Mist - the new Christmas Divine

Well here it is. The brand new Divine Horse! And you can get one by purchasing a pack pf 30 passes before 23.59 Game Time on Christamas Day 2010. Or if you've been lucky enough to collect enough Reindeer you may win one through the advent calendar.

Now Mist is the very first Divine that can reproduce. Here's what Howrse have to say about it:

Mist is a divine mare that has the ability to share its skills. Its skills vary from day to day: One day it'll be good at galloping, the next day it'll be good at endurance... It can reproduce with a Snow to give birth to Ocean.

Mist and Ocean can not be sold.
Mist can only have one single foal.

Now we believe that you cannot use BM items on a Mist when breeding. So no Tears, Arrows etc. We'll let you know more as we find out.

Since Divines can only age naturally overnight it will take a few days before we get to see what Ocean looks like - so keep your eyes peeled!

Merry Christmas everyone,

Patsy and Lucy

UPDATE: We've both just received out Mist's and they are lovely. Let the breeding begin ....

1400 'skillers' are here

It wasn't that long ago that LucyLou and I were excitedly trying to breed our first '1000 skiller'. Well, as you probably know - things move fast on Howrse and the top breeders and breeding groups work day and night to increase the skills of their horses.

And only in the last few days, we've reached another Howrse milestone. The '1400 skilled horse'. The one on the left (click to enlarge the picture) is number one as I write although, depending on when you read this, it will already be old news. Not long ago, when 1000 skills was the highest you could get on a horse, the Divine horses such as Xanthos', Sleipnir's, Snow's etc all seemed to be infinitely better and more valuable than 'ordinary' horses. And whilst Divine and Special horses are still valuable, the skills gap is narrowing every day. But, it's worth looking at this in a bit more detail.

Whilst the overall skills of one of the new, '1400 skill' horses is 200 higher than, say, a Xanthos; it's trotting skills may be only 87 and its jumping skills only 160. The Xanthos has 200 in every skill. But the 1400 skiller, may have more than 200 skills in four of its six skill sets. So which is the best horse? Almost certainly the '1400 skiller'. This is because more of its skills are SO much better than the Xanthos. Even in trotting where the '1400 skiller' has 87 against Xanthos' 200, the '1400 skiller' has 403 in speed which is double the Xanthos' and more than makes up for the lack of trotting skill. So in a trotting race, our '1400 skiller' would win every time against the Golden One!

However we compare Divines & Special horses against 'normal' horses, one thing is for sure. Eventually the skill levels of these ordinary horses will be higher than every current Divine & Special horse. Even the Cowbra which has 2000 overall skills.

But... Howrse won't let that happen will they? If we could all buy an ordinary Irish Hunter with 2300 skills then the market for Sleipnir's, Gypse's, Harlequins' etc would disappear. True, there are some horses such as Falabella's, Croesus' and Archimedes that are not highly skilled but still fetch a lot of money in the sales. But we, as players will always want a magical horse that is far, far better than any ordinary Arabian, Thoroughbred or Quarter Horse. So I think you can be sure that there will always be a new 'mega-skilled' horse just around the corner.

Like the new Divine horse 'Mist' which will be appearing at Christmas 2010. Now how many skills will he have I wonder?

Patsy

Objective 90 - Horn of Plenty

Objective 90 is an interesting one and we're keen to know how it works for you too. This objective simply involves opening a Horn of Plenty (HoP) and finding another HoP inside. I managed this with the first HoP I opened (click to enlarge the picture), so I'm wondering if it will be the same for everyone. Or was I just hugely lucky?

Let us know your experience. We tend to think that Howrse 'fixes' it so that the first HoP you open after completing/validating Objectve 89, will give you another HoP. In all the time I've played the game, I have only twice found a HoP inside a Horn of Plenty, so the chances are very small. If Howrse didn't artificially increase our chances, it could take years to complete Objective 90!

So let us know how you get on. Good luck.

Patsy

Secret Page Number 2 Objective 73

The link to Secret Page number two on Howrse can be found at the bottom of the Black Market page.

This is achievement/objective number 73. You have to visit the page above and click on the link.

However, you can only ever visit it once - when you are completing the objective. If you visit it before you have unlocked this particular objective, or try to visit it again afterwards the link won't be there!

Not the right secret page? Read our posts on Secret Page Number 1 and Secret Page Number 3.

Lucy

Owlient's 5th Birthday

Well we hope you're all enjoying the wealth of stuff going on to celebrate Owlient's 5th birthday. There's a stack of amazing prizes to be won in certain, lucky 'Horns of Plenty' (HoP's) including an iPad, Divine horses and other goodies. You just need to buy a HoP and then cross your fingers.

There are also a new set of objectives for us all as well. We'll be posting help and tips for those of you who are working towards these. We love helping out and have received loads of positive feedback from players who have found the answers they were looking for - on the last objectives.

So keep checking back and we'll be right here to help you!

Patsy

The Bewitched Pumpkin and more

It is nearly Hallowe'en (note the correct spelling!) and of course, Howrse have created lots of special things to keep us entertained. We'll be looking at them all in a bit more detail soon. But for now, here's a quick summary of what's on offer.

Firstly, there's the Bewtiched Pumpkin which gives your horse a special Hallowe'en-themed coat along with additional bonuses for your horse. There are four coats: The Bat, The Vampire, The Skeleton and The Ghost. They cost 2 passes each and are all animated! So they look fabulous.

Secondly, you can buy BM items (including the Bewitched Pumpkin) in 'Flash Sales. These sales allow you to buy BM items with equus, rather than passes. And you can choose between direct sales, at a fixed price, or auction sales where you can bid on the Black Market item of your choice.

Thirdly, there's a sweet fight taking place! You catch sweet 'UFO's and receive one for you and one for a friend. The 'sweets' are actually just like normal UFO's, so you'll mainly get stuff like apples and aging points.

