A couple of tips I wish I knew from the start

[Jeza]

I'm not expert by any means but i still have learned a couple of things that I wish i had known from the start and haven't seen in any recent post so in case it can help someone else out there here they are :

1-The very first auction has infinite horses so take your time.
I know Madeleine talks about stats and potential and ti's essential of course but traits matter as much if not more.
I was very lucky that my first horse had 3 incredible traits but the most useful of all was the Vigorous one.
It makes it so that he loses only 20 stamina per race instead of 40.
With a good treat and using the hitching posts to let him regain some stamina he could easily make 5 races per day just by himself !
The homebody trait is also wonderful your horse loses stamina half as fast when training home. At the start you don't have any of the trails or even less the stats training arenas so it's perfect to train your horse fast.
I've also discovered since then 2 other traits that would be excellent on a beginner horse : radiant and superstar, superstar gives you more money per race and radiant more statue progress per win.
If you manage to find a horse with vigorous and any combination of 2 of the 3 other skills I would highly encourage you to take him no matter the coat.
There are only 4 plain colors to start with anyway and plenty of ways to get wonderful coats later on.

2-Never ever let the stamina bar empty completely during a race. Of course it'll replenish over time even if ti's depleted and at the same rate as if it were not however it takes 4/5 seconds before it starts replenishing while it's immediate if it's not completely empty.
5 seconds can be the difference between 4th and 1st. Always pay attention when your horse starts to breathe heavily it's a sign you're reaching the end of your stamina and you should stop galloping very soon.

3-There is no way to gallop for a full race at the beginning, maybe with a 100 stats horse in a beginner race ? But at the start no way. Also if you jump from the canter you will have much more chances to not fail even if the jump isn't perfect. So as the saying goes one stone two birds always jump from a canter except maybe the very last obstacle if you know you have enough stamina.

4-In crystal lake there can be obstacles in the middle of the bridges. And I don't mean the small flat ones but the big ones that are high above the water with rail-guards on the sides.
Those are buggy as heck, if your horse has less than 40 jump he'll refuse to jump them even from a canter so take those at a trot and spam the jump key. Over 40 you should be able to clear them at a canter still spamming the jump key. And this is for beginner races I have no idea what the skill level would be in more advanced races to clear similar jumps from a canter.
Oh and I believe there is one similar jump in rocky mountains race too where it's on a bridge with similar issues.

here is my list don't hesitate to add to it or tell me if I'm wrong about something but this is what I wish I knew from the start.

[Fyrmare]

Vigorous, Radiant and Superstar are all in the "Earning" trait category. You won't ever find a horse with two of them.

[Jeza]

Originally posted by Fyrmare:

Vigorous, Radiant and Superstar are all in the "Earning" trait category. You won't ever find a horse with two of them.

Ah shame, well one of those plus homebody and gourmand is still a winning combo IMO.

Superstar doesn't give enough bonus in gains to be as good as being able to make 4 or 5 races a day and same with radiant with statue bonus.

And gourmand I just discovered you can feed 2 treats per day. Add that to vigorous you might even squeeze 6 races per day if you're fast enough.
I know there is time enough in the day for 7 races but I don't think there's a way for a beginner horse to have enough stamina to make them all even with 2 treats.

[Fyrmare]

Yeah, which traits are good is dependent upon where in a play through one is, too. Except "Mysterious" (never poops). That's never a good trait in my opinion because you loose out on fertilizer and still have to take the time to change the stall bedding. Unless your horse is out in the pasture and it's completely irrelevant.

I went through most of my recent save with a Radiant racing stud, which really helped get my horses to 400% quickly. But now that all of them are maxed out I'm never visiting the statues anyways so it's time to try and get a new Earning trait into my herd. Personally I'm hoping to pair a new earning trait with Training "Affectionate" (faster trust) and Caring "Elegant" (never needs brushing).

[Jeza]

Originally posted by Fyrmare:

Yeah, which traits are good is dependent upon where in a play through one is, too. Except "Mysterious" (never poops). That's never a good trait in my opinion because you loose out on fertilizer and still have to take the time to change the stall bedding. Unless your horse is out in the pasture and it's completely irrelevant.

I went through most of my recent save with a Radiant racing stud, which really helped get my horses to 400% quickly. But now that all of them are maxed out I'm never visiting the statues anyways so it's time to try and get a new Earning trait into my herd. Personally I'm hoping to pair a new earning trait with Training "Affectionate" (faster trust) and Caring "Elegant" (never needs brushing).

You're absolutely right,I would even add that it also depends on play-style.

