Training, grooming, and exercising your horse is pretty simple. Every real life day, or game month, you get thirty game days. You then have a set number of training sessions that you get to use for each game day. For Pink and Yellow Ribbon accounts, you get five sessions per game day; Red Ribbon Breeder and Competitor accounts get fifteen sessions; and Red Ribbon Trainers and Blue Ribbons get 45 sessions. You can use one session per horse per game day. You can begin training your horse in Foal the day they are born. Once they turn 1.04 years old they can move up to Greenbroke, and once they reach 2 years old, they can move onto the discipline you have chosen for them. (Please refer to the "Foal and Greenbroke Training" section.) Please note that you will want to make sure that you have trained all of the horses who you wanted to work with before hitting the "Next Day" link – there is no way to retrieve those lost sessions if you wanted to use them!

If you go to your horse’s page, you will see a link in the same box as his name and pedigree that says "Work With Horse". (Your horse must be in a barn to begin training.) There are three different areas that you can then choose to work with your horse in: training, grooming, and exercise.

This is actually more precisely "discipline" training. Once to get through Foal and Greenbroke training, this is how you will train your horse in the different areas of the discipline you have chosen for it. Each discipline has its own areas that the horse needs to be trained in. There are six different levels: Not Introduced, Poor, Fair, Average, Good, and Excellent. Usually the Not Introduced will change to Poor the first time you click that training button, but from then on, each horse trains at its own pace. It could take 15 days to get your horse to Fair, or it could take 40. (See "Why Horses Train at Different Speeds".) The goal is to eventually have everything at Excellent.

You can train your horse by going to ‘Main Ranch’ on the sidebar to the left of the screen, clicking on the horse'’s name, and then clicking on “Work with Horse”, which can be found at the bottom of the blue box of info just to the left of your horse’s picture. When you have reached the training page by clicking on the “Work with Horse” link, you will be given several options. From this screen, you will be able to groom, exercise, and train your horse. For now, we will focus on the training column, which is the one the the far right.

If your horse has not been previously trained, it will be in the ‘foal’ bracket. What are brackets? There several different brackets your horse will go through in training. The first is foal, then comes greenbroke, and finally, the discipline brackets, which start at beginner and move up with showing experience and wins. That’'s not important now, though, since you are most likely starting at foal training. The most important thing to remember is that training takes time. Your horse will not get trained in a day! Foal training can take anywhere from a little under a week, to over a week if you train every game day, for every real day.

As you probably know, in the game, each real life day is 30 game days, or one game month. You are able to give one session per game day to your horse. In this session, you can choose to train, groom, or exercise your horse. You will not be able to work with your horse again until you advance to the next day. (To do this, click on “Next Day”- just above the “Main Ranch” link you clicked on earlier.)

Let’'s assume that for today’'s session you are going to train your horse. Look at the list of options in the training column. You will see 7 options, each with a button to press. You can train in any order you wish, but it is logical to start with the first option, ‘Introduce Halter’. Click on the button, and you will see a little box pop up at the top of the screen, telling how your horse did in the training. Scroll down to the training list again and you will notice that your horse’'s training report has changed from “Not Introduced” to “Poor”. Don'’t get discouraged, though. It will take a while for it to go to the next “level”. (It will change from Poor, to Fair, to Average, to Good, and finally to Excellent!) How fast your horse trains (how long it takes to get from one level the the next) depends on your horse’'s traits. (The brightly colored boxes titled Strength, Intelligence, Stamina, Speed, Movement, Surefoot, Agility, Confirmation, Trainability, and Temperment.) Logically, the higher the number, the better your horse is in that area. By far, the most important trait you will need for training is “Trainability” and Temperment. Also, if your horse has a high Confirmation stat, it will do better in shows, which is the reason you are training it. If you want to find out exactly how good your horse is, add up all of the traits. Not the fluid stats, just the traits. The ones with single numbers are the traits. The ones with more than one number that change from time to time are fluid stats- remember that! So add up the traits and you will get your horse’'s percentage. It will never change and determines approximately how good your horse is. Usually horses in the 60'’s and 70’'s will do better in shows, but some in the 50’'s have done well. It all depends on if you are willing to give it a chance!

