I am probably doing something wrong, but I have noticed a few cards that cause you to "exhaust and discard" another card (usually a character) and I'm not sure how this plays out differently than just discarding the card.

Any insights?

thanks.

It means you can only use it on a character that is ready.

Yea, if you plan on using the ability that requires the exhaust and discard, then you can't use the character that you're going to discard for any other actions that require exhausting.

For example: Westfold Horse-Breaker only says to discard it. So you can use it to quest and then discard it after the quest phase to use its ability.

The Riddermark's Finest is different. If you want to use his ability, then you can't quest with him that round.