Capita Dark Horse Snowboard Review

The Capita Dark Horse takes over from the outgoing Outsiders. 

It is both more wallet friendly and more rider-friendly (aka more mellow) than its predecessor.

In this review, I will take a look at the Dark Horse as an all-mountain-freestyle snowboard.

As per tradition here at SnowboardingProfiles.com I will give the Dark Horse a score out of 100 (based on several factors) and see how it compares with other all-mountain-freestyle snowboards.

Overall Rating

Board: CAPiTA Dark Horse 2026

Price: $499

Style: All-Mountain-Freestyle

Flex Rating: Medium (6/10)

Flex Feel on Snow: Medium (5.5/10)

Rating Score: 84.4/100

Compared to other Men’s All-Mountain-Freestyle Boards

Overview of the Dark Horse’S Specs

Check out the tables for the Dark Horse’s specs and available sizes.

Who is the Dark Horse Most Suited To?

The Dark Horse is best suited to rider's looking for a freestyle oriented board that can carve pretty decently and handle a good amount of speed, but is still a pretty easy turning board that doesn't demand too much effort to ride. 

Particularly well suited to those who like to find side hits, hit the jump line in the park and likes to spin. 

While it's pretty easy going, it's still not easy going enough for me to consider it good for beginners, but would be a good bet, IMO for intermediate to advanced riders who fit the description above. 

TEST/REVIEW DetailS FOR THE Dark Horse

O.k. let’s take a more detailed look at what the Dark Horse is capable of.

Demo Info

Board: CAPiTA Dark Horse 2026, 154cm (253mm waist width)

Date: March 17, 2025

Carving

For how easy it was to slash turns on, it was really decent on a carve. I didn't find it to be as good as the Super DOA for carving, but not too far off. Certainly some limit to how fast/deep you could carve on it, but otherwise surprisingly good. 

Turning

Ease of Turning/Slashing: As alluded to above, I found the Dark Horse to be nice and easy to initiate turns on and to slash the tail out on. 

Maneuverability at slow speeds: Really nice and agile at slower speeds. Now, being a 154 (which is smaller than I would typically ride) would have exaggerated that, so maybe not as agile as I felt it in this particular size. But based on my experience riding other boards in different sizes, should still be decently agile in a more appropriate size. 

Catchiness: I felt just a hint of something on the toe side tail, but very little and only when I was really looking for it. Less than with the Mercury and Super Doa (which I also tested that day).

Speed

This is one area that the shorter than usual size went against the Dark Horse, but it was still really decently stable at speed and had decent overall speed and glide. This would only improve on a longer size.

But still never going to be something that's going to be a point-and-shoot, bomb-at-any-speed kind of board. 

Uneven Terrain

Crud/Chunder: Decently stable through choppy, rutty, messy snow. Not un-moveable or anything, but pretty good.

Trees/Bumps: The Dark Horse's great maneuverability really helped it here. Don't think it would be great in deep powder, but otherwise, had a lot of fun easily weaving between the trees on this board. The smaller size helped it here, so would likely be not quite as good in a longer size for me. 

Powder

There was some leftovers to play in, but nothing  super deep or anything. In what we had it was still pretty obvious that this isn't a board for the deep days, unless you're in search of a really good back leg workout!

Not surprisingly-so, given it's a true twin, full camber board. 

Jumps

Had a great time hitting jumps and side-hits on this board. 

Pop: Nice and easy to pop/initiate an ollie and while I wouldn't describe its total pop as epic, it was pretty good.  

Approach: Great mix of maneuverability and stability.

Landing:  Again, found a good balance between stability on landings and forgiveness of errors. Tail heavy landings were no problem and was easy to speed check or take quick evasive action after landing if necessary. 

Switch

Nice easy, low-catch-risk (as in pretty much non-existent) transitions and felt good riding it tail first, naturally being a true twin. 

Spins

Real nice. Probably the Dark Horse's best quality, IMO. Easy setup and landing with low-catch-risk and was easy to complete an under-rotation on snow after landing. And almost surprised at how it didn't really over-spin, which I was expecting a little of with how easy it turned and how easy it completed an under-rotation after landing. Maybe the stiffer tip and tail helped to hold it in (see more on that in butters section below).

Jibbing

While not the ideal jibbing board, it was still really decent and something that I felt confident hitting them on, with it's low-catch-feel and easy pop. 

Butters

Surprisingly stiff tip and tail for how its overall flex feels and for how easy a turner it is at slower speeds (stiffer boards tend to be not as good for this, but since the Dark Horse felt torsionally softer, that probably explains why it was an easy turner, despite the stiffer tip/tail).

So, it did take some force to get the tail and nose pressing - not oppressively stiff or anything and nothing that took throwing all your weight into it or anything, but some effort required. Locked-in well on a press, when putting the effort in to get it there. 

Score Breakdown and Final Verdict

Check out the breakdown of the score in the table below.

The Dark Horse was born out of the outgoing Capita The Outsiders. It's touted as the wallet-friendly evolution of the Outsiders, but while it is similar in a lot of ways, it's not just the price or some construction differences that make it different - it's also a mellower version, that's more accessible for intermediate riders than the Outsiders was, IMO.