Now, back to your current training: Once you have used up your session for the day, you will want to switch to the next day- but make sure you train all of the horses you would like to train before you do so. Once you change to the next day, you can not come back. You can see how many sessions you have remaining on that day by looking at the top of your screen in the blue box with a white inside rim. It will tell you how many sessions you have left for that day in the upper right hand corner of the box, and how many days you have remaining in the lower left hand corner. The upper left hand corner tells you how much money you have, but that’'s not important now. When you have trained your horse for the 30 game days you are given, you are finished until the next real day, or game month. You may have noticed that your horse’'s training has changed from poor to fair, but maybe it hasn’t changed at all. Be patient. Just as in real life, each horse trains at a different speed. Each horse has a different trainability, and temperment level. Depending on these, your horse will either train fast or slow. When your foal turns 1 year old (each game month a horse ages .08 years) you will be able to advance it to greenbroke training. This training is very similar to foal training, so you will have no trouble going through it at all. It is very important however that you do not advance to green until your horse is trained to all “excellent!” in foal. If you advance before this, your horse will be harder to train and may never become the star it could have become. Once you get through greenbroke, you can choose a discipline for your horse. Visit the commons for help on deciding, or just choose one you think your horse would do well in based on its traits. We will also talk a little bit more about this below. (The horse'’s traits are on top- the bottom ones are fluid stats, and we will talk about those in a moment.) Once you have chosen a discipline for your horse, you can advance to beginner. Here you will need to train your horse in its selected discipline. You are now able to enter your horse in shows if you wish. Now, about those fluid stats! You will notice that, as you train, the fluid stats will rise in number. Sometimes they will change color. Red is the worst, but when a fluid stat rises to 30.000%, it will change to green. This is a little better, but once it changes to 70.000% it will turn blue. This is a very good sign. It takes a while to get each fluid stat to 100.000%, but once you get there it was really worth it. You horse will do better in shows depending on how high these stats are. You can alter the stats by training, grooming, or exercising. If you know what each exercise, grooming, or training selection is in real life, you will most likely be able to guess which stats each one raises.

Training is exactly as the name suggests- training a horse to prepare it for the show ring. These tasks are unique, as you are given an "Exercise Performance" status beside each one. These range from Not Introduced, all the way to Excellent. Also, if you have chosen to use a session to train a horse, you will get a blue message at the top of that horse's screen, indicating how well they have done with what you asked them. These messages are a good indicator of how your horse is faring with the task, and together with the "Exercise Performance" status, gives you a complete picture as to how well your horse is doing.

To train a horse, go to your ranch page by clicking the link labeled "Ranch Page", in the menu on the left of this page. To keep these instructions open at the same time, right click on the link and select "Open In New Page" from the drop down menu that appears. Once on your ranch page, click on your horse"s name. If you have multiple horses that need training, grooming or exercising, you may want to right click on each of the horse"s names, and select "Open In New Page" so that you can have them all open at the same time. The link on your horse"s name will take you to your horse"s page. From there, click on the link labeled "Work With Horse". This will take you to the page where you can train, groom or exercise your horse. On the far right you will find the options for training your horse. Choose one and click the button to train the horse in that skill. The page will then reload, with a notice up the top saying how your horse performed while being trained in that skill. This will have used up one session. If you wish to train, groom or exercise other horses, repeat these instructions for them, until you have either trained/groomed/exercised as many horses as you want, or else used up all your sessions. (Note: If you only have 5 sessions, you cannot train more than 5 horses per game day.) Once you have done this, click the link labeled "Next Game Day", located at the very top of the menu on the far left. The number of sessions available will then increase back up to the maximum for your ranch, the number of game days available will reduce by one, and you can then repeat the above instructions for your horses, until such time as you have no more game days left. Once you have used all these up, you will have to wait until the next game month/next real day to train/groom/exercise your horses again.

On your horse"s page, under each button in the training column, you will find a notice saying "Exercise performance:" followed by various phrases demonstrating the horse"s skill level. Originally, it may have said "Not introduced". After you train this will be upgraded to "Poor". As you continue to train, this will cycle through "Fair" "Average" "Good" and finally "Excellent!" which is the highest skill level. Each session is approximately equal to a 20 minute session with a real horse, so it will take a little while to train a horse from "Not introduced" up to "Excellent" in each skill. This is approximately 60 sessions, which can usually be achieved in two real days. It usually takes about 15 sessions to get from one skill level to the next, except when going from "Good" to "Excellent", which is usually less.

Grooming your horse is how you raise its Condition and Coat fluid stats. (Please refer to the "Fluid Stats" section for more information on how the fluid stats work.) It's very important for these to be at 100% - it raises their chances of doing well in shows. (Think about it – would you take your horse to a show looking like a complete mess?)

Pick Hooves – raises Condition
Comb Mane and Tail – raises Condition
Curry Comb and Brush – raises Coat
Bathe – raises Coat

Grooming logically raises both condition and coat stats. Depending on which grooming option you choose the stats will raise anywhere from, letÂ’'s say .400% to about .800%. This may seem like it takes a while, but it is worth it because condition and coat are extremely important stats in shows. Think about it, would you take a muddy horse and enter it in a show. I certainly wouldn'Â’t, and you shouldnÂ’'t either.

Grooming is something that should not be neglected with your ER horses. These actions help raise your horse's coat and condition fluid stats, which are the numbers with the percent signs. These stats are just as important as the other fluid stats when it comes to success in the show ring, so make sure you get them high as well!

