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