Horse

Altair fighting on horseback

Horses are a means of travel in both Assassin's Creed and Assassin's Creed II.

When you start your first real assassination quest: Assassination of Tamir, you can get the option to travel across the Kingdom by horseback. Three horses wait outside the gates of Masyaf and the player can ride whichever one they choose.

All of the horses are the same speed, but they are all different colours. The horses waiting outside a city all keep the same colour when passing through different regions, however, the non-purebred horses change colour when passing through different regions. It's unclear why, but the speed and other stats of the horse remain the same when you pass through one region to the next, even if the colour does not. Horses outside cities will always be black, white or ginger. Ezio can ride horses at anytime during the game.

Controls

Assassin's Creed

To control a horse, walk up to it and the player should mount it automatically, if not press Feet button. Use the Feet button to blend when on a horse: While blending only Templars will attack you and Altair can pass guards without attracting attention. Pressing only the forward button will make the horse trot, now holding the high profile button and forward will make the horse canter. Holding forward, high profile and feet button makes the horse go into gallop. Press attack button while standing still to rear the horse, causing fear in civilians, press attack while holding high profile draws Altair's sword and he can attempt to fight NPCs on horseback (feet button sheaths the sword). To jump, simply trot, canter or gallop up to an applicable object and the horse will jump, there is no need to press the feet button.

Assassin's Creed II

Horse gameplay stays exactly the same in Assassin's Creed II apart from the blend control.

Moves

Some possible moves are:

• Jump forward off your horse into a haystack
• Do a 180 degree turn while rearing
• Kick out at guards behind you
• Jump off your horse and attack someone with the hidden blade

Beware, if knocked off the horse, it may run away from Altair or Ezio and he will have to find it or mount another one. Only the sword and Eagle Vision can be used while on a horse.

A horse will sometimes follow you if you dismount and are not fighting. (Like if you are dismounting a viewpoint) Sometimes if you jump off a horse and fight a group of guards nearby, the horse will rear and kick the guards, this causes them to stumble, but isn't fully reliable.