In essence, this is all pretty similar to the 'Beach competition' of a few months ago. So expect to see plenty of spooky horses in the sales!

Have fun,

Patsy

Gypse crazy

Well Howrse know how to create a buzz don't they? In case you've somehow missed it, this weekend (until October 18th 2010) you have a chance to win a Gypse Divine horse in a Horn of Plenty (HoP).

Now the Gypse or 'sand' horses first appeared in the beach contest back in the summer when you could buy them in the beach sales and auctions, using sand as cash. You mainly earned sand from entering and finishing in the top three of competitions. Anyway, Howrse have decided to give the rest of us a chance to own one of these unusual divine horses.

As always these days (!) you're going to need a HoP to get a Gypse for free. However, as we all know - passes cost money. Either real cash or virtual 'equus'.


Now this mad scramble for passes has sent the private sales crazy, with people desperate to get hold of a precious pass. LucyLou and I have seen dozens of Harlequins up for sale for 500e and 12-20 passes. Also 'pass' horses (horses that are over 30 and not immortal, which, when they die, give you a pass) have shot up in value. Typically, we sell them for 35,000e but people are paying 55,000e and more just to get a pass.

And it's not just the private sales. The auctions are now starting to see Gypse sales too. And the prices are amazing. We're seeing bids of 3 to 5 MILLION equus as we stand. That's the same as Xanthos prices. Crazy indeed. However, last night I spotted (and missed, sadly) a Gypse in the private sales for 200,000e and 20 passes. Wish I'd grabbed it as I'd happily pay that for this rather wonderful Divine horse!

So, if you want a Gypse either buy a HoP (with a pass), buy one in the sales (if you're lucky enough) or bid on one in the auctions (have lots of equus). To search for a Gypse just enter 1200 in the GP (Genetic Potential) box which is listed in the 'advanced search' section of Private or Auction sales pages.

Good luck.

Patsy

UPDATE: Well fancy that. I'm now the proud owner of a Gypse, thanks to my dear friend - moonbean. I'm a lucky Patsy indeed!

1000 Dressage competitions

Good news. It can be done! I'm sure many of you are working hard towards completing the dressage objectives. The first level is pretty easy. The second is a bit trickier but the third set of objectives are a bit daunting to say the least - get 150 dressage competition wins and enter 1000 dressage comps! Click on the picture above to see the validation of objective 3 'Frequent Competitor'.

Now to get 150 wins you're going to need a really good horse. I entered my dressage comps with my fabulous Fresian 'Dress for Success' and my top Irish Hunter 'Natural Disasters'. Now because of the way dressage comps work, currently top Fresians have the best skills for this discipline: dressage, trot and gallop. Many of the dressage comps at the moment are for higher-skilled horses, but even if you don't have a very highly skilled horse, you can still get wins and most definitely, you can enter plenty of races.

A few days ago, these comps were really rare. A few would appear every 5 to 20 minutes. But you had to be quick as they would all go within about 60 seconds. It was pretty stressful! Happily now though, more and more people are setting up dressage events for us all to enter so you should find enough races to keep you busy.

And of course, as you complete the objectives, your win some nice prizes including Made-to-Measure saddles, Boreas's Lunges and for entering 1000 comps (as well as three 'lunges') you win a Nyx pack. Lovely stuff. And don't forget that you earn money when you enter races. My Irish Hunter earned me 46,000 equus and my Freisian bought in 55,000 equus!

So get competing and good luck. You only have until October 13th 2010 remember.

Patsy

Dressage Snow horse

To coincide with the new dressage competitions and objectives, Howrse have bought out a brand new, shiny Snow horse. And this lovely fella is designed to excel in, of course - dressage.

At present, the only way of getting this new Snow horse is by purchasing 30 passes before 11pm GMT on 26th September 2010. Although I'm sure you'll be able to get your hands on one in other ways before too long.

OK, so what are those important statistics on Howrse's latest Divine?

Like all Snow's, this one has a total of 1500 skills, with 350 skills in it's top two disciplines and 200 skills in the rest. For the 'dressage' Snow - it has 350 skills in Dressage and 350 skills in Trot. It has 1000 GP (Genetic Potential) and is 46 'starred'. When you get your new Snow he will be 500 years old and, like all other Divine's he cannot breed. But unlike other Divines (not including the Cowbra) he cannot be sold. And finally, his name is in white - indicating he's a 'dressage' Snow. All Snow's have a colour-coded name to show you what their speciality is.

So, that's the new Snow horse. Hope you enjoy yours!

Patsy

Dressage Competitions and Objectives

Howrse have just introduced a brand new competition - dressage!

Currently you can only win a dressage arena for your EC by opening a lucky Horn of Lushness but we guess they'll be open to everyone eventually. This means there aren't many about at the moment, so they're quite hard to enter - but keep trying you will come across one eventually.

To be good at Dressage your horse has to have good skills in Dressage, Gallop and Trot. We've found that this makes the Friesian the best breed enter and get wins. Although high dressage Irish Hunters are also doing quite well.

Howrse have also introduced a new set of Dressage based objectives. Six in total:

Dressage Objective 1: Enter 10 Dressage Competitions. Reward: 20 apples
Dressage Objective 1: Win 1 Dressage Competition. Reward: 500e

Dressage Objective 2: Enter 100 Dressage Competitions. Reward: 1 made-to-measure saddle and 1 Boreas's Lunge
Dressage Objective 2: Win 20 Dressage Competitions. Reward: 5000e and 1 Boreas's Lunge

Dressage Objective 3: Enter 1000 Dressage Competitions. Reward: 3 Boreas's Lunge and 1 Nyx Pack
Dressage Objective 2: Win 150 Dressage Competitions. Reward: 3 Boreas's Lunge and 1 Atalante's Pack

You can win some really great stuff, so good luck and get entering those Dressage Competitions.

