Best horse for hunting?

[Jackthestripper]

So, I am only level 14 or so, and although I try and calm my horse as much as I can when a dangerous animal is around, I have to either ride off and miss my opportunity to make the kill, or get bucked off and get mauled by a cougar or a bear.  I have a thoroughbread and it seems that he gets scared when a caterpillar walks by.   Is there a better horse I can unlock in the future that doesn't freak out as much?  

[Aurora]

My Arabian horse is equally skittish. When travelling through the forest at night, I  always keep a shotgun on hand to shoot any attacking  wolves.  My horse always bucked my off whenever it encounters bear or cougar. Some people prefer Missouri Fox Trotter but that can only be unlocked at level 58.  I'm not at the level but i do consider getting one just to try out.

[Euphoric77]

The warhorses are your option for these situations.

[madfretter]

1 hour ago, Jackthestripper said:

So, I am only level 14 or so, and although I try and calm my horse as much as I can when a dangerous animal is around, I have to either ride off and miss my opportunity to make the kill, or get bucked off and get mauled by a cougar or a bear.  I have a thoroughbread and it seems that he gets scared when a caterpillar walks by.   Is there a better horse I can unlock in the future that doesn't freak out as much?  

At level 14, I will be a bit before you unlock a brave horse. Until you can get a new horse, when you see your horse get nervous and slow down, jump off and pull out your shotgun. At least then you have a fighting chance.

[Jackthestripper]

1 minute ago, madfretter said:

At level 14, I will be a bit before you unlock a brave horse. Until you can get a new horse, when you see your horse get nervous and slow down, jump off and pull out your shotgun. At least then you have a fighting chance.

Yeah it will be a while before I get a better horse... Gives me something to look forward to at least LOL usually I do jump off my horse and pull out my gun, I can't outrun the Bears and cougars LOL in the first Red Dead you could outrun a bear easily. Even when I do that I usually get taken out

[Vaderspupil]

24 minutes ago, madfretter said:

At level 14, I will be a bit before you unlock a brave horse. Until you can get a new horse, when you see your horse get nervous and slow down, jump off and pull out your shotgun. At least then you have a fighting chance.

A shotgun? I'd rather get mauled to death than ruin a perfect pelt with a shotgun blast. At the very least, use a bolt action or Springfield in self defense as it's charging towards you. At least then you'll have a chance to get a head shot in and preserve the pelt.

[madfretter]

36 minutes ago, Vaderspupil said:

A shotgun? I'd rather get mauled to death than ruin a perfect pelt with a shotgun blast. At the very least, use a bolt action or Springfield in self defense as it's charging towards you. At least then you'll have a chance to get a head shot in and preserve the pelt.

Usually when I see that red dot I already have a horse with 3* pelts on it, so I am just looking to preserve them...lol

[Vaderspupil]

Funny thing is, when I die from being mauled to death by a bear or a cougar, I don't usually lose the stuff on my horse. It's  only when I get killed my another player that I'll lose that stuff.

[Vaderspupil]

Just now, Vaderspupil said:

Funny thing is, when I die from being mauled to death by a bear or a cougar, I don't usually lose the stuff on my horse. It's  only when I get killed my another player that I'll lose that stuff.

 

6 minutes ago, madfretter said:

Usually when I see that red dot I already have a horse with 3* pelts on it, so I am just looking to preserve them...lol

Meant to quote you.

[madfretter]

40 minutes ago, Vaderspupil said:

 

Meant to quote you.

Yea,  same here for me. It is random though. I think the horse fast travels sometimes instead of just running to you when you whistle. So distance is an issue.

[Preacher]

I think it is the warhorse.

[Renascent]

Are you pressing and holding L3? Cuz some people think you only tap it, but if you hold it you can steady your horse better/longer.

I was using a nokota and surrounded by wolves while on the horse. She didn't buck me off (she was hella close to doing so tho). Held her steady long enough to take the wolves out. Nokotas in my experience aren't very brave, better than Arabians, but not by much. 

