The Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 best horse is either Pisek Lad, Herring or Meadow, but before you even get close to them, there’s other ways to get horses in the early hours of KCD2. In fact, there’s even a way to get some horses for free, or at a massive discount if you’re looking up how to steal horses. If you’re interested in knowing everything you need to about how to get the best horses in KCD2, we’ll explain it all here in our comprehensive guide.

(Image credit: Deep Silver/PLAION)

The best horses in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 are laid out below:

Meadow. Found in the Enemy Camp at the location shown above, you can steal Meadow without breaking the law (because they’re enemy soldiers, after all), either by sneaking and riding away or just massacring the soldiers. Meadow isn’t quite as good stats wise as the other two, but she’s still one of the best horses of the game, and easily the cheapest/easiest to get of the three. I’d recommend stealing Meadow and then working up the money to earn Pisek Lad.
Pisek Lad: A horse with phenomenal stats that can be bought from Groom Hanniker, who operates in the Southwest corner of the city of Kuttenberg, just south from the Western gate. Warning: this is an expensive horse, even with good haggling skill.
Herring: Both Herring and Pebbles, the two crappy free horses, have hidden perks, wherein riding them for very long amounts of time massively increases their stats. Ride Herring for 50km, and he suddenly becomes one of the best horses in the game with this level-up.

(Image credit: Deep Silver/PLAION)

Meadow the Horse has the incredibly good stats shown above, including a superb carrying capacity that can be extended even further with the right saddle. There are horses with similar or individual stats that are better (Meadow’s not the most courageous), but Meadow shows extremely high stats as a rule, and you don’t even need to break the law to get them.

(Image credit: Deep Silver/PLAION)

There are three ways to get horses in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, all of which we’ve outlined below.

Each of these has its ups and downs, but getting a horse is definitely something you’ll want to do at the earliest opportunity. The big reasons why are speed of travel and increased inventory, both of which vary depending on the horse you have.

Keep in mind that you cannot have more than one horse at a time. However you acquire the new one, it always gets rid of the old horse. This means you want to be assured that you’re trading up and getting a steed with better stats.

(Image credit: Deep Silver/PLAION)

Certain quests and locations in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 allow the player to obtain horses for free early on, though their stats aren’t great. Here are their locations:

Pebbles: By pursuing the blacksmith path for the Kingdom Come 2 Wedding Crashers quest, you can find Henry’s starting horse at a horse trader in Semine, who the bandits sold her to. Semine is southwest from the starting village of Troskowitz, and if you succeed on a dialogue check, you can convince the trader that you’re the horse’s legitimate owner. Pebbles is cute, though has the worst stats in the game.
Herring: Continue the main story until you complete the Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 For Whom the Bell Tolls quest, which will be anywhere from five to twenty hours in the story, depending on your progress. Afters you’ll start a quest called Back in the Saddle, where you’ll be given the option by an ally at Trosky Castle to trade your horse in for a new one called Herring. Herring also doesn’t have great stats, but nonetheless is better than Pebbles. What horse isn’t?

(Image credit: Deep Silver/PLAION)

If you’re looking for an upgrade and to buy a better horse, you need to find a Horse Trader merchant (marked on the map with the image of a white horse’s head). Here are four options for where to find them.

Trosky Region

Semine Castle (Southwest of Troskowitz)

Kuttenberg Region

Kuttenberg City (Just South from the Western Gate, within the city walls)
Grund (East from Devil’s Den)
Horse farm West of Maleshov (Southernmost point of the map, down from Bylany)

When you go to a horse trader, do the following:

Go to each horse in the attached paddock and examine it with the Triangle/Y button.
Find one with the stats that meet your needs.
Go to the trader and tell them you want to buy a horse, then say the name of the horse you want.
At this point you’ll be given a price, and the chance to haggle. This price also includes any money you get back from selling the horse you already own.
Close the deal to obtain the new horse and sell your old one.

Horses tend to be pretty darn expensive, so buying one will usually be a significant investment and not something that you do often. It’s good to examine the stock of a Horse Trader when you first encounter them and commit any really good horses to memory. Then you can start saving up money to buy it later – if you need help with that, we’ve got a guide to the best possible Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 money farm here.

(Image credit: Deep Silver/PLAION)

To steal a horse in KCD2, you need to do the following:

Find a horse you want to steal by examining it.
Wait to steal it until a moment where you’re not being watched (I suggest doing this after dark).
Press the mount button to steal it.
Ride it to a horse handler (or fast travel while mounted on it) and pay the fee to register it as your own.
This will remove your previous horse and make this the new one.

(Image credit: Deep Silver/PLAION)

Horse theft is a serious crime, so you definitely want to do this without getting caught. I recommend stealing from a Horse Trader – they have the best stock, after all, and the large paddocks and fields mean that there’s often large sections of the field that aren’t being watched, especially at night.

Registering your horse with a handler isn’t cheap, but it is certainly better priced then buying one. A horse worth 5k at the trader dropped to 2.1k when I took it to a handler, a massive discount. And if you can do it without being spotted, there are no consequences to deal with, either reputationally or legally.

There are two Horse Handlers that we know of, though there may be more in undiscovered regions of the map. They are marked with the same horsehead icon as the Traders.

(Image credit: Deep Silver/PLAION)

Trosky Region

Mikolai / Nomad’s Camp (West of Bohzena’s Home)

Kuttenberg Region

Stoia / Unnamed lodgings.(West of Kuttenberg City and South of Old Kutna)

It seems as though if you can make it from the scene of the crime to the Handler without being caught by the law, you’ll be in the clear. For example, I managed to steal a horse from Grund stables without being caught, then made it to Handler Stoia under cover of darkness and registered it immediately. At that point I could go back to Grund on my stolen horse, even take it to the Trader to get its coat cleaned, and nobody was any the wiser. On a technical level, once you register it, it IS yours.