Lucy

Boreas's Lunge

Lots of exciting new developments on Howrse right now. We'll be covering all of them in the next few days. But we thought we'd give you some info on one item which has raised a lot of questions in the forums - Boreas's Lunge.

So what is it and how do you get it?

Well Howrse describes it like this: Boreas's Lunge is a very handy object that you can use to improve the performance of the horses in dressage competitions. It brings excellent bonuses.


Obviously with the new dressage competitions coming (more about those soon), the Boreas's Lunge will by a handy little item to have to improve your horses' skills.

However, it can't be bought with passes at the moment. You can only win them as part of the new dressage objectives which end on October 13th. We'll talk all about this in another posting.

Back to the Lunge then. Here are the bonuses it gives you:

• Dressage: +6 %

• Galloping: +8 %
• 
  
• Trotting: +8 %

So get yourself entered into those dressage comps and let us know if you manage to get a Boreas's Lunge.

Good luck!

Patsy

EDIT May 2011 - The Boreas's Lunge is still not available to buy from the Black Market for passes. You have to win them in HoPs or other promotions.

Latest crazy Sleipnir auction

Prices on Howrse go up and down - we all know that. But some prices just seem to keep increasing. Sleipnir's used to sell for around 4-5 million equus. We've even seen them sell for under 3 million. Of course, Fire Sleipnirs are the most desirable, mainly because they look so utterly gorgeous and they always sold for the highest prices.

However, in recent weeks even the poor old grey, black, white and brown Sleipnirs' have been fetching increasingly high prices. Just last month I sold my black Sleipnir for an amazing 8 million equus. Now I'm not showing off. Honestly! It's just that we don't remember a non-Fire Sleipnir ever selling for such a high price.

Until now.

At the time of writing this, there is a grey (or gray if you live in the USA) Sleipnir in the auctions, that still has 4 days left to sell and is already on 9 million equus. This is a huge jump in prices and like nothing we've ever seen before. Obviously, we'll keep you updated and hopefully - let you know what he finally sells for.

Oh and one other thing - the top breeders have already managed to breed horses with over 1300 skills. So we're waiting excitedly to see when the first of these hit the sales. Expect some more very high prices for those!

We'll keep you posted

Patsy

How can we help you?

The fourms on Howrse are all fine and good. However it's often quite difficult to get yourself heard without some players telling you what you should or shouldn't be asking or even having your question closed by a Moderator.

Of course the rules and regulations are there for a reason, but we feel that sometimes good questions just get shouted down. So we would like to invite you, the lovely readers of Ultimate Howrse to send us your questions or thoughts.

If you have any questions about the game; anything you don't understand, any tips you'd like us to write about or maybe a wonderful idea you'd like to share - you can email us. But before you fire off that email, remember - we want reasonable, relevant and polite messages from you. OK? Alright then - here's the email address: ultimatehowrse@me.com.

We really want to involve you, the Howrse player and we want to help as many people as we can. But don't feel ignored if we haven't have time to reply to you personally as we expect to receive plenty of messages. We promise to read all your emails though and act upon as many suggestions and comments as we can.

After all - we all love Howrse don't we?

Patsy & LucyLou

Breeds - Newfoundland Pony

The Newfoundland pony is a breed of pony originating in Newfoundland (Canada). Their ancestors arrived in Newfoundland from the British Isles. They are generally hard working little ponies and easy keepers. They are one of the original pony breeds on Howrse.

- Species: Pony
- Size: from 11.1 hands to 14.0 hands

ALLOWED COATS

Roan 6 %
Black 7 %
Strawberry roan 1 %
Flaxen Chestnut 3 %
Flaxen Liver chestnut 1 %
Liver chestnut 8 %
Bay 12 %
Chestnut 11 %
Dark Bay 14 %
Cherry bay 12 %
Cremello 1 %
Light Grey 8 %
Dapple Grey 10 %
Mousey Grey 3 %
Dun 3 %

Top 3 skills: Showjumping, Speed and Galloping

Best competitions: Showjumping and Galloping Races

Lucy

Breeds - Canadian Horse

The Canadian Horse is a breed of horse developed in Canada. The Canadian Horse has influenced many other North American breeds, including the Morgan, American Saddlebred, and Standardbred. It originates from Canada. On Howrse, the Canadian Horse was one of the original breeds.

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

ALLOWED COATS

Black 49 %
Flaxen Liver chestnut 1 %
Cherry bay 7 %
Liver chestnut 12 %
Chestnut 3 %
Bay 9 %
Dark Bay 19 %

Top 3 skills: Stamina, Dressage and Jumping

Best competitions: Cross Country

Lucy

Breeds - Australian Pony

The Australian Pony is a breed of pony that developed in Australia. It was greatly influenced by the native British breeds, especially the Welsh Pony, as well as some Arabian bloodlines. On Howrse, the Australian Pony was one of the original pony breeds.

- Species: Pony
- Size: from 12.1 hands to 13.3 hands

ALLOWED COATS

Bay 11 %
Black 5 %
Light Grey 18 %
Cherry bay 4 %
Chestnut 9 %
Cremello 1 %
Dun 3 %
Dark Bay 4 %
Flaxen Chestnut 6 %
Flaxen Liver chestnut 1 %
Palomino 2 %
Roan 1 %
Strawberry roan 1 %
Liver chestnut 8 %
Dapple Grey 24 %
Mousey Grey 1 %
Fleabitten Grey 1%

Top 3 skills: Jumping, Speed and Dressage

Best competitions: Showjumping

Lucy

Breeds - Appaloosa

The Appaloosa is best known as a stock horse and is used in a number of western riding disciplines. It is known for its distictive leopard spotted coat and originates from the USA. They are one of the original breeds on Howrse.

