If you are looking for a well rounded horse game, then this is a *very* well rounded horse game. It covers many aspects of horse life that other games do not usually include. These aspects include, but not limited to, horse riding, horse caring (beyond just cleaning and feeding), training, working with multiple horses, breeding and selling said horses, and running a profitable stable yard (where guests can rent your horses).

It takes a realistic approach to horses where it can while keeping in perspective that it is still a game. Some of these realities are the fact that your horse does get tired if run for too long, can get stressed, and even sick if not properly taken care of.

The in-game books (used for increasing skill levels) are not limited to in-game information, but rather information on the game's aspects in general, such as actual horse care, behavior to be taken when caring for a foal, etc.

As far as the technical aspects of the game goes, there are many positives. The graphics are not as realistic as most modern games, however, what it does have is beautiful. The controls are extremely simple, even if the concepts of the game are more for children 8+. The game restricts the player to an "8 hour day" where it will auto-save at the end of said day, so no night rides.

I would recommend this game for children 8+ and can go as high as teens to twenties. Definitely a fun, well rounded game for children and adults of all ages.

I bought this game originally for my ex gf who is a real life equestrian and I wanted to get her something for rainy days. She started playing and I was amazed at how excited and happy this game was making her, so I purchased it for myself too. I am usually the kind of guy who plays RPG's and Resident Evil like horror games and so this is really not the kind of game I would usually go for. After 10 minutes of playing though, I was hooked!

This is a wonderful game that touches on many aspects of owning a horse in real life, and most of all it relies on teaching you how to manage your time. The horses are animated beautifully, and some of the mini games are very fun to play too, like cleaning the horses hooves or hosing them down. I have found myself addicted to this game in a very short amount of time!

I would recommend this game to anyone who has a passing interest in horses, and also to anyone who just simply enjoys simulator style games as the main story mode has you rebuilding your business by training and selling horses.

Edited to add - Its now eight years after purchasing and from time to time I still boot this game up for a little bit of peaceful distraction. I really do believe that some of the mini games (hoof cleaning, hosing and brushing the horses) would be great additions to other horse based games. They are very simple to do and yet extremely satisfying even though you do them repeatedly. This game is an ideal distraction whilst watching TV and really worth a go if you like sim or horse games.

It's not bad. I've played many horse games over the years, and this is one of the best. That said, even the best wasn't that great. It might just be that I'm picky, though. It IS the best horse game currently on Steam, in my opinion.

Note that this review is from the POV of an equestrian, and is probably best targeted at someone similar. This is mostly me being picky.

Things I like:

- I like that you can lead your horse. It takes ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ forever, but I recently realized I could speed up the game (hotkey 1 to speed up/slow down) while leading my horse or doing other similarly slow tasks to speed them up.
- I like the upgrades to the facilities even though it's slightly linear as to what you can do, and when
- I like the animations, which are very good compared to many other games with horses in (though not necessarily horse games)
- I like the riding activity. I've only got the first field unlocked, but it's nice, and I like that there are bonus points scattered around for you to find.

Things I don't like:

- You can tell whoever they hired is not totally on the up-and-up on all things horses. This list is primarily going to revolve around that.
- Lunging foals that look like they haven't even been weaned? And on tiny circles? If you did that in real life you'd have a broke-ass (and not in the good way) horse within a year. Their joints would just disintegrate (not a technical term) with the stress.
- There are only three breeds. Hanoverian, Friesian and Andalusian. Not bad breeds, but who the hell's idea was it to put Friesians in the game? Friesians only come in solid black, in reality. It's kind of their thing. In this game, they can come in any damn colour. NO. NOT RIGHT. WRONG. D: Hanoverians and Andalusians do not come in cream, either. Totally inaccurate. Not even close. They could have improved the realism tenfold just by adding a few more breeds, making them actually look like those breeds, and STICKING TO REALITY. Having a gray (white), palomino or spotty Friesian is the equivalent of having a purple polkadotted pony. It's not possible.
- Only being able to gallop over jumps, when in reality you want to NOT speed over jumps, usually. That's how you break legs.
- Lack of show jumping or dressage. The best horse game I ever played incorporated all three branches of eventing. Sadly, it lacked in other areas. I have yet to find one that hits every note.

