HGG Community Forums

I'd be delighted to help mentor you, Kelsey, and it won't cost you anything. My major challenge, at my stage of playing this game, is to keep my bank balance below the 10 million hajibucks limit. More game cash is the last thing I need. :D In addition, one of the things I like doing best is helping new players get a good start in the game.

So let me know if you're interested, and whether you would like me to do the mentoring here on the open forum, so that perhaps other new players may benefit from my "gems" of wisdom ;) or if you'd prefer to work through Private Messages.

I have a pretty good understanding of the game, but perhaps you should know that I'm not one of the most fussy players when it comes to setting strict standards for culling and consistently pursuing a given color or pattern goal through many generations. However, what I know about the game and how to play it is yours for the asking, and you will be free to seek other answers from other players whenever you feel the need.

There are a few things that I do want you to understand, whether you accept my mentoring or not. There is NO one right way to play this game. It is not a game of each player trying to outdo all the others; the only goals are those we set for ourselves; Ammit is always improving the game and the gameplay and is continually introducing new things to help us learn to understand the scientific reality of horse genetics while having fun, so your goals can, and may, and probably will change. We are a friendly community and helping each other is a big part of the game.

Let me know how you'd like to proceed, or if you'd rather look around for a more organized player. :)

Do you have any color preference for starting you lines? I can hook you up with all sorts of goodies!

For a good start, I suggest you go to the Foundation Rescue, Player ID 13. You can get there using the Search Horses link. All the horses in the Foundation Rescue are perfect foundations. They will have both 100% breeding and showing ability and will score exactly the same thing both times they are shown.

Start in the Key Filters section. Under Gender, select Mare.
Under Status, uncheck Bred this year and Lined.
Insert 13 in the Owner ID box.

Now go to the narrow section to the left of Key Filters.
Under Age, insert 3 in the line Older Than. Insert 6 in the line Younger than.
Don't worry about Eras, now. That's fairly unimportant.
Under height you can select whether you will get horses or ponies. For horses, put 14.2 in the line for Greater than. For ponies, put 14.3 in the line for Less than. Leave it blank if you don't care.
Under Bone Weight, you can select whether you want light horses, warmbloods, or drafts. At this point, you may want to leave that blank while you look to see what's available.

Leave everything else blank or unchanged and click Search Horses.

A search for both ponies and horses of all bone weights will get 137 pages of perfect foundations between the ages of 5 and 4. A great many of them will be bays and chestnuts, but you may find something interesting if you search patiently. Click on a horse's ID number to go to its page. Once there, there will be a button to let you buy the horse.

Select about 4 mares. I saw a buckskin, a grullo, and some blacks on the second page, so there are colors other than bays and chestnuts.

Then go back to the horse search and select Stallion instead of Mare. If you use the back arrow, you will return to your original search and can make changes. Or you can start entirely fresh to search again. Select one stallion that catches your eye.

This will give you a start to learn the basics. When you get your chosen horses in your barn, give them a name. You do this on the Control Panel tab. Enter a name in the box with the horse's ID number. Then click Change Name. If the name is already in use, enter a different one.

The next step is putting the horses through testing. They may already have had some testing done, but you should check to see that the stallion has been through Gelding Advice, the mares through Mare Advice, all of them through
the Showing Aptitude Test. All these tests are free. We will talk about other testing later. I'm not sure exactly which tests are activated for you. It's been quite a few years since I started playing with a free account, so You'll have to tell me what you can do.

Next you will want to go to the Showing section of the left Menu Bar, and click on Train My Horses. Click on Train This Horse for every one. You will need to train your horses once every real-life week.

Go to your Primary Barn. To the left of every horse's name you will see a flag. You can use this flag to enter a horse in a show. Clicking on it will take you to the page where you can enter a horse. It will give you a list of classes that horse is eligible for. There may be only one class available or more than one. Select one, and click the button to enter the horse. When you have entered all your horses, go to the left menu bar and select My Show Entries. This will give you a list of all your horses, the class they have been entered in. Below that, there is a chart that lists all of the Levels and Grades of classes, the entry fee for each one, and the maximum number of horses that can be entered in the class. You might want to check this out. We'll talk about what it all means later. Horses can be shown twice in a real life week. All classes that have been filled are run on the hour, so it's possible to show your horses twice in one day, but you might want to spread your showing out to give you something to do later in the week.

At bottom of the left menu bar, you will find the FAQ user guide. You will find a lot of the basic information about playing the game there, but it doesn't cover all the fine details. The Breeding Info link will take you to a description about how to breed your horses. If you have a free account, you will have to wait until Jan. 3rd to do some breeding.

Well, that's how to make a good start. If you have specific questions about any of this, or about anything else in the game. Please just ask. If there's a specific topic you want me to address, genetics, for instance, or selling horses, let me know and I'll share what I know and where in the forum you might find other information.