follow those people, the camera view constantly changes to the side/top view and since no roads are perfect here, my guy is constantly swaying off side to side and actually tripping up and killing other players in the process of this "follow feature"
Cant count the amount of times he runs into something or falls off something to kill himself or me with him.
Trying to use the cinematic view, to enjoy an easy long distance run - all goes quite peacefully until he just runs smack dead into the side of a moving train.
When I get jumped into a gun battle from horseback, it is amazing how accurate and movable the enemies are from this mounted position, whereas a human player has to maneuver around with all the sticks and it is damn near impossible to have an actual gun fight on horseback - unless you use a bunch of slow motion, which runs out quickly.
You get knocked off your horse during battle quite often, either bucked off, or shot off.
No matter what type of enemy you encounter, your horse will always be slower. Riding my legendary horse, you would think this "race" horse to be quite a bit faster, stat wise they are, but of many missions where I have to chase someone, or I am being chased, it's pretty obvious how slow you are.
Of many missions where you have to drive something back, the dumb horse wont continue to follow you even though you told it to.

That's just some of the things off the top of my head I deal with on a daily basis. So to say how awesome the horse is... makes me laugh and scream on the inside when I come across posts glamorizing game play or specific elements of the game.

when you press forward on the d-pad, your horse begins to walk, tapping A, he/she will begin a trot, pressing A again, the trot will quicken, pressing A again, the horse will begin a gallop. To make your horse sprint, quickly press A repeatedly. Doing this in time with the horse will slow the stamina drain. I've heard that doing this in time with the horse will stop all stamina drain, but I have not seen that and I've tried this over and over. Full on running with your horse will drain stamina, but timing the A button presses with your horses gallop (also take into account the grunting, this helps as well) will make the stamina drain much, much less. 

So it should look like this:

begin walking-->Press A--->horse beings slow trot--->press A--->horse begins quicker trot---->press A---->horse begins running--->repeatedly pressing A causes your horse to being sprinting. The faster you press A, the faster the horse goes, up to its maximum speed. Timing the A button presses will slow stamina drain. 

 

As to your other points:

Yes, your horse is pretty lazy when you call it. It does take some time and it never really comes right to your feet. Just like any real horse I've been around, they aren't exactly golden retrievers. 

Yes, focusing on something while riding causes the camera to do some very whacky things. I've hit my fair share of trees, most recently while running from a grizzly bear that wanted me for dinner. 

Yes, the AI is faster, aims better, and seems to have perfect horse control while we are left panning around like crazy, shooting all over the place, and in general hamfisting the controller. 

I can't and won't argue with those points, but I can say that they are issues caused by two things that I personally have done myself, so I am comfortable in suggesting methods to learn:

1. Don't focus on people when going any faster than a trot. If you are going fast, the camera goes crazy. So, if you are going to focus on someone or something, make sure you are trotting. 

2. When shooting, it's best to use the auto aim feature. Get your cursor near the enemy and pull the left trigger and it should quickly move to the bad guy. This only lasts for a second or two. You must be quick in firing. 

As for your horse not following you when you are driving something for a mission, I personally haven't had issues with this. I also haven't been bucked off during firefights. I have have several run ins with wolves as well and my horse has remained well composed during the brief battles but I've also gotten quite good at dispatching wolves; they get the two barrel hello. 

 

I do admit, controlling your horse is difficult and takes practice. Spend some time in a field practicing. 

Finally, I also have not had the issues with cinematic view that I have seen on Facebook/Youtube, or read about here. I set a marker on my map, begin riding and press the menu button long enough to go into cinematic camera and I've not yet run into a wagon/train/tree/or other horse. I have however, done all of these manually. In fact, I killed another rider by slamming into him coming over a crest. Oops. 

[Kean_1]

@Lucixir

Just to clarify, you press forward on the left stick (not d pad) to make the horse begin to walk.  Tap the X/A button to begin to speed up. There are actually more speeds than just the 4 mentioned here.  Tapping the R1 trigger (on PS4) will help slow down the horse.  Simply tap each button until you get the desired effect.  ....it's not that difficult and if you play with the controls it become more apparent how it works.  

Honestly, spend some time in an open field as JD mentioned and play with these buttons yourself.  It doesn't take long to understand and that's exactly how I figured out many of the game's mechanics myself.

To perform a full gallop, you need to keep tapping the run button as you probably already know.  .....and yes, at some point there is a pop-up tip window with a message that tell you that if you tap in time with the horse's gallop, it will not lose stamina.  I tend to use the sound of the hooves to get the timing right while others I've heard keep in time with the red flashes of the stamina icon.  I have heard sources like Gamespot say that doing this will "conserve" stamina.  All I can say is that I have seen the message in-game as have others in Reddit, etc.  I also have been able to stop stamina drain by doing it although it's not easy to maintain.

