The Sims 4: Horse Ranch is the fourteenth expansion pack for The Sims 4 franchise. As evident from its name, it focuses significantly on a returning animal-sim type, horses, who are now finally part of the household. Additionally, with its new world and design choices revolving around a ranch life, players can expect a cozy Western lifestyle, which comes with its own challenges and aspects as opposed to the daily routines of the game.
This expansion highly resembles Cottage Living in many aspects, with living in a quiet town revolving around taking care of farm animals. Additionally, it can be said that it is partially a successor to The Sims 3: Pets, as it brings the Horses back to the game, while Cats & Dogs have already been released quite a while ago. However, there is more to The Sims 4: Horse Ranch than only bringing back horses, as it features some other gameplay aspects, even though the extent of the expansion pack is not as integrable with every pack as it was with the previous expansion pack, Growing Together.
Everything New In A Nutshell
- New World (Chestnut Ridge)
- Horses and Horse Related Activities
- Mini Sheep and Mini Goat
- New Social Activities (Ranch Gathering and Ranch Animal Day) and Line Dancing
- New Skills (Nectar Making, Horse Riding, and four new Horse Skills)
- New Aspirations (Championship Rider and Expert Nectar Maker)
- New Traits (Horse Lover and Rancher, as well as a large set of Horse Traits)
- New CAS, Build/Buy Items
Chestnut Ridge
Chestnut Ridge is the name of the new world that comes with the Horse Ranch expansion and focuses on a highly Western outskirt lifestyle for ranch life lovers. Additionally, it is another world that is entirely built by Simmers, this time focusing on showcasing the talents and skills of many different Simmers, rather than just 1-2 Simmers dedicating their efforts to build the world. Overall, the world design features a lot of activities for Horses and equestrian life, with each neighborhood including paths for Sims and horses to take a ride on, as well as interact with objects such as Barrels and Jumping bars to train horse skills, without needing to visit a specific lot or purchase the items.
Additionally, the New Appaloosa neighborhood within this world showcases an Equestrian Center rabbit hole, where multiple horse-related activities can be performed. The name of this particular neighborhood also resembles Appaloosa Plains from The Sims 3; however, in general, players will notice that many names in the world are related to horses, whether it be breeds or other horse-related objects. In total, the world features 13 lots, with 9 of them being residential, 3 being community lots (a bar, a nightclub, a park), and 1 being a rental lot. Some pre-existing Sims inhabit some of the residential lots, but there are also 3 uninhabited houses and one entirely empty lot for players to move in and experience the gameplay to its fullest with another character.
Horses and Horse Related Activities
Among all the features in the game, horses are significantly the biggest one to look into. Not only are the horses given a highly extensive CAS, highly resembling Cats & Dogs with the possibility to choose from an already existing large number of breeds, but players are also given a high amount of freedom to customize them to their liking with color wheel and free drawing tool options. Nevertheless, like cats and dogs, they are not controllable as normal Sims would.
As far as their gameplay goes, horses are very significant to the ranch life and will take a considerable amount of time from the players (and their Sims). This is because not only will players need to take care of their needs, but they can also train and breed them for many purposes. As such, while no new careers have been introduced with this expansion pack, taking care of horses on its own is like a career, since it can bring a significant amount of Simoleons and other rewards if players dedicate themselves to all horse-related activities, including horse-breeding and selling, competitions, community board activities, and even utilizing Horse Manure for multiple aspects. The pack also has new type of NPC's such as Ranch Hands and Horse Trainers to help with caring for horses and other aspects of the ranch life.
Mini Sheep and Mini Goat
Mini Sheep and Mini Goat are some of the cutest additions to this pack, as they remain adorably tiny even as they age. Players are able to purchase them through many new objects and locations, making it quite easy to acquire them. Similar to the horses, they do have needs that need to be taken care of, and upon being well taken care of, as well as having built a good relationship with the owners, they can be highly beneficial for gardening. This is because mini goats can eat the weeds, while mini sheep can eat the bugs and pesticides around the crops.
Highly resembling the concept of farm animals that came with Cottage Living, namely chickens, llamas, and cows, it is also no surprise that these mini animals also have a good integration with Cottage Living if players own it. As such, while shearing and milking would otherwise only grant Simoleons, with this pack installed, they will be providing milk and wool instead, which can then be utilized for different purposes.
New Social Activities and Line Dancing
With this pack, 2 new social activities, namely Ranch Gathering and Ranch Animal Day, have been added, which work quite similarly to other social events in the game. These events are also goal events, allowing players to receive certain rewards as a result. Both of them revolve around ranch activities, including dancing to ranch music, nectar drinking, as well as other kinds of socializations. Specifically, with the Ranch Animal Day, the community can involve themselves in taking care of the ranch animals.
