Horses 101

So you are interested in getting involved with horses? We’ve got you covered! This article gives you the very basics of acquiring, caring for and training your first horse(s). After you have finished this article, please look through the other articles under the Horses category to learn more about the equine system!

Note: These steps are in rough order, but can be skipped if you’ve already handled a particular item on the list!

Step 1: Get Your Land! (Skip if you already own a barn!)

When acquiring land, you have two main avenues. Firstly you can look in the Global Market under land to see if you can find enough Agricultural land available. Be sure you look at the Horse Barn you are planning on having and find out what it’s land requirements are! Land is “Pooled”, so if you need 10 acres for the barn, you can buy 2 x 5 acre agriculture plots in the same city and then be able to build the 10 acre barn.

Step 2: Get That Barn! (Skip if the barn is already up!)

Now that you have land, it’s time to get the barn up. You will first need to buy the building kit in the Global Market, and then in interactions > business operations > land you will need to select the appropriate cities ‘Agricultural’ link and from this page select the building kit from the dropdown, and then you can choose

A.) Myself or Player Construction (For if you, or another player will be doing the construction) or

B.) NPC Construction if you want to have an NPC do the building.

Note: NPC construction typically costs about 60% of the build cost and takes longer than player construction. It is advisable to put out an ad looking for a player willing to do the construction for you as it can save you time and bux!

Step 3: Make Sure We Have Supplies!

Now that you have your facility, you will want to make sure you have adequate supplies. A horse on average will consume 30 liters of hay, 10 liters of oats and 10 liters of straw per day. This can either be self provided by farming land locally, or you can purchase it from another player (or NPC if there is any available.). Food is automatically pulled from your city warehouse location currently, with no additional facilities needed. We advise having a months worth of food and bedding at anytime, just to be safe. Horses that go hungry will eventually be turned over to the humane society!

Step 4: Buy Your Horse(s)!

Now it’s time to get your horses! Over time, more and more breeds will be available. Any breeds that are available for purchase from NPC will show up in Global Market > Animals > Horses. Horses from the NPC cost $10,000 bux each. Each horse will be given a random gender and coloration/genetic composition. In general, NPC horses are on the lower end spectrum of performance, and you will want to breed generations of horses to get better bloodlines. Feel free to buy 1 horse, or 10, whatever suites the operation you are planning!

Step 5a: Hire Help!

Some items can be semi-automated to help you run your horse operation, especially as it grows.

• Groomers: Can be hired to handle the grooming of your horses. For a cost of $150 per day. A groomer can cover any horses in their assigned facility.

• Ranch Hands: Can be hired to handle the stall cleaning and feeding of your horses. For a cost of $150 per day. A ranch hand can cover any horses in their assigned facility.

If your budget is tight, or you are more hands on, you can refrain from hiring these individuals. In general horses need to be fed, cleaned and groomed once per day. This is done via a simple button click in each barn (One for cleaning, one for grooming, one for feeding.). So early on if you want to save money and don’t mind 3 clicks a day, you can do this, but in time, or if you get a lot of barns going, you may want to look into NPCs.

Step 5b: The Day To Day

Now it’s time to get into the day to day groove. We recommend the following daily policy.

1.) Ensure all horses are fed.

2.) Ensure all horse stalls are cleaned.

3.) Ensure all horses are groomed.

4.) Perform training (Basic training can begin at 6 months. Advanced training can begin at 2 years IF basic training is complete… and train based on what you are interested in competing in/breeding for!)

5.) Perform breeding operations (This isn’t necessarily daily, but if you have horses of breeding age it’s a good idea to keep up on this!

Note: It’s important to note that with #4, horses will recover their morale, stamina and health continually throughout the day as long as they are cared for. This means it’s possible to ‘Train’ a horse more than once in a day. Though not a requirement, this can give you a leg up on the competition and help get your horse better trained sooner by checking 2-5 times a day depending on your horses recovery.

Where You Go From Here?

Where you go from here is completely up to you. Horses are a young but complex system with a ton coming to them. Soon there will be a horse marketplace for breeding and selling of horses, as well as competitions that will be held at country level and world-wide level. Some will be able to be joined from your ranch, others will require you send your horse on a travel trip with staff and equipment/feed. It’s a great time to get involved and start working your way towards your goals. Whether that’s just having a farm you love, breeding for champion bloodlines to be a top-world performer, or breeding for selective colors/patterns to have the most beautiful horses in our virtual world, the choice is yours!