What happens to my horse if I ride another horse?

I'm currently the proud owner of Frost the horse. What I want to know is, what will happen to him if I ride another horse?

Obviously nothing will happen as long as I have him in sight, e.g. I'll be able to ride Frost to make him my horse again.

Scenarios

But what will happen if, before I get back on Frost, I fast travel somewhere? Will he return to where I originally stole him, will he disappear forever, or can I own two horses simultaneously?

Ownership?

If he goes back to where I originally stole him, will I have to steal him again, and therefore never be his true owner again?

Two Horses?

The reason I'm asking is because I want to get Shadowmere (the Dark Brotherhood horse) while keeping Frost. Is it possible to do this, or will riding Shadowmere make me lose Frost forever?

6 Answers

Frost only becomes your horse if you persuade Louis Letrush to let you keep him or kill after you talk to him after you have stolen Frost from the Black-Briar Manor. If you just ride off without completing the quest Frost will just return to where you first stole him (Black-Briar Manor).

If you own him and you were to mount another horse (at least another horse you own) he will remain at the location you left him so far as I can tell. I use Shadowmere (who seems to do the same thing) and I just parked Frost at a stable so at least he would be safe. He has stayed there since.

Also any horse you bought from a stable will return to that stable when you begin using another horse. When I first got Shadowmere the horse I purchased from Whiterun began to walk away and when I next went back to the Whiterun stables he was there safe and sound.

I've got some experience with owning multiple horses, basically:

You can own as much horses as available, but only one owned horse is marked as active, which is the horse you last used.

Any non-active horse will automatically return to its stable when you fasttravel on your horse, or directly into a city.

The active horse will always travel with you, or to the nearest stable if you go directly into a city.

This can cause 2 owned horses to be at a single stable, your active horse, and the horse that belongs to that stable.

For the sake of completeness, If you ended up with frost at the end of the quest, it is considered an owned horse in all regards.

From what I've seen it'll go to it's original home.

Say you own (bought) a horse, you find another one (either steal or find one in the while that is just free) you get on it, the new horse will NOT be yours, it'll always return to where you first found it, and at the same time your own horse will go back to the stables you bought it from. You can keep fast traveling and neither horse will be with you till you go to your own horse and mount it again.

With Frost this could work differently, but why not save the game and try out a few things?

I saved my game and tried a bunch of stuff. When I take Frost, the first horse that I bought in Whiterun (Alli?) disappears. If I ride Alli after I get frost and teleport with her, Frost disappears.

Edit: Ali started walking while I was on frost. She just takes a while to walk to Whiterun.

Frost will hang out in Whiterun if you ride other horses. (At least he does for me. It's possible that he will stay where you last left him.)

I brought Frost to the guy and then persuaded him to give both horse and gold to me. I then fast-traveled to Windhelm, and frost was in the stables.

I then fast traveled to a cave, which obviously places you somewhere outside, and frost was in the middle of the screen, attacking these imperial soldiers, two of which were trampled and the other 2 I killed. Rode frost to destination from cave and on the other side was waiting for me.

Its the ACTIVE Horse, it rather follows you errwhere or stays in the city stables.

Other purchased horses are in their place of origin, as in, the stable you purchased him/her, unless they are the active horse.

I left Frost at Riften stables & apparently I no longer own him(even though his ownership papers are in my inv.) & he is also no longer named Frost. His name is now "horse" & anytime I get on him is stealing him, which usually leads to getting bounty. I have no idea when he lost his name and owned status or if I can fix it. It's obvious it's frost as the Riften stable has grey dappled horses & I'm there on my black/white pinto horse.