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