To groom a horse, go to your ranch page by clicking the link labeled "Ranch Page", in the menu on the left of this page. To keep these instructions open at the same time, right click on the link and select "Open In New Page" from the drop down menu that appears. Once on your ranch page, click on your horse"s name. If you have multiple horses that need training, grooming or exercising, you may want to right click on each of the horse"s names, and select "Open In New Page" so that you can have them all open at the same time. The link on your horse"s name will take you to your horse"s page. From there, click on the link labeled "Work With Horse". This will take you to the page where you can train, groom or exercise your horse. On the far left you will find the options for grooming your horse. Choose one and click the button to groom the horse in that particular way. The page will then reload. This will have used up one session. If you wish to train, groom or exercise other horses, repeat these instructions for them, until you have either trained/groomed/exercised as many horses as you want, or else used up all your sessions. (Note: If you only have 5 sessions, you cannot train more than 5 horses per game day.) Once you have done this, click the link labeled "Next Game Day", located at the very top of the menu on the far left. The number of sessions available will then increase back up to the maximum for your ranch, the number of game days available will reduce by one, and you can then repeat the above instructions for your horses, until such time as you have no more game days left. Once you have used all these up, you will have to wait until the next game month/next real day to train/groom/exercise your horses again.

Exercising your horse helps raise the other fluid stats. Just like with the Condition and Coat fluid stats, it’s important to get these up to 100% as soon as possible.
Lunge: Flatwork – raises Strength, Endurance, and Speed
Lunge: Cavalletti – raises Surefoot, Intelligence, and Agility
Lunge: Small Jumps – raises Strength, Intelligence, and Agility
Swimming – raises Strength, Endurance, and Muscle Tone
Treadmill – raises Strength, Speed, and Movement
Hotwalker – raises Strength, Movement, and Muscle Tone

Like training and grooming, exercising will raise certain stats depending on which option you choose. The exercise column is the middle column on the “Work with Horse” page. You can probably guess by just looking at each exercise which stat each rises. You do not need to exercise your horse if you don’t want to, but it can be helpful to raise those fluid stats just a bit more before you enter that big show!

Exercise helps raise you horse's fluid stats without increasing their level, which is another way of saying how advanced their training is. Exercising is helpful because you don’t want to show a horse in the beginner bracket that is at "Excellent" for all the training options, but you do want the fluid stats to all be at 100%.

To exercise a horse, go to your ranch page by clicking the link labeled "Ranch Page", in the menu on the left of this page. To keep these instructions open at the same time, right click on the link and select "Open In New Page" from the drop down menu that appears. Once on your ranch page, click on your horse"s name. If you have multiple horses that need training, grooming or exercising, you may want to right click on each of the horse"s names, and select "Open In New Page" so that you can have them all open at the same time. The link on your horse"s name will take you to your horse"s page. From there, click on the link labeled "Work With Horse". This will take you to the page where you can train, groom or exercise your horse. In the centre column you will find the options for exercising your horse. Choose one and click the button to exercise the horse in that particular way. The page will then reload. This will have used up one session. If you wish to train, groom or exercise other horses, repeat these instructions for them, until you have either trained/groomed/exercised as many horses as you want, or else used up all your sessions. (Note: If you only have 5 sessions, you cannot train more than 5 horses per game day.) Once you have done this, click the link labeled "Next Game Day", located at the very top of the menu on the far left. The number of sessions available will then increase back up to the maximum for your ranch, the number of game days available will reduce by one, and you can then repeat the above instructions for your horses, until such time as you have no more game days left. Once you have used all these up, you will have to wait until the next game month/next real day to train/groom/exercise your horses again.

There are 10 different disciplines that you can choose for you horse:
English
Western
Gaited
Endurance
Three Day Event
Harness Racing
Racing
Dressage
Rodeo
Steeplechase

Each horse is going to have an event that he will do better in than the others. Here are a couple of great tools for finding your horse's best event:

Excel spreadsheet by QLin** (requires Excel or OpenOffice spreadsheet): http://www.quodilin.com/qawq/discipline2.xls

Non-Excel version**: http://toastiest.com/ER/horsedis.html

Which one to choose???- We'Â’ve talked a little bit about them before, but letÂ’s make sure you know which one is good to choose. You will need to look at your horseÂ’s two best traits. The ones you should choose from are: Strength, Intelligence, Stamina, Speed, Movement, Surefoot, and Agility. Now, keeping those two best stats in mind pick a discipline:

