When I was HA ages ago, I had 8 riding (mostly because I already had 24 agi for 4 HA skill). I would have loved to use the eastern horse if it had more HP. More armor would be nice, but just more HP would be enough to make it viable. Speed and maneuver stats are great but it dies so fast that it isn't worth all the speed and turning ability in the world.The steppe horse and desert horse are pretty frail, but they worked alright for me. At least bring it up to par with them...