Are Arabians Faster in Snow?

[OrionSR]

Perhaps it's my imagination, I'm not sure how to objectively measure horse speed, but I've been particularly impressed by the speed of my black Arabian when galloping on trails heavily laden with snow - like the trails and roads around Colter. The horse won't reach full speed right away; I need to spur it heavily for... 20 seconds or so, and stick tight to the main trails, but eventually the horse will reach the familiar cadence of a full speed gallop. 

 

I have not been able to reach a full speed gallop in heavy snow on any other of the top tier horses, until I bought the white Arabian to ride around during the snow event. Search results for Arabian Faster in Snow inevitably lead to info on the free white Arabian in story mode.

 

Is extra speed in snow a known property of Arabians or can anyone confirm these observations? I'd be willing to work on a more objective measure of speed if I thought it wasn't just my imagination or someone else hasn't already figured this out.

 

Edited December 29, 2019 by OrionSR

[aFinn]

It isn't your imagination. I have noticed this also. When me and a friend rode in the snow she was on her Black Arabian and was galloping away from me fast while I was in a Missouri Fox Trotter (which in my opinion is especially slow in snow of the top tier horses while it is otherwise brilliant.)

You do need to stick to the paths in snow for the faster pace.

 

 

 

[StyxTx]

Speed is in the user's mind. I've had all the horses at one time or another. In freeroam there is no difference.

 

While in my posse, I've had a horse with 10 speed who could not go faster than a member who had a horse with 5 speed. There was a difference in acceleration though. I think those ratings are for competitive things like racing. One guy put out a video comparing horses and it showed maybe a 2/10 of a second difference between fastest and slowest horse in competitive races.

 

If there is a difference, and I haven't seen any evidence of it in all the time I've been playing, it is negligible.

[OrionSR]

3 hours ago, StyxTx said:

Speed is in the user's mind.

Ordinarily I'd agree with you; the speed stat seems to make very little difference. But in this case we are discussing how heavy snow will slow all horse, and an observation that heavy snow doesn't slow the black and white Arabians as much as other horses. I'm thinking of this as a Snow Ability, similar to an Offroad Ability applied to dirt bikes or cars with offroad tires in other GTA games. 

 

4 hours ago, StyxTx said:

If there is a difference, and I haven't seen any evidence of it in all the time I've been playing, it is negligible.

Try again in heavy snow with a black or white Arabian. Stick to the trails, spur the horse hard, and give it a little time to work up to full speed. I think you'll notice the difference in the cadence of the gallop compared to the plodding lope of other horses. And according to aFinn's report, this translates to obvious speed when compared with another rider. 

 

I'd be interested in reading any observations from players with a lower tier Arabian.

 

I'm not confident, but it seemed like the white Arabian had a much easier time chasing down a deer with a lasso while riding off-trail in heavy snow. So perhaps the snow ability applies to heavy snow in general but it's only noticeable when riding on trails due to the faster cadence of the gallop.

(How the deer got a lasso I'll never know.)

[StyxTx]

1 hour ago, OrionSR said:

Ordinarily I'd agree with you; the speed stat seems to make very little difference. But in this case we are discussing how heavy snow will slow all horse, and an observation that heavy snow doesn't slow the black and white Arabians as much as other horses. I'm thinking of this as a Snow Ability, similar to an Offroad Ability applied to dirt bikes or cars with offroad tires in other GTA games. 

 

Try again in heavy snow with a black or white Arabian. Stick to the trails, spur the horse hard, and give it a little time to work up to full speed. I think you'll notice the difference in the cadence of the gallop compared to the plodding lope of other horses. And according to aFinn's report, this translates to obvious speed when compared with another rider. 

 

I'd be interested in reading any observations from players with a lower tier Arabian.

 

I'm not confident, but it seemed like the white Arabian had a much easier time chasing down a deer with a lasso while riding off-trail in heavy snow. So perhaps the snow ability applies to heavy snow in general but it's only noticeable when riding on trails due to the faster cadence of the gallop.

(How the deer got a lasso I'll never know.)

Arabians are shorter, smaller horses than most and that can make it appear they are faster with their smaller strides. That's like a 6'5" person walking next to a 5'5". The longer strides of the taller person make it look like they are moving slower but watching the two they are moving the same speed.

