horse upgrades

[harry747]

the other day i tried to upgrade my horse by trying out different saddles and stirrups. the best i could achieve was an improvement from 6 to 8 for speed and acceleration, using certain types of stirrups. as far as i could tell, saddles did not have any effect on those stats, with one exceptions: the trapper saddles will not allow any improvements because they don't allow the use of different stirrups. i also tried different horns. no change. i tried using spurs. no change. i wasted about 700 bucks on those tests. good thing i saved before i started.

so, is there anything i can do to make my horse faster? more stamina would not hurt either.

[Foxtrot]

You don't really need to bother.  I didn't find any real advantage to getting any upgrades for horse tack or for different breeds over cosmetic differences. 

I never really had any situation where I felt that a faster horse might have been better for me.

For stamina, learn to voice-pat.  That same button you use to pat/bond with the horse at slow speeds, you can also use at higher speeds - you should hear Arthur/John say something encouraging and the horses stamina metre should increase a bit.  Get the rhythm right and you can gallop from St Annesburg to Blackwater without stopping or slowing.

[harry747]

I did have a situation where I needed a faster horse. I kept failing the coach mission with Micah because I couldn't get close enough to the coach to stop it before it crashed. That was before I got my white arabian, of course.

[Foxtrot]

I know the one.  It's more about technique, I don't think you need an especially fast horse for that.  Horse stimulants may help as well.  I managed this mission without needing to hunt for a faster horse.