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

ALLOWED COATS

Chestnut Blanket 14 %
Bay Blanket 9 %
Dun Blanket 3 %
Black Blanket 9 %
Palomino Blanket 6 %
Few Spots 1 %
Chestnut Leopard 9 %
Black Leopard 12 %
Chestnut Snowflake 3 %
Bay Snowflake 4 %
Black Snowflake 1 %
Chestnut Spotted Blanket 11 %
Bay Spotted Blanket 10 %
Isabelle Spotted Blanket 2 %
Black Spotted Blanket 3 %
Palomino Spotted Blanket 2 %
Black 1 %

Top 3 skills: Speed, Galloping and Dressage

Best competitions: Barrel Races and Galloping Races

Lucy

Breeds - Hanoverian

Hanoverian's are Warmblood horses originating from Germany. They are known for their good temperament, athleticism, beauty, and grace. On Howrse they are a very popular breed and regularly top the Showjumping elite.

-Species: Horse
-Size: from 15.0 hands to 16.3 hands

ALLOWED COATS

Chestnut 19 %
Bay 12 %
Cherry bay 9 %
Strawberry roan 1 %
Flaxen Chestnut 9 %
Black 7 %
Liver chestnut 12 %
Dark Bay 14 %
Light Grey 5 %
Dapple Grey 9 %
Mousey Grey 1 %
Roan 2 %

Top 3 skills: Showjumping, Speed and Galloping

Best competitions: Showjumping, Galloping Races and Barrel Races

Lucy

Where is the Notebook? Objective 32

The latest round of Objectives have thrown up quite a few questions which players have had a fair a bit of trouble with. The Secret Page question, which we have already written about here on Ultimate Howrse, has prompted a great deal of interest.

But we've noticed that Objective number 32 'Where is the Notebook' seems a current favourite.

So where is it? Well, as you'll see from the screen shot above (click to enlarge), it can be found on your Mail page and is the fourth tab along, above your list of emails.

The Notebook is really useful as you can keep details of trades you've done, contacts you've made or to keep track of horses you may be following in the auctions.

So now you know where it is, you can happily say "Objective 32 completed!"

Patsy

Archimedes

Archimedes is a Special horse and we don't just mean his breed. So, yes, firstly, Archimedes' are Special horses. The other breeds of Special horse are Harlequins and Falabellas. Now Archimdedes' is unique because players can win aging points from him. Players can get an aging point from one Archimedes each day, by visiting his page and answering a question correctly. It's as simple as that.

When a player answers a question correctly - the Archimedes gains intelligence. If you look at an Archimedes' page, you'll see a bar (like the ones for health, morale and energy) that show his intelligence. When players answer a question correctly, his intelligence increases. If they get the answer wrong, his intelligence decreases.

Archimedes' also look rather grand as they wear a special blanket and a mortar board, which is a special sort of hat that people wear when they have gained a degree at University. Archimedes is indeed a very clever fellow. Which brings us to the fact that, just like all Divine and Special horses - they are all male and cannot breed. He also has a rather low GP of just 350, so won't win you many races.

This breed of Special horse first appeared when Howrse closed down it's quiz site which was a separate site from the main game. Archimedes' didn't exist at this point. They were created and handed out by Howrse to people who had completed 100 challenges on the 'Howrse Quiz' site. There are 1,117 Archimedes' in the game although this figure may change as players leave the game.

So now you know about him, you can go and start getting those free ageing points!

Patsy

Birthday Unicorns

The latest special event from Howrse is happening now. To celebrate Owlient’s 5^th birthday, Howrse are releasing a ‘herd of Unicorns’ into the game. This is exciting stuff as there will be quite a few new Unicorn breeds that have never existed before.

In the last year or two, Uni’s have been rather overshadowed by all the Divine and Special horses. But Unicorns (formerly called Unicowrns) are really magical, pretty and fun to breed. Basically, apart from the wonderful horn on their head, Uni’s are pretty much the same as ordinary horses, but with one big difference.

Breeding.

When you breed two Unicorns together, you do not automatically get a Unicorn foal. Five times out of six (on average) you will just get an ordinary horse – a ‘non-Uni’. It’s down to luck and percentages. LucyLou once tried to breed a Unicorn 24 times to produce a Unicorn foal without success! However other players have managed to produce a Unicorn foal in two successive breedings. But the average is around 1 in 6.

Now, there’s also something VERY important to know about Unicorn breeding. You MUST breed your Unicorns at exactly 6.23am or 6.23pm GMT. This is also known as ‘Game Time’. If you cover your mare just 1 second outside of this minute, you will never produce a Unicorn. Harsh but true.

So that’s what you need to know about Unicorns. All you need to do now, to get one of these ‘Birthday Unicorns’ is buy 10 (must be 10 or multiples of 10) passes from Howrse! There’s always a little catch isn’t there?

Patsy

Howrse Training Methods - the basics

A lot of people often ask 'How do I train my horse'?

Now, there are lots of methods out there for training your horses. All are different and many depend on what you want to get out of your horses - do you want to breed from them or skill them to be elites or win competitions with them or something else that I haven't even thought of?

I have my preferred methods which I will share on this blog - but you may have a different way which works for you - that's fine too! I tend to skill elite horses rather than breed for the GP race so that's the plan I'll outline. I've owned several top 10 elites over the years so my methods can't be too bad!

For starters though let's go through some basic facts.

A horse is only as good as it's genetics. You can't 'make' a 1000 skiller from any horse - it has to be born to be one.

If you do no lessons:
A horse's total skills = The horse's GP + The horse's inborn skills

If you do lessons every day, you can add another 50+ skills on top of this calculation (depending on how good the EC you board them in is) and with WoY another 100+. So it's well worth always doing 2 lessons a day with every horse you train. Not only do you get extra skills but you make money as well - what could be better?

A day in the life of one of my horses...

1 and 1/2 hours pasture, salt stone, groom, lesson x 2, turnip, carrot (if bunny in box), feed, training (we'll go into more details in later posts), stroke, carrot, water.