Agility and Intelligence- Your horse will do best in Rodeo Cutting.
Agility and Movement- Your horse will do best in Gaited In-Hand, Western Halter, or English In-Hand.
Agility and Speed- Your horse will do best in Rodeo Steerwrestling, Barrel Racing, or Polebending.
Agility and Strength- Your horse will do best in Western Reining, English Jumping, or English Hunter over Fences.
Intelligence and Movement- Your horse will do best in Dressage.
Intelligence and Stamina- Your horse will do best in 3 Day Eventing.
Intelligence and Surefoot- Your hrose will do best in Western Trail, or English Trail.
Movement and Speed- Your horse will do best in Harness Racing.
Movement and Strength- Your horse will do best in Western Pleasure/Driving, English, Pleasure/Driving/Hunter, or Pleasure.
Movement and Surefoot- Your horse will do best in Gaited 3/5, Pleasure/Driving, or Fine Harness.
Speed and Stamina- Your horse will do best in Racing Long Distance, Steeplechase 2 ½ mile, or 2 ¾ mile.
Speed and Strength- Your horse will do best in Western Sprint, Racing Sprint, Racing Mid-Distance, Steeplechase 2 mile, 2 ¼ mile, Rodeo Calf Roping, or Team Roping.
Stamina and Strength- Your horse will do best in Steeplechase 3 mile, 4 mile, or endurance.

Note: While training your horse in the discipline you choose, you will notice that it takes a little longer to get from poor to fair to average, etc. than it took in foal and green training. DonÂ’'t worry, you didnÂ’'t do anything wrong! It just takes a little longer to train; don'Â’t get discouraged by the long list of training items. Take your time- your horse has a long life ahead of him and lots of shows to enter!

Your horse's discipline is another way of saying which equine sport you've chosen to show them in. There is a variety available on ER, and each one requires different strengths from its competitors. A horse that is excellent in dressage won’t likely excel in rodeo, so it's important that you choose the correct one for you horse. There are several spreadsheets and web applications created by ER players available to help you make this important decision.

Each discipline has different training methods, but the same exercising and grooming options are available in all disciplines. You are able to change your horse's discipline if you find they are not doing well, but be warned that all your training methods will go back to "Not Introduced", even if the disciplines share some of the same methods. For example, if I have my horse's lead changes up to Excellent while they’re an endurance horse, and then I change them to a rodeo horse, their progress for lead changes will go back to Not Introduced, even though it is the same exercise.

Just like in real life, ER horses are all completely different – some catch onto things pretty quick, and others seem like they will never figure out what you are asking them to do. On ER, each training session is equivalent to about 20 minutes, so you are not going to get instant training results. Some of the things that influence the horse's training speed include how high their temperament and training traits are. The higher those traits are, the more naturally they will be able learn, therefore learning faster than horses with low numbers in those same traits. Another thing that can influence it is how far their Foal and Greenbroke training was taken before moving to the next level, as well as the horse's age, condition, and level of training.

Much like people, all horses learn at different speeds. The speed at which a horse learns things is affected by a multitude of variables. The horse's inherited traits are taken into consideration, as well as age, condition, and level of training depending on what is being trained. When it comes to discipline training, the amount of training received in the foal and greenbroke levels plays a huge role.

The higher you take your horse in Foal and Greenbroke training, the better it will be able to do in it’s higher training and showing. It is highly recommended that you train to Excellent in everything in both Foal and Greenbroke – your horse will then have a very solid foundation to learn off of in his discipline. No, your horse probably will not have completed his foal training by the time he is old enough to move up to Greenbroke, but if you can resist hitting that little “Advance to Greenbroke” button at the bottom of the page, your horse will do much better later on – and the same goes for Greenbroke training. Think about it – if you have a horse that you train thoroughly in basic handling and ground work, your horse will be pretty well-behaved for more intense training. If you try to go straight from throwing tack on, to mounting him, and then trying to make that poor horse do a collected trot, what do you think is going to happen? That horse is going to have an emotional breakdown, and it will take an eternity to train it in anything.

When first training, the ability to rush through the early stages so you can start showing as soon as possible has lured in quite a few players. However, once they reach discipline training, they find their horse trains very slowly, if at all. These two facts are not unrelated- the amount of training received in foal and greenbroke will affect how quickly your horse will train once it is in its chosen discipline. It is therefore very important to train these areas until Excellent is reached before advancing.

Don’t fret though- if your horse was not trained completely in these areas, all may not be lost! If your horse has very good traits, is of the optimal age, is in good condtion, or hopefully had average training in the basics, they still have a change to learn. They will just take a long time longer to develop in their discipline exercises. If they have poor traits and/or received little to no basic training, they may never overcome it.

There are two different kind of stats – there are the inherited traits that the horse is born with (the first set of numbers on the horse's page) that will never change. They represent the horse's potential.

The second set is the horse's fluid stats – these stats start out at 10%, and gradually rise as you train, groom, or exercise him. The fluid stats represent the percentage of the horse's potential it has achieved. The higher the fluid stats are, the better the horse will perform. The boxes will change colors as the stats rise – it starts out red. At 30%, the box will change to green, and then at 70% it will change to blue. The highest fluid stats can get is 100%.

How To Train

Training, grooming, and exercising your horse is pretty simple. Every real life day, or game month, you get thirty game days. You then have a set number of training sessions that you get to use for each game day. For Pink and Yellow Ribbon accounts, you get five sessions per game day; Red Ribbon Breeder and Competitor accounts get fifteen sessions; and Red Ribbon Trainers and Blue Ribbons get 45 sessions. You can use one session per horse per game day. You can begin training your horse in Foal the day they are born. Once they turn 1.04 years old they can move up to Greenbroke, and once they reach 2 years old, they can move onto the discipline you have chosen for them. (Please refer to the "Foal and Greenbroke Training" section.) Please note that you will want to make sure that you have trained all of the horses who you wanted to work with before hitting the "Next Day" link – there is no way to retrieve those lost sessions if you wanted to use them!

If you go to your horse’s page, you will see a link in the same box as his name and pedigree that says "Work With Horse". (Your horse must be in a barn to begin training.) There are three different areas that you can then choose to work with your horse in: training, grooming, and exercise.

This is actually more precisely "discipline" training. Once to get through Foal and Greenbroke training, this is how you will train your horse in the different areas of the discipline you have chosen for it. Each discipline has its own areas that the horse needs to be trained in. There are six different levels: Not Introduced, Poor, Fair, Average, Good, and Excellent. Usually the Not Introduced will change to Poor the first time you click that training button, but from then on, each horse trains at its own pace. It could take 15 days to get your horse to Fair, or it could take 40. (See "Why Horses Train at Different Speeds".) The goal is to eventually have everything at Excellent.

You can train your horse by going to ‘Main Ranch’ on the sidebar to the left of the screen, clicking on the horse'’s name, and then clicking on “Work with Horse”, which can be found at the bottom of the blue box of info just to the left of your horse’s picture. When you have reached the training page by clicking on the “Work with Horse” link, you will be given several options. From this screen, you will be able to groom, exercise, and train your horse. For now, we will focus on the training column, which is the one the the far right.

If your horse has not been previously trained, it will be in the ‘foal’ bracket. What are brackets? There several different brackets your horse will go through in training. The first is foal, then comes greenbroke, and finally, the discipline brackets, which start at beginner and move up with showing experience and wins. That’'s not important now, though, since you are most likely starting at foal training. The most important thing to remember is that training takes time. Your horse will not get trained in a day! Foal training can take anywhere from a little under a week, to over a week if you train every game day, for every real day.

As you probably know, in the game, each real life day is 30 game days, or one game month. You are able to give one session per game day to your horse. In this session, you can choose to train, groom, or exercise your horse. You will not be able to work with your horse again until you advance to the next day. (To do this, click on “Next Day”- just above the “Main Ranch” link you clicked on earlier.)

Let’'s assume that for today’'s session you are going to train your horse. Look at the list of options in the training column. You will see 7 options, each with a button to press. You can train in any order you wish, but it is logical to start with the first option, ‘Introduce Halter’. Click on the button, and you will see a little box pop up at the top of the screen, telling how your horse did in the training. Scroll down to the training list again and you will notice that your horse’'s training report has changed from “Not Introduced” to “Poor”. Don'’t get discouraged, though. It will take a while for it to go to the next “level”. (It will change from Poor, to Fair, to Average, to Good, and finally to Excellent!) How fast your horse trains (how long it takes to get from one level the the next) depends on your horse’'s traits. (The brightly colored boxes titled Strength, Intelligence, Stamina, Speed, Movement, Surefoot, Agility, Confirmation, Trainability, and Temperment.) Logically, the higher the number, the better your horse is in that area. By far, the most important trait you will need for training is “Trainability” and Temperment. Also, if your horse has a high Confirmation stat, it will do better in shows, which is the reason you are training it. If you want to find out exactly how good your horse is, add up all of the traits. Not the fluid stats, just the traits. The ones with single numbers are the traits. The ones with more than one number that change from time to time are fluid stats- remember that! So add up the traits and you will get your horse’'s percentage. It will never change and determines approximately how good your horse is. Usually horses in the 60'’s and 70’'s will do better in shows, but some in the 50’'s have done well. It all depends on if you are willing to give it a chance!

