Seniority

New and Old players are often left wondering, what can and can't I do with my current seniority.
1st of all, seniority is determined by how many real days you've logged on, not how many days you've been registered. Seniority dictates many things in Howrse and we've compiled a list of landmarks you'll reach once you've reached a given seniority.

1 Day - On your first day, you have access to all the forums. You will also be able to take a job as a groom. 
5 Days - You can post in the forums without having your message validated
10 Days - You are granted access to the auction and can also take a job as a Horse Riding Instructor, you can also access Gift giving and BM exchanges
20 Days - You can open your EC.
30 Days - Access to the Direct and Reserved Sales
40 Days - Take a job as a farrier.
120 Days - Take a job as a saddler
150 days - Post ideas in the ideas forum (International only)
 

Horse Games for girls

It's true, we love our horses here at TH - but what about after we've looked after all our horses on Howrse and we need something to do. Here's some ideas.

www.agame.com/game/horse-eventing-3.html - this little game allows you to participate in three events with your horse (dressage, barrel racing and cutting). It's got great graphics and allows you to buy new horses, change the look of the rider and of the horse. Its a 4/5 from us! 
- Note, for this game you may need to install the unity 3D plug in. (You may not however)
www.agame.com/game/horse-eventing-2.html  - another game in the horse eventing series. This game is slightly different to its predecessor, with show jumping, dressage and steeple chase, it's sure to keep you entertained. It has three levels of difficulty and is a must for any english lover. The steeple chase can be a little difficult however. We're giving it a 3/5. 
Both of these games use the X key on your keyboard to jump as well as directional arrows for movement.
http://www.ebog.com/skill-games/6147/horse-jumping-3d.html - This game isn't quite as good as the last two, but it's a fun little game none the less.

So check them out, when we find a game you might like we'll post it up.
 

 

New Promo - Nov 2012

Mary, Mary, How does your garden grow?

Our new promo is the Enchanted Greenhouse. Basically, you plant a seed, look after it, it grows and in turn delivers you a prize. 

1st of all, How do you get seeds?
- When you log on for the first time each day
- With some daily missions (You'll find these down the bottom of the promo page)
- When certain flowers bloom
- By Purchasing them in the flash sales
- By opening a HoP (Maximum two seeds per HoP)

Your plants will grow by several means, these are:
- Each time you log on for the first time each day
-When you water your plants (every 8 hours)
- By giving them fertilizer (which you'll find by doing missions, when you get certain flowers blooming, in the flash sales and when you open some HoP's)

Levels of Seeds and their given growth
Seed       Quality    Daily Growth       Growth - Watering    Growth - Fertiliser
Purple      1*                8%                             8%                            32%
Green       2*                6%                             6%                            24%
Blue         3*                4%                             4%                            16%
Pink         4*                2%                             2%                              8%
Gold        5*                1%                             1%                              4%

Howrse Changes October 2012

Get the Goss on Our New Updates!

Whether you love them, or you hate them - the new updates are here - they cover (pun intended) covering, costs to covering, etc. etc. 

1. Changes to Unicorn Covering time!
So, we're no longer covering from GMT - but local time. 
it isn't just the time they've changed over at Howrse HQ either. 
2. Covering Timer - If you're sitting on the 'Cover my Mare' page waiting for the time to cover your uni, then here is a new change. 
If the time is wrong, you'll see an X - Covering in wrong conditions.
If the time is right, you'll see a big ol' tick - Covering in right conditions, as well as a timer telling you how long you have left to make the covering. 

Covering Price - So now, instead of the covering fee (from the stallion) or the free covering we gave ourselves and only the vet bill, we now have to pay 1% of our equus reserve (from 200equus up to 2500) for our covering + the fee to the stallion (yes, you still have to pay the excessive vet bills if you cover your own horse) owner all upfront. 

Leave us some feedback THers, we're not a fan of this last change, are you?

Foal Games - KGS

Before you start, you'll need....

- A sparkly new foal (under 6 months)
- An EC with carrots, large and impeccable meadows
- Turnips

6 Months (prior to actual games)
- Send the foal to bed with 100% energy
- 100% morale 
- 100% health.
Don't overfeed, give water, groom, carrot, turnip and stroke. Send to bed before 10 pm. 

