Wild horses are scattered across Crimson Desert's open world, and catching one is worth the effort. Your starting mount gets the job done, but tamed horses come in different breeds with distinct stat spreads, and leveling them up unlocks skills that make traversal genuinely faster and more flexible. Here's everything you need to know to catch, register, equip, and level horses in Pearl Abyss's action RPG.
Where to find wild horses in Crimson Desert
Wild horses don't spawn in fixed locations, but you'll run into them regularly while exploring. Two reliable spots near the starting area: a patch of land between two streams east of Hernand Town, and the fields south of the river below the cliffs leading to Howling Hill. The three tameable breeds, Brianto, Herspia, and Priden, can each appear in multiple coat and mane variations, so don't stress if the first one you find doesn't look the way you want.
Horses spook easily. If one spots you approaching head-on, it'll bolt. Try to close the distance from behind, staying low. The stealth system in Crimson Desert isn't particularly deep, so don't count on it carrying you all the way in. Once the horse notices you and starts to react, sprint the remaining distance and hit the ride prompt before it gets away.
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Carry hay, carrots, sugar beets, or sugar cubes from any Saddlery merchant. Hold the treat out using your inventory's "Take Out" option, drop it near the horse, and it'll come to eat instead of running. This is the easiest way to get into taming range without a chase.
Do you need to unlock taming first?
No skill unlock is required to tame horses. The game formally introduces the mechanic around Chapter 6 as part of the main story, but you can attempt it the moment you spot a wild horse. The Chapter 6 tutorial just explains the system; it doesn't gate the ability behind a progression requirement.
How to tame a wild horse
Once you're close enough, press the Ride prompt (E on keyboard, X on Xbox, Square on PS5). This drops you into a taming minigame where the horse bucks and spins trying to throw you off.
The objective is to fill a gauge by pushing your movement input toward the horse's rear. The direction that fills the gauge changes as the horse turns, which is where most players get confused.
The taming gauge in action
Here's the method that makes the minigame nearly trivial: keep your camera locked directly behind the horse at all times. With the camera glued to its tail, "toward the rear" always means pulling back (holding S on keyboard or pulling the left stick down on controller). You only need to adjust the right stick to keep the camera centered. The gauge fills consistently without you needing to track which direction the horse is facing.
Your stamina drains throughout the minigame. If it hits zero, the horse kicks you off. Crucially, the horse usually pauses for a moment before fleeing, so you can immediately remount and try again. Getting thrown isn't a failure state, just a reset. Increasing your character's stamina through leveling gives you a longer window per attempt.
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If the horse escapes entirely after throwing you, try herding it into a corner or against terrain so it can't outrun you before you can interact again.
After the gauge fills completely, the horse is yours. You'll see its stats and three options:
- Register and Ride — adds it to your stable and mounts it immediately
- Register and Send to Stable — adds it to your stable without mounting
- Ride — temporary use without registering
Register it unless you're completing a specific quest that only needs a quick ride. Registered horses are accessible from any Stable Merchant.
How to level up your horse
Every horse starts at Trust Level 1 and caps at Level 5. Three methods build trust:
- Pet your horse by focusing on it with CTRL (or LB on controller) and pressing R. There's a daily cap on how much trust this earns, as noted by PC Gamer's testing of the mechanic.
- Feed it directly from your inventory using horse-specific items (hay, sugarbeet, sugar cubes) or by dropping food like oats and apples nearby. Feeding appears to grant trust up to 3 times per day. Keep other horses away when dropping food or they'll eat it instead.
- Ride it. The slowest method, but it works passively. Consistent riding guarantees level progression over time.
A combination of all three is the fastest path. Stock up on horse feed from any Saddlery and use the pet interaction whenever the daily limit resets.
Skills unlock at each trust level. The table below uses the starting horse's skill progression as a reference (skills vary slightly by breed, per IGN's guide):
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The Priden also unlocks High Jump at Level 5, which the other two breeds don't get. If vertical mobility matters to you, prioritize finding and taming a Priden.How to equip your horse
With an active horse, open your character inventory and look for the horse tab in the left panel above your character's gear. Each horse has 5 equipment slots:
- Saddle — increases maximum health
- Horseshoes — adds health regeneration
- Stirrups — adds stamina regeneration
- Champron — increases attack
- Barding — increases defense
Saddlery shops stock most of these. Bardings are the exception: they're rare and typically earned by accumulating commission points within a specific region. Each character you unlock has their own horse, so it's worth maintaining decent equipment across multiple mounts rather than dumping everything into one.
For more Crimson Desert guides covering everything from combat to exploration, browse the full collection at GAMES.GG.