 

Arabians do handle much better than the rest though.

 

As I said, I've had all the horses at one time or another.

Edited December 30, 2019 by StyxTx

[OrionSR]

15 minutes ago, StyxTx said:

As I said, I've had all the horses at one time or another.

But you have not said that you made these observations in heavy snow. Any observations made in other conditions do not apply to this topic.

 

Try it as described. Or race from Colter to Adler Ranch against a trusted posse member.  I'd like to convince a skeptic. 

[StyxTx]

Of course I used them in snow, as well as everywhere else on the map. I've actually been up there with other people on different horses and some posse members I had liked to race everywhere. One had an Arabian and I had the Foxtrotter and I kept pace with her up in the snow while racing along during missions for Sadie, and trust me she went all out all the time. Everyone in the posse kept pace, regardless of their horse and most of them had theoretically slower horses than ours.

 

When it comes to escaping from wolves up there, no horse I've had did any better at getting distance on them while being chased than any other horse.

 

I don't see how it's possible to compare horses when you're only using 1 at a time. I have something to actually compare with and am not using my perception to make a conclusion.

 

What I suggest is you get a timer and take different horses up there, do your race and see how it turns out or get a 2nd horse and have it follow you up there and then do your race with it following you.

Edited December 30, 2019 by StyxTx

[OrionSR]

Okay, I'm using a timer on Windows, so I need to reach to start and stop the stopwatch but the procedure is fairly consistent with myself.

All of these horses are the best of breed, have max bonding, and have the Nacogdoches Saddle and Hooded Stirrups - except as noted.

The route is between the end of the small bridge north of Colter to the end of the marked road near Adler ranch, starting from a dead stop.

I'm repeating the test in the other direction and averaging the time.

(The time difference for the slower horses seems less dramatic than it appears due to rounding and procedural errors.)

 

1:07        White Arabian    
1:07        Black Arabian    
1:07        Turkoman

    
1:23        Norfolk Roadster    
1:23        Missouri Foxtrotter    
1:23        Criollo - McKinney
1:24        Breton - Delgado
1:25        Kladruber - Fletcher

 

The speed boost for the "snow ability" kicks in after 30 seconds of heavy spurring.

 

The Turkoman time was certainly a surprise. I guess it's worth the trouble to test other horses but that's everything in my stable.

Edited December 31, 2019 by OrionSR

[OrionSR]

Interesting observations from a low level profile:

 

The Red Chestnut Arabian with a starter saddle ran the course in 1:09. The low level Arabian performed similarly, just a little slower as expect by the stats. I'm looking for evidence that this is a bread specific trait - so far so good.

 

The surprise was that the Chestnut Tennessee Walker starter horse ran the course in 1:24, just as fast as the other horses with much higher stats. I was plodding along slowly, but got a boost after about a minute. When I repeated the test but regularly spammed the calm button to give a boost to stamina, or used a stimulant before the test, the extra speed never kicked in and the Walker clocked a time of 1:29. Interestingly, if I drained the stamina first and then used a stim the horse maintained the extra speed until the stim wore off.

 

So low stamina is a confounding factor. For this horse the effect kicked in at about 20% of the total ring. I'm not even sure if this is something specific to snow.

 

 

[OrionSR]

Breed Testing: I have finished testing the cheapest horses from each breed not previously listed and did not find anything new with snow abilities. Everything ran the course between 1:24 and 1:27. The horses were at Bonding level 1 but were equipped with the Nacogdoches Saddle and Hooded Stirrups so stamina wasn't much of a problem. (Except for the Morgan, but it didn't show any additional speed.)

 

Bonding Level: I became concerned that bonding level might be influencing the results so I bought a new Red Chestnut Arabian to compare with the results from another profile with bonding 4. This horse ran the course faster than any other at 1:01. It reached top speed right away. I suppose more testing would help but I've spent enough for now. If anyone buys a horse for snow then please keep some notes on how things change as bonding increases.

 

Off-Road Snow Speed: Still an outstanding question. Maybe tomorrow.

 

Update: I took my Arabian off-trail in heavy snow and, now that I know what I'm looking for, it was pretty obvious that the horse managed the snow just as well when not on the trail. I don't see a point to trying to find a more objective test.

Edited January 4, 2020 by OrionSR