See this is EXACTLY my point. It’s where the realism of the MQ goes on vacation.
It’s extremely hard to believe that Henry–the privileged son of the town’s upstanding (and only) blacksmith–would’ve learned to ride a horse in his sheltered 15-16 or so teenage years in Skalitz. Henry’s riding skill in the Run quest is exactly ZERO. Yet he was still able to successfully mount and flee the town–while bleeding out from a lethal arrow strike–all the way to the neighboring castle hold in Talberg? Without even falling off once?? Lmao.
Especially since his father clearly discouraged him from practicing the martial arts. In that final cut scene he clearly admonished Henry against secretly sword training with the sword master. He also explicitly advised him to use his wits and charm (not the way of the warrior) in life. And he also encourages him to follow in his footsteps and become a smith, a safe and lucrative profession that would keep him in the top of the peasantry aka middle class Villen. Henry would’ve been familiar with horses, but NOT enough skill to have ridden them. Riding horses to deliver them to the smith and/or customer is the job of a Stable hand, NOT a smith. Henry’s father would’ve made and shoed horses and most likely not directed his son to ride. Besides, the risk of falling from a horse was enough to maim/cripple a smith. This would introduce a life altering risk that could jeopardize a master smith’s livelyhood–never mind that of his n00b apprentice son.
What they SHOULD have done in that long pre-tutorial, was exactly just that. Have Henry’s father teach him how to shoe a horse aka OLENA. Then send him to ride the mount to Teresa’s at the mill. That way, the player would’ve had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the ride controls. And have how to read a horse’s stats. And --to appease the difficulty purists–NOT have Henry be told HOW to escape other than RUN!
As a part of the difficulty challenge, the player would have to remember an potential escape route could be using the horses (OLENA) which he’d left near the miller in the flight attempt. Introducing the riding skill that way would’ve been far more realistic IMO. May have also encouraged the player to help Theresa out more by using the horse whistle. That would’ve distracted the Cumans attacking Theresa and redirected them towards Henry (and earn you a related achievement in the process). This would’ve made his initial horseback mount significantly harder though. I accidentally ended up stealing one of the Cuman’s horses (which was much faster than Olena). This gave me a sprinting advantage over the slower Cuman archer mounts. So Henry didn’t bleed out as much in the long run.
Off topic:
It’s also clear that his father was much more than a smith based on his fighting skill as Skalitz was being sacked. His father seemed very familiar with Radzig, who suggested Henry be given sword training. But Henry’s father immediately interrupted that conversation and said no. So IMO, this suggests Henry’s father was a former soldier/merc or even Knight?? who served with Radzig for the King? And at some point, made the life altering decision to lay down his arms, and turn to smithing in Skalitz under Radzig’s employment. His former experiences as a Knight/fighter may have been so negative, that it inspired him to discourage Henry from following that path.
