I took my horses to Death Mountain, Gerudo Desert ...

… basically everywhere they were not supposed to be. These screenshots are partially from an old challenge run in which I explored Hyrule without ever leaving my horse behind, and partially from other playthroughs.

And as you can see in the pics, I did NOT use the Ancient Saddle to achieve any of this. In fact, some of these places can not be teleported to even if you have a horse with the Ancient Saddle equipped - the game won’t let you.

(open the pictures in a new tab / window to enlarge them)

Death Mountain:

This is as close as you can get to the lava without turning into a horse-hound-and-hero flavored kebab. This was on the western side of Death Mountain - you can see part of the Isle of Rabac in the lava pool.

Death Mountain again:

Different horse, different playthrough, but again literally one step away from the “burning air zone” and I wasn’t exactly fond of turning extra crispy. The shrine is the Qua Raym Shrine in Goronbi Lake.

North of Gerudo Desert:

The sand is close enough to touch, but as soon as your horse DOES touch sand, it will despawn and respawn further away instantly, dramatically whinning and collapsing in the process. However, unlike the “entrance” to the desert near the Gerudo Canyon Stable, there is no invisible barrier at this point (the slope west of Dako Tah Shrine) so I doubt the devs anticipated the scenario of someone riding to that spot.

Gerudo Tower:

This took me all week, but it was soo satisfying ♪ This pic was from a challenge run in which I tried to explore as much of the map as possible without EVER leaving my two travel companions behind - they had to be at least within my line of sight at all times, and this had been the last tower I needed to unlock the entire map.

Still Gerudo Tower:

This was a little later. We’re standing on the platform of the Sasa Kai shrine from the “Tower’s Shadow” quest.

Wolf Link fell off the platform shortly after that picture was taken. Seriously, the hardest part of that challenge was to keep that furry little Moon Moon alive for long enough to reach my next destination in one piece.

Gerudo Highlands:

This is halfway between Gerudo Tower and the Statue of the Eighth Heroine. I wanted to take more pictures of the actual journey, but the weather wasn’t having it - we travelled in a raging blizzard 95% of the time, and this was one of the few moments it cleared up.

The view from up there is stunning … IF you can see it!

Statue of the Eighth Heroine:

The picture I took of the actual statue looks like garbage as a blizzard was JUST starting again, but at least the snapshot of the area title is clear enough to act as proof.

I swear the weather in this game hates me sometimes.

Korok Forest:

That’s the Master Sword pedestral in the background. You can freely ride around that area on a horse, but Wolf Link will despawn as he can’t enter inhabited settlements like villages and towns, and Korok Forest counts as one.

The Lost Pilgrimage:

Jup. Did that while riding and with a rather loud wolf tagging along. Oaki still didn’t notice us, or maybe he was too scared to turn around and look at what caused the constant clippety-clop and chain rattling behind him.

Mount Satori:

Near the cherry tree where the Lord of the Mountain spawns. However, Satori only appears during the waxing crescend, and that night it was obviously NOT a waxing crescend.

Dueling Peaks:

This pic was taken on the top of the northern half of the Dueling Peaks, right above the Shee Venath shrine. It was actually the first time I succeeded in climbing that high on a horse, and I was so proud of that achievement that this pic has been my profile banner since then. (Formerly reddit, now lemmy and youtube since I nuked the reddit account)

Akkala Tower:

This is as close as you can get on a horse, as the Malice hurts and startles them and they’ll throw Link off. Reaching the top of Akkala Tower is actually pretty easy if you lose your temper and carpet bomb the enemies there with Ancient Arrows and a multishot bow, which I might or might not have done prior to taking this pic.

Faron Woods:

The yellow-brown heap of rubbish in the background is the “mold” covering the Qukah Nata Shrine. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting to be able to reach that spot while riding in the first place, but it is possible if you take a small detour of 45,876 miles east first and then pass the mountain ridge from Uten Marsh to Calora Lake.

Typhlo Ruins:

That was the first time Wolf Link was actually helpful, as he doesn’t care about how bright the environment is - HE can see enemies and attack them just fine, which kept them occupied for long enough that Link could just waltz away and continue following the statues.

There were no glitches, cheats or mods involved - just the vanilla game. There are some places where you can make a horse “climb” sideways (hold down ZL and move) and once you know where those places are, you can get pretty much everywhere Link would be able to climb as well, except for the desert which is one big “no no” Zone for horses and WILL despawn your mount as soon as it touches the sand. Wolf Link can follow you tho.