The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is home to nearly 100 species of animals, but only one of them is capable of granting you access to the Ishokin Shrine. Its name is the Giant White Stallion. This mighty horse is thought to share a connection to the white horses ridden by the Hylian royal family, but a strange mutation made it gigantic. Quite a few travelers and researchers have sought out this extraordinary creature, yet only the hero of legend actually has what it takes to tame one.
The Ishokin Shrine is hidden behind a Shrine Quest. This means you will need to complete a side quest to gain access to it. This giant horse shrine quest is fairly straightforward in concept, but it can be tricky finding the specific location of the enormous horse. You will then need to ride the giant horse all the way from the Farin Grasslands to the shrine’s location. Most of this quest line will involve the Faron Grassland region of Hyrule.
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Finding the Great White Stallion
Head along the road southwest of Lake Hylia. This road will eventually have a split path that leads to either the Faron Woods or the Fural Plain. The southern path will take you to the Highland Stable which is the closest stable to Hyrule’s giant white horse. Taking the path further south will bring you to another fork in the road. Take the eastern path to go over the Horse God bridge, and find the horse you seek at Ibara Butte’s dead end. Alternatively, you could climb over the cliff to the south of Highland Stable to reach this part of the map.
Map of the Highland Stable region.
Some players may recognize this as the area where the Horse Goddess was in Breath of the Wild. The Horse Goddess actually moved to the Akkala region in this game. Now all that remains here is the rarest horse in Hyrule, a few NPCs, and some Koroks. Be careful of the Talus mini boss near the west side of the bridge. You should be fine if you’re moving on horseback since their movement speed can get you past the Talus before it even fully activates.
Increasing Stamina to Sooth the Giant Horse
The Giant White Stallion is the most difficult horse in the entire game to tame. It takes nearly three whole Stamina Wheels to make it calm down. You should cook Stamella Shrooms to create Energizing Mushroom Skewers. These meals are highly effective at restoring your stamina. Stamella Shrooms are fairly commonly found near trees. Try looking around the Great Sky Island, Upland Zorana, and other areas where trees grow. Turning 10 Stamella Shrooms into 2 Energizing Mushroom Skewers will be enough to help players that have yet to upgrade their Stamina Wheel. This TotK cooking guide can help you learn how to make many helpful meals.
An Energizing Mushroom Skewer.
Players who already have all three Stamina Wheels will not require any meals to tame the horse. Getting all the Stamina Wheels requires completing at least 44 shrines, assuming the player chooses to spend all Lights of Blessings into Stamina vessels rather than expanding Heart Containers. The four Light of Blessings from the Great Sky Island shrines must go to a Heart Container, which is why it’s 44 rather than 40. That is why using stamina-restoring meals is a better option for those that want to complete this quest more immediately.
Other Giant White Horse Taming Tips
- Remember to mash the L button as soon as you mount the horse so that it’ll calm down faster.
- It won’t run away from the immediate area, but may try to move around if it sees you. Try gliding down to the horse from above if you find yourself unable to mount it normally.
- Wait until your stamina is low to use Energizing Mushroom Skewers.
Link’s glider.
Optional: Nearby Koroks
- There’s one Korok just over the white horse’s head. You’ll have to interact with a few flowers to make it come out.
- A few Koroks on this path require grabbing some boulders with the Ultra Hand ability, and then balancing them on nearby objects. These objects have three branches near the top.
- One of the Koroks wants you to carry it to their friend.
A Korok flying above the great White Stallion.
Ride the Giant Horse to Baddek
Now that you have the Great White Stallion, you must take it to an NPC at the Zokassa Ridge. It would be wise to record your new horse friend at the Highland Stable first, just so you don’t have to backtrack a lot more later. Registered horses can be taken out of any stable rather than needing to find the horse again in the overworld. This includes the Dueling Peaks Stable, the mini stable at Lookout Landing, and all other stables in Zelda Tears of the Kingdom.
You should head back down to the split road, and then take the opposite direction. Ride the horse along the south-western road. Go past the Menoat River to reach the Parache Plains. The only threat of enemies along this route will be a monster ship, but it should be quite easy to get past thanks to your new horse’s speed.
Ishokin Shrine map location.
The Great White Stallion can climb part of the cliffside on the Zokassa Ridge in this area. The NPC you seek is on the south side of the ridge. His name is Baddek, and he stands next to the only campfire in the area. Baddek will allow you to take his mysterious glowing rock after you show him the giant horse. This rock is actually a shrunken down version of a Zonai shrine. It needs to be placed in a specific location to grow back to its regular size.
Ishikon Shrine Location
The Zonai crystal you received as a reward for showing Baddek a giant horse will create a green laser if you interact with it. Pick it up and carry it to the location that the beam of light is pointing to help it grow back to regular size. Another indicator for where the rock needs to go is the fact that all surface shrines are directly above where lightroots are in the depths. The Ishokin Shrine is located above the Nikohsi Lightroot. A brief cutscene will play once you’ve reached the right area.
Ishokin Shrine entrance.
Ishokin Shrine Puzzle Solution and Shrine Quest Rewards
The Ishokin Shrine is one of many Rauru’s Blessing shrines. This means that the journey to get to the shrine was the actual challenge. The only objects inside the blessing shrine are a chest and a set of statues. The chest contains topaz, while the statues of Rauru and Sonia will give Link a Light of Blessing. Four Lights of Blessing can be traded in at a Goddess Statue for an extra Heart Container or Stamina Vessel. There is usually at least one Goddess Statue in each town. Unlocking this Rauru’s Blessing shrine is also beneficial in the sense that you will be able to teleport here at any time.
The ability to use a new giant horse is also quite a nice reward for partaking in this side adventure. It can’t run quite as fast as some of the more talented regular size horses, but its ability to damage most foes by running into them makes it a powerful ally. Remember to feed your noble stallion some apples to restore its health when it gets hurt. The Horse Goddess can revive this horse if it is killed.