Now, back to your current training: Once you have used up your session for the day, you will want to switch to the next day- but make sure you train all of the horses you would like to train before you do so. Once you change to the next day, you can not come back. You can see how many sessions you have remaining on that day by looking at the top of your screen in the blue box with a white inside rim. It will tell you how many sessions you have left for that day in the upper right hand corner of the box, and how many days you have remaining in the lower left hand corner. The upper left hand corner tells you how much money you have, but that’'s not important now. When you have trained your horse for the 30 game days you are given, you are finished until the next real day, or game month. You may have noticed that your horse’'s training has changed from poor to fair, but maybe it hasn’t changed at all. Be patient. Just as in real life, each horse trains at a different speed. Each horse has a different trainability, and temperment level. Depending on these, your horse will either train fast or slow. When your foal turns 1 year old (each game month a horse ages .08 years) you will be able to advance it to greenbroke training. This training is very similar to foal training, so you will have no trouble going through it at all. It is very important however that you do not advance to green until your horse is trained to all “excellent!” in foal. If you advance before this, your horse will be harder to train and may never become the star it could have become. Once you get through greenbroke, you can choose a discipline for your horse. Visit the commons for help on deciding, or just choose one you think your horse would do well in based on its traits. We will also talk a little bit more about this below. (The horse'’s traits are on top- the bottom ones are fluid stats, and we will talk about those in a moment.) Once you have chosen a discipline for your horse, you can advance to beginner. Here you will need to train your horse in its selected discipline. You are now able to enter your horse in shows if you wish. Now, about those fluid stats! You will notice that, as you train, the fluid stats will rise in number. Sometimes they will change color. Red is the worst, but when a fluid stat rises to 30.000%, it will change to green. This is a little better, but once it changes to 70.000% it will turn blue. This is a very good sign. It takes a while to get each fluid stat to 100.000%, but once you get there it was really worth it. You horse will do better in shows depending on how high these stats are. You can alter the stats by training, grooming, or exercising. If you know what each exercise, grooming, or training selection is in real life, you will most likely be able to guess which stats each one raises.

Training is exactly as the name suggests- training a horse to prepare it for the show ring. These tasks are unique, as you are given an "Exercise Performance" status beside each one. These range from Not Introduced, all the way to Excellent. Also, if you have chosen to use a session to train a horse, you will get a blue message at the top of that horse's screen, indicating how well they have done with what you asked them. These messages are a good indicator of how your horse is faring with the task, and together with the "Exercise Performance" status, gives you a complete picture as to how well your horse is doing.

To train a horse, go to your ranch page by clicking the link labeled "Ranch Page", in the menu on the left of this page. To keep these instructions open at the same time, right click on the link and select "Open In New Page" from the drop down menu that appears. Once on your ranch page, click on your horse"s name. If you have multiple horses that need training, grooming or exercising, you may want to right click on each of the horse"s names, and select "Open In New Page" so that you can have them all open at the same time. The link on your horse"s name will take you to your horse"s page. From there, click on the link labeled "Work With Horse". This will take you to the page where you can train, groom or exercise your horse. On the far right you will find the options for training your horse. Choose one and click the button to train the horse in that skill. The page will then reload, with a notice up the top saying how your horse performed while being trained in that skill. This will have used up one session. If you wish to train, groom or exercise other horses, repeat these instructions for them, until you have either trained/groomed/exercised as many horses as you want, or else used up all your sessions. (Note: If you only have 5 sessions, you cannot train more than 5 horses per game day.) Once you have done this, click the link labeled "Next Game Day", located at the very top of the menu on the far left. The number of sessions available will then increase back up to the maximum for your ranch, the number of game days available will reduce by one, and you can then repeat the above instructions for your horses, until such time as you have no more game days left. Once you have used all these up, you will have to wait until the next game month/next real day to train/groom/exercise your horses again.

On your horse"s page, under each button in the training column, you will find a notice saying "Exercise performance:" followed by various phrases demonstrating the horse"s skill level. Originally, it may have said "Not introduced". After you train this will be upgraded to "Poor". As you continue to train, this will cycle through "Fair" "Average" "Good" and finally "Excellent!" which is the highest skill level. Each session is approximately equal to a 20 minute session with a real horse, so it will take a little while to train a horse from "Not introduced" up to "Excellent" in each skill. This is approximately 60 sessions, which can usually be achieved in two real days. It usually takes about 15 sessions to get from one skill level to the next, except when going from "Good" to "Excellent", which is usually less.

How To Groom

Grooming your horse is how you raise its Condition and Coat fluid stats. (Please refer to the "Fluid Stats" section for more information on how the fluid stats work.) It's very important for these to be at 100% - it raises their chances of doing well in shows. (Think about it – would you take your horse to a show looking like a complete mess?)

Pick Hooves – raises Condition
Comb Mane and Tail – raises Condition
Curry Comb and Brush – raises Coat
Bathe – raises Coat

Grooming logically raises both condition and coat stats. Depending on which grooming option you choose the stats will raise anywhere from, letÂ’'s say .400% to about .800%. This may seem like it takes a while, but it is worth it because condition and coat are extremely important stats in shows. Think about it, would you take a muddy horse and enter it in a show. I certainly wouldn'Â’t, and you shouldnÂ’'t either.

Grooming is something that should not be neglected with your ER horses. These actions help raise your horse's coat and condition fluid stats, which are the numbers with the percent signs. These stats are just as important as the other fluid stats when it comes to success in the show ring, so make sure you get them high as well!