Keep in mind that keeping the horse clean and well fed (but not overfed) will all affect its speed and state.  

Calling your horse still brings it near you.  It's not as if you have to walk that far.  I usually move or run toward it.  If you want it always close by, whistle for it just as you dismount.  It will follow you around like a lost puppy right on your heels.  This is what I do when I might need it for a quick getaway or while picking up carcasses, traveling a distance on foot, etc.

As for wandering off the trail when talking to others, I've said it before but simply slow down if you're going to talk to someone passing by you.  It only took me a few times in the beginning to wander off the trail trying to carry on a dialogue (and a couple trees) to make me adapt.  I rarely have any issue with it now. 

Don't hold the dialogue button down longer than you need to to respond. If you wish to respond again, re engage and select your response again.  When riding alongside, try trailing them and carrying on a dialogue. It's much easier to maintain control. These are all things I figured out on my own by simply working with the controls / mechanics vs. trying to force them to conform to the way I think they should work.  

Gunfights on horseback......   I rarely use the Dead Eye mechanic and to be quite honest, I've really become used to engagements while on the run.  Personally, I find it takes some skill but I'm pretty good at it now. It also helps slow down posses/pursuers that are on your tail.  Use the terrain, obstacles and other things in the game world to your advantage.  This will also help slow them down and give you time to escape.  

I can't say this enough but spend some time in the settings.  Try adjusting the sliders to change the sensitivity, acceleration, dead zone and auto aim.  Play with the auto aim "narrow, wide, normal and off" positions.  IIRC, I think I'm currently using auto aim at normal and with sensitivity set at the lowest level (not off). Dead zone I believe is all the way down as is the acceleration.  Camera sensitivity I think is all the way up.  If you're interested, I can check and report back what I have everything set at to give you an idea.

Other than that, I don't know what to say to be honest. You say it makes you laugh when folks like me say how we enjoy some of these mechanics and are able to perform these tasks with a level of success.  I get that you're struggling with the mechanics in this game and that's fine.  .....there are plenty of us that are willing to try and help you have a more enjoyable experience if that's truly what you want but I hope it doesn't get to a point of people using the "git gud" argument or implying others are full of "BS" simply because they are unable to replicate their results.

If I had the incentive or desire to create a video of some of these things, I would.  .....maybe at some point I will or better yet, perhaps others will as time moves on.  

[uptheirons726]

Riding through heavily forested areas is actually easy. Just keep tapping the run button but don't touch the joystick. Your horse will automatically navigate through the trees. 

[Truth]

24 minutes ago, uptheirons726 said:

Riding through heavily forested areas is actually easy. Just keep tapping the run button but don't touch the joystick. Your horse will automatically navigate through the trees. 

Fact^

Though My Horse isn't all that bright, he still runs head first into trees sometimes... Must be a side effect from having his head spontaneously combust that one time...

[Chubby Johnson]

On 11/3/2018 at 12:07 AM, Skysaw said:

I just accidentally discovered that you can ride backwards by double-tapping R1

Tap RB once, let go then hold RB.  Tap then hold.

Edited November 15, 2018 by Chubby Johnson

[KRooKeD KRoW]

I finally spent some time the other day looking through all the settings in game and found one that (for me anyways) made controlling the horse easier. 

I forget if it's in the controls menu or camera menu, but theres an option that let's you choose between controlling the horse from your camera's POV and controlling from the horses POV.  I switched to the horse POV because you don't have to worry about  changing which direction you push the thumbstick when moving your camera around.  (I.E. with the horse's POV, when looking around for animal tracks or whatever, I just keep pushing forward if I want my horse to keep moving forward, rather than having to move the stick around to counter the camera) Took a little bit to get used to since I did the Camera POV for a couple weeks, but I like it more.  It may not be for everybody though.

Edited November 15, 2018 by KRooKeD KRoW

[Chubby Johnson]

1. You can choose which side of your horse to dismount on by quickly flicking the left joystick in the chosen direction when dismounting, e.g. hit triangle to dismount, then flick left joystick to the right to get off on that side, or left for left.
2. You can hitch your horse to many things, like trees, or the ground, Just hold triangle where you want to dismount. Hitching your horse has benefits, like bonding, and keeping it from wandering away or being stolen, regenerates health and stamina.
3. You can remove you horses saddle while hitched at camp. Improves bonding, resting and stamina.
4. Pressing L3 while riding will raise your bonding level. "You're OK boy!" Also calms them after gunfire, accidental falls, etc.
5. There are two levels of horse whistle:  tap up on the d-pad, your horse will come to you, hold up on the d-pad, your horse follows you.
6. Best horse trick ever... if somebody steals your horse, gets on and starts to ride away, whistling for it (up d pad) will make the horse buck the theif off!

