The Enchanted Greenhouse

There's a brand new contest on Howrse today - the Enchanted Greenhouse.

Until the 9th December, the aim is to grow seeds until they bloom into flowers giving you gifts. The gifts are the usual sorts of things - BM items, aging points, turnips and tack items.

If you get 30 seeds to bloom you get a special Gold seed which offers you a new Wild Horse - the Garrano. And if you really do have green fingers and you get 40 seeds to bloom you win another Gold seed which offers you a Brumby Wild Horse.

There are 5 types of seed - Blue, Purple, Pink, Green and Gold. Each offers a different set of gifts.

You can win seeds in the following ways:

• When you log in for the first time each day
• By completing daily missions
• When you get certain flowers blooming
• In the flash sales
• By opening Horns of Plenty (‪2‬ seeds per Horn of Plenty)

Your seeds grow a little bit each day you log in. You can help them along by watering them or by giving them fertiliser.

You can win fertiliser by:

• By completing daily missions
• When you get certain flowers blooming
• In the flash sales
• By opening Horns of Plenty (1 fertiliser per horn of plenty)

Some of the missions also allow you to water your plants more often.

The picture below shows you how long each type of seed takes to grow.

So good luck and happy gardening!

Lucy

When Howrse was 'born'

Howrse - April 2007

For those of you that don't know, Howrse first appeared in April 2007.

The game was really quite different then to how it is today.

Amongst the many things that didn't exist then are: Divine horses, the Pegasus account, Western Competitions, the Grand Prix, 25 breeds of horse, Unicorns, the Item Exchange, diamonds and so much more.

There were also things which existed then but have since disappeared, such as foal games (to earn GP),  comments on horse sales, salt stones, abortions (yes, really - pretty controversial) and an icon-only navigation menu.

Well, we've uncovered some screen shots from the early days of Howrse and thought we'd share them with you. Just click on them to view in full size.

Enjoy your nostalgic trip!

Patsy

The Treasure Race

This week Howrse have introduced a new contest - the Treasure Race.

It's a slight variation on the Pinata contest which we saw earlier in the year. The idea is that you have to click on your current obstacle to knock it down, earn gifts and move to the next level.

There are 20 obstacles in total and if you knock them all down you win a Treasure Chest which contains a new Divine horse - Earth.

To start off with you can click on an obstacle once every 24 hours. Your friends can also help you out at a cost of 200e and a maximum 3 friends per day. The first level requires 2 clicks to complete.

If you complete the objectives on the first two levels you can then click on your obstacle every 12 hours and have up to 4 friends help you. As you move through the levels you'll get more and more help but the number of click taken to complete a level will also increase!

The contest runs until the 18th October - so good luck and enjoy your adventure!

Lucy

Trophies

Howrse has recently introduced the Trophies for those players who have completed all the 100 Objectives.

The idea is that if you collect a certain set of horses, or coats or UFOs you earn a Trophy which is displayed on your page. There is a new ranking to be part of and the top player currently has 180 trophies.

The first set of trophies concern having all the available coat colours for each breed on Howrse. So if you own all the different coat colours of Arabs, you earn a trophy.

There are also trophies for owning Divine and Wild Horses, Golden Apples, Unicorns, Companions (remember those!) and even having a large amount of manure!

You can see your Trophy collections by going to Profile -> My trophies.

So good luck with your collections and let us know how you're getting on.

Lucy

The Titans' Challenge - new Black Market item

Howrse have introduced a new Black Market item called the Titans' Challenge.

It is a bit of a twist on a Horn of Plenty, as the Titans' Challenge allows you to win gifts for your horses but you have to take a bit of a gamble.

The item costs 2 passes. When you purchase it, like a Horn of Plenty, it takes you to a special page where it tells you what you have won. However, with the Titans' Challenge you can decide if you would like to accept the gifts you have been given or go on to the next level to try and win even better prizes.

The gifts can be anything from aging points, ranking points and equus to Black Market items.

Beware though, if you reach a level with no prizes, you automatically lose everything you already have! So decide if you think it's worth the risk or not.

Some people have managed to get all the way to level 8 where you can win a Wild horse of varying breeds.

Until 08.00 Game Time on Monday 24 September you can win a free Titans' Challenge to try for yourself - you just need to win 10 competitions with your horses.

Here's how I got on with mine...

This is the page you get at first...

...I think I'll keep going...

...still going well...

Oh dear!

So good luck - and let us know what you win!

Lucy

Set the horses free!

Well it's a brand new contest on Howrse this week - Set the horses free!

Basically you have to complete a series of levels to earn prizes using your own horses. Each country or level asks you to set free three horses with specific traits. For example, on the first level you have to set free a horse with a black coat. So you have to chose a horse you own with a black coat and set them free.

NOTE: You will not get your horses back. If you chose to set them free then they will disappear from the game.

You can win all sorts of prizes from Black Market items to tack, food and diamonds. The top prize for completing all the levels is Venus - the brand new Solar System Divine.

You can earn Joker horses which automatically fill the place of a horse you don't have. You earn one every day for logging in and can buy more using passes or equus.

So it's a bit of a different contest this time round - have fun but remember not to let your horses go if you don't want to!

Lucy

All new Howrse foal games July 2012

Since the removal of the companions in July 2012, Howrse have made some further changes to foal games.