To groom a horse, go to your ranch page by clicking the link labeled "Ranch Page", in the menu on the left of this page. To keep these instructions open at the same time, right click on the link and select "Open In New Page" from the drop down menu that appears. Once on your ranch page, click on your horse"s name. If you have multiple horses that need training, grooming or exercising, you may want to right click on each of the horse"s names, and select "Open In New Page" so that you can have them all open at the same time. The link on your horse"s name will take you to your horse"s page. From there, click on the link labeled "Work With Horse". This will take you to the page where you can train, groom or exercise your horse. On the far left you will find the options for grooming your horse. Choose one and click the button to groom the horse in that particular way. The page will then reload. This will have used up one session. If you wish to train, groom or exercise other horses, repeat these instructions for them, until you have either trained/groomed/exercised as many horses as you want, or else used up all your sessions. (Note: If you only have 5 sessions, you cannot train more than 5 horses per game day.) Once you have done this, click the link labeled "Next Game Day", located at the very top of the menu on the far left. The number of sessions available will then increase back up to the maximum for your ranch, the number of game days available will reduce by one, and you can then repeat the above instructions for your horses, until such time as you have no more game days left. Once you have used all these up, you will have to wait until the next game month/next real day to train/groom/exercise your horses again.

How To Exercise

Exercising your horse helps raise the other fluid stats. Just like with the Condition and Coat fluid stats, it’s important to get these up to 100% as soon as possible.
Lunge: Flatwork – raises Strength, Endurance, and Speed
Lunge: Cavalletti – raises Surefoot, Intelligence, and Agility
Lunge: Small Jumps – raises Strength, Intelligence, and Agility
Swimming – raises Strength, Endurance, and Muscle Tone
Treadmill – raises Strength, Speed, and Movement
Hotwalker – raises Strength, Movement, and Muscle Tone

Like training and grooming, exercising will raise certain stats depending on which option you choose. The exercise column is the middle column on the “Work with Horse” page. You can probably guess by just looking at each exercise which stat each rises. You do not need to exercise your horse if you don’t want to, but it can be helpful to raise those fluid stats just a bit more before you enter that big show!

Exercise helps raise you horse's fluid stats without increasing their level, which is another way of saying how advanced their training is. Exercising is helpful because you don’t want to show a horse in the beginner bracket that is at "Excellent" for all the training options, but you do want the fluid stats to all be at 100%.

To exercise a horse, go to your ranch page by clicking the link labeled "Ranch Page", in the menu on the left of this page. To keep these instructions open at the same time, right click on the link and select "Open In New Page" from the drop down menu that appears. Once on your ranch page, click on your horse"s name. If you have multiple horses that need training, grooming or exercising, you may want to right click on each of the horse"s names, and select "Open In New Page" so that you can have them all open at the same time. The link on your horse"s name will take you to your horse"s page. From there, click on the link labeled "Work With Horse". This will take you to the page where you can train, groom or exercise your horse. In the centre column you will find the options for exercising your horse. Choose one and click the button to exercise the horse in that particular way. The page will then reload. This will have used up one session. If you wish to train, groom or exercise other horses, repeat these instructions for them, until you have either trained/groomed/exercised as many horses as you want, or else used up all your sessions. (Note: If you only have 5 sessions, you cannot train more than 5 horses per game day.) Once you have done this, click the link labeled "Next Game Day", located at the very top of the menu on the far left. The number of sessions available will then increase back up to the maximum for your ranch, the number of game days available will reduce by one, and you can then repeat the above instructions for your horses, until such time as you have no more game days left. Once you have used all these up, you will have to wait until the next game month/next real day to train/groom/exercise your horses again.

Disciplines

There are 10 different disciplines that you can choose for you horse:
English
Western
Gaited
Endurance
Three Day Event
Harness Racing
Racing
Dressage
Rodeo
Steeplechase

Each horse is going to have an event that he will do better in than the others. Here are a couple of great tools for finding your horse's best event:

Excel spreadsheet by QLin** (requires Excel or OpenOffice spreadsheet): http://www.quodilin.com/qawq/discipline2.xls

Non-Excel version**: http://toastiest.com/ER/horsedis.html

Which one to choose???- We'Â’ve talked a little bit about them before, but letÂ’s make sure you know which one is good to choose. You will need to look at your horseÂ’s two best traits. The ones you should choose from are: Strength, Intelligence, Stamina, Speed, Movement, Surefoot, and Agility. Now, keeping those two best stats in mind pick a discipline:

