Wiki » Horses » Western and westerntalent

When can I start with western?

You can ride western when you:

• Completed level 5.
  
• You have completed storyline 2: The road to Buffaloo.

About 4 times a month, a western competition is announced on the homepage by means of a banner. In addition, you can always go to Buffaloo > Saloon to see if there are any western competitions. There are 2 different types of western competitions.

Western challenge

A western challenge is a small western competition where you have 2 days to train for the challenge. A western challenge occurs 3 times a month.

Western competition

A western competition gives you 7 days to train. A western competition occurs once a month.

Breakdown per month

Western competition: Mon-Sun
Western challenge 1: Fri-Sun
Western challenge 2: Tue-Wo
Western challenge 3: Sun-Mon

A western competition has 3 different phases, namely the following:

• Entry phase
  The registration phase lasts a week, during which you cannot start the competition. When registering, you can see until when the registration phase lasts, after this phase the competition starts and you can actually start training. A registration is not valid until you have gained a minimum of 35 points. Only once you have these minimum 35 points, you can buy tack and breed with western talent.
  
• Training phase
  After the registration phase, the training phase begins, which lasts a week. The aim of this phase is to get as many points as possible from the training sessions in order to finish as high as possible. Every day there are different disciplines and you will have to find a way to get as many points as possible, as it is also possible to get no points or minus points. Once this phase is over, the results and prize-giving ceremony will take place.
  
• Results and prize-giving phase
  After the training phase, the results will come out and you will be able to see how high you finished and whether you are among the best riders/horses that took part in the competition.

Western classes

In western there are 3 different classes, namely Rookie, Amateur and Expert. The higher the class you compete in, the better and more special the prizes you can win. However, each class does get harder to win.

• Rookie is the beginners’ class, which you can enter if you are at least level 6 and your horse is trained for western. The best 50% of actively participating riders win.
  
• Amateur is the class after the Rookie class, which you can enter if you are at least level 7 and your horse has won the Rookie class once. The best 25% of actively participating riders win.
  
• Expert is the highest class and comes after the Amateur class. You can enter this if you are at least level 8 and your horse has won the Amateur class once. The best 15% of actively participating riders win.

About 4 times a month a western competition is announced on the homepage by means of a banner. In addition, you can always go to Buffaloo > Saloon to see if there are any western competitions in the registration phase.

You can then register for these competitions and train your horse on the special western page available at that time. You have a certain number of days to train your horse (varies by type of competition, see 'Western competition types'), after which the competition is ridden.

Entry requirements

To enter a western competition, your horse must meet the following requirements:

• Schooled in western (You can school your horse in western on the western page underneath the saddle icon)
  
• Be stabled
  
• Must wear western tack (saddle, bridle, pad)
  
• Not hungry/thirsty
  
• Healthy & vaccinated
  
• Hoof quality 50% or higher
  
• Requirements applicable to that specific class (see: 'Western classes')

These requirements apply even if the western competition is in the train phase. A horse registered for the competition cannot be put out to pasture throughout the competition (unless cancelled).

Once the competition reaches the train phase, you can start training on the western page (found via Buffalloo > Saloon). There are different types of western trainings and it varies from day to day which two trainings you can do. Normal workouts are available from 150 coins per workout. The different trainings are explained below:

• Basics: The basics are important! You get +1 training point each time and can train every 2 minutes. There is always a small chance that your horse will give a buck and not be able to train for half an hour.
  
• Reining: This training is tough on your horse, but very effective. You get +5 training points each time. After this, you have to wait for 5 minutes. However, the more often you do this training in a row, the more likely it is to fail. Eventually, your horse may even go on strike altogether, leaving you unable to train for a while.
  
• Trail: This training requires a lot of thinking ability from your horse and also a good dose of concentration. This training will regularly fail... However, if it succeeds, the experience is very valuable and you immediately get +5 points! Unfortunately, you can also get minus points with this if it fails. Your horse can't do this training more than 10 times in a row, and if you try again after that, it will stand still and do nothing for half an hour.
  
• Pleasure: This training is quite long, up to 14 minutes! You get +5 training points each time. This training will go well for your horse, the chance of failure is not that high.
  
• Cutting: An exciting training! If your horse passes the training well, you get +7 points! However, there is a chance that the cows will scare your horse, in which case you will have to give your horse more time to complete the training. Also, the training will not always succeed. The training normally lasts 5 minutes.
  
• Horsemanship: How many points you get for this training depends on how well the training went! This could be 1, 2 or 3. The training takes 5 minutes. In principle, this training always works.
  
• Halter: This workout lasts 3 minutes and earns +1 training point.
  
• XL training: XL trainings are similar to the same type of regular workout, except that they last 3x as long and therefore also yield 3x as many (plus or minus) points. XL workouts are available from 1 pluscoin.
  

Prizes

The prizes you can win vary from time to time and from class to class. At the registration stage, you can already see what you can win per class. Because it is harder to win in the higher classes, the prizes are rarer and more valuable in these classes.

Westerncoins

Besides the item you can win, you can also earn something else when you enter a western competition: westerncoins. Westerncoins can be used to buy new western equipment in the western shop. You don't have to win a match to earn westerncoins, but the higher you finish, the more westerncoins you get. In the rookie class, you can earn between 0 and 100 westerncoins. In the Amateur class, you can earn between 0 and 125 westerncoins. In Expert class you can earn between 0 and 150 westerncoins. In addition, whoever wins 1st place gets a +10, +15 or +25 westerncoins bonus (depending on the class).

Titles

In addition to the prizes you can win, your horse (provided you are among the winners) will also get a mention on the horse profile. If you belong to the top 3, your horse will even get a special title on the horse profile which will show everyone that this horse belongs to the absolute top.

Western talent

If your horse successfully competed in a western competition, you can breed western talent with it the month after the competition. This will then be listed on the horse's profile. See the next block for more information on western talent.

Western talent

By default, horses have 0 western talent, but you can breed western talent in your foals. If a mare has competed in a western competition in the past month and that horse has a foal, that foal can be given 'western talent'. How many points of western talent the foal gets depends on how well the parents competed in the most recent western competition. You get the points if the mare competed or if the mare and stallion both competed. There is always an element of chance in the amount of western talent a foal gets. However, you can maximise your chances by doing the following:

• Achieve as many points as possible with the foal's mare or mare + stallion at a western competition.
  
• Make sure you put the parents out to pasture within 1 month after the western competition is over.
  
• You are more likely to have high western talent if you win the western competition (in the top 50%, 25% or 15%, depending on the class).
  
• You are more likely to have high western talent if you compete in higher (more difficult) western classes.
  
• If you use parents who already have western talent, they can pass on some of their talent. This is because part of western talent is hereditary.

Your horse can give 'western talent' to its foals up to one month after participating in a western competition. So, the horse does not get western talent itself, but it can give western talent to the foals it gets.

When a foal is born, you can only tell whether it has western talent or not, but not yet how much talent it has. You can unlock western talent by taking part in a western competition with the horse. After the competition is over, the western talent becomes visible. After the western talent is unlocked, you use this talent automatically. The number of points your horse has as a western talent is the number of points that will allow that horse to start every western competition.