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