As long as you keep and eye on the time and your horses energy levels then this basic outline should allow you to do maximum training with your horse each day and still get him to bed at 22:00 and with 20% energy.

Lucy

Snow Horses

Snow horses are another type of Divine within Howrse. Snow horses came about in a rather exciting way. On Christmas day, 2009, if you bought 30 passes Howrse awarded you a Snow horse. It was as simple as that.

Now there are five different Snow horses - one for each of the races. So, each type of Snow horse excells in different skills.

Howrse describes it like this:

* Blue indicates a specialist in cross-country.
* Red is for show jumping specialists.
* Green designates trotters.
* Purple is for horses specialized in gallop.
* Orange indicates a barrel-racing expert.

The Snow horses themselves are all the same colour, but their name 'Snow' is written in the same colour as their best skill - as shown above. All Snow's have 1500 skills, 1000 GP and 46 stars. Like all Divine horses, they are male and cannot breed. Unlike all other Divines so far (apart from the solo 'Cowbra') they cannot be sold. So you cannot buy them.

We love our Snow's but just wonder what this Christmas may bring...

Patsy

Howrse Riding Level 7 - Answers and info

You can take Riding Level 7 after you have been registered on Howrse for 80 days. If you pass, you win a Horn of Plenty.

You need to 80% of the answers correct in order to pass.

- What gene is responsible for making a chestnut horse palomino?

Cream

- Which hormones help regulate a mares pregnancy and foaling?

Oxytocin, Progesterone, Estrogen

- Mare gestation lasts about how many weeks?

45

- What season is it common to breed mares?

Spring

- Which bedding is it best to use when your mare is foaling?

Straw

- There are 2 base color genes for horses, what are they?

Black and red

- How many vaccinations should mares have while they are pregnant?

3

- Foaling usually takes several hours?

False

- When your horse refuses food and water, looks around at their sides, paws the ground and tries to lay down often, what is wrong?

They have Spasmotic Colic
They have Twisted Gut
They have Impaction Colic

- Stallions can be safe to turn out with mares to breed

False

- What does AI stand for

Artificial Insemination

- What are some factors to consider before breeding your mare

All of these

The Howrse Helper

Howrse Riding Level 6 - Answers and info

You can take Riding Level 6 after you have been registered on Howrse for 60 days. You win a Horn of Plenty if you pass this level.

You need to get 80% of the answers correct in order to pass.

- Where did fox hunting originate?

United Kingdom

- Who was the first equestrian to be inducted to the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame?

J. Michael Plumb

- What riding discipline is most popular in the United States?

Western

- What type of riding competition is the historic Sante Fe Trail?

Endurance

- What breeds of horses are represented by the acronym PRE?

Andalusian
Lusitano

- Which Olympic Three Day Event team won the gold in the 2000 Sydney Three Day Event?

Australia

- The Peruvian Paso is famous for

The Termino

- Which famous show jumper now has a line of English saddles?

Rodrigo Pessoa

- What is a Charro?

A traditional cowboy of Mexico

- Which kind of riding demands perfection riding in an upright position with a strong curvature of the haunches, regularity, skill and finesse in all of the natural gaits in dressage?

Haute école

- What rider, atop the horse Salinero, claimed gold in the 2004 Olympics for Individual Dressage?

Anky van Grunsven

- What nomadic people were meticulous in the careful, planned breeding of fine horses to gain desirable traits?

The Bedouins


Lucy

Howrse Riding Level 5 - Answers and info

Riding Level 5 can be taken once you have been registered on Howrse for 40 days. It enables you to become a Blacksmith.

You need to get 80% of the answers right in order to pass (that's 6 out of a possible 8).

Riding Level 5 - questions and answers

- Why do western boots have high heels?

To prevent the foot from sliding through the stirrup

- What is a Martingale used for?

To control the horse’s head

- When riding the best footwear you can use is:

a sturdy boot with a short heel

- When mounting your horse in an active arena with other riders, you should:

Use a mounting block
Ask somebody to hold your horse while you mount

- A red ribbon tied to a horse’s tail at a show means:

The horse might kick

- The bit was developed before the noseband:

True

- If your horse is participating in rigorous demanding work, he should have:

Splint Boots

- It is safe to leave a horse’s halter on when he is turned out in pasture:

False

- What is a Peacock Stirrup?

A safety stirrup

-According to the January 2008 regulations, any youth rider competing at an FEI sanctioned event must do what if they lose their Helmet?

They must stop, dismount, and secure their helmet before continuing

- Riding gloves can:

Protect your hands against the elements
Give you a better grip on the reins
Prevent blisters


Lucy

Howrse Riding Level 4 - Answers and info

After being registered for 30 days on Howrse, you can take Riding Level 4. This level allows you access to the Breeding Directory and lets you see information about genetics.

You need to get 100% of the answers right to pass.

- What should you do if your horse has a bowed tendon?

All of these

- Horses born with SCID virus have?

No immune systems

- What animals do horses commonly contract Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis from?

Opossums

- What is thrush?

Infection of a part of the horses hoof called the frog

- Horses can be allergic to bee stings?

True

- If your horse throws a shoe while you are riding what should you do?

Pad the hoof with cotton and wrap it

- It is important to de-worm your horse at least?

Every three months

- What does Mud Fever cause?

Painful sores and scabs on the horse's legs

- If your horse has colic, you should allow them to roll

False

- What are some signs that your horse may have West Nile Virus?

All of these

- What are some of the signs your horse has eaten a poisonous plant?

Difficulty breathing
Loss of interest in Food

- What is the Rhino Virus?

Equine Flu

Lucy

Howrse Riding Level 3 - Answers and info

You can take Riding Level 3 once you have been registered on Howrse for 20 days. It enables you to open your own Equestrian Centre.

You must get 100% of the answers correct to pass.

Howrse Riding Level 3 - questions and answers:

- How many stomachs do horses have?

