Absolutely the worst things to happen to Red Dead Redemption 2's horses so far

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Danger everywhere. From fire to fighting, trains to cliffs: please, won't someone think of the horses?!

Now that Red Dead Redemption 2 has been out a little while, everyone's had time to play it, see what they can do, and oh my God look after your damn horses. Half of you can't go more than a few yards without some sort of tragic horse related accident. 

There's been a lot of unintentional horse punching, countless straight up crashes and neither the in-game cinematic camera, or physics, appears to be anyone's friends. 

However, before we look any of that, I really really need to know what happened here...

By far the weirdest Red Dead Redemption 2 horse death out there

I've watched this clip over and over and I can't tell what's going on. The apparent mystery horse death from nowhere is one thing, but it's what happens next that's the real head scratcher. 

People just can't help punching their horses

It's clear that Red Dead Redemption 2's button mapping is taking a little time for people to adjust to. 'Get horse. Punch horse' seems a very common progression in the game. At least here there's some justice, as the horses very rarely let it go. 

Red Dead's cinematic camera really hates your horse

Rockstar loves its cinematic camera. The camera, however, hates everyone and everything. Especially horses. Anytime the game suggests you use it, some sort of horse death is not far off. 

However, just straight up crashing hurts more horses than anything else

A lot of you have really poor judgment when it comes to jumping off mountains, galloping through dense forests at full speed or simply going around small things in the street. Fortunately, horses are quite bouncy so, traumatic as it can be, they usually survive. Usually. 

Trains

Nothing is more dangerous and unpredictable than a train: following a fixed track in a straight line, on a regular timetable. How can can anyone know what it does next? 

Then of course there's the just plain weird stuff

Sometimes, horses just disappear, get into buildings or start performing yoga. It's perfectly fine, and normal horse service will be resumed as soon as possible. 

Want to know how to ride around the West quickly? Here's how to unlock Red Dead Redemption 2 fast travel as quickly as possible. 

Leon Hurley
Leon Hurley
Managing editor for guides

I'm GamesRadar's Managing Editor for guides. I also write reviews, previews and features, largely about horror, action adventure, FPS and open world games. I previously worked on Kotaku, and the Official PlayStation Magazine and website.