Horses for Rent!
Rental horses are temporary mounts. All new characters get a Wrapped Horse Whistle in the level 5 Gift Pack, so you get a chance to experience LOTRO's wonderfully realistic horseback-riding animations. Once unwrapped you have use of the mount for 24 hours (tracked in real-time), so you may want to wait until you have a block of time to play. Additional temporary horses can be purchased from the LOTRO store.Horses for Keeps!
The formula for any mount in LOTRO is Mount = Riding Skill + Mount Skill. There are some exceptions, but let's start here.
Getting the Riding Skill
Before you can own a permanent mount, you’ll need to get the Riding Skill. Anyone can purchase the Riding Skill from the LOTRO Store for 95 Turbine Points as soon as you finish the Introduction (get your map and the passive “Novice” trait).Alternatively, VIPs can save their Turbine Points and earn the Riding Skill via a level 20 quest at Hengstacer’s Farm. No more horse deliveries to other zones about Middle-earth - the quest has been simplified to just the race portion at the horse farm!
There is one exception to the riding skill requirement. VIPs can purchase the Bree-land Starter steed from Hengstacer’s Farm for 200 silver. This horse has a mount speed of "very slow" (+33%). This means it's faster than running on foot - about the same as a hunter or warden using their class run speed buffs. You’ll probably want to replace it with a regular horse (+68% mount speed) after you complete the riding skill quest at 20.
Getting Your First Mount Skill
- Buy one from Hengstacer Farm in Bree-land with in-game coin (500 silver).
- Buy one from the LOTRO Store. Some special mounts will only be offered in the store.
- Win a festival horse race (you'll need the Riding Skill to enter the race). Barter the token you win along with a “Document of Horse Ownership” (purchased from the festival horse vendor) for your new mount skill.
- Earn Kindred standing with the Inn League or Ale Association and barter for a mount skill. You'll need a Document of Mount Ownership for these as well.
- Win a special item, like the Aged Deed from the Haunted Burrow, that awards a mount skill. These are rare and require a healthy helping of luck to get.
Using Your Mount
When you acquire a new mount, it is added to your Mounts Panel. To see the Mounts Panel, open your Character Journal (C), click the Skills tab along the top, then the Mounts tab along the bottom. You can summon your mount by right-clicking it in this list, or you can drag the icon onto one of your hotbars and using it like any other skill.Another approach is to set a key mapping for "Dismount / Remount" (Options > Key Mapping | Misc). Then summon whichever mount strikes your fancy directly from your Mounts tab and use your new key mapping to dismount and remount.
Related Articles
- LOTRO Leveling Guide
- How to Earn Turbine Points
- TP Finder Tool
- LOTRO Steeds - Full list of LOTRO Mounts
56 comments:
Great site! Thanks for putting this up.
Very comprehensive update!
"Completing Volume I, Book 14 awards a beatiful white horse (as seen in the top picture). This is unlikely to be your first mount though - Book 14 is level 50."
Fairly certain it is Book 15, the end of Volume I. I had an epic quest bonanza starting about 2 weeks ago, clearing out Book 7 to Book 15 in that time on beta.
My plan regarding the basic horse riding trait is to get my free characters up to 20 first, apply my Moria key which will give me 30 days of VIP, and then do the horse riding quest for my current characters and any new ones asap.
Ajay, you are right about book 15. Fixed, and thanks!
Re subscribing for one month, there are lots of good reasons to do so in addition to the riding skill. More content for leveling is one; unlocking trait slots is another -- although you'll need to be high enough level to use the slots to get that benefit. Unless you plan to level from 20 to 50 in that one month, there's some debate as to whether 20 is the best level for subscribing.
Also, it will be interesting to see how much TP the Riding skill costs in the Store at launch, and whether it goes on sale.
Re: Very subscriber only slow horse:Hengstacer’s Farm for 200 silver at level 15.
Um.. I'm pretty sure you can get it at 5 just like any other horse. Provided you're a subscriber.
Worth checking.
You know, I think you may be right. In B5 it said level 15 right on the Bree-land Starter Steed item at the vendor (confirmed Aug 28). Now that language is gone.
So if I'm reading this correctly the in-game gold price of a regular horse (what we currently know as the level 35 horse) will drop from 4g to 500s. I recently hit 35 on my first alt and did the riding skill quests but have been putting off buying a regular horse until F2P, to see if I can save some gold. Thanks for posting this article.
That's right, it's 500s instead of 4g come next week -- assuming the beta prices don't change, of course.