You can now play games with foals between the ages of 8 months and 1 year and 4 months. Your foal will earn an extra 60 skills for completing games correctly, rather than the 1.2 GP gain (they now get this automatically at birth).

Follow our all new foal games method below CAREFULLY and you will get the full 60 point skill gain for a foal of any breed.

Board your foal in an EC with carrots and 100% clean and fertile meadows. Ensure your foal is put to bed aged 6 months with 100% morale - this is very important! If it's below 10C you will need to put your foal to bed in the box each night.


8 months
Groom/1 Hr Pasture/1 Hr Games/Turnip/Feed 4 Pounds/1 Hr Games/1.5 Hrs Pasture/7 Hrs Games/Stroke/Carrot/Water

10 months
Groom/1 Hr Pasture/1 Hr Games/Turnip/Feed 4 Pounds/8 Hrs Games/Stroke/Carrot/Water

1 year
Groom/1 Hr Pasture/1 Hr Games/Turnip/Feed 4 Pounds/9 Hrs Games/Stroke/Carrot/Water

1 year 2 months
Groom/30 Minutes Pasture/1 Hr Games/Turnip/Feed 4 pounds/10 Hrs Games/Stroke/Carrot/Water

1 year 4 months
Groom/2 Hr Games/Turnip/Feed 14 Pounds/10 Hrs Games/Stroke/Water

Check out our post on Training Methods to find out what to do next.

Lucy

The Companion Journey

The companions are going home!

To celebrate the fact that Howrse are releasing all the companions back into the wild they're holding a contest - called the Companion Journey - from now until 2nd August.

This is very similar to the journey to the North Pole if anyone remembers that from last year.

You can send all the companions you have left in your inventory off on a journey to earn you gifts. Don't worry though, any companions that are already on your horses will stay.

There are 5 natural habitats that give different gifts and are the home of different companions:

• Farm
• Prairie
• Forest
• Savannah
• Divine

You can win lots of things from aging points and equus to BM items and the new Solar System Divine: Neptune. Journeys take a different number of days and different companions depending on the gift. You need to have completed 25 journeys before you can go and get a Neptune.

NOTE: Your companions DO NOT return at the end of their journey - so plan carefully!

You can earn extra companions in various ways:

• by logging in each day (4 per day)
• by winning competitions (max. 4 per day)
• by coming last in competitions (max. 4 per day)
• in the store
• in UFOs
• in the special companion exchange that has been set up
• in HOPs (4 in each)

At the end of the contest any remaining companions will be removed from the game and you will be credited with 100e for each.

As the companions have been removed from the game you can no longer play foal games with your foal. Foals are now automatically given the 1.2 GP gain at birth. You can however now play games to gain extra skills - visit our All new foal games July 2012 post to find out how.

Lucy

Howrse Cup

A brand new game is coming. It's called Howrse Cup and the game is currently is beta testing with a selected number of players from around the world. There is already some information on this new game, in the Events forum on International Howrse.

Here at Ultimate Howrse, we will be bringing you all you need to know about this groundbreaking new game which will be launched on 24th July 2012.

The game is a limited time game. That means it will only exist for a few months, before the servers are closed. This is because Howrse Cup is a group competition game where the focus is on competing against other teams of players, rather than spending time breeding and training your horses.

The aim of the game is to be the team who win the world championship in December.

A team has up to 15 members and the top 25 teams who collect the most diamonds in the next few months qualify to compete in the world championship for the Howrse Cup. The players of the team that win the Howrse Cup each get 100 passes and a new and exclusive Divine which they can activate on any server they wish.

To earn diamonds on Howrse Cup your horses need to win races. Every race you enter and place 1st - 4th brings you diamonds. The player and team rankings are all based on how many diamonds you have.

You can also enter challenges against other players to try and win their diamonds off them. For a challenge each player enters 2 horses into a Trot, Gallop, Showjumping, Cross Country and Dressage head-to-head competition. Whoever wins overall gets the diamonds.

However, it's not as easy as it sounds. On Howrse Cup you cannot see the skills or GPs of any of the other players horses - so you have no idea what you're up against!

The game is set up to make it as easy as possible to get your horses trained and start competing. Horses age 4 months instead of 2 and there are no WoYs, there are no rides, no strokes, no turnips and training is done in chunks of 3 hours in a single click.

There are no foal games, your horses age every 6 hours instead of waiting for the update and you can only buy / sell 1 horse a week (unless you have a Unicorn Account, similar to Howrse's Pegasus Account). Another thing is that you can't make your horses immortal!

Horses only start to lose health after the age of 30 and they never lose their skills - so you can keep them alive with Black Orchids if you wish. It takes a while to get used to after playing Howrse but is really simple once you pick it up.

So, an exciting development from Owlient and one we will be following closely. And of course, we will bring all the news and developments as they happen. Watch this space!

UPDATE: A lot of you are asking questions about the Howrse Cup, both here and in the forum on Howrse. Here are answers to some of those:

Q. Can I bring my horses over from Howrse to the Howrse Cup?

A. No. You start from scratch with just one horse

Q. Do you HAVE to buy passes to play?

A. No. But without passes, you have no chance of winning enough races to gain enough diamonds for your team, to climb the rankings.

Q. What is the point of the Howrse Cup.

A. To win. You join (or create) a team of players and compete against other teams to win as many diamonds as possible.  You win diamonds by coming 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th in races. That's it!

