Horse tournaments and seasons
The horse tournament season is a separate competitive mode on the horse ranch, kept apart from the usual battles on the farm. I enter my own horses in three disciplines and try to post the fastest time on a course with three obstacles or tasks. Besides the horse's trained attributes, what matters is how it behaves during the run and what equipment I give it at the start. Wins earn horse badges, which I then need for other tasks on the ranch.
The tournament season is the main reason to bother with the horse ranch beyond breeding itself, because there is no other way to get horse badges. It is worth entering only with a horse that has decently trained attributes and at least some equipment, without that I lose mostly because of how the horse behaves on the course, not because of bad luck.
The season offers a choice of three riding disciplines
The horse tournament season runs on its own and is contested with horses straight from my own breeding. In each season I pick from three disciplines and in each of them I have a choice of three different opponents, each with their own course and their own rewards.
- Show jumping - the horse clears jumping obstacles.
- Racing - pure speed on the track decides it.
- Dressage - instead of obstacles the horse performs tasks.
Each horse shows its level, which hints at how well trained it is and how it is likely to do in the race. On top of that, the horse selection for a competition shows an overview of its traits and a predicted result, so I get a picture of my chances before the start.
The winner is decided by the time needed to finish the course
Every course has three obstacles - in show jumping and racing these are the classic obstacles, in dressage they are tasks the horse has to complete. The winner is the one whose horse gets through all three in the shortest total time. So it is not about who crosses the line first in the running order, but about the time actually measured over the whole course.
How the horse behaves on the course decides the final time
At every obstacle or task the horse reacts in one of three ways, and that determines how much its time changes.
| Behavior | Effect on time |
|---|---|
| Hesitation | the time gets longer |
| Normal way | no effect on the time |
| Gallop | the time gets shorter |
As a rule, the horse has roughly a one in three chance of each of these three outcomes. How fast the horse gets through a given obstacle with a particular behavior is set by its attributes, which I improve by training. The chance of a given behavior happening, though, is shaped by breeding effects, some raise the odds of a gallop, others lower them. That is why it pays to watch which effects a horse has and enter it in the discipline that suits them.
Equipment improves both the horse's behavior and the race rewards
Horse equipment are consumable items I assign to a horse for a competition. There are five categories, but only three pieces count at once, because the horse can wear just one item from each category.
- Saddles
- Saddle pads
- Riding helmets
- Riding boots
- Leg wraps
Depending on the category, equipment lets me improve the horse's behavior on the course, strengthen or replace its existing breeding effect, give it a brand new breeding effect, or raise the rewards from the competition directly. It pays to try different combinations, because what suits one horse may not work as well for another.
Horse badges only come from winning competitions
Wins in the horse tournament season earn horse badges, a currency I then need to finish various tasks right on the horse ranch. The texts in the game don't mention any other way to get them, so when I need some, the surest route is to enter a competition and win.
