Horses in Crimson Desert level up through a trust system that increases as you interact with your mount. The maximum trust level is Level 5, and new skills unlock at each tier. There are three main methods to build trust.
Method 1: Petting Your Horse
Focus on your horse with CTRL (LB on controller), then press R to pet it. Each petting session gives a small amount of trust. There appears to be a daily limit on how much trust you can build this way, so do it consistently rather than trying to grind it all at once.
Method 2: Feeding Your Horse
Feed your horse by opening the inventory while near it and selecting horse-compatible food. You can also drop food on the ground near your horse. Trust from feeding appears to be capped at around three times per day. Stock up on these items from any Saddlery merchant:
Feed Item | Where to Buy |
|---|---|
Any Saddlery | |
Sugar Beets | Any Saddlery |
Any Saddlery | |
Various merchants | |
Apples | Various merchants |
Method 3: Riding
Simply riding your horse while exploring builds trust passively. This is the slowest method on its own, but since you ride your horse constantly, the gains add up over time. Combine it with regular petting and feeding for the fastest results.
Trust Levels and Skills
Each horse has skills that unlock as trust increases. The maximum trust level is 5. Higher-quality horses (such as legendary horses) have stronger skills at each tier. Check your horse's skill tree in the mount menu to see what unlocks at the next level.
Stable Reset Trick for Five Pets a Day
Petting your horse five times in a single visit grants a noticeable trust bump, and the per-day pet counter resets every time you walk back into a stable. That makes the stable itself the fastest leveling spot in the game once a horse is recallable. The loop is short, repeatable, and works at any saddlery in Pywel or at the stable inside Greymane Camp.
Walk into any stable and recall the horse you want to level.
Hold focus (L1 on PlayStation, LB on Xbox, CTRL on PC) and press the pet input five times in a row. Each pet ticks the trust bar up; on a fresh Level 1 horse the fifth pet usually triggers Level 2 outright.
Walk back inside the stable and recall the same horse a second time. The act of re-entering the stable resets the per-day pet counter regardless of in-game time of day. Sometimes the recall option is missing on the second visit; in that case just step out and back in once more, the counter still resets.
Repeat the five-pets-then-recall loop until the horse hits the level you want.
With no Riding Set bonuses, the loop carries a horse from Level 1 to Level 4 in a few minutes of repetition. Level 5 is the slow step. Empirically the climb from Level 4 to Level 5 takes roughly the same number of pet-cycles as Levels 1 through 4 combined, so plan for a longer session if you are chasing the final tier of skills. Equip the Riding Set before starting and every cycle pays out a much larger trust gain, which is the difference between a Level 5 grind that runs ten minutes and one that runs closer to an hour.
Stack the Riding Set for Faster Trust XP
The riding gear pieces each carry a Horse XP Gain modifier, and the modifiers stack additively when worn together. The label reads as a flat "+1 Horse XP Gain" on the tooltip, but the real-world effect on the trust bar is a multiplicative jump that can take a three-pet session from a sliver of a level to a full level on a fresh horse. The full set is five pieces; each piece comes from a different vendor or quest, so the table below lists where to grab each one.
Slot | Piece | How to Obtain | Bonus |
|---|---|---|---|
Reward for finishing the Hooves Through the Wind race quest for House Circus, available early in Hernand. | +1 Horse XP Gain | ||
Cloak | Sold by a back-alley shop vendor on the road between Hernand and Demeniss, near the Hill of No Return. Costs about 76 silver and unlocks once the vendor's trust is built up with garnets and similar small gifts. | +1 Horse XP Gain | |
Head | Sold by the saddle vendor near one of the main gates of Demeniss for roughly 37 silver. | +1 Horse XP Gain | |
Chest | Reward for winning the Darkhorse Grand Prix at the Demeniss horse track, four races in a row. Unlocks after roughly Chapter 10 of the main story. | Whip skill (reduces taming difficulty); also boosts XP gain | |
Boots | Reward for the Where the Wind Blows: Horse Fair Races quest for House Byron in the Demeniss region. The quest also hands out a starter saddle, but the boots are the main XP-relevant prize. | +1 Horse XP Gain |
Two pieces are usually enough to feel a major difference in the pet-cycle loop above, so do not wait for the full set before starting. The Master Trainer's Touch gloves and the Leather Riding Hat together already cut the time to Level 4 by more than half on a level-comparison test, and both are obtainable inside the first few hours of Hernand-area questing.
Apple and Sugar Cube Feeding for Bonus Trust
Apples count as a horse-acceptable feed item alongside the standard saddlery stock. Open the inventory near your horse, select an apple, and the horse will eat it for a small trust bump on top of any other feeding done that day. Apples are easy to gather from fruit trees around Hernand and from grocers, so they are a cheap top-up to keep in the inventory. The same trick works with Sugar Cubes from a saddlery, and stacking apple feeding with the stable-reset pet loop above is the absolute fastest leveling rhythm without consumable buffs.
Tips
Pet and feed your horse daily before setting out. The combined gains from both methods each day add up quickly.
Carry feed in your inventory at all times. Buying in bulk from Saddlery merchants is cheap.
Different horses have different skill trees. Check what skills a horse offers before deciding which one to invest your time in.
You can view your horse's current trust level and skills from the mount management screen.