Finally, there is a great deal of chatter about the Howrse Cup. It's important to be clear - this is a separate game from Howrse. It runs on it's own server and is a short-term, competitive game. It is designed to be very fast-paced and well, competitive! 

There are no free BM items or passes to help you. The second the game starts, players will be buying dozens, hundreds of passes to race and breed their horses. The game is designed to make breeding and training much faster than on horse - so you can concentrate on entering races. BUT those players who can buy passes and give every BM item to their horses will be the ones who win the most diamonds for their team.

To BLUP a horse on The Howrse Cup only takes about 10-15 minutes! This game is fast and to be competitive you definitely need to buy passes.

If you cannot (or don't wish to) buy passes then of course you can still play. Just don't expect to earn many diamonds and don't feel too sad when more highly skilled horses 'stomp' on yours. It will happen I'm afraid. However you can still enjoy the fun of getting a team together and doing the best you can - passes or no passes.

Well, either way, everyone (over 13 years old - according to the rules from Owlient) will be able to join the Howrse Cup from July 24th. Then you can see for yourselves what the fuss is all about!

UPDATE: The game is now live. Enjoy!

Patsy

Howrse Lottery Summer 2012

The Howrse Summer 2012 Lottery

Yes, it's back - this week Howrse relaunched the Lottery, one of our favourite contests.

We like the lottery as it's something everyone can take part in and win some great prizes.

Until 12th July there are four Lottery draws a day at 00:00, 14:00, 18:00 and 20:00 Game Time.


Here's how to earn tickets:

• You can buy an unlimited amount of tickets per draw with your equus. The price starts at 100e for the first ticket but triples each time, so the second costs 300e, the third 900e etc.
• Your friends can give you tickets (maximum of 5 per draw and each friend can only send you 1 ticket throughout the whole contest).
• Each time you use a pass you will receive 3 tickets (horse purchases do not count).
• You get a ticket each time your horses win a competition (maximum 2 per draw).

There are lots of great prizes available from aging points to equus, diamonds to BM items and even a months Pegasus account subscription. You can also win a horse of the new breed: a Curly. The top prizes are a pack of 3 passes, a Falabella and the new Solar System Divine, Mercury.

Your lottery tickets also allow you to win stars. Each time you collect a certain number of stars you get a gift. So once you've earnt 5 stars, you get 1000 equus, 10 stars gives you 5 aging points etc. all the way up to 3000 stars, which earns you a Falabella.

So get buying those tickets and see what you win!

Lucy

Ultimate Howrse on holiday

Well summer is here and that means that many of us are thinking about our holidays and vacations. And Ultimate Howrse is no different. Patsy and Lucy will both be heading off for a couple of weeks to enjoy the sunshine and recharge their batteries.

Even though we will be working on our tans, it doesn't mean we will be neglecting Ultimate Howrse and all our lovely readers. However, it does mean that we may not be posting as often as usual. We are sure you will allow us a little time off!

We will be keeping an occasional eye on all the goings-on on our beloved Howrse, and will ensure that we keep up to date with any major changes, competitions or new Divines that may appear in the next 14-16 days.

And once we both return from our respective summer breaks, we shall of course, be back working hard to bring you all the latest news, tips, help and advice from your favourite horse game in the World!

Have a great summer,

Patsy & Lucy

The Pinatas

Edit - This is an old post relating to the Piñatas in 2012.

Find out about the 2017 Piñatas here

It's summer and so it's time to welcome the Piñatas to Howrse.

Until June 20th you can try to smash open Piñatas and win gifts by clicking on them. There are 20 Piñatas to crack and if you manage to open them all you win the latest new Solar System Divine - Jupiter.

Your Piñata will open once you have reached the required number of points. You can earn points in the following ways:

• by clicking on your Piñata (at first you can do this every 24 hours but it becomes more often as you complete objectives)
• by asking your friends to click on your Piñata (at first up to 4 friends can help you per day, again this increases as you complete objectives)
• by completing objectives

Each Piñata offers between 1 and 3 additional objectives. If you complete these objectives they allow you to collect extra clicks. For example, on Piñata number 1 the objective is to groom a horse. If you do this you are allowed to click on your Piñata every 12 hours instead of every 24.

These objectives are cumulative. So if you earn extra clicks from friends on one Piñata, it will carry over to the next one to make it easier to open. Be warned though, the number of clicks it takes to open each one increases as you go along. So Piñata number 1 only requires 2 clicks to open but Piñata number 5 takes 16 and so on.

Each Piñata offers gifts once opened ranging from apples and diamonds to Black Market items.

We think this is quite a fun contest. Let us know how you're getting on!

Lucy

Mars - the new Solar System Divine

Mars - the new Divine

As we predicted, Saturn is not the only Divine in the Solar System set of horses - please welcome Mars.

He could be won in the Journey Cards promotion earlier this month.

Mars is 3000 years old and has 1200 skills. You can go on rides on the supernova to increase his skills further and every time you gain 20 skill points he will give you a diamond.

Were you lucky enough to win him? Let us know.

Lucy

The journey scratch cards

Yes, Howrse have bought back one of our favourite contests - the scratch cards - this time under the name of the Journey Cards.

Until 31st May you can collect cards to scratch which offer various gifts and prizes.

