question about horse genetics

By Esamain, 10th December 2025 20:25:15
2
Hello. I haven't played the game in a while, so I have a few questions about genetics and horse breeding.

First, I'd like to know how the bonuses work.
I have a horse, it's maxed out (for example, its genetic potential is 30,000, and I've maxed it out to 38,000). I give it a companion and Pegasus wings, but its skills aren't increasing.

Question number 2: how do I get colored tack? I have some in my inventory, and I see a lot of horses for sale with colored tack, so it must be available in large quantities. Can I buy it somewhere?

And one last question: are there any long-time players here? I'd really like to find someone willing to answer questions in private messages.
I've been playing Lovadi for half my life. My parents created my first account when I was in kindergarten because there weren't any alternative horse games.
I've lost and deleted accounts many times.
But I only started playing seriously now. I want to continue growing. But player activity is low, and there aren't many forums.

And one more thing... I don't speak English very well, I hope I wrote the text correctly. If something is wrong, forgive me default smiley :$
Esamain
  • Posted messages: 2
  • Karma: 10 points
  • Page:
  • 1
By Becky Barnes, 10th December 2025 20:36:27
5
Bonuses do not (never have) made actual skills increase. They're just used when the horse enters a comp. For example, if a horse has 9000 actual Gallop skills, but has a bonus item/companion that gives it a +10 bonus in Gallop, then when the horse enters a comp the game will "see" that horse's Gallop skill as 9010.

Colored tack comes from Howrse's promos and from certain Divines. It isn't sold in the shop.

There are many long-time players here, and frankly player activity here is a LOT higher than you seem to believe. It's just that most players chat and communicate over outside systems like Discord instead of using these forums. Player activity on this server is not "low".
Becky Barnes
  • Posted messages: 99,232
  • Karma: 10 points
By Esamain, 10th December 2025 20:41:33
1
Becky Barnes wrote:

There are many long-time players here, and frankly player activity here is a LOT higher than you seem to believe. It's just that most players chat and communicate over outside systems like Discord instead of using these forums. Player activity on this server is not "low".

Sorry, but I've been trying to find players from my region on this site and various forums. I've found almost no one, and the last posts on previously popular forums date back to 2017-2018, so I figured there weren't that many old players. Where can I find active players to chat with? Is it okay to share a link, or is that against the site rules?
Becky Barnes wrote:

Bonuses do not (never have) made actual skills increase. They're just used when the horse enters a comp. For example, if a horse has 9000 actual Gallop skills, but has a bonus item/companion that gives it a +10 bonus in Gallop, then when the horse enters a comp the game will "see" that horse's Gallop skill as 9010.

Thanks for the answer. But I still think I'm using bonuses and items a little incorrectly.
Esamain
  • Posted messages: 2
  • Karma: 10 points
By minkthepink, 10th December 2025 21:16:14
2
As Becky Barnes said, bonuses and things like wings bonus don't show up on your horse's skill list page but they are taken into account when you enter a competition. So, their example of 9000 gallop, which shows on the skill list of the horse, is supplemented by the bonus skill given by companions, wings etc and the competition will apply the 9000 plus whatever bonus skills the horse has from the additions. The companions, wings, other bonuses only apply during a competition and the horse still only has 9000 gallop from its breeding and training. You can't be using bonuses incorrectly because all you have to is give them to the horse and the game does the rest.
minkthepink
  • Posted messages: 37,727
  • Karma: 10 points
By Crookedstar915, 10th December 2025 21:56:52
2
If you mouse over the skill bar (with the stars) on desktop it'll show the bonus increase. It'll display something like "5000 + 200" that's how you know the bonuses are active.

There isn't really a way to incorrectly apply bonuses. Some bonuses are more useful than others for specific horses, but you can't "apply it wrong" and have it not activate. It's automatic.

If it helps, the reason bonuses don't show up in the horses's main skills is twofold: firstly, some bonuses (like Falabella) are temporary so the horse's skills would be constantly going up and down and messing with the rankings. Secondly; rankings are intended for GP and optimal training on a horse. If you could jump the rankings just by applying a bunch of bonuses, everyone would do that and it would mess with the way the game is meant to be played.
Crookedstar915
  • Posted messages: 30,864
  • Karma: 10 points
By Meeki, 10th December 2025 22:21:26
In addition, 2** coloured tack can also be found as a UFO on some player's personal pages, and can be gifted to you by friends.

It's not allowed to put links from outside Howrse here, but there is a website with a lot of UFO pages listed. I guess it can be found by Google if you type UFO pages Howrse.
Meeki
  • Posted messages: 3,158
  • Karma: 10 points
By Becky Barnes, 11th December 2025 06:37:24
1
Esamain wrote:

Where can I find active players to chat with?
Again, there are lots of players who use Discord to chat. I personally don't, but others do. Whether they're from the same area of the world as you, I don't know, but I would expect there are players from everywhere. Alternatively, if there's a Howrse server for your country, you might consider playing an that server, too. You can't take your horses from this server to that one, but you can play on both and not be breaking any rules.
Becky Barnes
  • Posted messages: 99,232
  • Karma: 10 points
  • Page:
  • 1