One

-Feeding your horse sugary feeds and treats can give them cavities in their teeth:

True

- A horse that requires little extra dietary maintenance and maintains a healthy weight is often times called a:

Easy keeper

- If a horse needs 2.2 pounds of hay per 100 pounds of body weight per day, how much hay does a 900 pound horse need in a day?

19.8

- Pasture can provide your horse with an excellent source of fresh forage:

True

-When your horse refuses food and water, looks around at their sides, paws the ground and tries to lay down often, what is wrong?

They have impaction colic

- What is Founder?

Inflammation of the laminae of the hoof

- What vitamin is essential for a breeding stallion to have in his diet?

Vitamin A

- Which feed or grain provides a horse with the highest amount of energy?

Corn

- If your horse is lacking minerals, what can you do to help add more minerals to their diet?

Provide a Mineral Block
Feed a Veterinary recommended supplement

- Horses that are frequently exercised need what?

Increased protein
Increased carbohydrate


Lucy

Howrse Riding Level 2 - Answers and info

You can take Riding Level 2 after you have been registered on Howrse for 10 days. It will enable you to become Riding Instructor & gain access to the auctions/private sales depending on your Karma:

-If you have a Karma of at least 0 you will gain access to the auctions
-If you have a karma of at least 3, and you have 2 living horses, you will gain access to private sales

You must get 100% of the answers right to pass.

Riding Level 2 - questions and answers:

-When you tie your horse to a post, you should:

Tie a loose knot that will give if he spooks or runs

-Horses that are frequently exercised need what?
When leading a horse, you should walk directly in front of it to show it where to go:

False

-A horse should have access to fresh, clean water at all times:

True

-What is a curry comb?

A tool made of rubber or plastic with short teeth on one side

-When walking behind a horse, you should do which of the following?

Stand at least 6 feet behind the horse
Talk softly to the horse so it knows where you are

-A horse can get upset if it is separated from it’s herd:

True

-Which season of the year would a horse need a Blanket?

Winter

-If a horse’s ears are slanted backwards, it indicates he is:

Angry

-How often should a horse’s stall be cleaned if the horse is in it frequently?

Daily

-When you clip or shave off a section of the horse’s mane right behind it’s ears, this is called a:

Bridle path

-What are some common indications that a horse is bored when left in his stall?

All of these

-What is the basic harness item you should use to move your horse from one place to another?

Halter

-When leading a horse, you should walk directly in front of it to show it where to go?

False

-When walking behind a horse you should?

Talk to it softly so it knows you are there


Lucy

Howrse Secret Page Number 1 Objective 45

Looking for the link to Secret Page number one on Howrse?

The objectives have recently been updated and the secret page URLs changed - to keep them more secret!

The link to secret page no.1 can now be found by going to the creation space page - you'll find the link just above the timeline.

You need to click on it to complete achievement/objective number 45.

However, you can only ever visit it once - when you are completing the achievement. If you visit it before you have unlocked this particular achievement, or try to visit it again afterwards the link won't be there!

Ooooh spooky.

Not the right secret page? Read our posts on Secret Page Number 2 and Secret Page Number 3.

Patsy

Health Mashes in your EC

Right, so you've grown your cash crops and built up a good reserve of equus for your brand new EC.

So, what should you do next?

Well the next best thing to do is start growing all the things you'll need to make health mashes with. Health mashes add prestige to your EC and a lot of people look for them when choosing where to board their horse.

To make health mashes you'll need to grow:

Apples
Carrots
Wheat
Flax
Barley
Oats

Phew, it's quite a bit isn't it?

At this stage buy a greenhouse with the money you've raised (as then you can grow crops all year round which is invaluable for a new EC). Also, try to buy 15 acre fields and, if at all possible, scarecrows (if you can't afford these right now, or you can't/don't want to spend passes, don't worry - you can do it without!)

Always use manure as fertiliser - this shortens the time it takes for the crops to grow. And, if you do have the use of scarecrows - these mean you get twice as much harvest from the same field.

You'll only ever need to plant one crop of apples as the same field will give you a continous supply. You harvest them on the 1st day of each month.

You need to grow lots of carrots, as these are also available to boarders to give to their horses. Keep your supply topped up to ensure you don't run out. To get maximum prestige you need at least 30 carrots for every box you have.

Once you've grown and harvested all your ingredients go to your EC, click on Meadows and then click on produce mash. Choose health mashes and make as many as you can. For health mashes you need at least 10 for every box you have. But you can never have too many!

While all this is going on, you can start to get your EC competitions running. More about that in the next post.

Lucy

Monster Skills Glitch Update

OK, apparently the glitch is in the middle of being fixed. You should now be gaining the normal amount of skills from the Showjumping competitions. And, if you have a monster horse they will have their skills reset to what they should be shortly.

But hey, we had some fun whilst the glitch was happening - check out the skills that LucyLou managed to get on the little Shetland opposite (click to enlarge picture). 2407.27! Possibly the highest out there? We'll probably never know, but it looks pretty impressive!

Lucy

The Great Monster Skills Glitch 2010

Now, we've never seen anything like this before on Howrse. Take a look at the picture of the horse opposite. Notice anything strange? (Click to enlarge the pic).

Is it a new Divine horse? Is it one of Ow's 'experiments'?

No, it's just a normal horse trained on a very abnormal day. For some reason the jump races have today gone completely bonkers!

Right, so we know that when you train your horses they gain skills from entering competitions. And slowly these skills get less and less until they fall to zero and your horse becomes bolded in that skill.

Well today if you enter the jumping races you keep gaining the same amount of skills each time. Forever. So we've got 'Monster' horses running around with 600 skills each in dressage, speed and jumping! And over 2200 overall skills. It's mad!