I do think no matter what horse you have, cougars and bears are automatic hell no to all horses. But I am using that foxtrotter. Turkomans are really good too, but they are rank 58-60.

[Kean_1]

3 hours ago, Renascent said:

Are you pressing and holding L3? Cuz some people think you only tap it, but if you hold it you can steady your horse better/longer.

Really?  I didn't know that.  I'll have to try it out next time.

There are a lot of things in this game that R* didn't really reveal about the UI, mechanics, etc.  No idea why.

[shawn]

I usually use the warhorse when I am hunting just because I don't want to get flung off or have to deal with a horse dying. From what I gather, all the horses will react to dangerous animals, you just want one that is calmer than the super skittish ones.

[Born Homicidal]

warhorse for sure, I want a Turkoman but im not level 56, hopefully they aren't skittish.

[Renascent]

On 1/25/2019 at 12:07 PM, Kean_1 said:

Really?  I didn't know that.  I'll have to try it out next time.

There are a lot of things in this game that R* didn't really reveal about the UI, mechanics, etc.  No idea why.

I'm pretty sure that it does tell you that, but it was a quick tip that most would probably miss. But it's been a life saver knowing it. That's why I can run through the swamps right next to gators without getting bucked. Plus I use the fact my horse wants to gtfo to my advantage.

Only time I couldn't control my horse was when a grizzly was charging me and my horse was like AH HELL TO THE NAH and sprinted away with me in some random direction and I couldn't get her to go elsewhere. I was still holding L3 tho, which calmed her down before she probably would have run us into a tree.

[ShotgunForHire]

My female Arabian horse is brave and only bucked me off once because it took forever to fail at switching to my poison knife. Mauled by cougar. Otherwise, she's faster than prey for her own good and my shotgun is music to her ears.

[danjou]

On 1/25/2019 at 6:07 PM, Kean_1 said:

Really?  I didn't know that.  I'll have to try it out next time.

There are a lot of things in this game that R* didn't really reveal about the UI, mechanics, etc.  No idea why.

yes its like the warning shot you can give if a player gets to close. it notifies them that if the get any closer you gonna kill em. think its aim. directional pad up and fire.

[Glopez]

On 1/31/2019 at 1:18 AM, danjou said:

yes its like the warning shot you can give if a player gets to close. it notifies them that if the get any closer you gonna kill em. think its aim. directional pad up and fire.

I didn't know about this either. Thanks for sharing about it. I am going to try it out in a bit when I hop on. 

[Moosh89]

At level 24 you can purchase the Hungarian Halfbred (Flaxen Chestnut or Flaxen Piebald Tobiano) for $130. It is a big War horse. I use the Flaxen Chestnut in Singleplayer as Arthur's main horse (because with a matching red mane and tail, it's identical to a horse I had for many years as a kid) and I've very rarely gotten bucked off. You can also shoot from them and they only flick their ears.

I'm grinding my way to level 24 so I can purchase the Flaxen Piebald Tobiano, because that one looks a lot like our very first horse we had when I was little (the one that started it all for my family)

 

[Jackthestripper]

9 hours ago, Moosh89 said:

At level 24 you can purchase the Hungarian Halfbred (Flaxen Chestnut or Flaxen Piebald Tobiano) for $130. It is a big War horse.

Hmmm, I'm level 23 atm so I will surely check that out.  I think it would come in handy for missions too, where my horse likes to go crazy as soon as he hears a gunshot.  Lately I've been jumping off my horse to do battles when there's more than 5 or 6 NPC's too shoot as I am more accurate on foot than being on a horse that's jumping all over the place.  My horse gets scared when it sees a damn caterpillar! lol

[danjou]

On 1/26/2019 at 7:22 PM, Born Homicidal said:

warhorse for sure, I want a Turkoman but im not level 56, hopefully they aren't skittish.

the gold turkoman is good but can still get quite skittish especially with snakes and cougars. calmest is the foxtrotter.

