From what i remember you need a certain level in animal lore/taming etc to command various animals; my question however is d oyou still need these skills just to ride one? such as a nightmare or the new horse mounts I've seen?

I'm not sure you can even have one transferred to you if you don't have the skills to control it.

*pulls out taming manual* No you don't have to be able to control most of them, just be high enough in taming/lore from my experience.....

Your taming has to be high enough to have had a chance at taming a pet to be able to have it transferred to you and to ride it. For instance a Nightmare has a taming level of 95.1. You have to have taming at this level to have it transferred to you. At this level you would only have a 70% control chance if your Lore was also 95.1. Once you dismount it you will have a control chance check and if you fail it the pets statisfation will go down. To keep the pet happy you can feed it. You will need to have taming and lore up to a level that will allow you a 90% chance of control to not have it go wild on you. Otherwise they will keep failing the control check and will eventually go wild on you and attack you. You can always remount them and the checks won't occur. But if you die they will get the checks. Check out this link for the Stratics taming calculator:

http://uo.stratics.com/content/skills/anim.php

Thanks all, I'll stick to horses then

are there any good mounts that don't need taming etc? and no giant beetles dont count!

llama

horse, Llama, Swamp Dragons, and Forest Ostards are the only ones that I can remember that don't require taming to ride...only to be tamed. Other then the Beetles (Giant and Fire) that is.

The best non-tamer pet is the Lesser Hiryu. They can be transferred to anyone and commanded, but can only be ridden by a tamer or by a Master Samurai (90 skill points in Bushido required).

well I want to ride it so no go there

any other suggestions anyone? pics helpful!