At the start of April 2019 I reviewed the Water Horse Animesh horse – a horse that, unlike Bento horses, is not limited to having to be worn in order to be ridden – as it has its own skeleton, completely independent of an avatar, an Animesh horse can also be rezzed in-world, where it can wander, or ridden in the style of a vehicle, making it perfect for use both when riding, or as region décor.
However, the Water Horse model isn’t the only Animesh horse. Teegle, for example, are currently developing their own horse, which is currently in public beta – and in the interests of comparing the two, I recently picked one up and took it for a test drive. Err, ride.
Currently, the Teegle horse comes in two styles: a paint and a Hanoverian. The former might be seen as more suited to an American style of riding, and the later leaning towards more European riding, but the fact is that as both horses are supplied sans tack, you’re free to decide which you’d like, and then choose your preferred style of tack, or even swap riding tack depending on your mood.
The horse is supplied at two price points, which at the time of writing were: L$1,500 for the No Copy version, and L$6,000 for the copy version (allowing you to rez as many as you like). Again, note that these prices are purely for the horse, no riding tack is included; you can however ride them bareback. Tack will cost an additional L$750 from Teegle, although there are other suppliers. Other points worthy of note with the horses at both price points are functionally identical, and:
- You can set them to be ridden by yourself or, when rezzed in-world, by others.
- When rezzed in-world each horse can carry a rider and up to two passengers.
- The basic LI for a Teegle horse is 28LI. With riding tackle attached, this rises to 35 LI.
- The no Copy version come with a guarantee of automatic replacement if lost as a result of a bad region crossing, or broken as a result of incorrect editing. Replacements are delivered via the horse management HUD.
- Horses can be individually renamed.
- Retexturing is possible, but requires the purchase of texture packs at L$450, which include skin, mane and eye colour options.
- The wander option when horse is rezzed in-world, does not require Pathfinding to be enabled within a region.
The HUDs
Two HUDs – both of which are still under development at the time of writing – are supplied with each Teegle Animesh horse.
- A Management HUD, which:
- Allows the horse’s gender to be set.
- Includes a button that provides a chat link to a dedicated web page listing all Teegle pets you may have purchased. The last grind location the animal was recorded as being at, together with the date and time, is listed, allowing you to relocate a “lost” horse. A redeliver option is also provided here as well.
- A riding HUD, which provides:
- 4 different click-selectable riding speeds: walk, trot, canter, gallop. Riders can also move between these by tapping the UP arrow key (or W if WASD is set for avatar motion and the horse is being worn).
- 4 horse animations: spook, (horse jumps sideways nervously and looks around); buck, rear, and reward (rider leans forward and pats the horse).
- An autowalk function: set the horse walking in a straight line. The rider can look around, take snapshots, etc., or simply steer.
- Follow (rezzed horse only): the horse will automatically follow the named avatar.
- Lead (rezzed horse only): lead the horse via the halter when walking.
Riding the Horse
Before riding the horse, make sure any AO you have (scripted or client) is turned off to avoid any conflicts. Then either:
- Add it to your avatar from inventory as a worn attachment.
- Mouseover the horse in-world, right-click and select Ride.
The first option will add the horse to you, with you in the saddle (if attached to the horse); the second will place you in the saddle (if attached) of a rezzed horse. Note that if worn, you’ll need to the manually attach the riding HUD; if the horse is mounted while rezzed in-world, you’ll be asked if you’d like to accept the HUD, which then attaches automatically (note this is a slightly different HUD to the one in your inventory, as it includes the Lead and Follow options for the rezzed horse).
Movement is via the usual WASD / Arrow keys, with W / Up for forward motion, with double-taps advancing through the four speed options. Tapping the Down keys while moving forward will step back down through the riding speeds. When riding the horse from rezzed, the Down arrow will play a nice backwards walking animation.
Camera-wise, riding the horse from rezzed fixes the camera in a good position above and behind the horse, regardless of any camera offsets you may have set (not something seen with the Water Horse Animesh horse). Riding the horse from worn may leave the camera awkwardly positioned if you use custom camera offsets, the mousewheel and CTRL-Mousewheel generally fix this.
Passenger Riding
Passengers can ride with you simply by clicking the horse. The rider can then select who “drives” the horse via a left-click to display the menu, and then the Driver option (rider 1= the avatar in the saddle; rider 2 = the passenger directly behind the rider; rider 3 = rearmost passenger). Who has the reins is indicated via local chat. The same menu option is used to take back control.
Riding Permissions
Who can directly ride a Teegle Animesh horse when rezzed in-world is also set via the menu: left-click the horse, then Settings > Driver Perm. At the time of writing, the options were limited to Private (owner only) and Public (anyone), but I understand more granular options will be added.
Other Capabilities / Options
As the Teegle Animesh horse is still in development, it is hard to say what else might be included. However, some of the current additional capabilities include:
- Linden Water swim option: the left-click menu offers a Settings option to have the horse swim in deep enough Linden water, complete with a companion swimming animation for the rider (but not passengers).
- Flying option: you can set the horse to fly or disable flying (so no accidents when trying to jump an obstacle).
- Motion function: set the horse to physical (default), so it will respond to objects around it (useful for racing, when wandering in paddock, etc), or non-physical (useful for things like dressage).
- Set wander distance via chat.
- Rename function: Teegle horses can all be given their own name.
Adding Tack and Other Options
Riding tack by Teegle is easy to attach to the horse:
- Rez both horse and tack in world.
- With neither selected, right-click on the tack and selected edit.
- Press and hold the SHIFT key and then left-click on the horse to additionally select it.
- Click the Link button in the edit floater (arrowed, below).
- The tack will correctly orient itself and attach to the horse, as seen in the inset image, below.
To remove an attached item (e.g the saddle or entire riding tack):
- Rez your horse in-world.
- Left-click the horse for the menu.
- Click Unlink to display the Unlink menu.
- Use the numbered buttons to unlink the required items.
- Move your horse away from the unlinked objects and then delete them.
