It's an item that allows you to choose a coat from an older version of regular horse coats

Cremello

The Vintage Apple is just a Customization item. It does NOT alter anything else about the horse except how it looks. Here's an example of a VA Horse:


Now in the image itself - notice that her coat is that of a Dun Shetland Pony.

However, if you look at all her other information - you'll notice it reflects the horse underneath in that:

Her breed is listed as Quarter Pony
Her coat color is listed as Black Tobiano
Her top 3 skills are that of a Quarter Pony (Stamina, Speed, Dressage)

It is no different than a Diamond Apple or Golden Apple - in that all it does is give your horse a different look.

NOTE: The Vintage Apple and its promotion are a ONE DAY event only - September 8th, 2015. If you miss it - that's it as it is not known at this time if this item will ever return

*Copied from the Preprod topic:

The 8 September, we will celebrate the Owlient’s 10 years birthday. At this occasion, we wanted to propose to you a little special contest that will last the all day.

The purpose of this contest is to find 10 candles spread on the game with the help of clues. If you find all the candles, you will receive a very special gift (you need to click on it on the contest page to get it!) : the Vintage Apple, guaranteed nostalgic effect for the early players !

The Vintage Apple allows you to personalize a horse with the old coats from the game (the ones just before the actual ones, previous horses cannot be used because they cannot be integrated on the game background)

Be careful: a horse wearing this item cannot be sold anymore.

This item CAN :
► be given via personalized UFO’s on the page of pegasus and VIP players
► be given to horses from 18 months
► be given to saddle horses, ponies, pegasus, unicorns, winged unicorns, donkeys.
► is compatible with the Helios' Ray
► it gives a +5 “Vintage Apple” bonus to each horse skill

This item CANNOT:

► be bought with passes
► be exchanged in the item exchange system
► be given to draft horses, divines horses, wild horses and legendary horses.
► be cumulated with other special coat items (it overwrites the previous item)

The coat is selected on the same principle as Golden Apple coats : we propose all the coats compatibles with the horse species, and you choose the one you want among the selection.

A horse from a certain species cannot receive a coat from another species. On the other hand the coat variety makes no difference. For example, you can get an old light sports coat for a massive sports horse.

When a horse with this kind of coat is given Medusa's Blood, the coat picture updates to match the new breed of horse (winged version), in the same way as the 5th Element coats.
This also updates when wings or horns are removed from a horse as part of a contest goal.

As with the other special coats, tack is not visible on pictures of horses with Vintage Apple coats.

~*~

*Remember - a horse can only be given a coat that matches its species. So this means that your choices for each species are:

Riding Horse = Riding Horse coats
Pony = Pony coats
Donkey = Donkey coats
Pegasus - Riding Horse breed = Pegasus Riding Horse coats
Pegasus - Pony breed = Pegasus Pony coats
Unicorn - Riding Horse breed = Unicorn Riding Horse coats
Unicorn - Pony breed = Unicorn Pony coats
Winged Unicorn - Riding Horse breed = Winged Unicorn Riding Horse coats
Winged Unicorn - Pony breed = Winged Unicorn Pony coats

Drafts, Wilds, Divines, and Legendary Horses can NOT be given this item

However - a horse is not limited by its breed - so you can put a Fjord coat on a Shetland pony. A Curly coat on a Friesian, etc. Here are some shots of potential choices:

Using it on a Riding Horse:


Using it on a Pony:


Using it on a Pegasus - Riding Horse breed:


Using it on a Unicorn - Pony breed:


Using it on a Winged Unicorn - Pony breed:


And here's what you see when you choose a coat to give the horse:


*note the warning saying you can no longer sell the horse*

Once you've hit confirmed - you'll be taken to the horse's page and see the new coat:



You will also notice that the only option now for selling the horse is to send it to the Safe Haven;



*Just keep in mind that this item does NOT actually alter the horse's species/coat color/skills/genetics/etc. - only the outer appearance of the horse (it's basically a Golden Apple - except your choices are the old v3 Howrse Coats).

I see that you have multiple VAs, but will I be able to get more than one? Some players say it isn't possible, others do, and I want confirmation as to what is from the queen of the Spoiler forum.

How long will the VA promo last for, and what time does it start?

On Preprod - everyone only got two (though a few of us got more to do a re-test on some bugs...I actually have at least 7 VAs to my name on preprod thanks to testing)

However, on the live version - a player will only be able to win ONE from the contest. Though while they can not be traded, gifted, or sold in the Exchanges...a player CAN choose this item to be a custom UFO on their page if they have a VIP or Pegasus account. Because of this option, it would then be possible for a player to get more than 1 Vintage Apple if they found it as a UFO on a player's page.

But beyond that - it will not be possible for any player to possess more than 1 Vintage Apple.

while I do not know the start time, the promotion is only going to be running for a single day - September 8th, 2015. So I assume it will probably run from update to update.

Though I doubt anybody will want to offer them as a UFO!

I believe the option is there for players who might get the item, but then decide they don't want to use it for one reason or another. Rather than use it on a random horse they then won't be able to get rid of (except to the Safe Haven), they might opt to make it a UFO to help someone who *hopefully* would have use for it.

I mean, some players already do this with items they have no use for *looks to her pile of Nyx Packs and thinks of all the ones she's given out over the years since getting her Balios, and all the other items she turns into custom UFOs*

That's not to say I won't use my VA - but you never know

Here are the pegasus and unicorn drafts. I got them in someone's forum, somebody posted the images and I have absolutely NO idea how they got them. The url of both horses mention that it's in prepod for equideow:

Owlient's 10th Birthday Promo - an event which will start and end September 8th, 2015 (so you only have ONE DAY to find the candles)

You'll find 10 candles that have been hidden around the site (they're easy to find as you get clues - it doesn't take more than 10 minutes to finish this event).

Upon finding them all - you will win a single Vintage Apple. This item will let you give one of the old V3 coats to a horse, in any color you choose.

Just keep in mind that the Vintage Apple is basically a Golden Apple - except with Howrse coats. So while you can give your Friesian a Palomino Arabian coat - your horse's offspring will still be Friesian foals as the horse is still a Friesian...All that changes is the horse's display image - nothing else is altered (So skills, characteristics, species, etc. remain the same)