Winning rosettes - tips?

By grvden, 2nd August 2025 11:33:41
Hello everyone!

I have a skiller I bred, here’s a link to him if it’s of any use. He’s an Arab, so I’m entering him in XC comps to win rosettes.

His stamina is bolded, but “along the way” while training him I entered him in low difficulty rosette comps (with dressage and jumping already bolded) - which I assume he has a larger chance of winning compared to when he has maxed out stamina? Due to higher stamina = higher difficulty rosette comps = lesser chance of winning compared to lower competitions, while having the same skill level in dressage and jumping (?)

Since returning to Howrse a few months ago and breeding a few skillers since then, I haven't yet done beach rides even /once/ with any of them; I kind of just forgot.

In order to win more rosettes - would you recommend doing beach rides with him? Lowering stamina and adding to dressage/jumping (if so, which skill should I focus on more? Maybe I should also lower for example trot/speed, and add skills to dressage or jumping that way? Should I even TOUCH stamina, not minimize it all all, just keep it as is?)

What do you all think? I seriously need a reminder on how this works! Maybe you have some more tips on maximizing his skills/giving him a better chance of winning rosette competitions?

TIA! default smiley (l)
grvden
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By grvden, 2nd August 2025 11:36:44
I have some older skillers as well - here’s my best one in terms of amount of rosettes won. I didn’t do any beach rides with her, as I mentioned in the beginning of the post. Maybe I should have? And would have won even more?
grvden
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By nlriver, 2nd August 2025 11:54:06
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When it comes to skillers, I usually beach into the highest skill, so I would beach from trot to Stamina. He's going up against other skillers who may have over 10k in stamina alone from the rankings just for Arabs, let alone the other XC skiller breeds.

I'd also change his companion to something that will give you a much larger bonus. You want the best bonus you can for a skiller, and that includes his companion. Ideally in the top skill to give that little extra boost.

Also, some of the rosette comps are set for less than 20 wins, so once he has his 20, he may have been removed from some of those comps.

Do you have a rabbit to use alongside him? A horse without the bonuses but in the same skill range to help you win some comps? It's gotten a lot harder I've found in the last 2 years or so to get rosettes without some sort of help.
nlriver
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By Azeravla, 2nd August 2025 11:55:59
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I’ve done beach rides with my Friesian skillers to compete in Dressage, increasing dressage and decreasing speed or jumping. Increasing the primary skill of the competition has shown to be most beneficial. Kvezal had a helpful Google sheet and it showed winning a comp depends 45% on that primary skill.
Azeravla
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By Atsila, 2nd August 2025 12:25:36
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My credentials: won 5000 rosettes using a single horse. Here.

To win rosettes: beach into the main skill of the competition. Deck out your horse in bonuses.

I don’t have experience with Arabians unicorns specifically, but he has a few limitations in XC for the following reasons: his GP, and therefore skills, are at least 2000 GP below the best XC rosette winners (vanner), and unicorn GP is generally lower anyway.

If you want to maximize your rosette winning I’d select the breed that wins Prix in your chosen discipline. With the current state of comps/rosette chasers/skillers, you’re up against skilled preps from the top teams.

If it’s important to you to win rosettes using this horse, I suggest: 1) beaching into speed, 2) using the VIP “filter for rosettes” perk, and 3) filling with another horse of your own. Even better. Enter in empty rosette comps and fill using one of your own horses, and get friends to enter 3 more rosette fillers.

Best of luck.
Atsila
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By grvden, 2nd August 2025 12:44:55
Thank you so much!

nlriver - he already has a rabbit, did you mean to say a different companion? Maybe I should give him a Cachalot piñata; that’s the companion I have available with the biggest added bonus to stamina.
Also, I beached him exactly as recommended - got him over 9500 in stamina.

Azeravla - I thought the exact opposite default smiley (lol) Sobbing right now over the amount of potential rosettes I could’ve won with my past skillers.

Atsila - I’m just seeing for fun how many rosettes I can win with my Arab unis while raising their GP at my own pace default smiley :) Since I have a ton of BMI’s I might as well use them every so often on some individual horses. And yes, the VIP perk is life-changing! I have another recent skiller born a few days ago that is at almost the same skill/gp level and I’ve already won 50 rosettes with her as of writing this comment. I enter them both in the same comps and hope for the best.
grvden
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By grvden, 2nd August 2025 12:50:02
I’m thinking of using this girl to fill his competitions once the mare I’m currently using alongside the skiller stallion in question goes into retirement (which is probably tomorrow morning). She has lower IBS than him and I’m going to be using her as a broodmare anyways, so might as well slap a heel and pretty coat on her while at it.
grvden
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By nlriver, 2nd August 2025 14:04:30
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Yes, ideally you want the best companion with the primary skill, so something very high in stamina for a XC skiller. The rabbit companion he had only gave him 3 in dressage.

When I said rabbit above, I meant in terms of a filler horse to help with the comps, so a second horse with the same skill range. Atsila I think has phrased this better than I could.


The only time I wouldn't beach into the main skill is if you're doing a reining breed as the game doesn't have a dedicated breed for reining at the moment.
nlriver
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By Tearsong, 2nd August 2025 15:37:43
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The reason why you beach into the main skill for the comp is because:
1. The main skill for the comp counts for 45% of the score. This means more gains for your horse.
2. Lowering the main skill is useful for blupping because you see lower difficulty comps, but when you are looking at rosette comps, this is not the case. Basically all rosette comps are high difficulty, so lowering your main skill to see lower difficult comps means you're simply seeing more non-rosette comps. Low difficulty rosette comps are very rare, I have found a few breed reserved comps which can gain rosettes and are too low difficulty for the top skillers, but honestly there are very few comps that are like this.
Tearsong
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By grvden, 2nd August 2025 16:04:02
Thank you everyone, all my questions have been answered.
grvden
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