Swift Palomino

Swift Palomino is an epic Alliance ground mount, one of the racial steeds of humans. It is a large horse of a light golden-tan coat with a white mane and tail. The model first appeared in the game back in patch 1.4, and has since remained one of the most recognizable horses of the Eastern Kingdoms.

The mount is purchased from horse-breeder vendors for just 10 gold. A human can buy it right away, while other Alliance races will need Exalted reputation with Stormwind. After obtaining it, the horse is automatically added to the collection of the entire account.

• Simple and fast to obtain — no need for long quest chains, raids or weekly farming. Just fly to the vendor and pay 10 gold
• Part of the human racial horse trio — together with the Swift Brown Steed and Swift White Steed it completes the full set of epic Stormwind horses
• Progress toward "Aspiring Tamer of Riding Animals" — every new mount in your collection brings you closer to the 250-mount meta-achievements and beyond
• Speed on par with top ground mounts — grants +60% or +100% movement speed depending on your riding skill
• Available account-wide — after buying it on one character, the horse appears on all your Alliance characters

The mount is sold by three horse-breeders in the Alliance world. The item is the same for all three, the price is identical — choose whichever merchant is easier for you to reach.

Katie Stokes — Stormwind

The main and most convenient option. Katie stands in Stormwind at the entrance to Old Town, next to the SI:7 headquarters, in the horse pens.

The easiest way to get there is through the portal to Stormwind from any faction capital or via the hearthstone. From the Trade District, keep to the right side of the canal, pass by Stormwind Keep, enter Old Town — the horse pens will be on the left, in front of the entrance to the SI:7 building.

Katie Hunter — Elwynn Forest

The second merchant is located at Eastvale Logging Camp in Elwynn Forest, on the eastern edge of the human starting zone.

If you are leveling a human along the classic route or just happen to be nearby, Katie is more convenient than returning to Stormwind.

Gregor MacVince — Dustwallow Marsh

The third merchant stands on Theramore Isle in Dustwallow Marsh (Kalimdor). Useful if you are on Kalimdor and don't want to teleport to Stormwind.

The destination is a small spot with a horse pen within the Theramore Keep grounds. There is a portal and a flight point nearby, which makes the location convenient for a "drop in, buy, fly out" run.

If your character is a human, everything is extremely simple:

1. Reach level 10 and learn Apprentice Riding
2. Gather 10 gold (a trivial sum at max level). If you are playing a human character with Exalted reputation with Stormwind by default, you will get the merchant discount
3. Head to Stormwind to Katie Stokes at coordinates 77.0, 67.8
4. Buy the Swift Palomino from her for 10 gold
5. Use the item from your bags to add the mount to your collection
6. Open the mount collection and summon the steed from it. The item in your bag is no longer needed — you can sell or delete it

In a single visit you can grab all three swift steeds from Katie: white, brown, and palomino. This will fill three slots in your mount collection at once.

If you play a dwarf, night elf, gnome, draenei, worgen, pandaren, mechagnome and others — the merchant will refuse to sell you horses until you reach Exalted reputation with Stormwind.

Step 1. Buy the Stormwind Tabard

Go up to the Trade District of Stormwind and find Captain Lancy Revshon — he stands on a small platform at the entrance to the Park, next to the Stormwind banners.

Buy the Stormwind Tabard from him for 10 gold. The purchase requires at least Friendly reputation with Stormwind — by default most Alliance races already have it above this level.

Step 2. Equip the tabard and farm reputation in dungeons

Put the Stormwind one into the tabard slot. While it is equipped, all reputation from killing mobs inside dungeons goes to the Stormwind pool — this is the main way to quickly reach Exalted.

The best dungeons for farming reputation with the tabard as of The War Within:

• The Forgotten Reservoir and Botanica — lots of mobs, fast runs
• Utgarde Keep — a classic choice, killed quickly solo
• Magisters' Terrace — a short dungeon, easy to reset and run again
• Any Pandaria dungeons with a large number of mobs, for example Stormstout Brewery

The farming scheme is simple: enter the dungeon, kill all mobs along the way, exit, reset the instance via the Escape menu → "Reset Instances" section, enter again. Repeat until the "Exalted" message appears.

Step 3. Check reputation and discount

Open the reputation window (hotkey U → "Reputation" tab → "Alliance Capitals" → "Stormwind"). As soon as Exalted appears, the discount at Stormwind merchants reaches 20%, and the Swift Palomino will cost you not 10 gold, but 8.

Step 4. Buy the mount

Return to Katie Stokes and buy all three swift steeds in a single visit. After Exalted, the merchant stops objecting to non-human races.