8 Months - 
Feed 6 kilos, Groom, 7hrs play, drink, carrot, stoke, turnip, 1hr play, Put to bed. 

10 Months -
Feed 6 kilos, groom, 8hrs play, drink, carrot, stroke, turnip, 1hr play, Put to bed.

1 year - 
Feed 6 kilos, groom, 9hrs play, drink, carrot, stroke, turnip, 1hr play, Put to bed

1 year 2 months, 
Feed 6 kilos, groom, 10hrs play, drink, carrot, stroke, turnip, 1hr play, put to bed

This is the most crucial part, please read carefully.

1 year 4 months,
Feed 6 kilos, groom, 10hrs play, drink, carrot, stroke, turnip, 2hr play, (You should be using 18% energy) put to bed
(yes, you will be putting your horse to bed late, it doesn't really matter)
Congratulations, you've achieved your 60 points!

Purebred vs. Crossbred. The Great Debate

The Great Breeder Debate, Will I Crossbreed or will I purebreed?

All horses on howrse come from the same place, Ouranos and Gaia, but somewhere down the line, players mixed breeds. So when breeding, and setting our breeder goals - we're faced with the decision... "To Crossbreed, or not to crossbreed? That is the question". Well, TH is going to give you reasons for and against both types of breeding.

Crossbreeding. 
What is it? Crossbreeding is breeding two different breeds of horse. 
Why is it done? To improve the GP in a skill that would otherwise be low.
Pros:  It gives you a horse that could essentially be an all rounder, as opposed to a horse with high skills in his breeds class, you can mix the two breeds to bring up the GP.
A horse who is PB can sell for more, as he may have higher skills (if crossbred correctly)
Reader 1 "I breed XB paints, because without the extra breed, they are horrible at trot and this effects them in competitions requiring skill in trot." 
Cons: Horses who are crossbred can never be returned to purebred, so even 20 generations down the line, they will still be crossbred - the most they can be is 99%  of one breed. 
Horses may not sell for as much, as they do not posses the blue PB star which most true breeders are looking for.
Reader 2 "I don't like cross breeding, I don't like that no matter how hard you try, the horses will never be 100% of one breed"

Our Verdict: Only crossbreed if you know the implications (they will never be purebred again, and neither will any of their decendants.) If you're trying to make money out of X-Breeding, make sure the sire and dam are both of exceptional quality of their breed. This will mean you can make the horse a competition all rounder. Also, if you decide to X-breed, remember this. The breed of the foal will be determined by the highest percentage of breed for his or her genetic make-up. If both percentages are 50 - 50 (so both parents are PB) then the foal will be the same breed as the father.

Purebreeding
What is it? Purebreeding is making sure a horse is only ever covered with her own breed of horse.
Why is it done? Horses who are purebred are ranked in the GP rankings, so they can achieve the status of greatness.
Pros: A purebred horse has the potential to excel, they posses a blue star which may make them more attractive to other PB breeders.  
Cons: They may be more expensive, they may not have as high a skill as some X-Breds (not always the case however). It can be difficult to maintain the PB status (You may accidently cover with a X-bred horse) There is a lot of PB competition (in the GP rankings)

Our verdict: Being a PB breeder is entirely your choice, everybody's first foal is PB, from there it's up to you. It's great if you want to see your horses name in the standings, but not so great if you're paying more to get a PB covering or new horse from the sales.   

BLUPing.

Here are some tips when BLUPing.

Are you going to fully train, or only train for necessity?
In order to BLUP correctly, you must bold the top three skills, so in theory you can just train in the top three skills. However I prefer to train in all skills, this gives a 'better' resale value and enables a horse to excell in all disciplines.

Competitions first. 
What I mean by this, is that you should train only the top three skills first. 
For example, a horse that excells in Dressage.
Train 75% or there abouts in dressage
train 50 % in the next best skill
and 10% or 0 in the final best skill.
This allows the horse to qualify for lower ranked and lower difficulty events, and will give you a better chance of winning them as opposed to being up against the best of the best. 
 After you win 20 competitions, you are free to train just the three best skills or all the skills, do lessons and rides and get that BLUP of +100.