BDO Horse Skills (Black Desert Online 2019)

Image Credit: Starissa

Horses have a variety of skills to try and learn, depending upon their coat. You have a chance to randomly obtain 1 horse skill each time it levels up. Horse Skill Change coupons can help you obtain the skills you desire. Read more about how this works below.

The most important horse skills for speed are Sprint, Instant Acceleration, and Drift.

BDO Horse Skills, Coats, & Tiers Tool

If you are looking for the BDO Horse Skill Tool, click the button below to gallop there. 🙂 The tool has a more complex horse skill list that shows which horses can learn which skills. Includes filterable horse coat data like HP, Stamina, LT, Speed, Acceleration, Turn, Brake, Experience per Level, Color Theory values of Red/White/Black, etc.

BDO Horse Coats, Tiers, Skills, & Stats Tool

Horse Skills List

The table below lists the skills that horses have a chance to learn.

Skill Name	Keyboard	Description	Value
Caution	Auto-activates in fall zone	Prevents horse from running off a cliff (can still jump over it if timed right)	4,350
Charge	Q (Champron required)	Horse charges enemies	1,530,000
Drift	← or → + ↓ while Running	Drift resets the cooldown on Instant Accel	2,320,500
Fore Chop	F	frontal attack	4,350
High Jump	SPACE while running fast	jump higher while running	86,400
Hind Kick	↓ + F	backward AOE attack	4,350
Instant Accel	While Running F	Horse temporarily runs faster	2,320,500
Quick Back	↓	Horse steps backward faster	79,200
Quick Ride	Auto-activates while riding	you can mount the horse faster	86,625
Quick Stop	While Riding ↓	you can stop the horse faster	105,600
Roar	SPACE (Stirrups required)	regenerate HP and Stamina for 30 seconds	264,000
Sideways	← or →	horse can strafe right or left, T5+ Horses only	3,836,250
Sprint	↑+Shift (Saddle required)	horse can temporarily run faster	3,315,000
Start Accel	Lift front leg with SPACE, then ↑	horse starts immediately running	4,350
Streak Leap	Jumps immediately after a jump	horse can jump repeatedly without stopping	1144,000
Two-seater	Guild or Party member R	allows another player to ride with you, T6-T8 and Doom Horse only	4,972,500
S: Fore Chop	AP Up with Fore Chop	stronger Fore Chop skill (Horse does a frontal AOE attack), T8+ Horses only	226,800
S: Hind Kick	AP Up in Hind Kick	stronger Hind Kick skill (Horse does a backward AOE attack), T8+ Horses only	226,800
S: Instant Accel	F during Instant Accel	stronger Instant Accel skill (Horse temporarily runs faster), T8+ Horses only	10,687,500
S: Sideways	Speed Up in Sideways	faster Sideways skill (horse can strafe right or left), T8+ Horses only	10,687,500
S: Charge	Q while Charging	Charge +damage & +range, horse can use Charge twice, consecutively. T9 Dream Horse only. (RNG Chance to learn.)	12,150,000
Courser’s Spirit	Auto-activated while unmounted	horse regenerates its HP and Stamina when it’s parked, T9 Dream Horse only. (100% Chance to learn.)	9,562,500
Double Jump	SpaceBar while Jumping	Jump a second time in the air, must have Steak Leap & High Jump, T9 Dream Horse only. (100% Chance to learn.)	13,162,500
Wings of Freedom	Wings of Wind ← or → also during descent after using Leap S to quickly descend	allows Arduanatt to turn sideways while using Wings of the Wind, T9 Arduanatt Dream Horse skill only. (RNG Chance to learn.)	21,937,500
Wings of Wind	E while Double Jump also during descent after using Leap S to quickly descend	Glide after Double Jump/Leap. Reduces fall damage by 100% when Arduanatt uses Double Jump, T9 Arduanatt Dream Horse skill only. (100% Chance to learn.)	21,375,000
Earth of Life	E also during movement and while using Sprint or Instant Accel	heals Dine and friendly targets for 300 HP and 300 MP/WP/SP every 3 seconds for 30 seconds, max targets : 10. Cooldown: 3 minutes T9 Diné Dream Horse only skill. (100% Chance to learn.)	21,375,000
Earth of Protection	Auto activates while using Earth of Life	All DP, Evasion, AP +10 for you and up to 10 party members for 30 seconds, T9 Diné Dream Horse only skill. (RNG Chance to learn.)	21,375,000
Dark Flame Steps	E	AOE fire damage nearby enemies, T9 Doom Dream Horse skill only. (100% Chance to learn.)	21,375,000
Dark Sprint	F during S:Instant Accel	AOE fire damage during S: Instant Accel. Allows 3rd Instant Accel. Instant Accel and S: Instant Accel required. T9 Doom Dream Horse skill only. (RNG Chance to learn.)	21,375,000

How Horse Skill Gain Likely Works by Cappuccino

Thank you to Cappuccino for the following Horse Skill theory. Quoted from a forum post.

