Red Dead Online: Best Saddles
We show you the best saddles to equip your horse with, whether you're a veteran or beginner player.
Red Dead Online's emphasis on your horse and the way you treat it means that sooner or later you'll need to choose a new saddle. We'll take you through the best saddles and how you can get them here.
The Best Saddles in Red Dead Online
If you're choosing a new saddle, the kind you go for will depend on your level, your wallet, and to some extent what you want to boost about your horse, whether it's health, speed, stamina, or just how it looks. We'll go over those momentarily.
What Do Saddles Do?
The main function of saddles is to improve your horse's stats. There are three stats that all saddles impact:
- The speed at which the stamina core drains.
- The speed at which the health core drains.
- The speed at which stamina regens.
And, of course, they impact your general look as you mosey about from New Austin to Lemoyne, whether you're mounted on a seat of black leather or leopard skin. Certain saddles can also be fitted with customized stirrups to alter your horse's stats even further, though not all saddles have this option. In fact, it's a bit arbitrary which ones do and which ones don't, so make sure to check in advance if that's important to you.
Where to Buy New Saddles
If you want a new seat for your horse, head to any stable (they're marked on your map with an icon of a horseshoe) and wander in through the open doors. Select "Tack and Services" on the menu, then pick Saddles. This'll show you all the ones you own, and if you haven't bought a saddle before, it'll just be the starting one. Click on any of the empty slots to go into the store and see what's available. Once you have one, click on it in the Saddles menu to equip it on your horse and give it all the associated bonus stats.
Which Saddle is Best for Beginner Players?
Well, that's the thing. We wouldn't recommend buying an expensive saddle if you're a beginner player, not unless it really matters to you, because they're just not that important. That's not to say they can't be useful, but if you want to get a saddle that has a really significant impact on your horse's performance, they don't unlock until you're a very high level cowboy hero. Not only that, but there's a lot of items we'd recommend you get first before you start looking at saddle options: new weapons, new clothes, ability cards, unlocking specialist roles, or just getting a better horse overall. Even the best saddles only boost your horse's stats by about 25%, and you won't get those until level 80+. Until then, the difference between them is so small as to be meaningless, so we'd honestly just suggest picking whichever one you like the look of most.
Which Saddle is Best for High Level Players?
OK, now it makes a lot more sense to start thinking about saddles, when you've maxed out everything else and have money to burn. If that's the case, head to the stables, and go down the list until you find the "special saddles." These are animal hide seats that give the biggest stats boosts in the game, and while they're all pretty similar, we recommend going for the Beaver Roping Saddle. It has some of the best stats in the game, doesn't look too bad, and is actually reasonably priced, considering that there are similar saddles that cost 20 gold bars and aren't meaningfully any better. It also comes with built-in stirrups that boost your horse's speed and acceleration by two stages, and reduces stamina drain by half. That's about as good as saddles get, and though it doesn't unlock until rank 83, it is definitely worth it.
If that helped clear things up for you, you can always head to our guide on legendary bounties here and how to play them as often as possible. Or take a look at how to get the Navy Revolver for free on Red Dead Online at our guide right here.