While, in comparison, it is quite a small feature, the pack also brings a new type of group dancing, being line dancing for those who highly want to involve themselves in the community and enjoy socializing to the fullest in a western style. Line Dancing isn't a particularly difficult activity as it can be performed on medium and large-sized dancing boards and platforms (luckily some western-style fitting ones have been added with this pack) and will help towards the dancing skill. With that, players can simply go ahead and try this feature in any suitable lot, although the new nightclub in Chestnut Ridge will be one of the most immersive areas to experience this activity. With the new Ranch radio station added in particular, players can enjoy line dancing to the fullest.
Nectar Making Skill
One of the returning skills from both The Sims: Makin Magic and The Sims 3: World Adventures, nectar making is another activity that has high potential for money-making while providing players with something that is not entirely ranch or horse related. This mini-skill, capping at level 5, allows players to use certain gardening produce such as certain fruits and herbs to create a set of different flavored nectars, which, in return, can be drunk to give certain moodlets, or otherwise left to age to increase its sale value.
With multiple mechanics coming into play when it comes to nectars, with their quality, as well as how aged they are, players can aim to create a great passive income with this activity, by simply producing a large amount of it and then waiting for it to age. Luckily, alongside the Nectar Maker object, players are also given Nectar Racks, allowing them to stack effectively without taking much space or organization efforts.
Horse Riding and Horse Skills
For human Sims, another skill that has been introduced is the horse riding skill, which is the primary skill in this pack with a total of 10 levels. Additionally, horses are also given four new skills, being Temperament, Agility, Jumping, and Endurance, all of which also cap at level 10 and can be trained in multiple methods by doing different interactions.
As such, horse riding and these skills go quite hand in hand since a Sim who has mastered horse riding skill will have a significantly easier time when training horses. It's important to note that paying attention to these skills is a crucial factor for particularly making money with horses, as it will increase the chances of them winning competitions, but also increase the horses' sell value with each skill advancement as well as medals from competitions earned.
New Aspirations
The Sims 4: Horse Ranch also comes with two new aspirations, both of which are only single level; however, they both have a few steps to complete. As such, while they might look quite simple, they actually can take quite some time. However, their rewards are rather worth it for those who are interested in pursuing these activities after completing their aspirations. Their steps and rewards are as follows:
Championship Rider
- Achieve Level 10 Horse Riding Skill
- Compete in 15 horse competitions
- Win Gold in five Master horse competitions
- Place at the Ultimate Horse Championship
Reward: Grand Champ Rider Reward Trait - This trait allows Sims to train horses much faster, sell them for higher value as well as make both the Sim and the horse happy when they ride together.
Expert Nectar Maker
- Achieve Level 5 Nectar Making Skill
- Make 50 Excellent Bottles of Nectar
- Make 100.000 Simoleons Making Nectar
Reward: Nectar Know-It All Reward Trait - Sims who complete Expert Nectar Maker aspiration will be able to make the crafted nectar pre-aged, shortening the aging process, as well as mitigating most of the negative effects of drinking nectar, such as bladder issues and some negative moods. Additionally, this trait will generally help Sims remain in a good mood as it allows the negative moodlets to have less effect on the overall mood.
New Traits
The pack introduces two traits for Human Sims:
- Rancher (Lifestyle): These Sims excel at ranch life and take pride in their work. They enjoy ranch chores and caring for their livestock.
- Horse Lover (Social): These Sims share a strong bond with Horses. They have an easier time socializing with and caring for Horses than other Sims.
Additionally, the pack comes with 11 CAS horse traits that affect their general behavior and skill gain. Furthermore, the game also offers 4 breedeble traits, one of which will be automatically selected when a foal is born, being Well-Mannered, Hardy, Curious, and Playful. In addition, there are 2 more traits obtainable through Horse Competitions, one of them being Champion Horse, rewarded when a horse ranks in the Master difficulty. The horses with this trait will then be able to breed others with Champion Genes, which increase their value and skill gain speed.
New CAS, Build/Buy Items
The pack focuses primarily on Western-style design with objects that allow players to build a ranch of their dreams, with many of the objects having a wood texture in different color swatches. Outside of new items such as the nectar maker and ranch activities, the pack also offers daily lifestyle items for kitchens, social activities, comfort, and clutter to make a fully coherent list.
As for the CAS items, players can expect a set of western and indigenous style hair, accessories, and outfits, as well as those that are well-suited for riding with boots and hats. When it comes to CAS, however, a significant focus is undeniably put on the horses rather than human Sims. Players can even make sparkling unicorns through the CAS, eventhough they do not have magical properties or findable in the world unlike their predecessors from The Sims 3.
The Sims 4 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S