According to the forums the developers are working on trying to sort the situation out but we don't quite know what's going to happen yet. Afterall this will affect the horse skill boards, the EC prestiges, the sand contest (think how much sand you can earn with a 'Monster'), the competition prestiges, the victory boards - and who knows what else!

We think it's quite amusing.

So keep your eyes peeled and let us know if you spot a 'monster'!

We'll keep you updated with what we know as this develops.

The Howrse Helper

This is a normal Newfoundland Pony

OK, so the screenshot to the left is of a normal Newfoundland Pony. Nothing remarkable about him is there? Quite pleasant to look at we think.

Now have a peek at the 'Newfie' below....

Patsy

And this is NOT a normal Newfoundland Pony

We're not quite sure how or why this has happened although it is, rather boringly, probably just a glitch on Howrse. However, we love this little fella. Isn't he cute? He reminds us of the old style Shetland Pony graphics.

Personally, we think he's a normal 'Newfie' who is a little scared by all the new Sand Horses and has run away to a safe distance! What do you think?

Patsy

Time's running out

The 'Sand Contest' doesn't have much longer to run on Howrse, and by all accounts it's been a big success. It seems most players have been able to earn enough sand to buy the various goodies on offer, even if that hasn't included those elusive Sand horses.

But, you can get a Sand Horse or a Nyx Pack cheaply if you manage to nab one in the private Beach sales. We were lucky enough to see a Nyx Pack come up for sale, as you can see on the nifty screenshot above. However, we couldn't bid because of the four day buying limit. Frustrating! But at least it proves that they do pop up in the private sales (on the Beach) from time to time.

And just today, Howrse has given us all some extra sand and promised to lower the prices of items in the sales. So get down to the beach before it's all over and you may just grab yourself a sandy bargain.

Patsy

What is a Humphrey?

I get asked this question a lot. Mainly because I have a Humphrey as my avatar. Many people think he's a Divine horse or a Special horse. Well, although he's special to me, he's just an ordinary Arabian with a Golden Apple (GA) coat on. It's just a bit of fun really. LucyLou has one too as do a few other players, although there are not many about.

The coat was created by 'moonbean' who has a very special version of the coat - with wings on. And my Humphrey (and other people's) is called that because that was the name moonbean gave to the GA coat when she created it.

The 'Humphrey' coat is now retired so you can't buy one unless you buy a horse with it already on. People seem to love the coat as much as we do and therefore it has become extremely collectable and valuable. Someone recently paid 200,000 equus and 20 passes for one! We often get offers for ours, but we love our 'Humph's' too much to sell them.

Another reason we love Humphrey is because he is so silly and fun. To celebrate this, moonbean has created a truly fabulous profile page which shows pictures of Humphrey travelling the world. If you search for moonbean's page in the Player's Directory, you can see for yourself why we love our Humphrey's.

And we hope you will too.

UPDATE: The lovely moonbean has been in touch with us and let us know that just 31 Humphrey GA coats were created. The last two appeared on 11th May 2010. An even rarer vesrion of the Humphrey coat - called 'Here's Humphrey' was a pegasus version of this fab coat. This one had just 3 uses. One of these can be seen on moonbean's page as the player's avatar. So Humphrey is indeed a very rare and wonderful coat - with or without wings!

Patsy

Growing Crops in your EC

Absolutely the first thing you should do when you get an EC is grow crops!

Don't spend your money on boxes, bedding, pets, staff or anything else - use it to buy fields, seeds and manure. This may sound weird but there is method in this madness...

Crops = cash!

Spend the first few weeks that you own your EC growing and harvesting crops to build up your equus reserve. Then, once you have a good amount of money, you can start to buy the boxes and employ the staff that you'll need. And you'll be able to afford much better quality. Which means your EC will get off to a flying start.

The seasons that you can plant crops (and how long they take to grow are shown below):

Carrot seeds - spring - 9 days
Wheat seeds - summer - 9 days
Barley seeds - spring - 10 days
Oat seeds - spring - 11 days
Turnip seeds - summer - 7 days
Pass seeds - autumn - 30 days
Apple seeds - autumn - A harvest every Fall
Flax seeds - spring - 8 days

The best things to grow are Flax in the spring and Turnips in the summer - these will bring in the most money when you sell them back to the store.

We'll explain about the other crops that you'll need to grow in a future post.

So it is true - sometimes money does grow on trees (well on crops anyway!)

Lucy

A rare thing

There's a good chance you will have seen a Sand Horse in the 'Beach' auctions in the last couple of weeks. The price they are selling for is increasing as players get more sand piles. We've seen them sell for 12 and 13000 piles of sand. They occur pretty much every day.

However....

Seeing a Sand Horse in the private 'Beach' sales is really rare. It's even rarer to get a screenshot. But we managed just that as you'll see. As far as we can recall, Sand Horses sell for just 500 sand piles in the private sales. So whoever nabbed this one got a truly fantastic deal.

Just a shame it wasn't us!

Patsy

Sand everywhere. Life's a beach

Well the big sand and water balloons event is now running. Many people are still unsure of the details so we thought it would be a good idea to explain things. First up - Sand.

The idea behind this is that you can earn 'sand' which is a temporary currency that you can use to buy gifts. So, the first question you may be asking is: How do I earn 'sand'? Well Jaguar (one of the Moderators) helpfully posted a thread to explain things. So here's how you earn 'sand':

- Winning competitions 3rd place and above
- Training/rides
- Logging in each day
- Birthing a foal or twins
- Buying passes ( with real money)

The fastest way to earn 'sand' we've found is to enter races. Now, to find out how much you can earn from races, click the 'Participate' button from the Howrse home page. There you will see a list of the sales as well as a list of the sand items you can win. it's a little confusing because it says you win things such as seahorses, whelks and starfish. In fact - these just represent what you win in terms of 'sand' (currency). For example, if you hover your mouse over the hermit crab icon it tells how often you will win 'sand' and how much you will win. In this case, it says "regularly when you place in the top 3 of a competition" and it tells you that you win 4 sand piles. So you still win 'sand' even if you don't win a race. Below this list is your total 'sand' earnings.