You can win cards in the following ways:

• The first time you log in each day
• When your horse wins competitions (2 per day)
• Buying them in the Flash Sales (you can buy a maximum of 1 card in each type of sale every 3 days)
• Exchanging duplicate cards (costs 5 diamonds and you can only exchange 1 per day. However you are guaranteed not to get another duplicate)

Apparently there may be more ways to get cards (possible involving HoPs!) later on in the contest.

The first set of cards are called the Collector Cards. These cards give you prizes as soon as you scratch them - for example equus, BM items, saddlery or even the Divine horse Mars.

The second set of cards are called the Puzzle Cards. There are 7 puzzles to complete and you have to collect all 5 cards from each puzzle before you get your gift. The puzzles are as follows:

• The Desert Puzzle. Prize: Philosopher's Stone
• The Forest Puzzle. Prize: 20,000e
• The Jungle Puzzle. Prize: Morpheus' Arms
• The Meadow Puzzle. Prize: 5 x diamonds
• The Savanna Puzzle. Prize: a Knabstupper (a new breed of horse)
• The Mountain Puzzle. Prize: 5th element
• The Hiking Puzzle. Prize: Poseidon's Pack

If you complete all the puzzles you win a Treasure Chest containing a new wild horse - the Camargue.

You get to your cards by clicking on 'The Cards' link at the top of any page. From that page there is then a link to the Flash Sales.

PLEASE NOTE. To scratch a card you rub your mouse over it. If you are having trouble seeing or scratching your cards it may be that you don't have flash on your computer. For example if you are playing on an iPad or iPhone you will not be able to scratch your cards.

Saturn - the new Divine

Saturn - the new Solar System Divine

Well, we haven't actually had a new Divine on Howrse for a while. Most contests have involved winning one of the new Wild Horses.

So it's time to say hello to Saturn who can be won currently during the painting contest.

Now Saturn is part of the Solar system horses. So I think we can safely assume there will be more Divines named after planets / moons in the future!


Saturn is born aged 3000 with 1200 skills. You can go on rides in the Milky way to increase his skills.
On every full moon (so roughly once a month), Saturn will give his owner 5 diamonds, as long as you have logged in at least once over the past 3 days.

Let us know if you've managed to get yourself a Saturn and what you think of having more Divines on the game.

Lucy

The Howrse Painting Contest

Well, another week and another new contest on Howrse. Is it me or are there rather a lot at the moment?!

This one is brand new and called the Painting Contest.

What you have to do is collect cans of paint by doing various things around Howrse and use them to complete paintings. Each time you complete a painting you win a gift. So if you complete the first painting you win a Helios' Ray, if you complete the second a Golden Apple etc. You can complete them in any order and the gifts range from apples and ageing points to 5th elements and Nyx Packs. It is only possible to complete one painting per day.

Here's how to earn cans of paint:

• When you log in for the first time each day
• When your horses win competitions (max 3 per day)
• When your horses come last in competitions (max 3 per day)
• On your horses birthday (max 2 per day)
• By opening Horns of Plenty
• In the Flash Sales (auctions and direct, you can win 1 gift in each type of sale every 2 days)
• With UFOs
• By combining cans of paint

The last option lets you create colours from the colours you already have. So for example you can make an orange can by mixing together red and yellow.

Now there is another use for your cans of paint. You can use them instead to create your Masterpiece. This is basically a giant blank canvas on which you can colour in individual pixels.

There are two sets of prizes for this.

• You can try to colour as many pixels as you can (currently at the time of writing the leading player has already coloured in 502 pixels) and the top 10 players who colour the most win the new Divine horse Saturn.
• Or you can create an actual picture on your canvas and put it up for voting. The players of Howrse will then vote for their favourites and again the 10 best will win the new Divine horse Saturn.

So get colouring and have fun with your creations!

Lucy

Chincoteague Wild Horse

Howrse has just released the latest wild horse - the Chincoteague.

Now getting one is really quite easy. If you have access to the private sales you'll find one ready and waiting for you in your reserved sales. Unfortunately they cost 12 passes - so it's up to you whether you buy it or not!

You can buy as many as you like. Once you have bought the one that is reserved for you, another will appear in it's place, also priced at 12 passes.

They can be tamed just like all the other wild horses on Howrse - the Misaki, the Spanish Mustang, Sorraia and the Exmoor. If you're one of the first to tame yours it will have a number in its affix and a higher GP. They also give you diamonds up to the age of 80 years old.

So let us know if you're going to buy one and what you think of this new way of earning them!

Lucy

Wandering Horses April 2012

Yes, as from 3rd April 2012, the Wandering Horses competition has retuned to Howrse. As before, there are a number of tasks and objectives you need to complete in order to win a range of 'Wandering' horses. Well, we say 'win' but you only actually get to keep them for five days before they 'wander' off.

The competiton runs until 16th April and in that time you have to attempt to win all 9 horses and if you do, you win (and get to keep) the latest of the new Wild Horses - Sorraia. However, this is easier said than done. Some of the Wandering Horses are easy to win because you are simply required to login in to Howrse, be congratulated by other players or enter your horses into competitions.

Other Wandering Horses can only be won if you buy lots of Horns of Plenty (HoPs) or give equus to Ow. Some of these tasks are either difficult and/or expensive. On the bright side - with each Wandering Horse that you win (you need to gain 100 points per horse) you get prizes such as Achilles' Heels, Aging points, Harmony packs etc.

Now the number of horse competitions you must win, or amount of equus you must give to Ow, in order to win your Wandering Horses, varies from player to player depending on how many horses and equus you have. So if you have 100,000e then you will need to give Ow far less equus than if you have, say, 35,000,000e. This is designed to make it fair to all players.

One other feature of the Wandering Horses competiton is that a mystery horse will become available on 13th April at midday (Game Time). We don't know any more about it yet, or what objective you will have to achieve to win it.

So in the meantime, enjoy gathering your Wandering Horses and good luck!

Patsy

Howrse Bingo

It's Bingo time on Howrse! Until the 2nd April you can take part in the Bingo contest and win a variety of gifts each day.

Every day you log into Howrse you are given 4 Bingo grids to try and complete. You can collect the numbers you need to complete the grids in the following ways:

• when you log in for the first time each day (25 numbers)
• when your horses play (maximum 10 per day)
• when you give horses a turnip (maximum 10 per day)
• when you register your horses in the Grand Prix (you get 1 numbers per horse, the amount of entires depends on what GP bonuses you have)
• in the flash sales
• with UFOs
• when you use your passes (excluding horse purchases) (1 pass used = 1 number or a bonus)

A bonus number (won by using passes or in the flash sales) allows you to pick any number you need in order to finish a line or grid.

To earn the first gift you have to complete one line of 5 numbers on one of your grids. You can complete a line horizontally, vertically or diagonally. To win the second gift, you have to complete two lines on the same grid. To get the third gift, you have to follow the directions given on the contest page which change each day.

Every night a lottery draw takes place and 6 lucky players who completed a whole grid the day before will win the brand new wild horse: Exmoor.

You can also buy extra grids using your equus. Remember though, the bingo grids only last one day. At the update everything is reset and you get a new set of grids to complete along with some new prizes.

Happy Bingo number collecting!

Lucy

Training Method - Classical Horses

This is the training method that I use with basically all of my horses. There are lots of other methods and approaches out there but I find that this works best for me.

Once a horse has finished foal games this is the method I follow to get Classical Horses blupped and bolded.

Remember to always do a lesson every day as well.

Training schedule:

• Short Trot rides
• Speed training
• Dressage training
• Showjumping comps to bold Speed and Dressage
• Once you're not gaining anything from Showjumping comps complete the Jumping training
• Cross Country comps
• Once you've not gaining anything from Cross Country comps complete the Stamina training
• Gallop and Trot comps until you're not gaining anything
• Gallop training
• Trot training
• Long Steep Slope rides and Long Gallop rides to finish bolding

Following this I usually get my horses bolded and blupped by the age of 10 years. The horse usually picks up his 20 wins quite easily from the Showjumping and Cross Country comps. I then do Beach Rides if required.

Lucy

Looking to train a Western Horse? See our post on Training Methods for Western Horses.

Howrse Secret Page Number 3

The link to Secret Page number three on Howrse can be found at the top of the Game Play forum 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 2.

The 0GP Project

So, what is the 0GP Project? Basically instead of trying to breed horses with higher GPs (Genetic Potentials), a group of players have done the opposite and tried to breed their horses to get lower and lower GPs.

A foundation horse has a GP of 350.00. If you breed two foundation horses together who have a negative BLUP then the resulting foal will have a lower GP - say 347. If you keep doing this you can actually breed a foal with a GP of 0. And in fact it has been proven that you can keep going below 0 into negative figures. These foals also have negative inborn skills!

To make sure the parents are the worst they can be, they need to be bred at 2 years and 6 months having done no training or foal games. This means that their BLUP will be the lowest it can be and therefore their foal will be the worst it can be (or best depending on how you look at it!).

Breeds to have reached 0GP include Standardbreds and Arabians. If you want to learn more there is a post in the Events Forum dedicated to the 0GP Project.

Lucy

What is BLUP?

On Howrse BLUP stands for Best Linear Unbiased Prediction. This sounds complicated (and in fact if you want to see the maths behind it just Google Best Linear Unbiased Prediction!) but it's actually quite simple. It is a genetic indicator which plays a role in breeding. Basically the BLUP of a foals parents determines how good the foal will turn out to be.

When a foal is born it has a BLUP of -100. During its life your horse's BLUP can reach a max of +100.

How to get +100 BLUP:

• Your horse must be bolded in its top 3 skills
• Your horse must have won 20 competitions
• Your horse must be at least 10 years old

To breed the best foal possible you need both its parents to have +100 BLUP (called fully BLUPPED).

This is how the top breeding groups work. They BLUP lots of generations a day to ensure their horses keep getting better and better and they stay at the top of the Genetic Potential (GP) rankings.

If you breed two horses together with a negative BLUP then the foal will actually turn out to be worse than the parents, with a lower Genetic Potential and no inborn skills. However this is a good thing if you're taking part in the 0GP project!

Lucy

Misaki - the wild horse

Welcome to Misaki, the second wild horse available on Howrse. He's similar to the Spanish Mustang - the first wild horse - but comes from Japan instead of America.

You can win a Misaki in the Potion contest which ends tomorrow (15th March). Currently you can also win a Misaki in lucky Horns of Plenty (again until 15th March).

Once you have a Misaki you'll need to tame him before he can be trained. This is done by asking other players to help you by clicking the button on the Misaki's page. The first time you ask for help it costs 100e. This then doubles each time you ask for help. So the second time costs 200e, then 400e then 800e etc. So taming a wild horse can be quite expensive! After each update this resets to 100e and you can start again. Each time a player helps you your Misaki becomes 1% more tame.

You can also tame the Misaki a little each day yourself.

If you help another player out by taming their wild horse, your Misaki gains 0.4 skills.

The first 100 Misaki's tamed have a higher GP than the others and are numbered from 1 - 100 via an affix.

Misaki's are wild so they do not live in a stable, even when they are tame. This means that you can't put them in the meadow or box, you can't do lessons and you can't put them to sleep at night. You can however do competitions, rides and training with them and they can have a companion.

Also, whilst they are being tamed Misaki's may refuse to do something you ask them to. For example they can refuse to be fed or groomed. If they do this the button you clicked on will shake and they will lose 20% energy. The best thing to do is leave it and try again a bit later!

Once tame your Misaki randomly offers you diamonds up to the age of 80 years old.

So good luck with your taming!

Lucy

Potions

Yes they're back and this time the theme is flowers. As previously, players collect a variety of objects (in this case flowers, Unicorn horns, Pegasus feathers and horseshoes) in order to win Bonus items and Black Market items by 'making potions'.

Essentially each item requires you to use a number of 'ingredients', in different combinations in order to win items such as Harmony Packs, Hestia's gifts, turnips ans Scarecrows. There's also a star 'prize' to be won as well - another, new Wild horse. This one is called a Misaki. It's only the second Wild horse in the game after the recent introduction of the Spanish Mustang which was introduced last month. The Misaki requires you to make 30 potions, collect 15 horseshoes and 5 Pegasus feathers. The first 100 Misaki's to be won and then tamed, will be given numbers as an affix to their name.

Here is Howrse's explanation of how you can gain items for making your potions:

Remove the horns off your Unicorns
Remove the feathers off your Pegasuses
Horseshoe in the Horns of Plenty

Find the other ingredients:

    •    With UFO's
    •    When your horses wake up on their birthdays (maximum 4 per day)
    •    When your horses participate in competitions (maximum 4 per day)
    •    When you find a tub of grease with your horses (maximum 3 per day)
    •    In the Flash Sales
    •    The first time you log in every day,
    •    In Horns of Plenty

So the Flash Sales are back too. One difference this time is that in the direct sales, the prices now vary. Before, each item in the direct sales was a fixed price. Now, the price is different every time, so be aware of this when you're buying items here.

We hope you have fun. Happy potion making!

Patsy

Spanish Mustangs in HoP's

No surprises here. Yes, the new Spanish Mustangs are now available in Horns of Plenty (HoP's). However, right now, they are only available for a limited period.

From today until 20th February 2012 at 12:00 Game Time - you have the chance of winning one of these new 'Wild' horses in a HoP.

HoP's cost a pass each so if you really want one, you'll have to spend some cash - either real or virtual.

Good luck!

Patsy

Ow's Spanish Mustang

A new type of horse is coming to the game very soon. And it's not just a new breed either. Currently if you visit Ow's profile page, find the 'Other Horses' tab at the bottom and look at the last row - you will see the new Spanish Mustang. Now this new horse is not an ordinary horse. However, it is also not a Divine or Special horse. It is, in fact a 'Wild' horse - the first of it's kind on Howrse.

So what's special about it and how can you get one? Well, as it's a wild horse it needs to be tamed before training  can begin. There are no details about how this will be achieved, but it may well be that you will need the help of other Spanish Mustang owners to tame your own horse. Once tamed, the horse can then be trained and entered into competitions as normal. However, every year of his life until he is 80, you will get a Diamond from him.

Now to get one of these new horses, I'm afraid it's not great news for most of us. To get the very first Spanish Mustangs - you will need to come in the top 100 places of the Western Grand Prix. Now the current Western objectives run until 4th March 2012, so we're assuming that players who finish in the top 100 of the Western Grand Prix over the next 3 weeks will win a Spanish Mustang.

According to Ow, the first 100 Spanish Mustangs to be tamed (as mentioned, we don't know how this works yet) will be given a unique number and also have a slightly higher Genetic Potential (GP) than all the other Spanish Mustangs.

So - most of us will never finish in the top 100 of the Grand Prix, so guess what? Yes of course - Spanish Mustangs will soon be available in Horns of Plenty (HoPs) so if you really want one, you can try your luck with a HoP.

As we get more information we will of course share it with you.

Good luck!

Patsy

Apollo's Lyre

Since the new features have come in today on Howrse there are lots of questions being asked the changes.

One of the main things players are asking about is the Apollo's Lyre.

NOTE: You can no longer change your horse's Lyre by clicking on the plus symbol next to your horses name.

To change your Lyre, scroll down your horse's page and look just under where their skills are displayed. There you will see the options Animation, Coat, Landscape, Name and Companion. Click on Name and you will be taken to the old Lyre page.

Lucy

New Howrse features February 2012

It has just been announced by Ow in the Events forum that there will be a series of new changes launched tomorrow - Wednesday 8 February 2012. Some of these we already know about - the proposed karma changes for example but there will be plenty of other new features too.

The new features have already been implemented on UK Howrse and the various other servers so we're assuming that the same things will be happening on international Howrse. Read below to find out more about the changes due to happen. These are lifted from the Change Log Page on UK Howrse, so they might not be identical on the international version but we're pretty sure most of them will be.

