Securing Your Steed: How to Keep Your Horse at Home in Skyrim

As any passionate Skyrim player knows, it‘s devastating to lose your loyal horse companion, whether to glitches, attacks, or simply their wandering back to a default spawn point when left alone for too long.

Luckily, we have several methods to ensure your trusty steed remains safely housed at your preferred home location while you‘re off on foot seeking adventure and epic loot.

Board at Any Stable for Worry-Free Horse Keeping

The quickest and easiest approach is to ride your horse to the nearest major city and speak to the hostler located outside each city‘s attached stable.

• Cost: 25-50 gold depending on your Speechcraft perks
• Locations: Whiterun, Solitude, Riften, Markarth, Windhelm

These trained professionals will board your horse in their enclosed, protected stable areas for a small fee anytime you visit. This saves your horse from being attacked out in the open wilderness and prevents them wandering away.

"Horses left at the stable will remain there until retrieved." – Prima Games

While some player-owned horses like Shadowmere can‘t die and will return to you eventually, paying for horse boarding ensures you always know exactly where your mount is and can retrieve them quickly without reliance on sometimes wonky spawn timers.

Plus, stabling keeps your horse safe and avoids wasting time searching for them should they manage to get themselves lost or stuck. Worth the meager coin!

Hearthfire Home Stewards – Your Own Personal Horsemaster

For those passionate gamers dedicated enough to build an entire homestead from the ground up via the Hearthfire DLC, you can take horse security to the next level by getting your very own steward to handle stabling duties.

• Cost: 500 gold hiring fee plus weekly salary
• Locations: Available at all three Hearthfire house sites – Windstad Manor, Heljarchen Hall, Lakeview Manor

Once appointed as a steward to maintain your custom-constructed home, characters like Rayya, Banning, Skald, and others will additionally take care of keeping your horse safe in a small fenced pasture area attached to the house when asked.

You‘ll still want to purchase the cheap Lumber Mill upgrade to build out proper horse facilities, but this then provides personalized care from an NPC sworn to protect you, your family, and by extension your treasured pets and mounts.

"Your steward will now take care of your horse automatically instead of having to walk to the stable every time." – CarlsGaming

The downside to relying solely on stewards over public stables? Their inventory of horses is capped at one. But for true obsessives with a single favorite horse, building our a Hearthfire manor and assigning caring steward supervision lets us adventure carefree while our prize winning steed enjoys life relaxing just outside the player‘s unique custom patio.

Magical Mount Mind Tricks – Make Your Horse Briefly Disappear

Here‘s a fun trick known to we passionate Skyrim experts for keeping your main ridden horse safely in place utilizing magic and ghost summons.

Conjure up the spectral mount Arvak (learn his skull-emblazoned Summon Arvak spell tome in the Soul Cairn).

• Cost: Free once Spell Tome obtained
• Locations: Acquired via Soul Cairn side quest – no location constraints after learning

Hop on the summoned undead horse for just 60 seconds, then dismount. Arvak will vanish away back to the Soul Cairn dimension where he resides…but your solid tangible horse remains!

As confirmed by Steam user Silversquire:

"Whenever you‘re home and don‘t want to take the horse, summon and ride Arvak for a few seconds. He‘ll despawn after you dismount, and your regular horse will remain home until you ride him again."

This mystical method has no drawbacks, happens instantly, and can be repeated anytime you return home. Let Arvak bear your burdens and wandering ways briefly so your real horse can enjoy permanent pasture rest!

Build Your Own Luxury Equine Estate

For us especially passionate players committed to investing deeply in Skyrim estate ownership via Hearthfire housing plots, constructing your own on-property stable building ensures you always have lodging for your singular special stallion.

• Cost: 8000 gold + materials as listed below
• Locations: All three Hearthfire house sites if you also build the Lumber Mill first

Once the Lumber Mill is erected, gain access to construct a wide range of specialized facility add-ons like fish hatcheries, grain mills…and our desired Large Stable capacity one mount.

Required materials:

• 800 Wood
• 200 Stone
• 10 Clay
• 16 Iron Fittings
• 3 Corundum Ingots

Crafting the standalone stables incurs high materials cost for sure. But once built, you‘ll have a convenient always-accessible single-occupancy horse house mere steps from your carved archways and self-designed bedroom.

ES Fandom Wiki confirms functionality:

"A horse can then be purchased from the chosen Steward."

Dedicated equestrians and selective Skyrim players can thus invest substantial effort and building materials to create a private lasting lodging with full amenities catering to their beloved four-legged partner.

Fast Travel Hassle-Free By Bringing Your Horse Along

All the above options require remaining primarily grounded at a fixed homestead. For wanderers and warriors roving far across fiery flatlands to frozen frontiers, keeping thine horse ever by your side is feasible too.

The simple solution? Embark everywhere atop your equine! Utilizing Fast Travel automatically brings your current mount with you to any discovered map location. Dismount to leave your stallion there while you clear crypts and explore cities.

However, exercising slight caution is wise while exploiting this shortcut:

• Avoid fast traveling directly INTO cities like Whiterun or Riften
• Horses aren‘t allowed inside city walls and may default back to nearby public stables
• FT instead right outside towns to have horse spawn alongside you

Beyond this one quirk forcing horses just outside city gates should you teleport there directly, transporting yourself on horseback otherwise means your steed follows you anywhere – no exceptions!

Fast travel pro horse tip from IGN:

"Although the horse is not technically not owned by the player, it will travel with you when you fast travel."

Saddle up and tour Skyrim freely without worrying whether your four-legged friend will still be there when you return. Convenience and companionship are just one loading screen away.

So there you have it, fellow passionate gamers – the ultimate insider guide to keeping your cherished horses housed safely at home while we roam and adventure carefree across wintry wilds to sun-baked badlands.

Time to rest easy at night comforted by the knowledge our trusty steads have shelters and stewards attending to their every need!