Below your earnings total are the two selling areas. The first is just like the private horse sales. You pay a fixed price (in the 'sand currency remember) for items such as Passes, Laurels and Horns of Plenty. Beneath this is just like the horse auctions. You have to bid against other players to win the item.

Beware though: you can only buy 1 item for each sale, every four days.

Well good luck and get earning that sand. Next time we'll explain the water balloons.

Enjoy the beach!

Patsy

Your Horse's Health

Keeping your horse's health up at 100% is vital if you want him to be happy and successful.

Horses lose health for a variety of reasons including:

- Being too fat or too thin
- Not going to bed before 22.00
- Going to bed with less than 20% energy
- Not being groomed

If your horse does lose health then check the above factors. If he is too fat or too thin it will tell you this when you click on the 'Feed' icon. If he is too fat, give him half of what it tells you to. If he is too thin give him twice as much as it tells you to.

Putting your horse in the meadow or box and doing lessons with him will improve his health. If you are in an EC with health mashes give him one of these - this will immediately improve his health by 10%. However, you can only give a mash every 3 days.

If your horse does lose health then stop training him. If you train a horse with low health he will gain less skills than he would otherwise have done. You can continue with lessons though until he is better and ready to start training again.

Always make sure you put your horse to bed before 22.00, with 20% or more energy and that he has been groomed. If you do all this then your horse will stay happy and healthy!

If your horse is over the age of 25 and NOT immortal then he will slowly lose health the older he gets. This is simply him getting too old. If he dies over the age of 30 and you send him to Heaven you will get a pass in return.

Lucy

Croesus

The Croesus' first appeared on Howrse in the spring of 2010. To get one, players had to be in the first 100 players to reach level 10 of the 'old' Achievements. Myself and LucyLou were lucky enough to be amongst those first 100 players. As it happened, about 120 Croesus' were given out originally, due to variations in people getting their level 10 of the Achievements.

Each of these first 100 or so players was also awarded a 'VIP' icon which remains on their profile pages. After the first 100+ players had won their Croesus', Howrse decided to allow people the chance of winning one (without the 'VIP' badge icon!) in Horns of Plenty. This obviously meant many players were buying a lot of passes in the hope of winning one of these rare Divine horses.

Now all the Croesus' have been given out and there are less than two hundred in the game - making them both rare and valuable. One or two have been sold in the auctions and have fetched a huge amount of equus - around 4.5 million!

So, what are Croesus' and what do they do? Well here is Howrse's own explanation:


Croesus is a Divine horse that produces money instead of manure. Every 13th day of each month, Croesus earns his owner 1 pass provided the owner was logged on the previous day. If the 13th falls on a Friday, Croesus earns his owner 2 passes.
Every month, one horse among those named Junior Croesus is turned into Croesus.

Aside from this, Croesus' skills aren't that great - just 470 skills when you get them. They can be Clouded so will make around 505 skills. Like all Divine's - they are male and cannot breed.

However, they are a lovely addition to anyone's collection - especially if you also have that little pink 'VIP icon sitting on your page!

Patsy

Xanthos stroking

Every day you login on Howrse you are allowed to stroke up to 5 Xanthos'. Each Xanthos you stroke gives you a chance of winning 1000 equus and a Horn of Plenty (HoP).

If you are lucky enough to win one, Howrse will let you know by sending you an email (on your Howrse account). Then you need to go to the Black Market, choose 'Horn of Plenty' and open one. Make sure to select from the one you have in your stock and not to use a pass to buy one!

So how do you find 5 Xanthos? There are several ways, but our favourite is to use one of the Xanthos lists. Not only are all (or most) of the Xanthos' listed in one place, some lists have an automatic stroke feature. This means you just click on the link to a Xanthos and is stroked automatically. The easiest list we know of is in the EC forum owned by the Moderator 'funnyone'. You can find her in the list of 'Mods' at the top of the Event forum page or the Game Play forum.

We tend to win a HoP (and 1000 equus) a couple of times a week. And getting free Black Market items in a HoP is really pretty fabulous. So make sure you get your '5 a day' and good luck!

UPDATE: We've kindly been sent a link by CraXoR, who used to play on Howrse. This link allows you to stroke 5 Xanthos' at once! So here's the link for you: Instant Xanthos Strokes


Patsy

The new Howrse Objectives/Achievements 2010

Well the 'new' Achievements (now called Objectives) are with us and players have given good and bad feedback regarding them. Personally, we believe that they are a good idea and something new and fresh for every player to enjoy.

For those of you that remember that old Achievements, these new ones are, generally, much easier to do. Obviously the next batch will surely be more demanding, but that can only be a good thing. It will be interesting to see how many of the later Objectives will require the purchase of passes. We've noticed quite an increase in pass-related events, challenges and offers recently. Things such as the chance to win Sleipnirs, Croesus' and Falabellas in HoP's seem to generate a huge demand for passes. We'd really like to see the next set of Objectives focus on the games itself, rather than the need to buy passes to make those goals. We shall see.

As for the first lot of Objectives, we've seen a large number of enquires in the Game Play forum about certain questions. Especially No.19 - the one about putting a given number of your horses to bed. This one is, actually quite straightforward: the number of horses you have to put to bed is double the number of horses you own. So if you own 33 horses, you have to put horse(s) to bed 66 times. If you own more than 50 horses though, the maximum number you have to put to bed is 100 - which was a big relief to LucyLou who has over 5000!

The other thing about the this Objective is that you can put many horses to bed or just one horse. I simply aged my horse until my Objective validated. And one final thing on No.19 - you will probably have to put your horse(s) to bed a few more times than it says. Mine was about three extra times. No idea why - but don't give up and you'll be fine.

Good luck!

Patsy