# Talk:Riding
Contents

1 Kicking the steed
2 How do I get back off?
3 SLASH'EM - Can't saddle ki-rin
4 Ki-Rins and Conflict
5 Complete list of possible steeds
6 Cockatrices

Kicking the steed
What use is this? It just drops me from the saddle and hurts me pretty bad. And despite this, pressing space will take it as 'Yes', when by all logic it should mean 'No', like with pretty much everything else.

If your mount is tame enough (and your character level is high), kicking or whipping it will cause it to move faster, or gallop, for several (20-30) turns. It will also wake up your steed if it has gone to sleep (like from a trap), and will make it recover faster if it has been paralyzed.  For the most part it isn't worth it, unless your mount is extremely well-fed, and you have a pressing need to get away from or catch up to a fast monster.   Dragons, which are slow and eat a lot of corpses, and usually only ridden by high-level PCs, are probably the best candidate. I don't know if kicking or whipping does damage to the mount (probably does), but dragons, mumak, and the dino-rhinos all have thick enough skin that it won't hurt them anyway.  See steed.c#kick_steed if interested in the source code for this.  MysterX 11:52, 25 January 2008 (UTC)
How do I get back off?
How do I dismount?

#ride again. --paxed 17:13, 6 March 2008 (UTC)
Thank you
SLASH'EM - Can't saddle ki-rin
As a lawful Yeoman my god sent me a tame ki-rin, but it won't let me saddle it.
"I think the invisible Ki-Rin of His Majesty would mind."
Is this because it is a god-sent being?  Or is it just not tame enough since I only just picked it up?
Ih fek 19:44, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

Yes it is because it is god sent.  Minions cannot be saddled or ridden. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.208.28.93 (talk • contribs) 
Confirming this in SLASH'EM. Anyone know if this is true in NH? --4.30.147.166 18:53, 11 July 2013 (UTC)
There are no minions in vanilla, except the astral plane angel. And angels cannot be ridden at all. (Technically, you can saddle non-tame monsters with some luck, and you could get hostile minions from attempted altar conversion, but let's not go down that road.) -Tjr (talk) 05:24, 12 July 2013 (UTC)
Ki-Rins and Conflict
I asked about this over in the Knight discussion, but as it was changed here as well I feel I should post here as well. I earlier wrote the article to say that Ki-Rins never are affected by conflict, but it was changed to say they only have a 4/5 chance of avoiding conflict. I find this dubious for a few reasons. First, my own experience. I do not recall ever having a mounted Ki-Rin buck me. Secondly, according to this Ki-Rins have a 100% chance of avoiding conflict. Now of course they might be wrong in their calculations, but my own experience backs that up. Lord Seth 06:28, March 28, 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, Lord Seth. Ki-Rin have effective 100% conflict resistance. Because monster level enters monster magic resistance, a ring of conflict will not cause a ki-rin to buck you if it has at least level 15, and the Sceptre of Might if it has at least 20. Testing confirms a level 0 ki-rin will buck you. -Tjr 00:31, April 6, 2010 (UTC)

Complete list of possible steeds
I have generated a complete list of monsters that can be saddled and ridden.  Should this go in its own section of this article, or perhaps in a separate article?  Kdgarris 23:00, April 16, 2010 (UTC)

Cockatrices
If a cockatrice opts to attack your mount instead of you, could your mount get instantly petrified? 75.58.127.95 18:22, 25 July 2011 (UTC)

Attempting to saddle a cockatrice or chickatrice without gloves
is an instadeath, and neither monster can be ridden anyway.

does this hold true if you're polyed into something stoning-resistant? which brings to mind the question, if you are polyed into something without arms and/or legs (or are whirly) can you ride? if so, how? --195.2.244.193 12:08, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

Cockatrice attacking player's steed: "The cockatrice touches the saddled pony. The saddled pony turns to stone! You fall off the saddled pony!"
Trying to saddle something as a yellow dragon: "You have no hands!"
Trying to ride something as a yellow dragon: "You won't fit on a saddle." So it's not possible in vanilla and most NetHack variants, but Slash'EM Extended allows the player to try anyway. In that variant, both saddling a cockatrice in yellow dragon form and riding it doesn't turn the player to stone.&nbsp;;) --Bluescreenofdeath (talk) 06:42, 11 August 2014 (UTC)
the yellow dragon message suggests that's a function of its hugeness. if you poly into something smaller (a skeleton, perhaps) in vanilla, or are wearing CDSM in UnNetHack, what happens? --195.2.244.193 12:01, 11 August 2014 (UTC)
Trying to saddle or ride a cockatrice while in skeleton form doesn't work either: "You can't saddle such a creature." and "The cockatrice is not saddled." The skeleton's innate petrification resistance correctly prevents stoning instadeath though. Attempting to saddle it while not resistant (polymorphed into a gnome lord, for example) will instantly kill the player. IIRC most, if not all "player turns to stone" functions check whether the player has petrification resistance, and if the answer is "yes", the player simply doesn't turn to stone. --Bluescreenofdeath (talk) 05:45, 12 August 2014 (UTC)