Time to reintroduce horse armor, Skyrim 1.6 update to add mounted combat

Bethesda is continuing the trend of releasing fancy features for free as we wait for Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim's first big DLC release, Dawnguard. With patch 1.6, Skyrim will be seeing the addition of fully mounted melee and ranged combat -- no horse armor required.

Update 1.6 will also be patching almost two dozen bugs still hiding in Skyrim. Here's the full list:

• General stability and memory optimizations
• General AI pathfinding optimizations and bug fixes
• Optimizations and crash fixes for data leaks
• Fixed rare crash with lighting
• Fixed crashes related to loading and saving games
• Fixed crash with summoned creatures/NPCs
• Fixed rare issue where saves would be corrupted
• Improved logic for when ranged kill cams are played
• Fixed issue with ranged kill cams while killing a dragon
• Fixed rare issue with certain ranged kill cams not playing properly
• Fixed issue with nirnroot lighting not properly cleaning up
• Fixed issue where bow damage was being calculated incorrectly
• Fixed rare problem with werewolf kill moves would not finish animating properly
• In “The Break of Dawn” fixed rare issue where Meridia’s Beacon would disappear from player’s inventory
• Fixed occasional issue where followers would disappear after player pays off a bounty after committing a crime
• Fixed issue where certain creatures and NPCs would fail to respawn properly
• Fixed rare issue with dialogue subtitles not displaying properly
• Fixed issue with water appearing blurry when loading a saved game after creating a save underwater
• Fixed issue where map cursor would occasionally disappear after closing a message box with Kinect enabled  (Xbox 360)
• Fixed rare issue with shouts only performing the first level and not other unlocked levels with Kinect enabled  (Xbox 360)
• Fixed issue where the shout buttons would stop working properly if users mashed LB and RB during cooldown with Kinect enabled  (Xbox 360)

Any outstanding issues you've noticed haven't been fixed with patch 1.6? While Bethesda is notorious for introducing new bugs with every patch to fix the old bugs, it's impossible to stay angry at them since they're trying their hardest. Not many other developers would be so dedicated as to continually put out patches like Bethesda, while adding new free content at the same time.

One question -- I'm pretty sure one terrible night I somehow had every horse in Skyrim killed. I don't remember why. Can we have the horse population reset? Including Shadowmere? I really regret losing that horse.

PC gamers who have opted into the Steam Beta Update can download Skyrim patch 1.6 right now, but console gamers may have a bit of a wait ahead of them -- there's no current release date. The patch is likely going through the PSN and Xbox Live vetting process, which could take a while.