Quote Originally Posted by Seharvepernfan View Post
I think the main mechanical reason for horses is that you can leave a dungeon with 2,600lbs. of loot, then get on your horse and fast travel.

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I recently cleared Mzulft as part of the mages guild quest. I took everything that was worth ten times its' weight, that could be smelted into dwarven ingots, and ten dwarven cogs (also part of a quest). Whenever I and Lydia hit our weight maximum, we'd run back to the storeroom outside and dump it in a chest. I had my horse parked behind the storeroom. When we got done, I had over 2,600lbs. of crap. I went to darkwater crossing and smelted all the dwarven stuff - 500 ingots. Five. Hundred. That alone brought my weight down to 1,300.

I just had to share that.
Another reason to own a horse is that they pretty much ignore physics when climbing mountains.