Things to do on Howrse

Are you in a rut? Unsure of what there is to do on Howrse? Or maybe you're just pressed for time and trying to make the most of your Howrse experience?

I've made a quick list of things you can do on Howrse that should help improve your game play. This is by no means an exhaustive list so take it with a grain of salt. Hopefully, it helps someone.

Take part in any current promotions. It's always a good idea to fulfill any daily objectives a promotion gives you. Do your best to complete them without spending too much equus or having to resort to using Passes. Promotions are one of the best ways to get free Black Market Items and other useful prizes.

Stroke Xanthos. It's worth taking a moment to pay a visit to Xanthos. You can stroke five a day and, if you're lucky, he might leave you a Horn of Plenty the next day.

Defrost Frost. This isn't quite as important as stroking Xanthos, but it's a quick and easy action and you may earn a Hypnos' Blanket for your trouble. You'll also be entered into the monthly drawing to win a Frost divine. You've got nothing to lose!

Work your Divines. If you're lucky enough to own any divines, make sure you set aside a little time to work them – especially those that have the chance of rewarding you with items or Diamonds. Most require some interaction from their owners or they won't produce their prizes. So be sure to work them or you risk missing out.

Age your pregnant mares. If you're in a hurry and don't have time to work all the horses in your breeding farms just focus on your pregnant mares. This can save you time and Ageing Points later on.

Work your foals. Take a minute or two to work your young foals. Foals under 6 months don't require boarding, so they're very easy to care for if you're in a hurry. They're great for farming Ageing Points. I always make a point of working mine.

Check your Equestrian Center. Check your Equestrian Center to see if you have any board extension requests or if your resources are running low. Be sure to monitor your crops as well!

Check and return your congratulations. This isn't a requirement, but it's a nice thing to do.

Teams, Teammates and Stealing GP

So, a few days ago someone (who will remain nameless but they're trash anyway and honestly you wouldn't care even if I were to name them) messaged one of my breeding partners to ask if they'd like to work a certain breed with her. A breed my partner and I are actively working and have been doing together for quite some time.

I'll never understand why some players think this is a good idea.

Let's discuss this. Rationally.

For some reason, you think you should attempt to weasel your way into snatching someone else's hard work by encouraging them to backstab someone they, by all accounts, seem to be working successfully with?

And you expect to instill confidence in this person that you are somehow to be trusted? Because honey, coming in and saying "Hey, let's jack these horses and make our own team!" is not a terribly convincing argument.

Not to mention, cheaters beget cheaters. If you are fine with cheating and stealing, and look for others who are also fine with cheating and stealing, what do you think there is to stop someone from backstabbing you later? Nothing at all.

You earn your reputation in this game. Don't forget that.

How to Increase Your General Ranking

I see many players ask how to increase their General Ranking, any many relatively unhelpful answers simply posting the equation used to calculate the ranking scores. This is good information to know, but it is not always easy to understand.

I thought I'd go ahead and break it down in simple terms.

1. Obtain more horses.

Your General Ranking takes into account your top 10,000 horses. If you have fewer than 10,000 horses you're missing out on a lot of potential points towards your overall ranking score. You'll notice that the top players have many, many horses.

So your first step should be getting as many horses as possible. Breed them yourself or buy them - it doesn't matter. Just get yourself some horses and go from there.

2. Age your horses.

In order for your horses to earn you the maximum amount of ranking points, they need to be aged. Young foals aren't really going to help you much here. A thirty-year-old horse is ideal, and obviously immortal horses will work best for this. However, I find keeping my horses just below age twenty-five is fine.

Work your horses every day in order to age them naturally.

3. Skill your horses.

It is not necessary to formally skill all your horses, but if you want them to help your General Ranking you must be training them and increasing their skills to the best of your abilities.

Train them. Go on rides. Get your competition skills. Do lessons. It all helps. The higher the skills, the better.

