Name: Horse Oriented Riding System Extension (H.O.R.S.E.)
Version: 1.1
Date: May 2024
Author: Guinefort1

Description
========

Cosmetic alteration and expansion to horses in Oblivion

Details
=====

Horse Oriented Riding System Extension, or H.O.R.S.E. if you will, is the result of my trying to make horses a bit more cosmetically interesting. Here's what it does:

- All vanilla horse colors have been retextured using assets by AlienSlof
- Unique horses (the unicorn, Shadowmere, the Weynon Priory horses, Dar-Ma's horse Blossom) now have unique meshes and textures
- Legion horses are revamped with new meshes, textures, and are equipped with caparisons
- The vanilla bridle and saddle meshes are altered to add reins and a breastcollar
- Foals have been added to each stable
- Two new horse breeds are added: the dun horse to Bruma (identical in stats to the paint horse) and the dapple grey horse to Skingrad (identical in stats to the bay horse)
- Four ESO-based summonable mounts have been added, purchaseable at the Mystic Emporium: the skeletal horse, the Nightmare Courser, the Auroran Warhorse, and the Frost Mare. All require apprentice level skill in conjuration and last for 300 second per cast. These are identical to the bay horse for speed, but have much lower health because they are summonable.

V1.1 adds a new spectral horse mount.

Requirements
==========

Oblivion Version 1.2.0416

Installation Instructions
=================

Copy contents into your Oblivion data folder.

Uninstallation Instructions
====================

Delete the added contents

Change Log
=========

v1.1:
- added spectral horse

v1.0:
- initial release

Optional Files
===========

An optional download is available if you want to have saddlebags with the reins and breastcollar. Install and allow to overwrite. May be used as a standalone too.

The Manually Placed Summons is an alternative version of the main file that removes the summoning spells in favor of custom placing them at lore-appropriate locations: Ft. Linchal, Dragonclaw Rock, Cloud Top, and Lake Arrius. The v1.1 file for Manually Placed Mounts adds the spectrla horse to the entrance of the Amelion Family Tomb.

Incompatibility
===========

Will be incompatible with mods that alter the vanilla horses, including Weynon Priory Alive. Load Weynon Priory Alive after this mod if you prefer the horse cosmetics in that mod. Mods that add new horses, such as the mods by zira, should work just fine. Other horse texture mods will be incompatible.

Likely but unconfirmed (I can't test it without owning the Horse Armor DLC) with Simple Horse Utilities - Saddlbags and Follow-Wait Commands by PushTheWinButton. Likely but unconfirmed compatiblity with Horse Gameplay Overhaul by qwertyasdfgh. Technically not compatible with JK - Horse Tack by jitkinge because both change the saddles, but to run both, simply install JK - Horse Tack and allow it to overwrite the saddle mesh, and the rest of H.O.R.S.E. can be run without issue.

Known Issues
==========

The NPC dialogue for selling horses in Bruma and Skingrad will still refer to their vanilla colors.

Because of the script I used, the summoned horses will leave corpses upon being killed rather than disappear like other summons and defy the one-summon rule of the vanilla game. They can be spawned inside cities and interiors, which can cause bugs like getting partially-lodged inside walls.

The martingale/breastcollar and reins have minor clipping issues.

V1.1 offers a fifth summonable spectral mount, which comes with a visual bug. Applying the ghost NPC visual affect causes the player character to turn see-through upon mounting and remains upon dismounting unless all equipment is re-equipped. I bypassed this problem by switching to a chameleon and modified flame effects to achieve a ghostly look without causing the player character to glitch out... so long as the the horse is mounted and ridden in 3rd person perspective only. Any attempt to mount or ride the ghost horse in 1st person perspective will cause the chameleon visual effect to apply to the player (which can be remedied by re-equipping all items).

Troubleshooting
============

Feel free to come to me with questions or issues and I will help as best as I can. That said, please bear in mind that I am a novice modder and may not be able to offer much in the way of assistance.

Credits
=====

Thanks to:

Bethesda Softworks
The makers of these wonderful resources
TES Nexus
LHammonds - Readme Generator
Nifskope
The UESP
The Oblivion Construction Set Wiki
ESO
GIMP

Meshes and textures provided from:

zira - Zira's Clydesdale Horses v1.1, Zira Horse Compilation Pack
Zman -Zs Skeleton Horse
AlienSlof - Slof's Oblivion Horses
roblesstevena - More Creatures - Dragon Break Edition (with textures from Crystal Unicorns by Mondstein)
mystikhybrid and odin_ml - Saddlebag Mesh Fix
Elbethien - Animal Planet

Script provided from:

The Oblivion Construction Set Wiki - Scripting Tutorial: Summoned Creatures

Licensing
=======

I am making this mod open to revision by the public. If you have any ideas of how to expand or improve upon this mod, then go ahead. No permission needed. All I ask is that you give credit to me and to the creators of these resources. This mod and its content may not be distributed commercially.