Fields of Mistria Horses: How to Get a Mount, Buy Horses & Change Their Look

Overview

There are two distinct types of horses in Fields of Mistria, and it's easy to confuse them. First, there's the Mistmare, a special mount you unlock through a story quest — a purple horse you can ride around town. Second, there are barn horses, which are regular livestock you buy from Hayden's shop to raise on your farm for produce.

This guide covers both paths: how to unlock your rideable mount, how to purchase and raise barn horses, and how to change your mount's appearance once you've built up friendship with your livestock.

Requirements

Before you can get either type of horse, you'll need to meet a few prerequisites.

For the Mistmare mount:

• Complete the main story quest "Restocking the Mysterious Food Reserves (Part 2)" — this unlocks the prerequisite quest.
• Complete "Upgrade Hayden's Barn", which requires:
  • 400 Wood
  • 500 Stone
  • 8 Iron Ingots
  • 4,000 Tesserae

This quest is part of the main storyline, so you won't miss it — just keep progressing through the story.

For barn horses:

• Build a Barn on your farm.
• Complete the same "Upgrade Hayden's Barn" story quest, which unlocks horse purchases at Hayden's shop.

Steps: How to Unlock the Mistmare Mount

Once you've completed "Upgrade Hayden's Barn," the mount quest triggers automatically. Here's the exact sequence:

1. Sleep to trigger the quest. After finishing Hayden's barn quest, go to sleep. The next day, Hayden will arrive at your farm asking for help finding his Weather Vane, which blew off his ranch roof.
2. Head to The Narrows. The weather vane was blown in the direction of The Narrows. Search the area to find and retrieve it.
3. Find the Horse Statue. Right next to the weather vane, you'll discover a new horse statue that wasn't there before.
4. Offer 100 Essence. Interact with the statue and give it 100 Essence. This unlocks the Mistmare — your new purple mount.
5. Return to Hayden. Don't forget to hand in Hayden's quest to officially complete it.

Once you have the Mistmare, you can ride it around town to move faster than on foot.

Steps: Buying Barn Horses

Barn horses are a separate system from your mount. After you've completed "Upgrade Hayden's Barn" and built a Barn, you can purchase horses directly from Hayden's Shop.

• Tier 1 horses: 2,300 Tesserae
• Tier 2 horses: 2,760 Tesserae

Horses produce Horse Hair every 3 days. At 8 hearts, there's a chance the product will be Golden Horse Hair; at 10 hearts, Golden Horse Hair is guaranteed. With the Barnyard Bounty II skill, horses will sometimes drop extra produce.

Horse colors are organized into tiers, with higher tiers offering rarer colors:

Steps: Unlocking Mount Perks

After you hand in Hayden's quest, return to the Horse Statue in The Narrows. Interacting with it again lets you unlock additional mount perks:

• Horsepower: Your Mistmare runs 10% faster.
• Harvest Horse: When your Mistmare runs over a forage spot or a fully grown crop, the item pops out of the ground automatically. This lets you collect harvestables while riding without dismounting.
• Nice Ride: Once you have a large barn animal at 5 hearts, you can change your mount's appearance to match that animal.

Steps: Changing Your Mount's Appearance

The Nice Ride perk is the key to customizing your mount. Here's how it works:

1. Reach 5 hearts with any large barn animal — cows, sheep, horses, or alpacas. Small coop animals (chickens, rabbits, etc.) don't work for this.
2. Open your menu and go to the Animals tab.
3. Click the pink menu icon on the side of the screen.
4. Any animal you have at 5 hearts will appear in the list. Select one to change your mount's appearance.

Important: this is purely cosmetic. The mount's appearance is just a skin of your animal — it doesn't change your mount's stats, and it doesn't affect the actual animal in your barn. You can switch between any eligible animals as often as you like.

Common Mistakes

• Forgetting to hand in Hayden's quest. The mount perks at the Horse Statue don't unlock until you've returned to Hayden and completed his quest. Make sure you do this before trying to unlock perks.
• Confusing barn horses with the mount. Buying a horse from Hayden's shop does not give you a mount. The Mistmare is unlocked only through the story quest and the Horse Statue.
• Expecting small animals to work for appearance changes. Only large barn animals (cows, sheep, horses, alpacas) at 5 hearts can be used as mount skins.
• Missing the weather vane location. The weather vane is in The Narrows, near the new Horse Statue. If you're having trouble finding it, search the western side of the area.
• Spending Essence elsewhere. You need a full 100 Essence for the Horse Statue. If you've been spending Essence on other unlocks, gather more before attempting the mount quest.

Advanced Tips

• Prioritize the Nice Ride perk early. Once you have a large barn animal at 5 hearts, you can change your mount's appearance for free, as often as you want. This effectively gives you access to any animal skin you've befriended — a great way to show off rare colors from breeding.
• Use Harvest Horse for efficient farming. With this perk, you can run over fully grown crops to harvest them without dismounting. This pairs well with large, dense crop layouts — you can harvest an entire field in one pass.
• Horse hair is a steady income source. With 10 hearts guaranteed to produce Golden Horse Hair, a full barn of maxed-out horses generates consistent high-value produce every 3 days.
• Tier 6 seasonal horses (Fall and Spring) exist. These are the rarest horse colors and may require breeding or special conditions to obtain. Check the animal breeding guide for details on producing them.

Related Guides

• Fields of Mistria Animal Breeding Guide
• Fields of Mistria Animal Colors
• Fields of Mistria Auto Feeder
• Fields of Mistria Barn Upgrade

Sources

• Fields of Mistria │ How to Unlock Your Mount & Change Its Appearance! (YouTube)
• Horse - Fields of Mistria Wiki

Related Fields of Mistria Guides

• Fields of Mistria Animal Colors: How to Breed Every Color Tier
• Fields of Mistria Auto Feeder Guide: Unlock, Use, and Feed Conversion
• Fields of Mistria Chicken Guide: Raising, Breeding & Colors
• Fields of Mistria Farm Layout: Step-by-Step Planning Guide