4. Earn trophies.

Trophies directly influence your General Ranking score. The more trophies you have, the higher your score will be. You will notice that the top players in the General Ranking also have a high rank in Trophies.

I suggest going for the easy trophies first and working up from there. Remember to maintain your trophies so that you do not lose them.

Remember

It takes work to climb to the top of the General Ranking. Even if you follow my suggestions you will not become a top ranked player overnight – but you will be well on your way if you keep working hard.

Being an active player is the best way to increase your General Ranking! Join a team. Breed high Genetic Potential horses. Take part in promotions. Try your best!

You may want to consider saving your Equus so that you can purchase high skill horses to help with your ranking.

The General Ranking is very competitive, but that's half the fun! Don't be discouraged if you can't seem to progress. Just keep trying.

Another Way to Earn Money for Passes

You probably know by now that I'm always looking for ways to earn money. Anything to fund my Howrse addiction, right?

I just wanted to share an awesome site with you guys. It's called MintVine. It's a survey panel but it's much more streamlined than other popular services. The surveys are highly targeted. They pay much more than other sites, and they don't try to trick you into endless click-bait and spam.

MintVine is honest, easy to use, and they offer fast payouts.

The site even gives you money simply for being told you don't qualify for a survey. Sometimes they give out as much as $0.30 for each disqualification. It adds up pretty quickly! There's also a fun daily poll and special rewards for answering it for ten days in a row (it's free money, guys!).

To date, I've earned $180 using MintVine. I've only been actively using the site since October of 2016 so that's pretty darn good!

MintVine is also unique in that you only have to be 13 years old to use the site - all you need is permission from your guardian. So this site is an awesome way for teens to earn money, too.

I definitely recommend this site. If you ignore every other recommendation I make, that's fine. But this is one that you seriously don't want to miss. Try it out, and let me know how it goes!

Ugh. Howrse.

I swear the only reason I still play this game is because I have too much invested in it to stop.

Anyone else feel this way?

Let's Talk Affixes

Affixes. We've all got them. Some communicate a sense of grandeur. Some are silly. Some are pop-culture references we slyly slip into game to express our off-site interests. Some are with us from the beginning, while some are nothing more than placeholders.

All in all, affixes are pretty personal. They say a lot about our horses, breeding projects and even about ourselves as players. Which is why it's so frustrating to see lame affixes. So let's talk about this, shall we?


1. Why are you using your username as an affix?

For real. This is stupid. There's this awesome field in your horses' information tab marked Producer. This handy tool tells everyone who bred the horse. You don't need to put this information into your affix. Anyone who cares will already know to check out who the producer was if this information is somehow pertinent to their interests.

2. Numbers in your affix? Whhhy?

Sorry, but if the affix "Arabian" is taken, "Arabian1" is hardly a worthy substitute. You can do better than that. It looks ugly and it communicates nothing aside from your laziness and lack of imagination.

3. Please stop insisting your horse is great or awesome or top quality.

You probably think very highly of your horses but "High Quality Quarters" or "First Place Flyers" sounds ridiculous. What's more, it looks silly on a low-quality horse. Even if your horse were to be top ranked, it would still be a goofy affix. A horse's quality speaks for itself. If you need your affix to tell me how great your horse is then it probably isn't.

4. What does that even say???

ɟคгՇ๒ɭ■ꙅꙅ■๓ꙅ

Seriously. Don't do this.

5. There are some things better left unsaid.

All things being equal, I'd rather buy a horse with a nice non-committal affix. I'd just rather have Ponykins of "Meadow Lark Estates" than Ponykins of "MEAT IS MURDER", or Ponykins of "JESUS LOVES YOU".

Even if I agree with your sentiments, there's a certain amount of tact that one should exercise when choosing an affix. You risk looking very juvenile if you bring your propaganda into the game. Not to mention, you could be violating the terms of service depending on the affix subject and content.

Hope your parents aren't paying for that

Soooo... You want an expensive art tablet so you can trace your shitty 3D renders more efficiently?

Bitch please.