Western Riding

• Western competitions have been introduced in the game
• Your horses must now have a speciality before they can take part in competitions. The competitions your horses can join depend on what their speciality is.
• Your equestrian centre has to be specialized before you can organise competitions. The types of competition you can organise depend on what your equestrian centre's speciality is.

Changes at the Grand Prix

• The winnings given to the 5 best participants in each Grand Prix competition have changed:
1st = 40 x Diamond
2nd = 20 x Diamond
3rd = 10 x Diamond
4th = 5 x Diamond
5th = 2 x Diamond

• If you have access to the Grand Prix, you can now join both Western Riding and Classical Riding competitions at the Grand Prix

A completely revamped karma system

• All players start with a maximum of 10 karma points that they can lose if they don't follow the rules.
• By losing karma, you can be refused access to certain features like the forum or sales. Find out more
• You can win back 1 karma point every 30 days you log in, as long as you have less than 10.
• Your old karma points have been converted into gifts

Hidden bids

• Pegasus Account members can now create hidden bids in auctions. Every hidden bid costs 1 diamond and lets you bid on a sale without other players seeing your bid. Find out more

More advantages with diamonds and passes

• A new pack is being offered at the black market: the Bonus Pack
• You can now buy certain bonus items with diamonds:
◦ Golden Spurs
◦ Daphne's Laurels
◦ Seahorse
◦ Boreas' Lunge
◦ Eolus' Wind
• Griffin and Phoenix companions are now sold for diamonds instead of passes, and at a lower cost
• It's now more profitable when you credit your breeder's reserve or your equestrian centre reserve, and when you credit ageing points with diamonds and passes
• You can now use passes to buy diamonds
• Note that diamonds can no longer be traded with other players

Unicorns more valuable

• Unicorn bonuses have gone from +6 to +15 in dressage
• Unicorns now earn you 1000 Equus every time you send them to the Safe Haven

And also...

• You can now rename horses, give them affixes and move them to a different breeding farm, all at the same time using the link: Modify Profile
• Your horses' results in competitions page has been completely redone
• The riding school page has been removed. You'll find info on lessons in your equestrian centre office
• The My Account and Edit My Account pages have been merged
• Red excellence stars now count for 10 green excellence stars on horse pages
• There's no longer any limit to the number of items you can have in your inventory
• Bonus items now appear in the Bonus tab on horse pages, and not in the items box as before. You can now give your horses bonus items by clicking on the Give a Bonus Item link in the menu on their page.
• The Sapphire divine horse now offers one diamond or 1000 Equus based on its age in even/odd months, rather than even/odd days as before
• Greyfell divine horses' health can now increase when they are immortal

There are also a series of new Western Objectives which relate to you entering the new Western style competitions. These earn you gifts including a new breed of horse on the UK version but we'll tell you more when all this has been confirmed on the international version.

Happy Howrsing,
Lucy

New Karma System

From February 1st 2012, (UPDATE: It's been confirmed that this will now happen some time during the 8th February) Howrse are overhauling the way Karma works on the game. This is a significant change that will affect everyone who plays on Howrse. A thread exists in the Events Forum which has all the details, as well as many pages of comments from players.

Here are the key things that you need to know about the new Karma system:

• Every player will have their Karma set to 10 (the new maxiumum limit)
• If you break a Howrse 'rule' you may be sanctioned Karma points
• Loss of Karma results in certain sanctions & removal of privileges
• The lower your Karma, the more limited access you will have to the game

So your Karma will be directly linked to what you can do within the game. Here is Howrse's list of Karma and how loss of Karma will affect you:

• 10 Karma points - Full access to Howrse
• 8 Karma points - Access to EC forums is removed
• 6 Karma points - Access to ALL forums in the game is removed. Access to gift giving & item exchanges is removed
• 4 Karma points - Access to ALL horse sales is removed. Can no longer propose artwork in the Creative Space
• 2 Karma points - Access to private messages is removed
• 0 Karma points - Player automatically banned from the game for 2 months

After 30 days with no further breaking of rules, you regain 1 Karma point. There is much more detail in the Events Forum. This includes information on other sanctions that can be imposed on you that will not remove Karma as well other information.

Two other important things to note. Firstly, you will no longer receive a pass for 5 Karma points recieved. So no more passes from Karma. The maximum Karma anyone can get will be 10. Secondly, when this new system comes into effect, if you have 6 Karma points or more, you will get one Diamond for each Karma point that you have. If you have 1 to 5 Karma points, you will get 1000 equus for each point. If you have zero Karma, you will receive 1000 equus.

If your Karma is negative, you may find some access to the game is limited until you have 'earned' your Karma points back.

Regarding Affixes, we don't yet know what will happen to these, for those players who have gained extra affixes due to their existing Karma.

We will bring you more news on this major change as it happens. Please feel free to ask questions or post your thoughts.

Patsy

Another Howrse Lottery

There's a new Lottery on Howrse - it runs until 6th February at 00:00 Game Time.

The top prize is a Jade Divine horse followed by a set of 10 passes and 100,000e. There are also lots of smaller prizes available ranging from Philosopher's Stones to apples and aging points.

To enter you simply need to click on the button that has appeared at the top of every game page saying 'The Lottery'.