But I was really talking about beginner tips and when you start a game and only have one horse the town and your ranch being able to do 5 races daily and have an advantage when you train your horse at home because he uses less stamina so you can train more I think is the perfect combo.
So vigorous, gourmand and homebody is my perfect combo in that situation.

[Zeesha]

One of the nice things I found on trying to work a horse was the trail trait. The one that looks like a tree.

All the bonus arenas, that guy can just go and go and go and go and go and... seesh I'm still going and hadn't had to feed him! He's not even max, maybe in the 40's range. Managed to heard a whole group of horses in crystal lake and I was on canter the entire time. He still had energy left over with it being a one-by-one herding deal.

I can see once maxed out maybe not that great, but if he had the forage trait with it, that would be sooooo nice. :D

[Jeza]

Originally posted by Zeesha:

One of the nice things I found on trying to work a horse was the trail trait. The one that looks like a tree.

All the bonus arenas, that guy can just go and go and go and go and go and... seesh I'm still going and hadn't had to feed him! He's not even max, maybe in the 40's range. Managed to heard a whole group of horses in crystal lake and I was on canter the entire time. He still had energy left over with it being a one-by-one herding deal.

I can see once maxed out maybe not that great, but if he had the forage trait with it, that would be sooooo nice. :D

The trait that looks like a tree is the adventurous one it's the parallel of the homebody trait that I mentioned.
Both are traits that reduce the stamina use when training, homebody does that at the ranch and Adventurous does that on the trails.

Adventurous is a great trait once you have the trails unlocked that's true.
But it's useless very early on when you don't have any trail unlocked.
If you're short on time (say you raced until 8pm and now only have a couple of hours of training left) homebody is still better early on because you don't have the teleporting stones so it takes time to reach the trail you want to train on.
But once every trail is unlocked with the stones and the special arenas adventurous is an incredible trait that's for sure.

[Crixa]

Originally posted by Jeza:

I'm not expert by any means but i still have learned a couple of things that I wish i had known from the start and haven't seen in any recent post so in case it can help someone else out there here they are :

1-The very first auction has infinite horses so take your time.
I know Madeleine talks about stats and potential and ti's essential of course but traits matter as much if not more.
I was very lucky that my first horse had 3 incredible traits but the most useful of all was the Vigorous one.
It makes it so that he loses only 20 stamina per race instead of 40.
With a good treat and using the hitching posts to let him regain some stamina he could easily make 5 races per day just by himself !
The homebody trait is also wonderful your horse loses stamina half as fast when training home. At the start you don't have any of the trails or even less the stats training arenas so it's perfect to train your horse fast.
I've also discovered since then 2 other traits that would be excellent on a beginner horse : radiant and superstar, superstar gives you more money per race and radiant more statue progress per win.
If you manage to find a horse with vigorous and any combination of 2 of the 3 other skills I would highly encourage you to take him no matter the coat.
There are only 4 plain colors to start with anyway and plenty of ways to get wonderful coats later on.

2-Never ever let the stamina bar empty completely during a race. Of course it'll replenish over time even if ti's depleted and at the same rate as if it were not however it takes 4/5 seconds before it starts replenishing while it's immediate if it's not completely empty.
5 seconds can be the difference between 4th and 1st. Always pay attention when your horse starts to breathe heavily it's a sign you're reaching the end of your stamina and you should stop galloping very soon.

3-There is no way to gallop for a full race at the beginning, maybe with a 100 stats horse in a beginner race ? But at the start no way. Also if you jump from the canter you will have much more chances to not fail even if the jump isn't perfect. So as the saying goes one stone two birds always jump from a canter except maybe the very last obstacle if you know you have enough stamina.

4-In crystal lake there can be obstacles in the middle of the bridges. And I don't mean the small flat ones but the big ones that are high above the water with rail-guards on the sides.
Those are buggy as heck, if your horse has less than 40 jump he'll refuse to jump them even from a canter so take those at a trot and spam the jump key. Over 40 you should be able to clear them at a canter still spamming the jump key. And this is for beginner races I have no idea what the skill level would be in more advanced races to clear similar jumps from a canter.
Oh and I believe there is one similar jump in rocky mountains race too where it's on a bridge with similar issues.

here is my list don't hesitate to add to it or tell me if I'm wrong about something but this is what I wish I knew from the start.

This guide helped me a ton! Thank you! I got a really good starter horse with Vigorous and Homebody and we are earning money pretty fast, thanks to you.

[Jeza]

Originally posted by Crixa:

This guide helped me a ton! Thank you! I got a really good starter horse with Vigorous and Homebody and we are earning money pretty fast, thanks to you.

Glad i could help :)