[Animals 101] How To Breed & Care For Horses

Welcome to your next "Animals 101" lesson of the Farming Simulator Academy! Today, we're focusing on horses. We'll show you how to choose suitable housing, feed and care for your stately four-legged friends.

What Is Special About Horses?

You can choose between multiple breeds: gray, pinto, palomino, chestnut, bay, black, seal brown and dun. The difference between the breeds is purely visual.

Housing Options

Choose your housing before buying horses:

• Horse pastures require you to provide and water manually.
• Barns provide water automatically and offer the opportunity to produce manure.

Tip! For beginners, we recommend a barn, so you do not have to refill the water manually.

Feeding Options

For 100% feed effectiveness, provide your horses with feed from all three groups:

• Base feed – 57%: oat or sorghum
• Hay – 38%: hay
• Root crops – 5%: carrots, parsnips or redbeet

Deliver each feed type separately to the horse housing. If one group is missing, the feeding effectiveness is reduced accordingly.

How to get water: If your pasture requires water, deliver it with a compatible tank trailer. Fill it from a water tank placed through the construction menu or from a suitable river or lake. Natural water sources are free; water from a placed tank costs money.

Breeding Horses

Horses can reproduce once they are mature. Keep three conditions in mind:

• Horses must be at least 22 months old.
• Their health must be at 100%.
• There must be free capacity in the horse housing for offspring.

Keep your horses well supplied and cared for, and do not fill the housing to capacity if you want them to reproduce.

What You Need For Horses

Basic equipment:

• Tractor with a front loader and loading equipment: Use a bale spike for bales and a pallet fork for pallets such as horse feed.
• Straw blower: Used to provide straw in barns that support manure production.
• Manure spreader: Required if you want to transport manure or use it to fertilize your fields.
• Manure heap: Required to store manure produced by a compatible barn. Place it near the barn.
• Horse brush: To keep your horses clean.
• Water tank: Only required if you use a pasture and need to provide water manually.

Optional:

• You may use a horse trailer if you want to transport horses yourself. You do not need one if you buy or sell them directly at the horse housing.
• When choosing an animal trailer, look for the horse icon. Horses require a suitable horse trailer.

Tip! If you only want to move a horse from one horse housing to another, you can also ride it there.

Let's Get To Work!

Step 1: Buy the horses

Once your horse housing is ready, you can buy horses directly from its animal menu and have them delivered for a small fee. Alternatively, take a suitable horse trailer to the animal dealer, buy the horses there and transport them yourself.

Tip! Direct delivery is the easiest option when you are starting out, as you do not need to buy a horse trailer just for transportation.

Step 2: Feed the horses

For maximum feed effectiveness, keep all three feed groups supplied as described above. Deliver the ingredients separately to the designated unloading points at the horse housing.

• Grow oat or sorghum yourself, or buy an oat big bag at the dealership.
• Produce hay from grass or buy hay bales.
• Provide carrots, parsnips or red beet for the root crop portion.

Step 3: Provide straw

If your horse housing uses straw for bedding, keep its straw supply filled. You can buy straw bales at the dealership or produce straw yourself. Use a bale spike to transport bales to the designated unloading point and use the straw blower to distribute it. Also make sure a manure heap is placed near the barn.

Step 4: Ride your horses

Ride each horse regularly and complete its daily riding progress to 100%. Riding increases the horse's fitness and therefore its value. Each horse has to be trained individually.

Step 5: Brush your horses

Horses get dirty and need to be cleaned regularly. Buy a Horse Brush at the dealership, equip it and approach the horse. Use the brush until the horse is clean again. Keep an eye on each horse's cleanliness together with its health and fitness. Regular care helps you maintain a valuable horse.

Step 6: Sell the horses

Once your horses are well trained and cared for, you can sell them. Sell them directly from the animal menu or transport them to the animal dealer with a suitable horse trailer.

Tip! If you want to breed your horses instead, leave free capacity in the horse housing and continue caring for them. See "Breeding Horses" above for the requirements.

Well Done!

You now know how to keep, train and breed horses. Keep their feed and water supplied, provide straw where required, ride and brush them regularly, and leave enough space if you want offspring. When your horses are well trained and valuable, you can sell them for a profit.