Medieval Dynasty: Horses Guide

You need 2000 technology points in Farming to build a stable. After you have built a stable, you can buy horses in Hornica by pressing E on them and assigning them to the stable. When in the management tab, you see the horse’s gender and age. Each stable houses four horses. Unfortunately, after buying a horse, you cannot ride it home. It teleports to its stable. You have to walk home to find it.

Horses are quite expensive. Here you see the prices depending on the level of barter skill you have.

If you have bought (or killed) horses in Hornica, there will be new ones after the season change. If you didn’t buy any horses, the horses stay the same for a few seasons, just aging. If you want to buy a specific coat color, it might be time for some drastic measures. But be careful, killing a foal loses you 40 dynasty reputation and killing an adult horse 70. Sometimes the horses run away, after you have injured or killed one.

For the horses to breed, you need one adult male (stallion) and female (mare) in the same stable and an empty spot. The chances of them having a foal each season is 20%. If you have two stallions and one mare, the chance is two times 20%.

The foal is called colt (male) or filly (female). At 1.5 years old, the foal becomes an adult. Life expectancy for a horse is 31.25 years. You can custom name your horses under the management tab by pressing H. You don’t need an animal breeder for the horses to have foals at the moment.

There are eight different coat colors the horses can have: Black, Bay, Chestnut, Grey, Buckskin and the spotted variants with a spotted white blanket for the first three. At the moment, it does not matter what coat colors the parents have. The color of the foal will be random.

Black

Bay

Chestnut

Grey

Buckskin

Spotted Black

Spotted Bay

Spotted Chestnut

As you can see, Bay and Chestnut horses are very similar. The only difference is the mane and tail being black or blond respectively. In foals, the mane in both variants is black. So the only way of recognizing Chestnut color in a foal is the blond tail.

You can assign an animal breeder to the stable like to other farm animals. They will automatically fill the feeding rack with animal feed. Or you can fill it yourself if you want. Unlike with other farm animals, there is no drawback to not having an animal breeder or animal feed for them, since they do not produce anything. Some reasons for caring for them anyway are the realism, the avoidance of the “no animal feed” warning icon in the upper left corner, and the skill gain and mood gain for the breeder.

There are three items a horse can be equipped with: a saddle, a saddlebag and iron horseshoes. All three items can be bought at the Horse Vendor in Hornica (or Tutki). The saddle and saddlebag can also be bought at the Seamster Vendor in Branica, Denica or Hornica. The Iron Horseshoes can be bought at the Smith Vendor in Lesnica or Hornica. Here are their prices.

Buying Prices

Of course, you can also craft these items yourself. The saddle and saddlebags are crafted at the Tailoring Table in the Sewing Hut. The Iron Horseshoes are made at the Anvil in the Smithy.

There is also a chance of finding the items at abandoned camps or bandit camps. You could also be given Iron Horseshoes as a quest reward for the “Iron Shortage” side quest by the smith.

Saddle
If you want one of your beautiful horses to be your mount, it needs a saddle. While having a saddle in your inventory, saddle up your horse by holding E. You can put saddles on all adult horses you own, but only one horse can be your mount. As soon as a horse has a saddle, you can ride it. The last horse you rode on is your mount.

Iron Horseshoes
The mount can also be equipped with iron horseshoes. You need only one, I guess they are already in a package of four. The horseshoes make the horse lose less stamina while galloping.

Saddlebag
Every adult horse has an inventory with a carry weight of 20kg. The saddlebag gives it a bigger inventory by 15kg, 30kg or 45kg.

You can press E on any adult horse in your pasture and put items in their 20kg inventory if you want. You see the horse’s inventory on the right and your own on the left, as if you opened a chest.

But your mount has a second way to access its inventory. You have to stand near your mount (about 15 meters or closer) and go to your own inventory. To change to your mount’s inventory, you have to press H while in your inventory. Once there, you can equip and unequip the saddle, saddlebag and horseshoes with F. Your mount can drop items with X, if you are close enough. It is also possible to transfer items between the two inventories by holding X.

There are several skill points under Farming that affect your horse.

Village Whistleblower
Tier 2. Whistling summons your mount.
This skill is very useful. It lets you whistle for your mount by pressing G. The horse will run to you from wherever it is on the map as long as it is not overburdened.

Skilled Rider
Tier 3. Slower mount’s stamina consumption.
There are three levels, 10%, 25% and 50%. Your mount will be able to gallop for longer.

Carrot and Stick
Tier 4. Increase in mount’s carry weight.
This skill increases the amount of weight your mount is able to carry by 10kg, 20kg and 30kg. You can make it carry even more by having a saddle bag.

Night Rider
Tier 4. Faster riding.
If you have this skill, your mount will be able to gallop 10%, 20% or 30% faster.

If you have a horse with a saddle you can mount it by holding E and dismount it by holding X. The movements for the horse are the same as for the player. WASD for the directions and space bar for jumping. The horse has three gaits: Walk, Trot and Gallop. Trotting is the normal moving speed, Gallop is like running with Shift pressed and Walk is used when the horse is carrying too much.

The horse can get stuck in buildings or between trees. Sometimes it is impossible to dismount because there is no space. I recommend using “Unstuck” in these cases.

The horse can also take fall damage or damage from predators. As long as it has health left it will slowly heal itself. If the health bar is empty, it dies. If you hover over your dead mount, you see the option to empty the saddlebag. After taking the saddle and other equipment from your dead mount, you have the option to skin it. Skinning it gives leather and meat.

If a horse dies of old age at the season change, any equipment or inventory it had will be found in the stable chest.

If you try summoning your mount with G after it died, you get the message “Your horse is dead”. If you have no mount you see “You don’t have a mount”.

If you want to sell your horses, here are the prices they fetch. As always, the price depends on the barter skill.

To sell a horse, you hold X while the horse is selected in the animal management tab .

There is a steam achievement for getting your first mount. This can be a donkey or a horse.

A second achievement where a mount is helpful is the hedgehog achievement. It is quite difficult to impale a wild animal four times. The horse on the other hand can be summoned and made to stand in one spot while you try again and again to stab it with a wooden spear. If you have the stomach for it…

My dead mount

Of course, horses are wonderful animals and are useful in almost any of the other quests to help you move around the map or carry weight.