Over 50 new horse coat colors, 20 unique horses with special effects and optional ENB light, 21 unique ESO inspired horses, wild horse herds, and a zorse!
Requirements
This mod does not have any known dependencies other than the base game.
Other user's assetsSome assets in this file belong to other authors. You will need to seek permission from these authors before you can use their assets
Upload permissionYou are not allowed to upload this file to other sites under any circumstances
Modification permissionYou are allowed to modify my files and release bug fixes or improve on the features so long as you credit me as the original creator
Conversion permissionYou are not allowed to convert this file to work on other games under any circumstances
Asset use permissionYou are allowed to use the assets in this file without permission as long as you credit me
Asset use permission in mods/files that are being soldYou are not allowed to use assets from this file in any mods/files that are being sold, for money, on Steam Workshop or other platforms
Asset use permission in mods/files that earn donation pointsYou are allowed to earn Donation Points for your mods if they use my assets
Author notes
I am happy for anyone to use my work, but I cannot extend permissions for all of the assets used in this mod. So long as you obtain permissions from the original asset creators or verify open permissions, you may use my portion of this work freely.
File credits
CDProjektRed for providing permission to use the horse model and textures Feradia for her Roach Textures from Fera's Roach and Horse Overhaul and Fera's Tribute Horses chakaru11 for their Roach Horse Resource Pack RefurbSkyrim for their wings resource PraedythXVI for his multiparallax and Arvak textures Vindition for his frosted glass cubemap DrJacopo and Cathedral Concept for the otherwordly cubemap zzjay for her horse mane mesh jg1 for the stars and rainbow example fx included with VFX Editor, adapted for use for the unique horses Pop000100 for extracting the wild horse textures from the texture cache from Fera's Roach and Horse Overhaul and the fixed CRF patch substill for the SkyTEST Redux and Simplest Horses patches Kynkaid and Tommas for the menu to apply wings to the unique horses Rudy102 for the ENB glow texture Pieter82 for the higher poly saddle models
[Main Mod] Added specular to alpha channel of normal maps.
[Main Mod] Removed unnecessary alpha channels on diffuse maps that did not have transparencies.
[Main Mod] Wing options can now be distributed to Nightmare, Black Unicorn, and White Unicorn with a power, no need for additional plugins (thanks to Kynkaid and Tommas!). The wings are assignable only to horses with the correct keywords. These horses will randomly have an option assigned to them on game startup, but this can be tweaked in the menu.
[Main Mod] Added patch to fix flickering horse manes by applying a NULL texture to the vanilla horse mane, so only the WHE mane shows. This should prevent flicking on horses added by other mods.
[Main Mod] Added Rudy's ENB glow texture, as ENB glows were already mapped to that texture and it was not previously included. Should prevent issues with ENB light option not working.
[Main Mod] Carried forward changes from Load Screen Shading Fix for the horse and rider load screen art.
[Main Mod] Fixed shader flags for specular, environment maps, and multiparallax.
[Main Mod] Integrated the meshes from High Poly Saddles, for both vanilla saddles and for saddle patches that used vanilla meshes.
[Main Mod] Fixed rotation of bits on all saddles, so the bit now actually sits in the mouth. Rotation fixed on all bridles added by other saddle mods as well.
[Main Mod] Moved Karinda to the other side of the Whiterun Stables building, so that she no longer does a dance buried in the floor.
[FOMOD] Compressed PNG images in FOMOD to make download size (marginally) smaller. Reordered patch list.
[New Patch] Animated Carriage
[New Patch] Simple Horses (courtesy of substill)
[New Patch] SkyTEST
[New Patch] SkyTEST Redux (courtesy of substill)
[Updated Patch - Equestrian] Actually flagged the SC Horses dummy plugin as ESL.
Version 2.3
[Main Mod] Restored environment mapping shader flag to Dwemer Horse, Black Beauty, and Bronze Horse.
[Main Mod] Removed soft lighting shader flag, to fix meshes being white in some games.
[Main Mod] Rotated the QASmoke chest the right way round and added the dismiss horse spell tome to the chest.
[Updated Patch - Equestrian] Cleaned ITMs and updated texture sets to use WHE normal and specular map.
[Updated Patch - Horse Armors for SSE] Cleaned ITMs.
[New Patch] Aenbyr
Version 2.2
[Main Mod] Fixed CTD caused by Nightmare's special effects.
[Main Mod] Removed specular flag on the unique horses since it resulted in excessive shininess with ENB Light.
[Main Mod] Added spell to dismiss horses.
[Main Mod] Changed summoning spells to no longer be considered dangerous casts, so NPCs shouldn't react negatively. Also added condition to not be castable in non-rideable space.
