Horses and Dragons

I recently discovered that Alienslof has made some beautiful textures for the horses in Skyrim and that she is planning to work on them more when the CK is released.  Here's hoping she will do something with the dogs.  I sent her an email to say thanks for the horses and I'm glad to see she will be modding for Skyrim.  Can't wait to see what she does next with the animals even if it's only the dogs (possibly I hope) and horses.

EDIT:  Just got a reply from Slof and she has done the dogs and sabre cats and they look just amazing.  Expect some screen shots soon.  

I like the horses in the game and would actually use them more if my traveling companion could ride which I think is a glaring omission.  I feel really bad when I can ride in comfort and my follower has to run behind and try to keep up.  It feels wrong so I only ride occasionally for the novelty factor.  Having to SLOWLY dismount or leave the horse a mile away to kill a few wolves and other assorted beasties is another annoyance.  I could just gallop past them but it's not always ideal and when a dragon spots me there's no other choice when they continue to hunt me down no matter where I go.

I've already mentioned in another post about their suicidal nature and that enemies always attack the horse first which I read somewhere was not supposed to happen.  Then I discovered they report you for crimes as well.   The guards must think it's their lucky day when the domestic animals do their work for them because I believe chickens also report you and not just for stealing their eggs from their nests.

This is my horse now thanks to Slof.   I wish I could name him/her though.  It was possible in Oblivion using the console and "setactorfullname" but it apparently doesn't work in Skyrim.

I'm now at the stage of the game where Blood dragons are appearing which is fine because I can manage them as long as I keep out of bite, wing and tail swipe range.  However, on one occasion I drew the short straw and had two at once out in the open which was a trial, and on the first try one of them landed while the other strafed me with flames, and it actually grabbed me in it's jaws and threw me into the stratosphere.  Needless to say I died.   What was worse was I was almost out of potions with nowhere to hide to regenerate magicka, but I got them on the second attempt.  They surprised me the first time.

What was worse than that was killing a blood dragon, absorbing the soul and relaxing thinking it was over.  As I walked toward word wall a coffin flew open and a named Dragon Priest flew out and proceeded to try and obliterate me.   I took a very nice mask with some great bonuses from his undead body and an excellent set of glass armour from the chest which I must say is a massive improvement on the neon green and horrible shape glass from Oblivion.

Well, I'm off to continue liberating Skyrim on the side of the Stormcloaks.  They may be biased against other races but when I listen to what the have to say about the elves and how their homeland was invaded and almost taken from them I find myself sympathizing.   I hate the Imperials anyway.  They remind me too much of real life government and they are only puppets working with a more powerful and oppressive group.

Plus, I got have very nice house now (besides the one in Whiterun) and luckily I didn't have the glitch a lot of people have had where the house isn't cleaned up after a certain quest.   I just wish I could put more than 11 books onto a bookshelf that has three shelves and only one is used, but at least I have more room now to store all my other gear and junk.