Horse Fatigue and Exhaustion
Complete guide to horse fatigue and exhaustion in Crimson Desert. Covers what causes stamina drain and health loss, visual indicators of an exhausted mount, recovery methods including stables, food items, and Healing Force Palm, saddlery equipment for prevention, and riding tips.
On This Page
Overview
In Crimson Desert, your horse is not an infinite resource. Riding hard across Pywel drains your mount's stamina and health over time, eventually leaving it exhausted. When a horse reaches this state, it refuses to gallop and moves at a sluggish walking pace until you restore it. Understanding how fatigue works, recognizing the warning signs, and knowing your recovery options will save you from being stranded in hostile territory with a mount that can barely move.
What Causes Fatigue
Horse fatigue in Crimson Desert is driven by two overlapping systems: stamina and health. Both deplete independently, and both can leave your mount unable to sprint.
Stamina Drain
Every time you press the sprint button while mounted, your horse enters a full gallop that rapidly drains the stamina bar. There is no way to conserve stamina while sprinting; either you are galloping at full speed and burning stamina, or you slow down and let the bar refill passively. When the stamina bar empties completely, your horse drops out of its gallop and forces a slower pace until enough stamina regenerates for another burst.
Stamina drain is a short-term resource cycle. Under normal conditions, you can alternate between sprinting and cruising to keep moving at a decent pace. The real problem comes when stamina depletion combines with health loss.
Health Loss
Your horse's health bar decreases when it takes damage from enemies during combat, collides with obstacles at speed, or sustains wear from extended riding across rough terrain. Unlike stamina, health does not regenerate on its own. Once the health bar drops below a certain threshold, the horse enters an exhausted state and can no longer sprint at all, regardless of how much stamina remains. The on-screen prompt "Horse exhausted: recovery needed" confirms this condition.
Visual Indicators
Crimson Desert gives you several visual and behavioral cues that your horse is deteriorating:
Indicator | What It Means |
|---|---|
Bloody marks on the coat | The horse has taken significant health damage. Blood spatters and scratch marks appear on the horse's body as its health drops. If the horse is wearing heavy barding, these marks can be harder to spot. |
Horse sitting on the ground | When you summon a badly injured horse, it may appear sitting or lying on the grass instead of standing. This signals that it needs healing before it can perform normally. |
Refuses to gallop | Pressing the sprint button produces no response. The horse is locked into a slow walking animation and will not accelerate beyond a trot. |
Sluggish turning and responsiveness | Even before full exhaustion sets in, a fatigued horse may feel heavier in its turning and slower to respond to directional inputs. |
"Horse exhausted: recovery needed" prompt | The definitive confirmation. This on-screen message appears when the horse's health is too low to sustain any sprinting. |
Recovery Methods
There are three main ways to restore your horse: visiting a stable, feeding it consumable items, or using the Healing Force Palm skill. Each method has different trade-offs in terms of convenience, cost, and completeness.
Visiting a Stable
Stables are the most reliable recovery option. Speak to the Stable Master NPC inside any stable and select "Recover Horse" from the dialogue menu. This fully restores your horse's health and stamina in one action for a small fee paid in Copper or Silver Coins. The cost scales with the severity of the damage.
If you are not riding your horse when you visit the stable, a delivery fee is added on top of the recovery cost. The delivery fee is based on the distance between your horse and the stable, though the amounts remain modest.
Stables appear as horseshoe icons on the world map once discovered. Before discovery, they show up as question marks. Ring the bells in major settlements to reveal question marks across each region, making stables easier to find. A convenient stable for early-game players is located just north of Hernand, slightly west of the Abyss Nexus. You can also unlock a stable at Greymane Camp by progressing through faction quests and building up the camp.
Feeding Your Horse
Consumable food items restore your horse's health in smaller increments. This method is useful when you are far from a stable and need to get your mount back on its feet without a long detour.
To feed your horse, mount up, open your inventory, hover over the food item, and hold the Use button (A on Xbox controller, X on PlayStation). Select "Feed to Horse" from the dropdown menu. You can also summon your horse, select the food item, and discard it nearby for the horse to consume automatically.
No single food item fully restores a horse in one feeding. You will need multiple servings to bring a badly injured mount back to full health. Stocking up on horse consumables before long journeys is good practice.