You can get tickets in several different ways:

• Use your equus to buy as many tickets as you like. Unlike previous draws you can buy an unlimited amount of tickets for each draw but the price triples each time. So you first ticket is 100e, your second 300e, your third 900e and so on.
• Use passes on the game (excluding buying horses). For each pass spent you get 3 lottery tickets.
• Have your friends send you tickets (this is limited to 5 tickets per draw).
• Get tickets when your horses win competitions (limited to 2 per draw).

The lottery also offers stars as prizes. The more stars you earn he more prizes you can win. So for example when you've earned 5 stars you get 1000e and if you manage to earn 2000 stars you get a pegasus account subscription free for 6 months!

In the first draw I managed to get a months' free Pegasus account - so get buying those tickets.

Patsy

Howrse 'survey'

You should all be getting an email from Howrse (in your Howrse email on the game) about now, which is entitled 'Satisfaction Survey'. When you read it, this is what it says:

Hello ......,
We are constantly striving to improve our users' gameplay experience. That is why we are currently conducting a satisfaction survey to identify our community's needs and wishes.
To participate, click here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XBJ7H7M
Thank you for participating.

The Owlient Team

So I decided to have a look at this survey (run by SurveyMonkey) to see how Owlient (Howrse) wanted to assess my satisfaction with the game. Well, what a surprise. The survey actually has nothing at all to do with customer/player satisfaction. The whole 'survey' is designed to find out about your mobile gaming habits. They ask questions about what sort of phone you have; if it's a smartphone; how much time you spend gaming on your phone and if you've ever paid for any games on your phone.

So, clearly Owlient (and their new owners Ubisoft) are simply doing some market research to see if it's worth developing either a fully mobile version of Howrse and/or other mobile games to tempt you with.

So, feel free to complete the 'survey' but just be aware that is more to do with marketing than with customer satisfaction!

Patsy

Unicorns in Horns of Plenty

Another day, another promotion. Howrse has just announced that as from today (12th January 2012) until Monday 16th January at 12:00 game time, you win a baby Unicorn in Horns of Plenty (HoP's). As Howrse say in their announcement" The gender, breed and coat are randomly selected amongst the ones already available on Howrse"

Currently the announcement says that the promotion runs until the 16th December 2012! I'm pretty sure this is a mistake which should say January 16th but I've posted a question about it in the forum and so far, the reply from Sarah Kat is not clear. I'll update as soon as we find out.

Happy Uni-HoP-ing!

Patsy

ps The picture is of one of my own Uni's with a GA coat on. You won't win a Uni with a GA on of course.

UPDATE: This promotion definitely ends on 16th January

The Snowball Fight

Find out about the 2017 Snowball Fight here

Edit - This is an old post relating to the snowball fight in 2012:

Once again the Snowball Fight is upon us. Well the format is the same as always. Whilst you're logged on to the game, you will see, from time to time, snowball 'UFO's floating around your screen. Just click on them and you can win yourself a nice little prize.

The prizes are mainly small things such as aging points, apples etc but you can also get BM items and even Horns of Plenty. And the great thing about the snowball fight is that whatever you win, you get a second one to give (throw) at someone on your friends' list.

And when the contest finishes at 12:00 (game time) on January 16th, the players who have thrown the most snowballs (gifts) will win items including a Nyx Pack, 100,000 equus and an Achilles' Heel.

So get throwing and good luck!


Lucy

The highest-skilled Donkey on Howrse?

We rarely talk about Donkeys on Ultimate Howrse, but I have always loved them and found to be intriguing to breed. I know many players love their 'Donks' and enjoy breeding them too. Now as you may or not know, Donkeys are designed to work differently from Horses in the game.

When you breed Horses, you increase their GP by blupping and training properly. This way, Horses's GP and inborn skills increase with each generation. Donkeys are different.

If you BLUP and train your Donkey correctly, the next generation will be born with a LOWER GP. So to increase a Donkey's skills is unusual. Only careful BAD(!) breeding and no training will increase the Donkeys' GP. Strange but true.

Thanks to some wonderful breeders, who have produced Donkeys with very high GP's, I was lucky enough to get two such foals. From these two I bred Taffy.

So I have now have my  rather splendid Donkey - Taffy who, I think may well be the highest-skilled Donkey on Howrse right now with an amazing 702 skills. And whether he is or isn't the highest-skilled, he is still a Donkey and as long as Howrse have them, I will be very happy. So if you haven't thought about breeding Donkeys, why not give it a go?

Now if only we could breed Mules ....

Patsy

Palomino Sleipnirs are here

Happy New Year everyone and what better way to start 2012 than with a new Divine. Yes, for those of you who managed to get  all 12 Greyfells in the Christmas Card competition, today (the 1st of the month) you can transform one of your Greyfells into a gorgeous Palomino Sleipnir.

I was up early, despite it being New Year's Day and was the third player on Howrse to transform one of my Greyfells into the new Sleipnir. This was done by finding the one Greyfell which had an 'Action' button added to its page. Clicking this gives you a message box and then an email which confirms that your Greyfell is 'transforming' into a Palomino Sleipnir. A minute later - he arrives!

They are the same as the existing Sleipnirs - 1500 skills, all male, cannot reproduce but they can be sold. They are 422 years old and 16.3 hands high. They also have a GP of 1080 with 54 greenstars. 

So here he is in all his glory. For those of you, who have been lucky enough to get one, remember - he can't run away now so you can relax, enjoy your beautiful new Sleipy as well as the New Year!

Patsy