We don't really know.

In the Store, they describe the Horse as suitable for 'riding short distances' and the Thoroughbred for 'long distance travel.'

That said, given the existence of the Ursaphant and the Trison...there probably aren't heavy draft horses and heavy warhorses in Elyria...because they would be heavily outclassed by those two animals.

So, by my best guess...a Horse is your 'jack of all trades' animal, while a Thoroughbred is more specialized in long distance travel (lower carry capacity, much higher endurance)

I did write up a 'proposal post' reflection how I thought the different mounts should interact here, if you're interested in having a read.

Technically Racehorses aren't just thoroughbreds, there are TB X's, heck there are even Shire races lol.

I think it'd be thoroughbreds. As it does say thoroughbreds are for long distance travel we do know we will be able to breed them for their better traits and that they will have basically better traits than horses. This sort of breeding is huge for IRL racehorses. That is how I view things.

Judging by the artwork, the 'thoroughbred' is basically a heavy war horse like you said. It may in fact be capable of carrying heavier loads and traveling longer distances but I'm not sure it'll be any faster than the regular horse. In fact, neither of them is probably bred as a racing horse, but breeding animals is one of the things you can do in the game, and genetic traits are already said to be inheritable by people, so why not livestock? Who's to say breeding prize winning race horses won't be a long term profession in Elyria?

"Who's to say breeding prize winning race horses won't be a long term profession in Elyria?"

that is exactly what I am doing at the start, at least until mounted combat comes out and I may change to (or just add) breeding war horses

Posted By Vye at 10:27 PM - Tue Dec 06 2016

Thoroughbred is changing to Purebred in the update coming soon. It was named incorrectly before.

If you want to breed racehorses, either would be capable but you'd probably get better results with a purebred since they will be of better stock and more easily trained.

Thank you, that really made me uncomfortable calling it a thoroughbred.

will purebred still resemble draft/heavy war horses?

because even a shetland pony can be purebred.

Posted By Dakota at 8:01 PM - Wed Dec 07 2016

will purebred still resemble draft/heavy war horses?

because even a shetland pony can be purebred.

Exactly

or how about the terms "cold" and warmbloods" or "hotbloods" for arabians would be more suiting

Posted By Dakota at 06:01 AM - Thu Dec 08 2016

will purebred still resemble draft/heavy war horses?

because even a shetland pony can be purebred.

I'd think that it likely be random, as in a Purebred is simply a horse with better but random traits (strong/fast/endurable/nimble/etc), and that it would be up to breeders to source and breed the traits they desire into their stock.

Posted By Dakota at 09:01 AM - Thu Dec 08 2016

will purebred still resemble draft/heavy war horses?

because even a shetland pony can be purebred.

They are still Medium mounts, unless that changes. Shetlands would be small, and if you want a large mount ... they are in the shop, but are not horse-types.