The following food items can be fed to your horse:
Item | Effect | Source |
|---|---|---|
Recovers a moderate amount of horse health. One of the most effective consumable options. | Purchased from Saddlery merchants | |
Restores a moderate amount of horse health. | Purchased from Saddlery merchants | |
Provides a small amount of horse health recovery. | Purchased from Saddlery merchants | |
Pushes a horse's health to the extreme and grants it exceptional toughness, allowing it to endure deadly blows. | Purchased from Saddlery merchants | |
Amplifies a horse's stamina to its maximum capacity. | Purchased from Saddlery merchants |
Healing Force Palm
The Healing Force Palm is a skill that Kliff can purchase using Sealed Abyss Artifacts. It provides instant, on-demand horse healing without any consumable cost. To use it:
Stand near your horse (you can be mounted or dismounted).
Hold R3 (or middle mouse button on PC) to open the Force Palm menu.
Press L3 (or Tab on PC) to switch to Healing Force Palm.
Charge the ability and release it while targeting your horse.
A single application may not fully heal a badly injured mount. Apply it twice for a complete recovery. This is the fastest healing method in the field, since it requires no items and no travel to a stable.
Saddlery Equipment for Prevention
Saddlery merchants, usually found near stables, sell horse equipment that passively mitigates fatigue. Equipping the right gear reduces how often you need to stop for recovery. There are five equipment slots on every horse:
Slot | Effect | Why It Helps |
|---|---|---|
Saddle | Increases maximum health | A larger health pool means more riding before exhaustion sets in. |
Horseshoes | Provides passive stamina regeneration per second | Reduces downtime between sprints. Better horseshoes let you gallop more frequently. |
Stirrups | Provides passive health regeneration per second | Slowly counteracts health loss from minor wear, keeping the horse above the exhaustion threshold longer. |
Champron | Increases attack power (mounted combat) | Helps end encounters faster, reducing the time your horse spends taking enemy damage. |
Barding | Increases defense | Reduces incoming damage during combat, preserving horse health. |
For long-distance exploration, prioritize Horseshoes and a Saddle first. Horseshoes provide the most noticeable quality-of-life improvement by keeping stamina topped up between sprints, while a good Saddle extends the health buffer before your horse can become exhausted.
Prevention Tips
You cannot eliminate fatigue entirely, but smart riding habits reduce how often it disrupts your travels:
Pace your sprints. Alternate between short gallop bursts and normal riding speed. Letting stamina partially recover between sprints keeps your average speed higher than draining the bar completely and being forced to walk.
Avoid unnecessary combat while mounted. Enemies that attack your horse chip away at its health. When possible, dismount before engaging enemies or steer around hostile encounters if you are just traveling through.
Carry Sugar Cubes or Horse Tonics. Keep a small stockpile of horse consumables in your inventory at all times. Being able to heal your mount in the field saves long detours to the nearest stable.
Activate fast travel points along your route. When riding to a distant objective, stop at Abyss Nexus points along the way. If your horse becomes exhausted later, you can fast travel back to a location near a stable instead of walking the whole distance.
Upgrade your horse equipment early. Even basic Horseshoes and Stirrups from a Saddlery merchant make a noticeable difference in how quickly stamina and health recover passively.
Switch horses. If you own multiple horses, you can summon a fresh mount when your current one is exhausted. The fatigued horse remains where it was left and can be retrieved at a stable later.
Stamina vs. Health: Key Differences
Players sometimes confuse the two systems because both result in a slow horse. The distinction matters because the correct recovery method depends on which bar is the problem:
Depleted by | Sprinting and galloping | Enemy attacks, collisions, extended riding |
Regenerates naturally? | Yes, passively when not sprinting | No, requires intervention |
Result when empty | Horse drops out of gallop temporarily | Horse enters exhausted state, cannot sprint at all |
Recovery method | Wait for passive regen, use Horse Stimulant, or equip better Horseshoes | Feed consumables, use Healing Force Palm, or visit a Stable |
If your horse stops sprinting but picks it up again after a few seconds of cruising, that is stamina depletion. If your horse refuses to sprint entirely and you see bloody marks or the exhaustion prompt, that is a health issue and requires active healing.
Tips
The vendor next to most stables sells general goods. If you are short on coins for the recovery fee, sell excess loot before talking to the Stable Master.
Ringing bells in major cities reveals stable locations (and other points of interest) on the map as question marks. Clear bells early to know where every stable is.
Healing Force Palm works on other mounts as well, not just horses. If you are riding a different mount, the same skill applies.
During horse taming, you cannot eat or use consumables. Do not rely on stamina food during the taming minigame.
If you are in a hurry and your horse is exhausted, consider using fast travel to reach a stable instantly rather than walking the whole way.