The price for the Novice Riding skill is 295(236 @20% off during F2P discount launch),very easily you can get it for free just by doing deeds
Is the riding skill a one time purchase across servers, or is it a purchase per character?
The Basic Riding Skill is per character.
I feel like such a loser, I just recently spent the 4G to get the L35 horse for my Warden. And its now only 500 silver....WTF
why are the mounts 1 gold when I go there? not 500 silver,...
thats just how they are displayed, if u talk to the guy next to them he sells in shop for 500
I wonder if turbine knows there is no such thing as a "White" horse. That gene is leathal. The horse would either be considered gray or a Lipizane who are born black then turn white, where it's consiered a lack of pigmentation. Not that I suppose anyone really cares, lol.
Actually I think Turbine does know. No horse is labeled "white" in the game. The one pictured above is called "grey". At mmorsel we call it white because we're just as ignorant about stuff like that as the normal player. :) Thanks for the cool factoid!
Updated article to say "grey".
this really helps me with planning and takes some stress of mounts. THX for the info!!!!
This sucks spent 195 TP for mount, but i need to unlock LL still.
Again, very nice article. Any chance that you do one similar with list of all mounts, health/speed, how to get em and, most importantly, in-game pics? Thanks!
Mla, see the Swifty & Hammo Guide link at the end of the article. I think that has the details you want.
Thanks for this. I was surprised to see that the basic mount was 33% it feels so much slower. lol
Well, I'm a lifetime subscriber. I don't know if that makes me a VIP but I'll take the punt that it does. So. . .my first character got to Level 20, did the race at Hengestar farm and now has a Mount, the Bree starter steed. But my other level 20 characters, four of them, have also done the race and yet have no mount, not even the Bree steed or stuffed and mounted Mr Ed!
How come?
Captlychee, not sure why you don't have the Bree-steed on each character. Are you a founder too? I am, and the Bree-steed magically appears in the Mounts tab of my character sheet at character creation (it's not in my bags anymore).
Lunatuna is not a founder, and doesn't get the Bree-steed automatically. But as a VIP she can buy it at Hengstacer's for 200s.
he needs to just drag it from his skills
ty very much for this but you need to tell how many turbine points it is to buy it from the turbine store
Well, the price has changed a bit, which is why up to now I've avoided adding it. But you're right, it should be there. Article updated to show the current cost - 195 TP.
Does anyone know if you have a lvl 20+ character and switch from F2P to VIP, can you still get the quest that gets you the riding skill?
Illuin, you certainly can. If you decide to drop your subscription later, you'll get to keep the Basic Riding Skill on all your characters that completed the quest. See our Choosing an Account Type article under Getting Started for information about all the other goodies you get to keep when downgrading from VIP to Premium.
Good info, thanks.
The basic riding skill is currently on sale for 49 TP (75% off)! As a F2P player, I went ahead and spent the TP, and I'll now wait to pay my one month to get to VIP until I'm a higher level.
There is a disclaimer I think you should add to this guide. I found out that if you buy a mount from the LoTRO store, (yes, I let my inner child get impatient and I bought a mount from the store instead of patiently saving up my coin.) you will not get the discount trait for Eogar. You need to buy a mount from Eogar in order to receive that trait.
Fair enough. We talk about the discount when discussing festival mounts, but you are right - it should be nearer the top.
I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply that I did this as result of your guide. I actually made this mistake before your guide was out. I just want to warn people of making the same mistake I did.
Hope this isn't a duplicate post. But if you have a little character who doesn't ride yet (I'm VIP so not sure if this applies to F2P)... If you do the festival races so that you can get a festival mount ... but have never owned a horse before. DO NOT FREAK OUT at the 4g prices for the Writ of Horse Ownership. If you buy the 500s or 200s horses mentioned above, you will then see that the Writ drops in price to 1g 200s (I think). Anyway, you don't have to spend that much. I noticed on my high level 'toons that the Writ costs 1.2g and freaked when I ran my level 20 Captain out there and saw 4G.
Yep, we say that in this guide (the Document of Mount Ownership is 1.6G after buying a regular mount) and in our festival guide. It bears repeating though!
Think its 500s horse only, or something broke for me when I tried the 200s work around; Dont really have the coin to keep trying it so I'll just put that disclaimer out there.
Correct Jon. That's why we said buy the 500s horse in this article to lower the cost of the Document of Ownership.
Thanks, nice article.