[Kormath]

awesome post!  great info here from all.  thanks guys!

from my experience, for the walk, trot, etc. I push forward to walk, tap A/X and then hold it down to keep that pace.  so from walk to trot it's 2 presses holding the 2nd down to keep that speed.  repeat for the next speed, up to full out sprint where tap with the sound of the hoof beats to keep from losing stamina (and usually fail more than i get it timed right) 

I don't recall having to press RB/R1 twice to back up the horse, i just pressed and held like when backing up a wagon i think.

Quote

I forget if it's in the controls menu or camera menu, but theres an option that let's you choose between controlling the horse from your camera's POV and controlling from the horses POV. 

That's cool, didn't know you can do that.  i was thinking it would be the select button changes camera views on the horse,  must be a button combo to go to horse's POV?  i've cycled through all the camera views while on the horse with select and that's not one of them.

 

4 hours ago, Truth said:

Fact^

Though My Horse isn't all that bright, he still runs head first into trees sometimes... Must be a side effect from having his head spontaneously combust that one time...

My stupid lame first horse does that all the time.  I found that with it when riding through trees not to control her at all, just keep the speed going by holding the A/X button and let her get through the trees then take control after lol.  I pick myself off the ground much less that way.

With the Legendary i had i didn't have much trouble hitting trees.  But maybe that's because i don't control them as much in the woods and around rocks as i do in clear areas after learning from the dumb first horse.   I treat them kinda like a real horse, point them where i want to go and correct it as needed if they stray off to far.

On 11/2/2018 at 6:33 PM, Jayjoejohnlongsilver said:

Maybe this will people help to dont think the law system is broken just because they ride like rambo through the town and wondering why everybody is shooting at them.

I've never had a problem running through town at a sprint.  unless you hit someone,you'll get a murder charge, or get to close and they panic and dodge, then you'll get assault charge.  They don't charge you with a crime for just sprinting through town, even if you forgot to wear your bandanna/mask and have a $500 bounty.

[KRooKeD KRoW]

1 hour ago, Kormath said:

That's cool, didn't know you can do that.  i was thinking it would be the select button changes camera views on the horse,  must be a button combo to go to horse's POV?  i've cycled through all the camera views while on the horse with select and that's not one of them.

It's not a button or combo you press, it's an option you toggle in the game's settings menus when you pause. I'm not back home for about another hour so I don't remember exactly which settings it's under, but I'll edit this post after I get home and double check. 

It just changes how the horse is controlled.  Default has horse control's linked to your camera, so if you turn the camera left, you have to adjust your horses movement by pulling right so it goes in the same direction it was facing.  The other option let's you change it so that no matter which way your camera is looking, pushing forward has the horse going forward, left goes left, right goes right.

 

Edit: Just got home and checked.  The option is in the Pause menu>Settings>Controls.  It's under the "Third Person" section and it's the "Horse Control (Third Person) option.  The options are "Camera Relative" (the default) and "Horse Relative".  I guess since it's under the Third-Person section, it only applies to third-person.  Guessing first-person has it horse relative. Don't care much for first-person in these kinds of games so I only checked it out once, briefly.

Edited November 16, 2018 by KRooKeD KRoW

[Kormath]

1 minute ago, KRooKeD KRoW said:

It's not a button or combo you press, it's an option you toggle in the game's settings menus when you pause. I'm not back home for about another hour so I don't remember exactly which settings it's under, but I'll edit this post after I get home and double check.

ah good to know.  i'll check there in an hour when i get home from work.  Going to check my settings anyway after clearing the cache and reloading my game back a few days to get my horse back. 

[Jayjoejohnlongsilver]

14 hours ago, Kormath said:

I've never had a problem running through town at a sprint.  unless you hit someone,you'll get a murder charge, or get to close and they panic and dodge, then you'll get assault charge.  They don't charge you with a crime for just sprinting through town, even if you forgot to wear your bandanna/mask and have a $500 bounty.

I know my post was motivated by a couple of post from some experts here.

[Djuvinile]

Actually you can perform a complete dressage if you wish including piaffing skid stops rearing u name it... 

 

also see: https://www.themanequest.com/blog/2018/11/11/dressage-moves-in-red-dead-redemption-ii-and-their-real-life-equivalents