Saturday, September 5, 2009

Howrse Auctions/Private Sales

If you sell a horse, either in the private sales or in the auctions, you cannot buy it back for 10 days.

You can buy a horse and re-sell it to another player immediately, if you wish to, but you can't buy a horse back yourself until those 10 days have passed. And that's not 10 Howrse days either!

Some people believe that if you sell your horse to a third party, you can then buy it back from them within in 10 days. This not the case.

So always be careful when selling your horses. 10 days is a long time to be without that beloved Arabian or treasured Donkey...

Patsy

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Breeds - Arabian Horse

The Arabian Horse is the most popular breed on Howrse. It is also usually found at the top of the Genetic Potential rankings. The Arabian Horse is one of the oldest breeds in the world and has been used a lot as an improver for other breeds because of its numerous qualities. It is one of the original breeds on Howrse.

-Species: Horse
-Size: from 14.2 hands to 15.2 hands

ALLOWED COATS

Mouse gray 6 %
Roan 1 %
Black 4 %
Buckskin 1 %
Dun 3 %
Gray 27 %
White 27 %
Light bay 5 %
Cherry bay 5 %
Dark bay 5 %
Strawberry roan 1 %
Chestnut 15 %

Top 3 skills: Stamina, Dressage, Jumping

Best competitions: Cross Country

Lucy

Breeds - Connemara


Another one of the original pony breeds on Howrse, the Connemaras are Irish ponies.

-Species: Pony
-Size: from 12.2 hands to 14.2 hands




ALLOWED COATS

Mouse gray 8 %
Roan 5 %
Palomino 4 %
Black 15 %
Dun 9 %
Gray 15 %
White 25 %
Light bay 4 %
Dark bay 6 %
Bay 4 %
Strawberry roan 1 %
Chestnut 4 %

Top 3 skills: Stamina, Dressage, Jumping

Best competitions: Cross Country

Lucy

Breeds - Welsh


One of the original pony breeds on Howrse. The Welsh pony comes from Wales and the breed is split in to several different sections, depending on height.

-Species: Pony
-Size: from 12.2 hands to 13.0 hands



ALLOWED COATS

Mouse gray 8 %
Roan 2 %
Palomino 4 %
Chestnut 16 %
Strawberry roan 4 %
Bay 8 %
Dark bay 10 %
Light bay 2 %
White 10 %
Gray 17 %
Dun 8 %
Buckskin 3 %
Black 8 %

Top 3 skills: Galloping, Dressage, Speed

Best competitions: Galloping race, Barrel race

Lucy

Breeds - Quarter Horse

Welcome to your mini-guide to all the breeds on Howrse. All the posts in the 'Breeds' section will give an overview of a breed, what those horses are good at and any interesting things we know about them.

So we thought we'd start with the Quarter Horse. One of my favourites as that's what I started off with!

The first picture on the left is what the Quarter Horse used to look like with the old game graphics and the second picture is what the breed looks like now!

The Quarter Horse is an American horse. It takes it's name from the fact that it is the quickest horse over distances of a quarter of a mile or less. It is one of the original breeds on Howrse.

-Species: Horse
-Size: from 15.0 hands to 16.0 hands

ALLOWED COATS

Chestnut 17 %
Bay 9 %
Cherry bay 8 %
Strawberry roan 4 %
Flaxen Chestnut 11 %
Flaxen Liver chestnut 1 %
Black 8 %
Palomino 6 %
Roan 6 %
Liver chestnut 7 %
Dark Bay 7 %
Cremello 1 %
Light Gray 3 %
Dapple Gray 6 %
Mousey Gray 3 %
Dun 3 %

Top 3 skills: Galloping, Dressage, Speed

Best competitions: Galloping race, Barrel race

Lucy

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

1 year and 8 months - training rides

Well you've made it this far - congratulations. And you know what - you should give yourselves a pat on the back!

You are now the proud owner of a lovely young horse, who at the age of 1 year and 8 months is ready to start training to be a champion.

Now, if your horse has woken up with low energy and health after their final day of games, you need to ensure they return to 100% health before commencing training. Put them in the field for a couple of hours, groom them feed them or put them in the box for a bit in order to get their health back up.

HANDY HINT
If you train a horse with health less than 100% (at any time in their life) they will gain less skills than they would otherwise have done. So it's always best to wait until they have recovered.

Once you're ready, it's time to start taking your horse out on rides.

From now on there is no set method to follow as it all depends on the breed of horse you have. They are all good at different things and so need to be trained accordingly.

Before the age of 2 the only training you can do is by taking your horse out on rides. Look for the buttons on the far right-hand side of the page, about half way down.

