How do you make money in this game?

[Applejack]

Is racing the only way to get money? I suck at racing! :(
Can you make money by farming? I don't know how to start farming?...

I've only played 1,6 hours (so I don't know much about the game) and now I have to decide if I should refund the game or not.
The Ranch of Rivershine looks lovely but if racing is the only way to make money and progress then this is not a game for me.

I'm interested in breeding horses but I have no money to buy more horses. :(

[Silver]

you could try harvesting anything you find on your ranch, town and areas you unlocked and sell most of it (keep enough to take care of your horses) till you have like 4k. Then try to buy the cheapest horse, train it up and sell and do that on repeat. Also once you can buy seeds you can plant those and also sell for more than you bought the seeds for. It's harder to earn money without competitions but it's possible with enough effort. If you don't mind to try doing competitons from time to time you can also try to win at least one competition with the horses you want to sell so they're worth more but it works perfectly without winning a competition too. You usually can buy a low tier horse for 2600-3400 and they usually sell for 4k-6k once maxed

[NerdyGem]

Racing becomes a lot easier once you've fully trained your horse :) I'd say raise Jump to no more than 25, since from the demo I believe that stat 'unlocks' the ability to jump higher at increments of 25. Instead make sure your horse's flexibility is at 20-25 for easier turning, and put the rest in endurance and speed. Higher endurance means your horse can gallop for longer without getting tired, but I personally think speed is slightly more useful since it will make the horse faster at ALL gaits, so even when you're cantering to gain energy again they're faster.

Another tip is that when you gallop during a race, drop down to canter BEFORE the energy bar empties. When the bar is empty it takes a few seconds to even start filling again, whereas if you slow down before then it will immediately start filling.

As Silver said, farming is a good option and you can forage a lot on the maps. Plants appear in the same spawn spots to keep a look out each day. Timothy hay and grains sell for good prices, and carrots don't take too long to grow. If you're going to invest in fertiliser I'd suggest either the one that shortens growing time by a day (since that means you can plant more often) or the one that adds +1 crop to each harvest - but I haven't done the maths yet so I don't know which is better of if it's worth spending the extra money on fertiliser at all.

I played the demo quite a bit and in my opinion it's a lovely game with lots to look forward to in early access and full release. If you do decide to refund you can always check the game out again in the future :)

[Shiro]

You can get money by racing, farming and selling horses :)
Horses you wanna sale have value depending on:
-their coat
-markings
-stats
-trust
-which races they got a ribbon for (not the quantity, just if they have any ribbon or not)

If you struggle with racing I recommand training horse or start over and get starter with better stats than just nice looks!

[👽𝕳𝖆𝖗𝖕𝖆𝖝👽]

Bought a wild horse for ~$3000 at the auction house, with 46% potential. Trained it for a couple days until potential ran out, sold it at the auction for $9900. Didn't have to race it, just ran around the training grounds. So ~$6000 every 3-4 days by selling trained wild horses might be a start. Remember to sell the horse poop, too.

[MissBunny]

Originally posted by 👽𝕳𝖆𝖗𝖕𝖆𝖝👽:

Bought a wild horse for ~$3000 at the auction house, with 46% potential. Trained it for a couple days until potential ran out, sold it at the auction for $9900. Didn't have to race it, just ran around the training grounds. So ~$6000 every 3-4 days by selling trained wild horses might be a start. Remember to sell the horse poop, too.

How do you collect and sell the horse poop?

[Tila]

Keep the horses in the stable overnight, muck out stable, sell poop to any vendor.

[Indy]

Originally posted by Shiro:

You can get money by racing, farming and selling horses :)
Horses you wanna sale have value depending on:
-their coat
-markings
-stats
-trust
-which races they got a ribbon for (not the quantity, just if they have any ribbon or not)

If you struggle with racing I recommand training horse or start over and get starter with better stats than just nice looks!

It's not a farming simulator, its a ranch of rivershine

[Tila]

It can be a farming simulator!
I made myself an excel sheet and farming is definitly going to be a source of income for me.

Best crop in terms of profit per field is Wheat (753) > then Corn > Barley > Milo > Alfalfa Hay > Oats > Timothy Hay > Carrots > Orchard Grass.
Best crop in terms of profit per day is Barley (101) > Corn > Wheat > Oats > Milo > Alfalfa > Carrots > Timothy > Orchard Grass.

Orchard Grass and Oats will be planted whenever I have space left, since it's growing fast and in every warm season.
Carrots will only be planted in Winter when nothing else grows.
In spring I will flood my fields with Wheat, in summer with Barley, in autumn with Corn.
Timothy Hay, Alfalfa Hay and Milo will be planted in between - they have 2 seasons each and are overlapping two crops at a time. I have a chart for planting too.

And if you have the fertility pasture you can sell untrained yearlings. You don't have to race or do repetitive training. I only participate in races if I have to and only with the best horses, which makes winning relatively easy. And I'm only training the horses I want to keep and ride daily. Life is pretty nice on the Ranch.