HGG Community Forums

Here's how I answered a similar question in Hunt and Jump 1's forum the other day.

Hello, and welcome to the wonderful world of Hunt and Jump. A few tips. Hmm. I'll try.

1. This game is not a competition. Everyone sets their own goals and works to achieve them. For this reason, we are a friendly, helpful group. Specific questions will always be answered. Broad general ones probably won't be fully answered because that's virtually impossible.

2. Making money is done by building up a herd of horses that are shown on a regular basis to accumulate the points awarded for their placing in shows. Every night each player is rewarded with a Daily Showing Bonus, a number of hajibucks that is a percentage of the total number of show points that person's horses have gained. It takes a while to accomplish this (think real-life years, not just weeks or months), but eventually you can reach a point where your horses are earning enough game cash to support your stable completely. I've been playing for 5 years, own 4759 pixel ponies at this moment, show all them that aren't in pastures, and receive a showing bonus about 190,000 hajibucks (game cash) each night. [My stats for this game: played it for 3 years, have 1774 pixel ponies, show all that aren't in pastures, and receive a showing bonus of about 104,000 hajibucks each night]. I have to work to keep my total bank balance under the maximum limit that was recently put in place. And I'm far from the largest stable in the game.

Breeding horses for sale is not a way to make a lot of money. Since everyone is busily breeding their own horses, unless you've got something extra special to offer, it can be hard to get buyers. However, breeding foals in your pasture that you immediately send to the auction every month is one way to raise money by breeding.

3. Color rarities in the game are based on their rarity in real life. A lot more chestnuts and bays are created than any other colors. However, if you keep an eye out for postings of Daily Herd Helpers in the less common colors, you will often find some. The rarest colors (Satin, Snowflake Appaloosa, Axiom, some of the Ice varieties for instance) are Limited Edition genes. The people who own horses with these have paid real life money to get them into their horse herds and don't often offer them for sale. In fact, some of these LE genes have been sold with the restriction that offspring carrying them can only be sold to players who have also bought that gene, so they never show up on the open market. By the way, Axiom and Ice are fantasy genes that will never be found in real life and have been added just to create a touch of whimsy. For the most part, the color genetics of the game are based solidly on real-life research and are updated as recent research pins down the genetic causes of the color or pattern.

If you check out the Genetics Guide from the link near the bottom of the left menu bar, you can find out all or most of the genes available in the game.

4. There are three horse types available in the game--Light horses and ponies, Warmbloods and Sport Ponies, and Draft Horses and Cob ponies. These horse types are based on bone density stats. Every time you create a horse, you can choose which type you want, its age from foal to 4 year old, and its gender.

Breed names are a feature provided to upgraded players. Anyone who is paying for at least a Basic Upgrade can choose their own breed name, provided that it is NOT the name of a real breed and that that word is not found more than a certain very large number of times in a Google search. My own breed name in this game is Bachsandigan, based on the German for Sandy Creek.

5. As for what people like--well, there are probably as many variations in that as there are players. Myself, I have a little bit of almost everything. Some people focus on a size, color or pattern for most of their horses. It all depends on what they like and are interested in. However, as I said in point 2 above, breeding horses for sale is not the most efficient way to play the game.

6. The link to Breeding Info in the left menu bar gives a good overview of how that takes place in the game.

7. You will also find some interesting information by checking out the Important Links announcement near the top of the forum page and by scanning the Help Me Out section of the forum to see what questions people have been asking and how they have been answered.