Red Dead Online glitch is causing chaos with the game’s horses

Red Dead Online
(Image credit: Rockstar)

There’s currently a Red Dead Online glitch that seems to be causing mayhem with the game’s horses. 

As spotted by Kotaku, several players have reported weird happenings involving horses in Red Dead Online ever since the game’s developer Rockstar rolled out the Blood Money update earlier this month. 

These strange occurrences range from duplicating player’s horses, ghost horse sightings, some just turning up dead, and perhaps most annoyingly many horses appearing out of nowhere and running into players at full speed - knocking them to the ground. The strange part is that a lot of these horses can’t be interacted with and aren’t even necessarily wild, with many sporting saddles and accessories implying that they are owned by someone.

So why is this happening? Well, some players have a theory and it is connected to a glitch in the stable. In the video embedded below we can see a player enter the stable riding their horse, however, once the cutscene begins the horse, not so subtly, runs back out again without its rider. Which has caused one player to theorize that the horses stay online after the player logs off or is disconnected from the online servers. 

The Blood Money update which launched on July 13, brought several new features to players, with the standout addition being Crimes and Opportunities to the game. These new missions see players commit all the crimes a cowboy would want to commit such as train robberies, kidnapping, and holdups. 

However, nowhere in the Red Dead Online Blood Money patch notes does it say anything about crazy horse behavior, meaning this chaos may soon be over with a simple fix from Rockstar. Which is unfortunate news for those who like to be unpredictably thrown off of their horse at any given moment. 

This also wouldn’t be the first time players of Red Dead Online have experienced some kind of wide-ranging glitch either, as late last year many players began using a certain bridge to catapult themselves across the map, as well as throw themselves into out of bounds areas. Which is one way to get around when your horse isn’t cooperating. 

In the market for a new hooved companion? Take a look at our Red Dead Online best horses list to make sure you pick out the right one. 

Hope Bellingham
News Writer

After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training.  My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.