Shows

Ok, is there a specific way to help ensure your horses will win shows? I've noticed some of my horses have a lot of wins while others around similar age or stats will only have a few wins? I enter my horses in separate shows if I can help it.

Train them and enter them in Riding Schools!
I had a losing mare too, but I did those two options a couple times each and she started winning!
I'm sure there's other tactics too, but training and Riding Schools really help :)

Last edited on 2016-08-14 at 09:14:27 by Raptorfang™Ω

Yes! If your horses are losing, enter them in riding school instead for a few days, and they should really start improving.

I do train them. Where do you find riding schools?

You go to a boarding stable page and click "Riding School". Then you just read what it says to do the rest, lol.
You can visit mine if you like ^^

Last edited on 2016-08-14 at 09:27:53 by Raptorfang™Ω

General rule I follow is if the horse is over 30+ stats in a stat that's not related to their speciality, stick it in the riding school, it's not going to win 90% of the time. Only feed specialised stat treats and not sugar/hay cubes/peppermints to help with stat increase.

Training horses gives a luck bonus in shows (I think), so training a horse fully to level 5 will increase it's chances and give it major stat boosts.

Listen to what Maple said. They know more than I do :)

Raptorfang™Ω thank you! I don't know how I've missed that!! :$

Thanks for the insight maple!

LOL you're going to get some different responses. I have to respectfully disagree with maple on this one... I think the current point threshold to get good results is much higher than 30 non-specialty points, at least to a point. Otherwise, foundation horses would be absolute malarky on the show front (and perhaps they were previously). That said, now that my foundations with 45-60 non-specialty stats have hit Regional in their disciplines, I'm finding that they aren't gaining stats as quickly as they were in Novice-Local. However, I've switched up my showing technique a bit with them and they're still doing well. So I agree that once you hit regional, it really behooves the horse to have under 30 non-specialty stats

Sample 12 year olds from my own herds:
Slàine - 55 non-specialty stats 692 current stats
Iona - 59 non-specialty stats 685 current stats
Cortesana - 61 non-specialty stats, 608 current stats

These three were rescued from the RC as 3y/o's and have only been treated specialty stat treats.*if memory serves correctly* I am VERY excited to see what stats my horses that were adopted from the RC and/or EC at 0y/o and were treated with haycubes/peppermints from 0-3yo reach by age 12.

I think the most important thing that's helped my horses is having fully upgraded tack (5/5). Hand-showing, when I have the time, is the second most important thing (no more than 6 entries per show, max 3 horses...ideally try to get horses with similar stats in the same show so they're on a "level" playing field among themselves, etc).I hand-show about 80% of my horses on any given day.

Last edited on 2016-08-14 at 11:28:27 by Ducky

^ I've heard different things, but personally 20-30 stats in a non-spec with a non-foundation is my limit, horses win considerably less shows with those stats compared to a horse with only 10. It's just how I've found things, stat gain is MUCH slower if it's over 20 stats in a non-spec but not impossible, whereas foundations don't seem to be as affected.

@maple - That's interesting you bring that up. I have lined horses with 30+ non-specialty stats that definitely show less successfully, and couldn't figure out why. Never considered that perhaps the two groups are potentially operating under different parameters Good call!

While a foundation horse will definitely not out-show a horse that has been bred for low non-specialty stats, I still find that foundations gain faster in shows than in riding schools, if their non-specialty stats have been kept at birth level.

Oh, and Ducky - one reason why your horses may be gaining stats slower when they hit Regional is because Regional is when the spread of stats per level starts to increase. Before that, each level is 50 stat points - 300-349 stats, or 550-599. Once you get to Regional, it's 100 points - 800-899. It's going to take you longer to get up to the higher end of the range, where you will have more chance of dominating. In the earlier levels, if you have 440 stats, you're just ten from the top, but if you have 740 stats, you still have 60 stat points to go.

i was about to post the same thing that Confessor just did about why hitting regional is such a slow-down period. Getting my horses from 700 to 800 has taken almost as much time as getting them from 500-700 (and i'd know, since i track daily :P)