Step 4: Taming the horse
Once you find a horse, make sure you haven't forgotten to bring capturing rope and you have a few dozen lumps of sugar. Be careful approaching the horse, they're very timid and will run away if you get too close before using the rope!
Take the rope from your inventory and drop it into your hotbar for easy access and then press the corresponding key. Your character will now be holding the rope, and you'll notice that the interface has changed to provide you with crosshairs for aiming your toss. It's fairly generous, so just point it toward the horse and wait for the crosshair to turn red. At this point, you should be about 15 to 20 yards away from the horse.
You're going to need to practice good timing here in order to be successful. As soon as you toss the rope, a meter will appear with a red section around 3/4ths of the way up the meter. Time the toss so that the indicator stops within the red zone by pressing space.
When you successfully lasso the horse, you'll need to start slowly moving towards it, keeping a careful eye on its posture. When it rears up on its hind legs, you'll begin the wrestling minigame. The goal of this game is to mash the spacebar just enough to keep the meter above the 50% line. If you're doing it correctly text will appear next to the meter saying "Win!".
Continue mashing the spacebar until the horse concedes and stops fighting you, and then begin moving towards it again. There's no telling how many times the horse might fight you, but just take it slow and remain cautious. Once you've approached the horse, a contextual menu will appear where you can press 'F1' to give the horse an item. Select a lump of sugar from your inventory and give it to the horse to eat.
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You'll notice that the 'mount' option is also available, but many have suggested waiting several seconds before climbing on, as they feel it tends to help your chances. Once you've selected the option to get on the horse, this is where the frustrating random chance comes into effect. Either the horse will let you on or will kick you, forcing you to restart the process from the beginning.
Step 5: Taking the horse back to a stable
The reason I cautioned about choosing an area relatively close to a town is that, now that you've acquired your new mount, you'll need to bring it back to a stable before you can make it go any faster than a trot. If you've ventured way off into the wilderness, prepare for a decent trek back to civilization!
Once you've arrived at a stable, talk to the stableman and he'll register the horse in your name. It's now officially yours!
Congratulations! You're now the owner of a majestic stallion which you can ride around, breed with other horses, or sell on the market for a tidy sum! The choice is yours, and each of those systems can be just as satisfying and complex as taming the horse in the first place. Good luck, horse whisperer.
