Equestrian Centre - boxes needed for max lesson gains

We often get asked how many boxes you need to achieve maximum lesson gains for your EC. This has always been a tricky one to answer because so many factors affect how well your EC ranks. Obviously you need to have excellent meadows, competitions, mashes, carrots and stables, with the largest boxes as well as horses with high dressage skills and the right number of employees.

However, a key factor has always been the number of boxes your EC needs in order for you to achieve high lesson gains, with a 60 equus price. Well the moderator Zepharo has today confirmed that players need just 20 boxes to achieve this.

Now be careful with this statement. If you just buy 20 boxes, you won't achieve a high lesson gain and high prestige. You need all of the other elements in your equestrian centre to be at the right level too. So for example having horses with 350 in dressage will not result in a high prestige EC.

This confirmation from Howrse does help those of you who are starting out and need to have some sort of guideline regarding box numbers. So good luck with your EC and remember to rotate your fields so you always have 100% fertitlity.

Good luck,

Patsy

The September Calendar

To celebrate the end of summer Howrse have today introduced the September Calendar.

You can win goodies such as as saddles, turnips, equus and Black Market items by logging into Howrse each day and visiting the calendar page. The calendar can be found by following the link at the bottom of your home page when you log in.

Each day you will need to complete a mission to be able to open the calendar door and get your prize.

Today, 1st September, the mission is to give 5 apples to other players horses. Once you have done this you can go to the calendar, open the first door and win the prize - a Pluotos' Parchment.

To win all the prizes you do need to log in each day. If you miss a day you can't go back to complete the missed mission you can only do the current day's.

So keep logging in and happy calendar opening!

Lucy

Updates to Equestrian Centres

Howrse have today (August 30th 2011) announced some small changes to the way Equestrian Centres run.

They have increased the wages (which is good news for employees, maybe less so for employers!) on all Equestrain Centre jobs. The game will have automatically changed your current employee salaries to match the new maximums and minimums.

You can now also set the maximum length of boarding in your Equestrian Centre. Simply go to the boarding tab in your EC office. You can set it anywhere between 5 and 30 days. This is great if you want to stop players leaving their lower skilled or ill horses in your EC for a long time.

Howrse have also introduced some new animations that you can add to your horses page for free. The range now includes balloons, fireworks and lightning (all quite scary for horses!).

Lucy

Howrse Player Meeting in London

After the success of the player meet and greets last year, Howrse have just announced that there will be another UK one - on Saturday 15th October 2011 from 2pm - 6pm.

The event is taking place at the Novotel City South hotel in London and gives you the chance to meet fellow players and members of the Howrse team (including Ow). The Howrse team have promised to take along some surprises as well - although they haven't announced what they will be as of yet. They usually take things like Howrse merchandise and codes to get new horses or BM items on the game.

They have also said that they will be arranging more meet and greets in the future - so don't panic if you're not in the UK!

Let us know if you're planning on attending.

Lucy and Patsy

Puzzle Contest Extension

Howrse have just announced that the puzzle contest will now be running for an extra 4 days. So instead of finishing on the 24th August you now have until the 28th August to try and complete your puzzles.

You can also still find extra pieces for your puzzles in Horns of Plenty until 26th August.

So keep trying to win those Gypses. Happy puzzling.

Lucy

Bonus Puzzle Update 2

We've had some requests from players asking for a picture of the completed bonus puzzle. Well, here it is. And as we've said, you now win a Gypse along with three 5th Elements when you complete this puzzle.

Whilst it's great that hundreds of players can now get Gypse's, it does mean that their rarity is hugely reduced and as a result, their value. It's rather a shame that there are fewer and fewer Divines and Specials that are actually rare and valuable in the game.

Maybe Howrse will release a Divine or Special horse that is actually limited to a small number. That would make them wonderfully appealing and sought after. But that's just my opinion.

Anyway, congratulations to everyone who has won a Gypse. Remember to top up your sand piles each day and your horses' skills will increase.

Have fun,

Patsy

Bonus Puzzle Update

Update: For completing the bonus puzzle you can now win a Gypse as well as the 3 5th elements.

Since Howrse revealed the bonus puzzle in the Summer Puzzle contest was aimed at pass buying players, there have been a lot of unhappy people. Even more so when they revealed you could win pieces for the puzzles in Horns of Plenty.

After this happened the 30 Balios were won within a few hours, leaving a lot of people upset that they never really had a chance.

Now Howrse have decided to change the reward for completing the bonus puzzle. You can now win a Gypse if you complete the puzzle as well as the 3 5th elements. There are no limits to the number that can be won so everyone completing the puzzles will win a Divine. Here's what Ow said in the event forum about the change:

Good morning.
We are distributing a Gypse to all the players that have finished the 5th puzzle later than the first 30 as a form of token.
We hope to ease out the frustration this operation has generated for those who did not finish in the first 30.
Cheers
Ow

So you have until 24th August to win your Gypse - happy puzzle piece finding!

Lucy