[Main Mod] Added replacements for loading screens for the horse and horse with rider.
Version 2.1
[Main Mod] Mesh and texture fixes - added specular, fixed texture stretching on neck, adjusted some mesh values, fixed cubemaps, and added a no decals flag on eye glows.
[Main Mod] Renamed mane mesh to match AE to fix double mane.
[Main Mod] Added new wild horse textures - caribou, dark, dark grey, dun, light cream, okapi, war pony, wild ass, zebra, and new zorse (texture extraction courtesy of Pop000100).
[Main Mod] Added wild horses to leveled lists and replaced the hand placed wild horses with the leveled list options. Added sandbox AI to the wild horses.
[Main Mod] Removed stray ENB light node on Thunder's unicorn horn nif that was causing crashing.
[New Patch]: Horses Gone Wild
[New Patch]: ESO Imports
[New Patch]: Animated Wings (14 different options)
[New Patch]: Aeonbarr
[New Patch]: Blaze of Eventide
[Updated Patch - CC Wild Horses]: Flagged CC Wild Horses patches as ESL.
[Updated Patch - Cutting Room Floor]: Updated so Karinda is actually disabled now (patch courtesy of Pop000100)
[Updated Patch - Horse Armors for Skyrim]: Fixed FOMOD not installing properly.
Version 2.0
[Main Mod] ESP-FE is the only plugin option now, as maintaining both options was too much work and confusing besides.
[Main Mod] Removed Placed Projectile that was causing crashing at Knifepoint Ridge.
[Main Mod] Renamed horses in the leveled lists so they are easier to spawn via console.
[Main Mod] Placed Meteor at the Skaal Village (previously overlooked placing him).
[Main Mod] Fixed the actor records for the Hearthfire horses so they will show as the unique ESO horses.
[Main Mod] Fixed the rotation of the bit on the bridle so it sits more flush with the mouth.
[Main Mod] Changed file path of the upscaled Watcher's Eye textures, so they don't conflict with anything else that retextures them.
[Main Mod] Edited the UV map on the eyes and added a cubemap.
[New Patch] Wild Herds of Skyrim
[New Patch] Equestrian
[New Patch] Cutting Room Floor
[New Patch] zzjay's Horses
[Updated Patch - CC Horse Armor - Steel] Corrected folder name from bgsse012 to bgssse012. Fixed clipping on saddle.
[Updated Patch - CC Horse Armor - Elven] Fixed clipping on saddle.
[Updated Patch - CC The Cause] Fixed nif name for Daedric horse.
[Updated Patch - Convenient Horses] Integrated the updated patch into the main FOMOD. Additionally, fixed clipping on saddles and rotation of the bit on the bridles.
[Updated Patch - Craftable Saddles from the Witcher 3] Integrated the updated patch into the main FOMOD. Additionally, fixed clipping on saddles and rotation of the bit on the bridles.
[Updated Patch - Craftable Horse Barding] Integrated the updated patch into the main FOMOD. Additionally, fixed clipping on saddles and rotation of the bit on the bridles.
[Updated Patch - Horse Armors for Skyrim] Fixed clipping on saddles and rotation of the bit on the bridles. Fixed badly weighted saddles. Fixed pathing in the FOMOD to point to the correct patch.
[Updated Patch - Immersive Horses] Integrated the updated patch into the main FOMOD. Removed IH AI from the wild horses, as they were following the player as a herd any time a horse was ridden.
Version 1.2
[Updated Patch - Wild Herds of Skyrim] Updated to include the mesh for the foal's mane and tail that I initially forgot to upload. Compacted FormIDs for the Wild Herds of Skyrim patch.
[Updated Patch - Equestrian] Removed the armor record from Equestrian that was outside the bounds for ESL.
[Updated Patch - Craftable Saddles from TW3] Fixed clipping issues.
Version 1.1
[Updated Patch - Craftable Saddles from TW3] Includes the new Caparison of Lament and Nilfgaardian saddle, as well as the option to choose between saddles with and without stirrups. Will be integrated into the main FOMOD once more updates are made.
[Updated Patch - Convenient Horses] Fixed crashes that occurred when equipping leather armor from Convenient Horses. One of the BSTriShapes had Default Shader Type but still had Environment Mapping Shader Flag.
[Updated Patch - Immersive Horses] Enables adoptability for the unique horses and ESO horses.
[New Patch] Equestrian and Wild Herds of Skyrim
WITCHER HORSE EXPANSION
Witcher Horse Expansion is a complete horse overhaul that introduces the horses from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt into the world of Skyrim. There is a vast new variety of horse coat colors, converted from The Witcher 3, Fera's Roach and Horse Overhaul, and Fera's Tribute Horses. Nearly all horses are now unique in appearance. Additional horses have been added into the horse encounter leveled list to dynamically add new horses to come across during gameplay. Horses that previously were not unique in appearance (such as Cicero's horse) will now have distinct coats. There are new named horses that can be found throughout Skyrim and Solstheim, some with regular coats and some with mythical appearances and magical effects.
♘♞ Features ♞♘
20 unique horses with special effects and optional ENB light that can found throughout Skyrim and Solstheim
21 ESO inspired horses that can be found throughout Skyrim
56 unique horse coats distributed throughout the horses of Skyrim
Zorse that accompanies M'aiq on his travels and that will appear alongside M'aiq during his roadside encounter
Karinda restored to the Whiterun Stables
Wild horse herds that roam the open plains and snowy mountainsides of Skyrim
Unicorns with 42 different wing options
♞♘ Unique Horses ♞♘
There are 20 unique horses with special effects and optional ENB light that can be found throughout Skyrim and Solstheim. They can be discovered in unique locations after finding and activating their summoning catalyst. The spell tomes to summon the unique horses have also been distributed in the merchant leveled lists with varying degrees of rarity and can be purchased from the Riverwood Trader or Phinis at the College of Winterhold. Alternatively, you can retrieve all the tomes from a chest in the QASmoke cell. The two unicorns can only be summoned unless you have the Wild Horses CC.
Spoiler:
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Ember Heart Location: Solstheim, in the field of burning craters near Tel Mithryn Summons: Burning Crater
Celestial Unicorn Location: Statue of Meridia Summons: Aetherial Projection
Kelpie Location: Lake Ilinalta Summons: Drowned Victim
Black Beauty Location: Outside the Glenmoril Coven cavern Summons: Demon Tree
♞♘ ESO Inspired Horses ♞♘
There are 21 horses with unique ESO inspired names that can found throughout Skyrim. They aren't strictly lore friendly but there were so many new horse coats to implement and I thought it would be fun to use some for ESO Easter eggs. 3 of the ESO horses are used as replacers for the Hearthfire horses.
Spoiler:
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Buttercup Location: Lakeview Manor
Matilda Location: Heljarchen Hall
Fadeel Location: Loreius Farm
Frolics-In-Rain Location: Hlaalu Farm
Meteor Location: Skaal Village
Peri Location: Kynesgrove
Pivott Location: Kynesgrove
Pom'el Location: Kynesgrove
Shinkicker Location: Brittleshin Pass
Slumgullion Location: Markarth Stables
Snow Location: Blackbriar Manor
Sojourn Location: Winstad Manor
Sugarloaf Location: Nightgate Inn
Triumph Location: Wayward Pass
Truffles Location: Mushroom Ring in Falkreath
Whinnie Location: Honeystrand Cave
Windmane Location: Darkwater Cavern
♞♘ Available Patches ♞♘
Immersive Horses
Kaidan
Convenient Horses
Craftable Saddles from TW3
Horse Armors for Skyrim
zzjay's Horse Overhaul
Craftable Horse Barding
Equestrian
Wild Herds of Skyrim
Horses Gone Wild
CC - Wild Horses
CC - Daedric Horse
CC - Horse Armor - Elven
CC - Horse Armor - Steel
Cutting Room Floor
ESO Imports
Aeonbarr
Aenbyr
Blaze of Eventide
Animated Carriage
SkyTEST
SkyTEST Redux
Simplest Horses
All patches are either mesh only patches or are plugins flagged as ESP-FE.
Witcher Horse Expansion is natively compatible with both Special Edition and Anniversary Edition, as it uses the new mane partition system from AE. If you do still continue to have double mane, there is an optional file that applies a NULL texture to the vanilla mane, so that only the WHE mane shows.
Not compatible with mods that change the model or textures of horses
New saddle meshes will need to be refitted to the new model, but retextures will work fine
Load Witcher Horse Expansion below any mods that add new horses.
♞♘ Future Plans ♞♘
Add special abilities to the unique horses (think Death decapitating Draugr or Thunder using shock spells)
Fluffy horses with shell meshes/textures
Replacer only version
♞♘ Credits ♞♘
CDProjektRed for providing permission to use the horse model and textures
This mod is very special to me as it was the first big project I undertook. I started knowing nothing and learned so much while creating it. This mod stands on the shoulders of the entire modding community and would not be possible without the incredible ingenuity of the various mod tool developers, the generosity of mod authors willing to share their work, or the many knowledgeable individuals who share their knowledge with others. Thank you!