You’ve probably wondered how long it takes you to bond with your horse fully in Red Dead Redemption 2 just by walking it around...no? Well, Reddit user Captain_Jalapeno did and put it to the test in Red Dead Online so we don’t have to.

The original post shows a screenshot of the posters Red Dead Online character with a map showing the distance they walked their red chestnut Arabian horse by leading it. The route seems to start at the stables in Valentine, going down to Flaneck Station, then west to Riggs Station, then up north to Wallace Station, and where the green line ends the route, that’s where full bonding was achieved.

Here's the distance it takes to Fully Bond a New Horse to Level 4 by just Leading/Walking it. from r/reddeadredemption

According to Captain_Jalapeno, the route takes about 24 in-game hours, which in real-world time comes to about roughly an hour apparently. However, as Reddit user srcsm83 found on a separate post, the day-to-night cycle appears to be dynamic and seems to be quicker at night and changes if you're moving. Either way, it appears that this journey with your noble steed will take you about an hour to complete regardless.

A few other users took to the threads to mention that they’ve tried this method and it works, and one surprisingly found the journey relaxing thanks to the sheer amount of detail in the world keeping them engaged. There were talks about people stating that they appear to lose their bonding progress if they leave Red Dead Online and log back in, thus making the process pointless. Captain_Jalapeno reassured these users that their bonding remains at whatever progress they left it, but a visual glitch states that the horse is back to level one bonding when it actually isn’t.

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As the various horses in the world of Red Dead Online can vary with stats, one user asked if this leading experiment would require the same amount of horse XP to level up the bonding. This led to a discussion about how the better the horse, the longer bonding takes apparently. Captain_Jalapeno confirmed they were using the Red Chestnut Arabian Horse which was detailed to be a class above most other horses and available with the PS4 Early Access content for Red Dead Online.

So while this experiment proves that you can reach full bonding just by leading your horse around for a fair amount of real-world time, especially if you’re bored. It doesn’t prove how long it takes for horses that aren't the Red Chestnut Arabian Horse. It also doesn't take into account how the dynamic day-to-night cycle affects this, possibly making the journey longer or shorter. Either way, would you be willing to jump onto Red Dead Online and walk a horse around for an hour in hopes that no one comes and shoots you in the face?

The online portion of Red Dead Redemption 2 has been recently updated to introduce festive music around the world, so maybe you’ll want to just spend an hour listening to music instead? At least you can buy a load of beer thanks to being fairly loaded after Gold Bars and cash gifts have started rolling out for those who took part in the Red Dead Online beta until December 20.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is available on Xbox One and PS4.