There are 3 types of ride:

-Trotting ride
-Galloping ride
-Steep slope ride

And each of these rides has 2 further options - short or long.

Look for your breed in the following table and see which rides you should start with: (for this method we are going to train your horse in their top 3 skills - a good habit to get in to. Later on when you are training more advanced horses, this all changes - look out for further posts on 'Advanced Training' in the future. But for now lets keep it simple).

-Short trotting rides: Standardbred, Fjord
-Long trotting rides: Friesian, Hackney, Peruvian Paso, Lusitano, Nokota
-Short galloping rides: Quarter Horse, Paint Horse, Purebred Spanish Horse, Thoroughbred, Appaloosa, Chincoteague, Mustang, Welsh, Brumby
-Long galloping rides: Irish Hunter, Marwari, Quarter Pony, Trakehner
-Short steep slope rides: Hanoverian, Australian, Newfoundland
-Long steep slope rides: Arabian, Connemara, Canadian, Donkey, Barb, Russian Don Horse, Morgan, Shetland, Gypsy Vanner, Shagya Arabian, Holsteiner

Train your horse for as long as you can in their chosen ride - try to use up nearly all their energy (you can take it down as far as 1-2%). Then stroke, give a carrot, drink, groom and feed. You now have to give your horse grain as well as forage - just follow what it tells you when you click the 'feed' button.

You should do rides until your horse is 2 years old. Then check out our Training methods post to find out what to do next.

Please note, this is a very simplistic overview of training. There are lots of methods out there and everyone has their own opinions about the 'best method'. Take your time to play around with your horses' training and find out what works best for you and your horse.

Lucy

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

The Cowbra

You'll know about Arabians, Irish Hunters, Donkeys, Xanthos and maybe even the fantastical, 8-legged Sleipnirs. But did you know that another Divine horse exists on Howrse? There is only one. It is completely unique. It's called 'Cowbra' and you can see it in the picture.

So what is it? Where did it come from and will there be any more?

Simply, it was a gift from Howrse to one lucky player - Michiba. During Christmas 2008/9, Howrse sold card packs to players. In just one of these packs (a Freyia pack) was a code which gave the recipient a very, very special horse - Cowbra.

Cowbra can never breed and, more importantly, it can never be sold. Even if the owner wanted to do so - Cowbra will be with her for ever.

When he arrived, he was 673 years old with 2000 skills! He can actually be trained (just with rides) and has now reached an incredible 2031.61 skills!

So there it is. Cowbra - unique, fasciniating and truly Divine.


Patsy

Howrse Foal Games - winter

UPDATE: Following the changes made by Howrse in July 2012, these foal games will no longer work. See the ALL NEW foal games here.

So far all our methods for games have involved the temperature being over 10°C, so you can put your foal in the pasture overnight. Actually you can get away with the original method as long as the temperature is over 8°C.

However, if the temperature is colder than this (down to 3°C) you can still play with your foal using the amended method below. Make sure you put your foal to sleep in the pasture even though it says it is too cold!

If it is any colder than 3°C you will need to wait until the weather warms up a bit before playing with your foal.

What you need before you start:

- salt stone
- carrots
- turnips (you buy these in the store)
- clean and fertile pasture at your foals EC
- temperature over 3°C (but still put your foal to bed in the pasture each night)

8 MONTHS :
2h30 hrs pasture / Salt stone / Grooming / 7h of games/ Turnip / 1h of games / Stroke / Carrot / drink / 1hour box / Feed (5 lbs)

10 MONTHS :
1h30 of pasture / Salt stone / Grooming / 1h of games / 1h of pasture / Feed (7lbs) / 7h of games/ Turnip/ 1h of games / Stroke / Carrot / drink

1 YEAR :
2h30 of pasture / Salt stone / Grooming / 8h of games / Turnip / 1h of games / Stroke / Carrot / drink / 30min of pasture

1 YEAR AND 2 MONTHS :
1h30 of pasture / Salt stone / Grooming / 1h of games / Feed (5lbs) / 8h of games / Turnip / 1h of games / Stroke / Carrot / drink

1 YEAR AND 4 MONTHS :
30 min of pasture / Salt stone / Grooming / 1h of games/ Feed (10lbs) / 9h of games / Turnip / 1h of games / Stroke / drink / Carrot

1 YEAR AND 6 MONTHS :
30 min pasture / Salt stone / Grooming / 1h of games / Feed (12 lbs) / 10h of games / Turnip/ Carrot / 2h of games / Stroke / drink

At 1 year and 8 months your horse might be a little bit poorly. If this is the case, put them in the field and/or the box until they have 100% health again.

