The one vehicle you must leave outside
Every other vehicle in Rust wants a roof. Cars, boats, minicopters — all of them decay slower under cover.
A horse is the exact opposite. Under a floor or roof building block, a horse takes significantly more damage over time.
Facepunch’s own definition of “indoors” for this purpose is precise: it is when the centre mass of the horse is positioned under a floor or roof block.
So the correct setup is not a stable. It is a Hitch & Trough in the open, inside a walled compound — the walls and doors protect it from players, and the open sky protects it from decay.
The trough feeds it. It does not shelter it, and it does not protect it from anyone.
Healing: the two methods
1. Medical syringe — the fast one
Equip a medical syringe and right-click on the horse, exactly as you would heal another player.
| Effect | Value |
|---|---|
| Health restored | 60 HP |
| Gallop speed boost | +12.6 km/h |
| Duration | ~4 seconds |
| Also | Small stamina recovery |
| Works | Mounted, dismounted, or standing beside it |
This was added in the November 2025 update. Facepunch’s stated reasoning was to stop “tragedies of your noble steed succumbing to the various dangers of the island,” with the speed boost there to give you a chance of getting out.
Use it in a fight or on a chase, not for routine upkeep — a syringe is far more expensive than a pumpkin.
One note on the timing: Facepunch’s patch notes say 4 seconds. Two community guides say five. Trust the 4.
2. The Hitch & Trough — the one that actually matters
A syringe heals 60 HP in an instant. The trough is what keeps the horse at 400.
The feeding rule is subtle and worth understanding:
| Situation | What the horse does |
|---|---|
| Fed food out in the open | Eats and heals until stamina is capped at 60 — then stops eating entirely |
| Fed via a Hitch & Trough | Eats past the stamina cap and keeps going until health is maxed at 400 |
That is the whole reason a hitch is not optional. A horse you drop food for in a field will stop eating with its health still low. A hitched horse will eat until it is full.
Hitch & Trough cost: 200 wood, known by default, no workbench needed.
The 3-hour clock
Left unattended with no food, a ridable horse is on a 3-hour (180 minute) despawn timer.
Food pushes it back, and different foods push it back by different amounts:
| Food | Effect |
|---|---|
| Pumpkin | Reduces the decay timer by up to 1 hour |
| Corn, potatoes | Good everyday trough food |
| Apple | +2.5 km/h for 1 minute |
| Bread / Brioche Bread | Boosts horse dung output for 2 minutes |
With a full trough, one horse lasts six days or more. A pair lasts around three.
Getting one
Wild — free
Wild horses roam the temperate and desert biomes, usually in open fields and along roads. They do not spawn in the arctic.
Walk up slowly, hold E on the horse and pick Claim with a saddle in your inventory, then use Examine to fit the saddle and any other gear.
If the menu only shows Examine, you do not have a saddle on you — and a saddle cannot be crafted.
Stable — you pick the breed
The Ranch and Large Barn are small safe-zone monuments with a Stablehand shop and a pen. Both are safe zones, so put your weapons away before you walk in.
| Stable item | Price | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Single Horse Saddle | 75 scrap | One rider. Required to claim a horse |
| Double Horse Saddle | 90 scrap | Driver plus one passenger |
| High Quality Horse Shoes | 40 scrap | +9 km/h |
| Roadsign Horse Armor | 100 scrap | 50% less damage to horse and rider |
If you are buying, check the pen for a Thoroughbred before you claim anything.
Breeds and speed
All ten breeds have 400 HP and the same 60 max stamina. Only top speed changes.
| Group | Breeds | Speed |
|---|---|---|
| Fastest | Black and White Thoroughbred | 58.5-63 km/h |
| Second | Chestnut, Piebald | 51.5-55.4 km/h |
| Third | Appaloosa, Bay, Buckskin, Pinto | 46.8-50.4 km/h |
| Slowest | Dapple Grey, Red Roan | 42.1-45.4 km/h |
Sources disagree on the base speeds — one gives the Thoroughbreds 63.0 km/h, another 58.5 km/h. Both agree that High Quality Horse Shoes add +9 km/h, which puts a Thoroughbred somewhere in the 67-72 km/h band.
A hungry or tired horse is slower than its breed, so feeding matters as much as which horse you picked. And a wild horse can be found with stamina below the 60 cap — do not judge it by that number alone.
Gear, and what each piece costs you
| Gear | Speed | Storage | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic Horse Shoes | +5.4 km/h | — | 50 metal fragments (WB1) |
| High Quality Horse Shoes | +9.0 km/h | — | 4 HQM (WB2) |
| Wooden Horse Armor | -8.1 km/h | 6 slots | 300 wood + 2 rope (WB1) |
| Roadsign Horse Armor | -16.2 km/h | — | 4 road signs + 2 sewing kits (WB2) |
| Saddle Bag | -3.6 km/h | 12 slots | 20 leather (WB1) |
Note the trade: Roadsign armour protects best and costs the most speed. Wooden armour is far easier to live with for everyday riding; save Roadsign for PvP runs where the 50% damage reduction matters.
Riding
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| W/A/S/D | Steer |
| Shift | Gallop and accelerate |
| Ctrl | Tight turns and skids while galloping |
| E | Mount, examine, lead |
| S | Walk backwards |
Hold E and select Lead to walk a horse into your base without mounting it.
Two things worth knowing:
- Horses move faster and burn stamina more slowly on roads. Staying on the road before a fight means arriving with more sprint in reserve.
- Heavy Plate armour completely prevents mounting. In full plate you cannot get on a horse at all — light armour is the standard for mounted PvP.
Horses handle rough terrain, can swim, and since the Primitive update can tow catapults, siege towers and ballistas up to someone’s walls.
They also take impact damage from high-speed collisions since the February 2025 patch — hitting a rock at a gallop can kill the horse and you.
The dung economy
A horse is not just transport. Fed well, it produces horse dung, which goes through a Composter into Fertilizer — and Bandit Camp buys fertilizer at roughly 3 scrap per 2 fertilizer.
One horse is a slow trickle. Two or three horses with a maintained feed loop builds into something meaningful across a wipe.
It also self-sustains: feed the fertilizer into your own crop plots, and those plots grow the food that goes back into the trough.
Security
There is no lock on a horse, and anyone can take one after you dismount. An exposed horse is free for whoever walks past.
Park it on a hitch inside a compound — ideally under the watch of your turrets — and never leave it outside your base.
Related guides
- Rust Horses and Vehicles — the full vehicle lineup
- How to Water Plants in Rust — what the fertilizer is for
- Rust Farming Guide — the composter loop
- How to Get Low Grade Fuel Fast in Rust — the fuel a horse never needs
- Rust Best Servers — finding a map with good horse spawns
- Rust Tips and Tricks — the small things