NOTE: This post is an extension of conversations taking place in the Breeder’s Discord, but because of its length could not be easily posted there.

What does it mean when my horse levels up and I get the message “chances of learning a skill has increased”? Why do horses learn skills early on but not many (if any) in their 20’s? Do costumes, branding stones, and the appearance change coupons work and how?

Skills: The Hidden XP Bar

When your horse is running, it gains xp towards its next level-up based on distance. This is an xp bar you can see and use to predict how long you will need to ride your horse before it levels.

Every time your horse levels, more xp is needed in order to level up again. By the time the horse level 28, you might have to autoloop an entire night on a high tier horse in order to hit level 30 as opposed to spending one night to get from level 1 to level 15.

Skills seem to work in a similar fashion.

Your horse is gaining skill xp every time it levels up, but this is an xp bar that we cannot see.

Every time your horse learns a skill, the next skill requires more xp in order to learn, just like how the horse levels. But because your horse is likely learning a set amount of skill xp on each level up, eventually the gap widens and it takes several level ups to learn a skill.

This is why early on your horse will learn many skills, then slow down in its teens, and then maybe only learn a couple skills in its 20s.

Why are some horses smart and some horses.. not?

The RNG comes into play when the horse is born. (Horses born pre-nerf will learn skills at a rate consistent with old skill gain rates. Early data is indicating that horses coming out of racing seal boxes may not be effected by the nerf either.)

Skill gain RNG is effecting one of two things, either of which would result in the patterns we see.

a) The set amount of Skill XP the horse gets on level up is determined at birth. A low roll means the horse will not be able to meet as many Skill XP thresholds, resulting in a lower number of skills learned.

b) The Skill XP thresholds that must be met in order to learn a new skill may be higher on certain horses, resulting in a lower number of skills learned.

In either case, costumes, branding stones, and change coupons will still have the same effect. The nerf probably made the amount of skill xp the horse learns on level up lower than before.

How do Costumes and other items that effect horse skills work?

Branding, costumes and appearance coupons likely work by boosting the total amount of skill xp your horse has.

Appearance coupons are unique in that even if your horse is level 30, if it was close enough to a Skill Threshold, and the coupon pushes your horse over that threshold, the horse is awarded with a skill.

Branding stones don’t seem to make much difference in skill gain, so the skill xp award is probably low.

Horse costumes seemed to be bugged for much of the early game, but certain ones are finally causing skill gains on horses. Confirmed with testing are the Lahr Arcien and the Karlstein. (Also, unequipping and re-equipping the costume on the same horse may be negating the bonus. It could be a bug.)

There is a lot more data related to this section, such as ideal times to equip a costume or use a coupon, but I feel more testing is needed before publishing.

Horse Skill Gain Chance Theory

The Discord image below is tinfoil, although it does seem like some skills are easier to obtain than others.

Mount Brand Spell Stone

Do Brand Stones Help Gain Skills?
There is a Pearl item called Mount Brand Spell Stone that promises to increase Skill gain chance, but several players report it doesn’t work like expected. My guess is that it increases how fast a Skill is mastered when you do the Skill mini-game and NOT how many skills a horse obtains.

Benefits of Mount Brand Spell Stone

“chance to learn skills increases” (debatable)
recovery and revival 30% cheaper
50% mount gear durability consumption decrease

Horse Stats Have Caps/Brackets

BDO Horses have what players call “Caps” or “Break Points”. This means you cannot see or feel a difference in your horse speed until you go past a certain number. All stats in a certain bracket feel the same. The Caps are every 10 points: Ex. 140.1%, 150.1%, and 160.1%

You’ll be just as fast at 150.1% as 160% Speed.

For T8, try to obtain horses that can reach above 150.1% with gear. Turn is the least important.

The most important two skills are Drift + Instant Accel animation cancel. Sprint is also beneficial.

Horse Stats:

Speed – affects AFK and Sprint running speed.
Acceleration – time to get to full speed
Turn – time to turn
Brake – Important for stability during Drift + Instant Accel animation cancel. Brake can reduce Drift animation significantly. A horse with Brake at 150.1% makes the sliding from Drift almost non-existent. Above 150.1%, there is no noticeable difference.
Health – influences how quickly the horse will die if hit
Stamina – how far the horse can travel before being fed.

Higher Tier Horse Breeding opens up better Horse Stats, locked Horse Skills, and coats.

The Granverre set manufactured at Stonetail Horse Ranch is BIS. Storm Gear Set is a green grade set that is fairly easy to +10 since you can find the horse set pieces on the Market.