EDIT: Since Howrse changed how putting your horse to sleep in the box works, you can now just use normal foal games in the winter - putting your horse to bed in the box instead of the meadow.

Lucy

Howrse Foal Games - without saltstone

UPDATE: Following the changes made by Howrse in April 2011, these foal games will no longer work. See the ALL NEW foal games here.

If you're pretty new to the game then the chances are you won't have a saltstone yet. You can still give your foal the best possible games though by following this slightly amended method.

What you need before you start:

- apples (you buy these in the store)
- carrots
- turnips (you buy these in the store)
- clean and fertile pasture at your foals EC
- temperature over 10°C (so you can put your foal to bed in the pasture each night)

If you've got all these things then simply follow the method below:

8 MONTHS*:
2h30 pasture / groom / play 7 hrs / turnip / play 1hr / stroke / carrot / drink / pasture 1hr / feed 4lbs

*If your foals morale is between 94% and 87% then use this version for 8 months:
2h30 pasture / groom / apple / play 1hr / turnip / meadow 1hr / play 1hr / feed 4lbs / play 6hr / stroke / carrot / drink

10 MONTHS:
2h30 pasture / groom / play 1hr / feed 10lbs / play 1hr / turnip / play 7hr / stroke / carrot/ drink

12 MONTHS:
2h30 pasture / groom / play 8hr / carrot / drink / play 1hr / stroke / turnip / box 30 mins

1 YEAR 2 MONTHS:
1h30 pasture / groom / play 1hr / feed 7lbs / play 8hr / turnip / play 1hr / stroke / carrot / drink

1 YEAR 4 MONTHS:
30 mins pasture / groom / apple / play 1hr / feed 12lbs / play 9hr / turnip / play 1hr / stroke / carrot / drink

1 YEAR 6 MONTHS:
Groom / apple / play 1hr / feed 20lbs / meadow 0h30 / play 10hr / drink / turnip / play 2hr / stroke / carrot

At 1 year and 8 months your horse might be a little bit poorly. If this is the case, put them in the field and/or the box until they have 100% health again.

Lucy

Howrse Foal Games

UPDATE: Following the changes made by Howrse in April 2011, these foal games will no longer work. See the ALL NEW foal games here.

Your foal has now reached 8 months old and although they're still really young, this is where their training starts!

However, as they're still babies it isn't anything difficult - they just get to play games all day.

Playing games with your foal is very important as it helps increase how good they'll be in later life. We won't say anything more about this now as it gets a little confusing - especially as when you first join you can't even see this happening. Simply get into the habit of always playing good games with your foal and all will become clear later on in your Howrse life!

OK here's what you need before you start playing:

- salt stone
- carrots
- turnips (you buy these in the store)
- clean and fertile pasture at your foals EC
- temperature over 10°C (so you can put your foal to bed in the pasture each night)

Now, if this is your first foal, you probably won't have a saltstone yet. You find a saltstone by randomly putting your horse in the box one day. However, if this hasn't happened to you yet, don't worry, you just need to follow the games method detailed in another post - 'Foal Games - without saltstone'.

Right so if you're all set, just follow the method below:

8 MONTHS :
1h30 pasture / salt stone / grooming / 7h playing / turnip / 1h playing / stroking / Carrot / Drinking / 2h pasture / Feeding

10 MONTHS :
1h30 pasture / salt stone / grooming / 1h playing / 1h pasture / 1h playing / turnip / Feeding (min 7 pounds) / 7h playing / stroking / Carrot / Drinking

1 YEAR :
1h30 pasture / salt stone / grooming / 8h playing / Carrot / Drinking / 1h playing /
stroking / turnip / 1h pasture / Feeding (what's needed)

1 YEAR 2 MONTHS :
1h30 pasture / salt stone / grooming / 9h playing / turnip / 1h playing / stroking / Carrot / Drinking / Feeding (min 10 pounds)

1 YEAR 4 MONTHS :
30mn pasture / salt stone / grooming / 1h playing / Feeding / 9h playing / turnip /
1h playing / stroking / Drinking / Carrot

Now when your foal wakes up in the morning, they will have become a full grown horse - look out for how their picture changes!

1 YEAR 6 MONTHS :
30mn pasture / salt stone / grooming / 1h playing / Feeding (min 14 pounds) /
10h playing / turnip / Carrot / 2h playing / stroking / Drinking

At 1 year and 8 months your horse might be a little bit poorly. If this is the case, put them in the field and/or the box until they have 100% health again.

After that you can start to train them properly!

Lucy

Howrse Foals - 6 Months Old

Ok, your foal is now 6 months old - well done, you've made it this far! But what happens next...?