Just a quick question concerning the Document of Ownership. I have been able to get both of the steeds for this festival, as well as the Inn League steed (love the drunk effect, hopefully my eyes don't mind it!). Based on the LOtROsteeds.com site, it doesn't look like there is anything else currently to spend a DoO on (except the Ale Association goat, which I chose the Inn League over). Is there anything else that I'm missing that I should buy an extra DoO for (since they're not available during non-festival times), or may I as well just wait for the next festival to buy however many for that festival?
Thanks!
The only time you need a document of ownership is when you are ready to exchange the horse token (or rep tokens in the case of Inn League) for the mount. I don't see any value in banking them.
This is a great tip for everyone that harvest Ore, Wood, etc:
1. Map the Mount/Dismount action to an accessible keyboard key (I use the letter X)
2. While riding - When approaching the node you are going to harvest, jump and press your Mount/Dismount key.
When you do that, your mount will "vanish" in thin air and you will be ready to harvest when you reach the ground. =D
I dream of the day the Mount Summon induction time will be less than 5 seconds... =]
Wow, this is a great tip. I already have my Mount/Dismount key mapped (I use "Y"), but never knew that jumping could speed up the dismount. I'll have to give that a try.
Wait: "Aged Deed" gives the skeleton horse? I swear one of my alts got that but never looked at it - I was looking for "horse" or "mount"!
Woah, down from 1.6 gold to 88 silver? I don't know whether to be happy or sad, because I just bought three horses at the current going rate to get them before Fall Festival went out, but I certainly could have waited a year for them if it would have saved 5 gold.
Where's the Refund NPC going to be located? :( =/
(Still good news despite, for future purposes, if it sticks...)
I sure lots of folks will feel the same. Everyone should keep this is mind: prices for EVERYTHING are more likely to fall over time than rise. I try to buy only what I need, when I need it.
I dunno about other people, but I just bought the riding skill from the LOTRO store and the Goat which I get with every new character I make from pre ordering the Siege of mirkwood lets me use it as soon as I bought the skill for that character. :) So I get to use my goat as soon as I get out of the intro. :)
Can I still own a permanent mount if I play lotro for free, and not on a VIP account? Actually can I ride a mount at all, with just in-game currency. No real money involved.
@Jit sure! Think of a horse as riding skill + mount skill. The riding skill you have to buy from the LOTRO Store, but it is easy to earn the 95 Turbine Points needed in-game. Just complete deeds in the free zones (Bree-land, The Shire, Ered Luin and Lonelands).
To get your horse skill, you'll need to amass 500 silver of in-game currency and head to Hengstacer Farms in Bree-land. You could easily have enough TP and coin just by leveling to 20 or so.
I'm new to the game (I'm F2P) and have just leveled my characters to 12. It seems that when you start the game now, they give you a gift that contains a tarnished whistle and when that runs out, you get an email with a quest item attached. This item sends you to Hengstacer Farms. Have the rules changed on whether F2P can get the mount quest?
No, as F2P you'll still need to buy the riding skill in the LOTRO store. It's only 95 TP, which you can easily earn completing deeds in the free zones.
Welcome to LOTRO!
the only 2 mounts you don't need the riding skill for are the moria rep goats.
I'm surprised you don't need the riding skill for the goats you can purchase in Moria from the Iron Garrison Miners rep vendor. Can you describe how you tested this?
I have a question.
I wanted to buy a horse for my level 15 Hunter. The LotRO store said I can buy a line of horses for half off. They say Level 5+, however I'm limited to buying only the starter steed. Any idea why?
-ArcaneFlash
No idea. Perhaps they were doing you a favor! It's pretty easy to earn the 500s needed in game for your first horse -- the only thing you should need to buy from the store is the riding skill.
If you need cash, I recommend completing the slayer deeds in the Shire, Eren Luin and the Breeland starter area, especially those that have you kill humanoids (goblins, brigands, dourhands). You'll have 500s and some extra TP pretty quickly.
I can farm for about 8 hrs and raise the cash. lol
I bought the starter one a week before they went on sale. but you're right abought the silver. I need the work on the farming do you suggest going hobbiton for the superior field or start in Staddle?
-ArcaneFlash
I am level 21 FP and have the certificate of ownership plus the riding skill I purchased from Turbine for 95. Now I need to race in the Festival Race....where is this or am I just not looking in the right place.
I have a Premium Account and a level 31 character from before f2p started. The riding trait is not showing up at the store. Any ideas? Do I need to wait until 35 like the old days since my buy is from the old days?
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