Horses

Horses are work animals. People use them for a great number of tasks. The adventurer can take advantage of this by buying a horse to quicken travel. Riding shortens the time needed for traveling enormously.

Lore
''Being both strong and swift, these companions of the trail are invaluable when time is of the essence and one's strength is at an end. The traveler should obtain a steed early in his adventuring. Occasionally, you may spy a majestic wild stallion roaming the broad plains, but catching and taming it is another thing.''

- from "Compendium", Ultima VI

''This animal can be found in the wild or domesticated in the stables. Horses are most commonly used for rapid transportation from town to town of through the wilderness.''

- from "Fellowship", Ultima VII

Evolution in the series
Horses stayed the same in all installments in which they appear, but didn't appear in the Underworlds or Ultima VIII. However, in Ultima IX, all horses are dead and hanged (one is even enclosed into a iceberg) and the culprit is a woman named Cleo found in the Prison of Wrong. The reason for all the dead horses was essentially an in-joke, as time constraints and technical limitations made horseback riding impossible in the game.

Ultima V is the only game that really describes differences between breeds of Britannian horses. While all horses look the same in the game, several NPCs, usually those who work in Stables identify various types: plough horses, mountain horses, steppes horses, and Valorian steeds which are prized as warhorses.

Notable examples

 * Smith is maybe the most famous example of Horse that can be encountered. When can you meet a talking horse? Smith the Horse lives at Iolo's hut near Yew and usually gives useless clues, because they were important for the last game. Smith appears in Ultima IV, V, VI, VII, VII/2 and Martian Dreams. He is mentioned in Ultima IX, but can't be found and is most likely dead like all other horses.