You will now see some new buttons appear on your foal's page. The first place to look is in the top right-hand corner. As your foal is now too old to live with it's mother you need to place it in an Equestrian Centre.

Click on the 'Register my horse' button.

A list will now appear showing you the best 20 available EC's (Equestrian Centre's) for your foal. Always try to go for one near the top of the list as these are the better centres. Click on the names of the centres on the left hand side to have a look at each stable. Try to choose one that has meadows with as close to 100% as possible in Fertility, Space and Cleanliness and one that has carrots.

Once you've decided which centre you want (and you're happy with the price per day) click 'register'. You pay all the money up front, so if you registered for 4 days in an EC costing 15e a day, you pay 60e. You can change the number of days you register at the top of the page but it's best to go for 4 days (which is the default) to start off with.

You will now be back on your foals page. There are now even more new buttons! You can put your foal in the field, in the box, feed them and put them to bed.

Feel free to experiment with the new buttons but if you're a bit nervous then follow the steps below to make sure your foal goes to bed happy and healthy after their first day in an EC.

Click 'meadow' and choose '1 hour 30'.
Click 'box' and choose '2 hours 30'.
Click 'Stroke'.
Click 'Drink'.
Click 'Carrot'. Don't panic if it won't let you give your foal a carrot - it just means the EC it is in does not have them available.
Click 'Groom'.
Click 'Feed'. The first number shows you how much you have already fed your horse today. The second number is how much he needs in total. So if it says 2/6.6, this means you have fed your foal 2 pounds of forage today and it needs 6.6 in total. So choose to feed them 4 pounds. Or put them back in the field until they have eaten the right amount.
Click 'Put to bed'. Check the temperature on the top right-hand side of the Howrse page. If it is 10C or above choose 'In the meadow'. If it is below 10C choose 'In the stall'.

Remember to put your foal to bed before 22.00. You can check to see what time it is in their day by looking in the history box on the bottom left-hand side of the page.

You can also give your foal a turnip at any point in the day (you will need to buy these in the store though).

I know it's complicated at the moment, but I promise that it will become second nature to you soon!

Once your foal in 8 months old, you need to start playing games with them. Check out our next post for more info.

Lucy

Moving on up

LucyLou is following all her good advice and it's clearly paying dividends, as today, she has reached 26th in the overall rankings!

Cause for celebration we think.

Patsy

Monday, August 31, 2009

The Barb's are out.

Well, it's week three of the World Tour and as I write, the Barb's have been out for just over an hour. And how the prices have tumbled already. As with the Brumby's and the Marwari's, after the first few minutes of frenzied buying in the private sales, the value has dropped like a stone.

A quick scan of the sales reveals that I can pick up a shiny new Barb for just 5,000e (excluding pass sales for the sake of comparison), and there's a Marwari out there right now for just 1500e!

And what of the Brumby's? A 1,000e will get you one of these cute little chaps.

So, roll on the Morgan's, Paso's and Shetlands!

Patsy

Taking Care of your First Foal on Howrse

So, you've registered on Howrse and now you have your very first foal. But what do you do next? Don't panic, simply read on and learn everything you need to know to get you through the first few days.

If you're not there already, click on the 'breeding' tab and then the 'my horses' link. Your brand new foal should now appear.

On the bottom left-hand side of the page there is a box with the heading 'History'. Everything you do with your horse will appear in here.

Now look at the buttons on the left-hand side of the page. These are the all the things you need to do to look after your foal. Take a deep breath and begin to look after your foal!

First click 'Stroke'. This will give your foal energy.
Next, click 'Groom'. This will clean your foal and make them happy.
Now click, 'Drink'. This will give your foal a drink.
Finally click 'Nurse'. This means the foal will suckle from their mother.

And that's it! Well done, you've just looked after your first foal.

You continue to look after them in this way until they reach 6 months. Once they reach 6 months then read our next post for what to do next.

Lucy

Welcome to Ultimate Howrse

Hello and welcome to Ultimate Howrse. This site is for you - players and fans of Howrse. If you're looking for info, hints tips and news on all things Howrse, then this is the place to come.


We're players too. We are Patsy and LucyLou and we decided it was time there should be a social support community for people outside of the of the game itself. The forums can get a little confusing and clogged up, so we wanted to create somewhere for people to express themselves without the confines of the game.

We want to offer help for new players, tips for more experienced players and also to share the weird and wonderful things we experience whilst playing the game.

So enjoy sharing your thoughts and ideas with the whole Howrse community, and make sure you tell your friends to visit Ulitmate Howrse soon!

Patsy & Lucy

You can find Patsy at Number 10 in the Breeders' Ranking and LucyLou at Number 8 in the General Ranking.