[Renascent]

My Foxtrotter is hella calm. She doesn't start getting upset unless I'm rapidly firing shots (ie killing birds), and even then she stays put. I've only ever been bucked twice and it was reasonable (bear right on me, 9 wolves surrounding me). They can also apparently take 2-3 shotgun blasts and still stay standing. (I charged someone that was trying to kill me and ran him over). 

Just remember to HOLD L3 down to keep them calm, no matter what breed of horse. And unless a grizzly is about to bite your face off, you can almost always keep your horse chill.

[Renascent]

Foxtrotter vs Wolves

Got a video of my horse with about 4-5 wolves. She rears up but doesn't buck me off. I was holding L3 down the whole time which is why she doesn't seem too upset for awhile. Also her name is Lucy  💗

[Snipe]

I’ve grown used to the Arabian. I also have a vid where I’m charged by 3 wolves while on horseback. I wheel around, draw my dual sawed offs (so you know this is all happening close range), and take each of the 3 wolves in 1 shot as they charge at me down the road. The horse only reared on the 3rd shot, because the wolf literally gets so close it skidded to the foot of the horse virtually when I shot it, from momentum. Even then, the horse didn’t throw me, it was a pretty controlled single rear.

 

I was not pressing L3 at all during all this.

 

I shoot from the back of this horse ALL the time and have the horsemanship damage card. Do you think the game is so complicated that each horse gets accustomed to gunshots the more you shoot from it? Because mine, while it ‘red warning’ indicates here and there, doesn’t buck me no matter how much I fire. It DOES get a little fidgety to the point I can’t just cold swap to a scoped rifle because it very subtly is shifting, that requires sometimes an L3 pat. Then we’re good again.

 

PS: I like a spirited horse such as the Arabian. Like @Renascent I like the fact the horse has a mind of its own, and I like that in certain situations I can count on the fact it WILL getting the hell outta dodge. For instance, I often whistle so my horse follows along on cart/coach missions, and it does a good job of getting out of the way if I’m not on it while gunfire breaks out.

[Renascent]

13 minutes ago, Snipe said:

I’ve grown used to the Arabian. I also have a vid where I’m charged by 3 wolves while on horseback. I wheel around, draw my dual sawed offs (so you know this is all happening close range), and take each of the 3 wolves in 1 shot as they charge at me down the road. The horse only reared on the 3rd shot, because the wolf literally gets so close it skidded to the foot of the horse virtually when I shot it, from momentum. Even then, the horse didn’t throw me, it was a pretty controlled single rear.

 

I was not pressing L3 at all during all this.

 

I shoot from the back of this horse ALL the time and have the horsemanship damage card. Do you think the game is so complicated that each horse gets accustomed to gunshots the more you shoot from it? Because mine, while it ‘red warning’ indicates here and there, doesn’t buck me no matter how much I fire. It DOES get a little fidgety to the point I can’t just cold swap to a scoped rifle because it very subtly is shifting, that requires sometimes an L3 pat. Then we’re good again.

 

PS: I like a spirited horse such as the Arabian. Like @Renascent I like the fact the horse has a mind of its own, and I like that in certain situations I can count on the fact it WILL getting the hell outta dodge. For instance, I often whistle so my horse follows along on cart/coach missions, and it does a good job of getting out of the way if I’m not on it while gunfire breaks out.

I kind of feel like each individual horse has its own personality or it does get accustomed to you shooting from it. My other Fox trotter that I have doesn't perform as well as Lucy does. And I find that kind of weird. Lucy is my main horse I ride almost all the time. I can get her to cross rivers to get to me. I left her on one of those islands and I thought to try to call her to me to see if she'd actually come. She tried crossing 2-3 times, then she finally got across but her stamina was in the red lol. I have a video of that too because I was honestly surprised.

She has a killer spirit just like me <3. I called her once and she ran a deer over and killed it running to me lol.

And the L3 thing is mostly a precaution and habit at this point. I don't want to end up in a situation where she actually does buck me off and it gets me killed. But I find that out does steady them faster or they don't get upset as fast.

Edited February 8, 2019 by Renascent