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

Looking after you Horse

Looking after your horses properly is vital to keeping them healthy and to get the best out of them. But there are some important things you should know.

Firstly, you do not have to look after your horses every day. As long as you don't do anything with them, they will just exist. Sounds weird but if you imagine - my best friend LucyLou has over 3300 horses. There's no way she could look after them all! So if you don't have time - it's OK.

Secondly - your horse always needs food, water and to be groomed whenever you 'wake' him. He also must be put to bed at night. A lot of people make mistakes with feeding because it's not very clear.

This is a standard method I use for all my horses:

1.5 hours in the meadow
Saltstone (if you have one*)
Then do whatever you need - lessons, rides, races etc
Stroke
Carrot (if needed**)
Water
Feed (details in a bit***)
Groom
Bed (Put in the box if it's less than 10 degrees and he has no blanket)

*You can find Saltstone and other items like blankets when you put your horse in the box. This can take a quite a few attempts. I put new horses in the box for 2.5 hours a day, each day until I get the items I need. Blankets mean they can sleep in the meadow in any weather. Once you've found a Saltstone, you will always have one for all your horses for ever.

**Each night, your horse MUST go to bed with at least 20% energy, otherwise he will lose health and morale overnight. So, if you've stroked your horse and he still has only, say, 14% energy left, give him a carrot.

***Your horse has to stay at a weight that is right for his height. If your horse gets too fat or too thin, you will get a warning and will need to adjust his feed. So, when you get to feed him, the info tells you how much food he's already had (by being in the meadow) and how much he needs in total. For example 4.2/13.3 Which means he's eaten 4.2 pounds of fodder but needs 13.3 pounds in total. That's a difference of about 9 pounds. So feed him 9 pounds of fodder. He also needs oats. Just feed him the amount the box tells you to.

That's enough for now! Good luck.

Lucy

Sleipnir frenzy

Well it's been a while since we've seen such excitement on Howrse. The announcement that it would (for a few days at least) be possible to win a Sleipnir in a Horn of Plenty has seen sales of 'Instant Pass Horses' go through the roof, with them selling for up to 50,000 equus. Crazy money. But great for players who were selling them and making huge amounts of money.

One or two interesting facts about the current 'special offer'. Firstly, many of the Sleipnir's seem to have gone to either players who have been on the game for a very long time, or, players who have only been on a few days. Hmmm. Also, it seems that the number of passes you buy doesn't increase your chances of getting one. I know one person who spent 61 passes and got nothing whilst another bought just one, single pass and got one! Maybe it's just luck.....

Patsy

Sleipnir crazy! update 2

Six million equus and it's a done deal! So, today, Sunny Sunshine paid a record amount for a horse. The huge bid for the Divine, fire Sleipnir simply wasn't challenged in the final hours before the auction ended.

So, Sunny Sunshine has a second Sleipnir and loonytoones59 is considerably richer!




Update: I sold my black Sleipnir recently for 8 million equus! How prices have gone up in recent months. We are just waiting for the first 10 million equus Sleipnir now....

Patsy

Sleipnir crazy! update 1

Says it all really.

The Howrse Helper

Sleipnir crazy!

As we write, there are 5 hours to go on the most amazing sale we've seen on Howrse. A Sleipnir is for sale in the auctions. The current price for this eight-legged, Divine horse is 6 million equus! The highest price we've seen a Sleipnir sell for previously was around 4.5 million equus.

Admittedly, it's a fire Sleipnir which are the most sought after, but this is still an immense amount of equus to pay for a horse - however rare and special.

So LucyLou and Patsy will be glued to their PC's (well, one PC and one Mac actually)as the auction reaches it's climax.

We'll post the final figure this 'mega' Sleipnir sells for, soon. Oh and if you want to buy one - start saving. Now!

Patsy

UPDATE:

horseegirl22 has asked if anyone has a screenshot of an 'Invoke' button on a Sleipnir's page. Well we have found one, courtesy of Inner Chorus. And here it is: