Getting a mount in Black Desert Online is, like most everything in the game, not all that simple. Unless you're flush with cash and are willing to buy a horse from the market, or if you don't mind the meandering pace of the donkey you'll receive early in the game, getting your own horse is going to require some preparation and a little bit of luck. Fortunately, we've rounded up everything you need to set off and find yourself a black stallion to call your own.
Step 1: Get your 'training' skill up to beginner level 5
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If you pop open your character information window, you'll see near the bottom a list of 'life skills' that impact what your character can and cannot do in the game. 'Training' is the skill that is tied to your mounts, and you'll need to get it to beginner level 5 before you can even begin to think about taming a horse.
The easiest way to do that is to start riding your donkey all over the place. So, as soon as you unlock the level 17 main quest that grants you a token that you can redeem for your own donkey, ride that poor beast everywhere you go. It'll take some time before your skill reaches beginner level 5, so don't expect to start taming horses within the first few hours of the game.
Step 2: Combine 'raw sugar' and 'mineral water' for a tasty treat
Once you've leveled up your training skill, it's time to start the preparations of what you'll need in order to tame your horse! Exciting!
While you don't necessarily need any of these materials in order to successfully tame a horse, mixing raw sugar and mineral water together to make lumps of sugar increases your chances, and is well worth the investment if you're short on time or patience.
Head over to a general store and purchase the lumps of raw sugar and mineral water and pop open the production window and choose heating. Add the two ingredients into the heating circle and begin the process of converting them into lumps of sugar. Because horse taming boils down to random chance, there's no telling how much sugar you might need to tame a horse. I'd recommend getting about 15-20 lumps of sugar just to be safe, but feel free to adjust based on how much money you have or time you want to spend producing the sugar.
Once you have your sugar, head on over to the nearest stable and purchase 'capturing rope'. This is the rope you'll need to wrestle with the horse. Purchase a few so that if you fail the attempt you'll have backups and won't need to run back to town.
Step 3: Finding the horses
Now that you have your training skill leveled up, about 15 lumps of sugar, and several capturing ropes, it's time to actually find a horse to tame.
Now, in Black Desert Online, horses are somewhat rare. They're not like your typical monsters that aimlessly wander fields just waiting to be nabbed. You're going to have to hunt for them, and you're going to want to make sure that wherever you find a horse, it's somewhat close to a stable (as you'll have to ride him back to one in order to register them as yours).
The big thing to remember is that wild horses fear humans, civilization, and other monsters, so you're going to need to go well off the beaten path in order to find some. Try going deep into forests or close to mountains. For your convenience, I've scraped together some maps from various sources which might point you in the right direction:
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