Whether it’s Roach from the Witcher franchise or Epona from Ocarina of Time, horses are a major component of any sandbox RPG.

Black Desert is certainly no exception, and with a game world as large as Black Desert Online, they are definitely critical with no fast travel to get around.

So, with horses being an essential part of traveling in Black Desert Online, how do you find and acquire them?

There are three different ways to obtain a horse in Black Desert Online: taming, breeding, and purchasing.

Depending on whether you want to save the silver, go in search of a stable master, or breed your very own, here are the three different ways to get a horse in Black Desert Online.

Where to start

Before you set out to tame a horse in Black Desert Online, keep in mind that players must reach training level 5 first.

You can achieve this by riding either a horse or a donkey until they level up your training experience.

How do you find a horse or donkey? You can acquire a donkey from the town chief in Velia after completing the Black Spirit quest ‘Big Fish in a Small Pond’.

However, you will need to reach level 10 before you can access this quest.

The alternative option is buying a horse from a stable keeper.

You will have two base options to choose from when you first access the stable keeper’s inventory: Horse Emblem: Beginner’s Brown or Gray Horse.

These horses are relatively slow and devoid of any major skills but will level you up nonetheless to reach training level 5.

Taming

Now that you’ve reached training level 5, you can go out and tame a horse, but what will you need?

Where will you go, and how do you do it? To capture a horse, you will need two different items before you set out on your journey.

To capture and tame a horse in Black Desert Online, you’ll need a capturing rope and lumps of sugar.

Typically, players should have at least 3 lumps of sugar.

However, the safest number to bring is 4 to 5.

Players can purchase rope from any stable keeper, but they will need to craft the sugar lumps themselves.

To get the ingredients needed, go to the nearest cooking NPC.

Cooking vendors are located in all the game’s cities.

Once you find one, you will need to buy raw sugar and mineral water to craft the sugar lumps.

Each one will require 10 raw sugar and one mineral water to craft.

Once the sugar lumps have been crafted, you can go in search of horses to tame.

Keep in mind there are no specific places to find them in the world of Black Desert.

They spawn all over the game’s world, but once you find a horse, what happens next? You have to tame it, of course.

Here are the steps to taming a horse in the game:

1. Move your sugar lumps and capture rope from your inventory to your hot bar.
2. Sneak up on the horse slowly without spooking it.
3. Equip the capturing rope from the hot bar, and aim at the horse. Keep in mind that you move slower with the rope equipped.
4. Similar to the fishing game in BDO, left click to throw the rope when you’re fully lined up. Then press the spacebar when your meter reaches ‘good’.
5. Move towards the horse. Each time it lifts its front hooves, you will need to rapidly press the spacebar for 10 seconds to keep it within the ‘win’ section.
6. Once you get close enough to the horse, a circle menu will appear above its head. At this point, you can choose to either try mounting it or feed it sugar lumps.
7. Feed the horse between 3 to 5 lumps to calm it. 4 to 5 is the recommended amount.
8. Once this is done, you can mount the horse and take it back to the nearest stable to register. Keep in mind that you won’t be able to gallop back to the stable, so try picking a location close to a stable to make things quicker.

Taming horses is by far the cheapest way to get a horse in Black Desert Online.

The one downside to taming is that you can only tame horses that are tier 5 or lower.

The upsides? Taming allows players to pick their horse’s color and even its tier as long as they know what to look for.