As a horse lover, I am not against playing games clearly marketed for a much younger audience so long as they have horses in it. That being said I've tried a variety of horse type games (very few on Steam, mostly off Steam). While this game does allow you to interact with, care for, train, and ride your horse it's not the most enjoyable horse game I've ever played (actually far from it). The pacing for the story and time it takes for each task to be completed is... well... awful. In that respect they have achieved making every activity/chore feel tedious if that was the intended goal. In comparision to similar games the gameplay is very lack luster, and the overwhelming amount of positive reviews has me wondering if we in fact played the same game... I do have to commend the creators on their efforts to provide educational information on horses and realism in their care, however despite that I could not in good faith recommend anyone to spend time on this game.

As an avid equestrian since childhood, I have played several horse games, and this is by far the best one I've ever played. One of the most impressive points for me was the riding. It's not perfect, but the horses look better than in any other horse game I've played. Their gaits look realistic and when you turn them while trotting or cantering their heads actually look pretty. Their legs don't look all wonky and weird. The riding controls are very simple- click the left mouse button to speed up and the right to slow down. You don't have to make the horse jump yourself, but you do have to set them up right for it by taking them straight at it (most of the time, sometimes they jump at crazy angles) or the will refuse the jump. There are so may aspects of horse care (grooming, bathing, picking hooves, massaging), growing your farm (building a training facility, therapy center, guest house, and breeding center), and riding and competing ( There are 3 races in each area. The areas are the field, forest, and mountains). It is a very involved game with more goals than simply competing and brushing your horse. You earn money by training foals, massaging client's horses, breeding foals for clients, and booking guests. You can also breed your own foals and sell them. You can buy 3 different types of feed, supplements, a general vaccine, and a myriad of other medications to cure your horse of ailments (you'd only need them if you didn't keep your horses' health up, and it's very easy to keep them healthy). You can also buy show coats, boots, saddles, casual clothing, and books (which increase the amount of money you earn for each activity). Your focus it to achieve the next star rating by meeting all of the requirments for each level. It is very addictive and very fun!

As a former horse-crazy child, I've played a LOT of terrible horse games. This one, however, is surprisingly good. The graphics are quite nice and the minigames are just challenging enough. There are fairly difficult long-term goals--I've played 13 hours so far and not beaten the game yet. The controls are bit odd, but once you figure them out they are not hard to use. I would recommend this game to any horse-loving kid OR adult. I would have adored this game as a young girl and still have gotten quite the kick out of it as a 25 yr old.

My Riding Stables: Life With Horses basically has everything I'd want from a good horse game, but it falls apart in polish and execution. The tasks become too tedious too quickly and the UI and controls are ugly.

I still give it a "recommend", because if you have the patience for it, all the features are there. Don't play it if you're easily bored by repetition though.

Full review on The Mane Quest: https://www.themanequest.com/blog/2018/10/21/my-riding-stables-life-with-horses-so-close-to-decent-and-yet-so-far-from-good

Love the idea of ithis game. Don't love the actual gameplay so far. Graphics and sound are wonderful but when you start out, you have to train foals in order to earn money. So if you fail at foal training then you can't buy anything. Like horse food. So your starter horse will get hungry and sick. You can't do anything with a sick horse except maybe brush and rename it. You won't be able to afford medicine or a new horse. Plus you won't be able to upgrade anything - which prevents you from being able to try earn income in other ways. If the foal training was a bit easier or if it wasn't the sole source of daily income for a beginner, that would improve theis game a lot. If there were sources of food to be found around the ranch - visit a fruit tree while out riding or add a little match 3 minigame or let us actually farm that garden behind the house or something - that could also be very helpful both in making the game more survivable and making it more fun.

Edit:
Gave this game a second chance more recently. Made it a little further, after much struggle. Managed to open the horse massage center. Had really, really hoped that it would be more fun and profitable than the foal training. It wasn't. Clients want you to completely finish each massage in under a minute. No wonder their horses are stressed out, huh? So yeah. Unless there are some drastic changes to how income can be earned, am done with this game.

As it is... If you'e looking for a challenging time management game that just happens to have a horse theme, maybe this could work for you. But if you were hoping - like me - for more of a "relax, explore and build with your virtual pet" type title, this isn't it.

Bought it because I used to love this game as a child. Still good, but I can't go back to those times anymore.

We are not fooling ourselves the game is intended for children and despite the ugly graphics it really can be enjoyed.
I'm an adult stallion and I enjoyed the game very much, I didn't expect that I'd want to run it at all, not to mention playing a few hours (I guess I'm weird).
For a child I would take it in the dark, and if you like horses, there are appropriate sites for that
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