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Red Dead Online's horses have "gone wild" since update, players say

A not-so-stable release.

On 13th July, Red Dead Online received an update called Blood Money that added a number of features to the game (such as new clothing, passes and missions), but it seemingly changed something rather unexpected under the hood. The game's horses have been acting a little strange, and in some cases, are now causing terrible accidents by colliding with players. Perhaps this is all an unofficial sequel to Spirit.

Red Dead Online: Blood MoneyWatch on YouTube

As spotted by Kotaku, players have taken to social media to discuss the strange horse behaviour and share footage of the bugs. There are seemingly just a lot of player horses roaming through Red Dead Online, with players speculating that the horses are being left behind once players leave the lobby. Others suspect that the culprit could be a horse-cloning bug that occurs when the player enters a stable. There have even been reports of players finding AI clones of their own characters.

I think this is the reason for all those random horses from r/RedDeadOnline
It finally happened to me too, my horse duplicated from r/RedDeadOnline

In any case, the abundance of horses is causing mayhem, with players colliding with the rogue horses and being sent flying from their own saddles. Rather more tragically, some of the player horses are simply being found dead.

Horse on the loose almost killed my breton from r/RedDeadOnline

Perhaps the souls of those dead horses have moved on to continue inhabiting the world of Red Dead Online, as there have also been plenty of "ghost horses" sightings. Some horses have been spotted in places they really shouldn't be. Some are just... missing all their flesh.

I found a horse ghost in the sky from r/RedDeadOnline
To whomever has lost their invisible horse from r/RedDeadOnline

It seems likely the horses will be tamed in a future patch by Rockstar, but if you're venturing into Red Dead Online's Wild West anytime soon, don't be surprised if you have some night-mare encounters.