The Sims 4: Horse Ranch brings a lot of features revolving around ranch life and horses. As such, unsurprisingly, one of the main returning features is the competitions Sims and their horses can participate in. The primary advantage of attending these competitions is its viability as far as money-making goes, as not only placing in a competition gives Simoleons as a reward, but it also increases the sell value of the horse, as well as, upon placing at Master rank, also gives a Champion Horse trait to the horse, allowing players to breed horses with Champion Genes. For players who are particularly planning to make this a lifestyle, training and participating in these competitions become quite a priority.
There are in total 5 different categories of competitions in The Sims 4, including the Ultimate Horse Championship. The other 4 categories all have 4 difficulty levels: beginner, intermediate, expert, and master. While all these categories essentially work the same, the success rate on them depends on different horse skills, as well as other factors. Players should note that there is no guaranteed way to ensure a gold medal for each competition; however, there are certain things to pay attention to for increasing the winning odds.
How To Participate In Horse Competitions
The standard competitions are available every day between 7 AM and 7 PM, while The Ultimate Horse Championship is only available on Saturdays between the same time frames. In order to participate, players can either click on the Equestrian Center in the New Appaloosa neighborhood in Chestnut Ridge, or use a Community Board. Sims who do not live in this neighborhood or do not want to travel to a nearby community board each time before a competition can also simply purchase a Community Board from the Buy Menu to make it more convenient for themselves. Upon doing so, Sims and horses will travel into a rabbit hole, and players simply need to wait a couple of Sim hours until they are back with the results.
Once players pick the "Enter Competition" option, they will be able to pick one of the available categories based on their horse's previous placements. This means that if a horse has not been ranked in a Beginner competition, it cannot enter the Intermediate competition of that branch. Additionally, while riders can participate in multiple competitions a day, horses can only participate in one competition on the same day, making it even more important that the horse meets the recommended skills to ensure they can place and not lose a day of their competition progression.
How To Win Horse Competitions
Aiming for a gold medal is what players should be striving for, especially in the Master bracket, in order to complete one of the steps of Championship Rider as well as increase the value of the horse. However, unfortunately, there isn't a fully guaranteed way to ensure a gold medal each time, which makes the whole task quite challenging. On the other hand, certain factors do increase the odds of winning.
If players are specifically aiming for gold medals as quickly as possible, it is best to save the game right before each competition. This way, if no gold medal was obtained, players can quickly exit to the main menu without saving and reload to try their chances once again.
Horse Skills
Horses can be trained in four different skills, namely Temperament, Agility, Jumping, and Endurance. All of these skills can be trained in different ways. It is recommended that players focus on increasing all of these skills in their horses, instead of concentrating on only 2 of them for a specific bracket since the Ultimate Horse Championship will require the horse to rank in each master competition before it is unlocked. Players can either train the horses themselves, or send their horses for training. Nevertheless, it is recommended that players make their Sims train the horses, as this can help them raise the riding skill or be otherwise more efficient.
It's also important to note that the recommended skill levels are simply an indication of what players should be aiming for in each particular difficulty, and do not guarantee that a horse with maximized skills will always win gold, while a horse with much lower skills than recommended can still earn gold, just with lower odds. Below table shows which skills are required for each category:
Skill | Competition Category |
|---|---|
Temperament | Western Pleasure (Primary) Show Jumping |
Agility | Barrel Racing (Primary) Western Pleasure |
Jumping | Show Jumping (Primary) Endurance Racing |
Endurance | Endurance Racing (Primary) Barrel Racing |
Horse Riding Skill
Unlike the four horse skills, the horse riding skill is required for each competition type with increasing level recommendations. As such, players are recommended to focus on this skill as soon as possible, since it also helps significantly with training the horses easier and more effectively, by unlocking options such as intense training.
Horse Mood
The horse having a positive mood such as happy or confident generally increases the odds of winning. For this, players should ensure that their horses' needs are well taken care of or otherwise hire a ranch hand to make it a little simpler for themselves. While the competition screen doesn't state a difference between different positive moods, the Gold Medal requirement for the Master bracket in the related aspiration specifically makes a remark about horse confidence, which may be more difficult to achieve.
In order to do so, players can interact with their horses in different ways, but the most certain way is to mount the horse with a Sim that already has the reward trait, Grand Champ Trainer, from completing the Championship Rider, since this will give a Confident moodlet to the horse. It's important to note that there are no remarks made for the rider's mood for increasing any odds in winning the competition.
The Sims 4 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, and Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S.