also re:RDR2

It’s not a lie the horse mechanics suck

In the last year I’ve played 2 games from off-brand Eastern European devs (Witcher III and Kingdom Come) with better horse mechanics

I get you love your engine’s authentic kinetics

Which is why GTA 4 cars were abominably terrible and unfun until they loosened it up in 5 (and gave you Franklin’s slow-time ability)

(Not that they’d consider taking it back to the fun they made their brand name on, the measured and awarded 7x flips of GTA3, that was vulgar stuff best left to the Saints Row franchise now)

But if you’re going to hack it “horses have enough horse sense not to run smack into trees and boulders” is accurate! And you’ve already worked horse sense into it since RDR1 with the “horses rear rather than running off a damn cliff” mechanic