Agility and Intelligence- Your horse will do best in Rodeo Cutting.
Agility and Movement- Your horse will do best in Gaited In-Hand, Western Halter, or English In-Hand.
Agility and Speed- Your horse will do best in Rodeo Steerwrestling, Barrel Racing, or Polebending.
Agility and Strength- Your horse will do best in Western Reining, English Jumping, or English Hunter over Fences.
Intelligence and Movement- Your horse will do best in Dressage.
Intelligence and Stamina- Your horse will do best in 3 Day Eventing.
Intelligence and Surefoot- Your hrose will do best in Western Trail, or English Trail.
Movement and Speed- Your horse will do best in Harness Racing.
Movement and Strength- Your horse will do best in Western Pleasure/Driving, English, Pleasure/Driving/Hunter, or Pleasure.
Movement and Surefoot- Your horse will do best in Gaited 3/5, Pleasure/Driving, or Fine Harness.
Speed and Stamina- Your horse will do best in Racing Long Distance, Steeplechase 2 ½ mile, or 2 ¾ mile.
Speed and Strength- Your horse will do best in Western Sprint, Racing Sprint, Racing Mid-Distance, Steeplechase 2 mile, 2 ¼ mile, Rodeo Calf Roping, or Team Roping.
Stamina and Strength- Your horse will do best in Steeplechase 3 mile, 4 mile, or endurance.

Note: While training your horse in the discipline you choose, you will notice that it takes a little longer to get from poor to fair to average, etc. than it took in foal and green training. DonÂ’'t worry, you didnÂ’'t do anything wrong! It just takes a little longer to train; don'Â’t get discouraged by the long list of training items. Take your time- your horse has a long life ahead of him and lots of shows to enter!

Your horse's discipline is another way of saying which equine sport you've chosen to show them in. There is a variety available on ER, and each one requires different strengths from its competitors. A horse that is excellent in dressage won’t likely excel in rodeo, so it's important that you choose the correct one for you horse. There are several spreadsheets and web applications created by ER players available to help you make this important decision.

Each discipline has different training methods, but the same exercising and grooming options are available in all disciplines. You are able to change your horse's discipline if you find they are not doing well, but be warned that all your training methods will go back to "Not Introduced", even if the disciplines share some of the same methods. For example, if I have my horse's lead changes up to Excellent while they’re an endurance horse, and then I change them to a rodeo horse, their progress for lead changes will go back to Not Introduced, even though it is the same exercise.

Why Horses Train At Different Speeds

Just like in real life, ER horses are all completely different – some catch onto things pretty quick, and others seem like they will never figure out what you are asking them to do. On ER, each training session is equivalent to about 20 minutes, so you are not going to get instant training results. Some of the things that influence the horse's training speed include how high their temperament and training traits are. The higher those traits are, the more naturally they will be able learn, therefore learning faster than horses with low numbers in those same traits. Another thing that can influence it is how far their Foal and Greenbroke training was taken before moving to the next level, as well as the horse's age, condition, and level of training.

Much like people, all horses learn at different speeds. The speed at which a horse learns things is affected by a multitude of variables. The horse's inherited traits are taken into consideration, as well as age, condition, and level of training depending on what is being trained. When it comes to discipline training, the amount of training received in the foal and greenbroke levels plays a huge role.

The Importance of Training Foal and Green

The higher you take your horse in Foal and Greenbroke training, the better it will be able to do in it’s higher training and showing. It is highly recommended that you train to Excellent in everything in both Foal and Greenbroke – your horse will then have a very solid foundation to learn off of in his discipline. No, your horse probably will not have completed his foal training by the time he is old enough to move up to Greenbroke, but if you can resist hitting that little “Advance to Greenbroke” button at the bottom of the page, your horse will do much better later on – and the same goes for Greenbroke training. Think about it – if you have a horse that you train thoroughly in basic handling and ground work, your horse will be pretty well-behaved for more intense training. If you try to go straight from throwing tack on, to mounting him, and then trying to make that poor horse do a collected trot, what do you think is going to happen? That horse is going to have an emotional breakdown, and it will take an eternity to train it in anything.

When first training, the ability to rush through the early stages so you can start showing as soon as possible has lured in quite a few players. However, once they reach discipline training, they find their horse trains very slowly, if at all. These two facts are not unrelated- the amount of training received in foal and greenbroke will affect how quickly your horse will train once it is in its chosen discipline. It is therefore very important to train these areas until Excellent is reached before advancing.

Don’t fret though- if your horse was not trained completely in these areas, all may not be lost! If your horse has very good traits, is of the optimal age, is in good condtion, or hopefully had average training in the basics, they still have a change to learn. They will just take a long time longer to develop in their discipline exercises. If they have poor traits and/or received little to no basic training, they may never overcome it.

Fluid Stats

There are two different kind of stats – there are the inherited traits that the horse is born with (the first set of numbers on the horse's page) that will never change. They represent the horse's potential.

The second set is the horse's fluid stats – these stats start out at 10%, and gradually rise as you train, groom, or exercise him. The fluid stats represent the percentage of the horse's potential it has achieved. The higher the fluid stats are, the better the horse will perform. The boxes will change colors as the stats rise – it starts out red. At 30%, the box will change to green, and then at 70% it will change to blue. The highest fluid stats can get is 100%.