disappearing horse/ impossible saddles and armor

i set off to acquire a horse, when i found one i brought it back to my stable and immediately set off to find another for breeding. when i returned it was gone, there was no damage and the saddle wasn't in my inventory. i have no idea how to reproduce this bug because i havent seen another horse since. i keep trying back to the plains regions but no horses. also i fel that not being able to craft saddles or horse armor is unreasonable.