Humans have no real advantages in a 1:1 fight agains most larger mammals. A lot have horns, tusks, claws…
Humans got their points in STA, AGI, and INT. We don’t defeat large mammals in unarmed combat. We can barely handle anything much larger than a boar with close arms like a spear.
No, we defeat large animals by outsmarting and outlasting them. And usually that only works when we are on the offense and have an advantage by stalking. In a fair fight that gets a lot more challenging. Horses are fucking fast. Persistence hunting may have worked, but that’s by us chasing the prey.
So, assuming we are facing head to head, at the start of the fight, I would probably fake to the right, then run past the horse on my left. It’ll take him a while to turn around. That’ll buy me a few seconds to hopefully run somewhere where there are some obstacles or corners on the way to higher ground. If I can climb and get above the horse, all bets are off. Only Nirn horses are decent climbers.
Outsmarting and outlasting is a real advantage: We are the apex predator (to our own detriment of course, but don't sell humans short we're some scary-ass apes when you get down to it).
not in the context of the question... sure our outsmating/outlasting certainly offsets and overwhelms any talon, claws, fangs, venom nature can throw at us... but the context here is a mano a mano fight
I would assume that, the term "fight" implies a more direct combat... Not a scenario where we can plan for traps and such
If I ask you in person if you'd beat me in a fight? You wouldn't think of a scenario where we both come home and make a master plan to ruin each other.... It would be more like "let's go or the parking lot and beat each other like monkeys"
It's just the scenario I imagined from the question