SVA Training Theory and Practice

[Silverine]

Training Your Horse

The What
Training your horse on HWO means using the site's training system (under the Training & Local Shows tab on your horse's page) to increase that horse's fitness in eight key areas. This training affects how well a horse performs in competition - disciplines evaluate certain stats, both on their base level and on how well they are trained, to determine a horse's score. There will be other facets of this process (such as how well a horse performs a skill) that are implemented at a future date, but as of today (August 6, 2024), training only affects a horse's fluid stats.

The Why
Most horses on HWO don't need to be trained. You can toss them out in a pasture or stuff them in a barn and go about your activities without a worry. There are three main reasons that players will train their horses:
1. Cosmetics. Trained horses develop muscles and have shinier coats. The more training a horse has, the more "built" it will be and the more noticeable the shine it will have on its coat.
2. Competitions. Trained horses are more successful in both player-made and local competitions. Being successful in player-made competitions allows a horse to earn quite a bit of money, as well as championship titles. Horses that are successful at local shows - with successful meaning can enter level 9 or 10 shows and place 1st or 2nd - are incredibly useful earners of money, Pony Tokens, and turns. These successful local horses are often called "grinders."
3. Sales. Not everyone has the time or patience to train their pixel ponies, so trained horses sell for quite a bit more than the pasture puffs. Many players also make money off of training horses for other players.

The How
Each player trains differently. There are some general techniques that are utilized, but overall the best advice is to experiment and find what works for you. But since that advice isn't particularly helpful for everyone, here are some of the basic rules that most players train by.

1. Study the Energy Saver, Energy Saver II, and Stamina Training player skills. All of these skills will affect how long your horse can train per day. The longer your horse can train each day, the faster its training will be finished. You must study Training Techniques at least one time before any of these courses become available. That first course takes 26 seconds, so it's easy to get out of the way.
2. Focus on Stamina. As with the above, your horse's stamina affects how much training it can fit into one turn. More is always better. At the highest levels of stamina training a horse should be able to fit in twenty 30-minute sessions per turn.
3. Keep fatigue low. A horse with high fatigue will not get as much benefit from its training session. The higher you push the fatigue, the less the horse will gain. You will get more benefit from training for 5 sessions at low fatigue than for 10 sessions at high fatigue.

And that's the basic gist of it. Read on for some more nitty-gritty details of the process.
If you want to skip the nitty-gritty and instead see my personal turn-by-turn process for training, you can find it here.

The Nitty-Gritty

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Energy How much training a horse can fit into one day is determined by how efficiently it can use its energy. You can affect this efficiency in two ways. 1. Studying the Energy Saver and Energy Saver II player skill courses. Studying these skills greatly reduces the energy your horse needs to complete certain tasks. It is highly recommended that players who want to train horses study these courses whenever they aren't studying a course related to horse ownership. 2. Training a horse's Stamina. The higher a horse's trained stamina, the more work they will be able to do in one turn. Luckily, the amount of work they can do is NOT tied to their actual stamina stat. So a horse with red stamina will be able to train just as much as a horse with gold stamina as long as they both have the same training. What matters is the green percentage bar next to Stamina in the horse's Fitness Progress. Fitness Progress can be found under Training in a horse's Training & Local Shows tab.

It is important to note that the energy that a horse uses for training is the same that it uses for breeding. So a stallion that is in training will not be able to train for as long as usual on a turn that it also services one or more mares, and a mare that is in training will not be able to train for as long on the same turn that she is serviced by a stallion. Because of this, many players prefer to have their horse's training finished before that horse reaches breeding age.
The energy that a horse uses for breeding and training is not affected by and does not affect how many shows a horse can enter per turn. Each horse can enter ten player-made competitions per turn regardless of how much training it has done that day. Local shows are only limited by how much time a player has per turn, so training one or more horses per turn will limit how many local shows can be entered, but this limit is not affected by how much a particular horse has trained - a horse that participated in training will be able to enter as many shows as a horse that did not participate, as long as the player has time to enter the show.



Fatigue

Fatigue is a measure of how hard your horse has worked one specific stat bar. The more work it has put into that stat bar in a short amount of time, the less it will be able to gain from continuing to train that stat. It is important to keep fatigue low to get the most out of your training. Personally, I like to keep fatigue below 7%, and no greater than 5% if I can help it.
In the example below, the horse has focused on training its Strength bar and has accumulated 17% fatigue from that training. It is no longer able to gain anything from strength training while it has so much fatigue. In the image to the right, the horse has recovered from its fatigue and can once again resume training its Strength bar. Both images have the same training regimen assigned - Hills, Walk, 30 minutes, Pull a Cart. The only difference is that, in the second image, the horse is no longer fatigued.

Recovering from fatigue is fairly simple. The horse needs time away from working on the area in which it gained the fatigue. Every horse will recover some fatigue when the player takes a turn - usually about 4-5%. So if the fatigue is low enough, the player can simply advance one turn and the horse will be ready to go again. If the horse has more fatigue, it may need a few days to recover.
An additional strategy to help with fatigue to work on an easy skill that focuses on different stats. In the strength example above, I would switch the horse to Lunging on the Flat at a walk for 30 minutes in order to bring the fatigue down. This will usually lower it a little less than 1% per session.

A best practice that I have found - if my horse's fatigue hits 5% by the time it's done half of its sessions, I need to focus on a different skill in order to prevent it going even higher.

Fatigue does not affect show scores. This may change in the future, but as of writing, fatigue will not negatively affect your horse's show performance.


Skills
(ie - what to train!)

At the moment, which skill a player works on with their horse only affects what stats it makes gains in. Eventually, horses will need training in specific skills to perform more successfully in specific disciplines. For now, we don't have to worry about that.

As it stands, Collection & Impulsion is most beneficial skill for starting off your training. It is one of only three skills that work on stamina. The other two are Lunge on the Flat and Drag a Tire. Lunge on the Flat only benefits stamina. Drag a Tire benefits stamina, strength, and balance. Collection & Impulsion, on the other hand, works on four stats - strength, stamina, intelligence, and movement. If this skill is worked on at a walk (benefits balance) in the arena (benefits tempo) then the horse will improve in six out of its eight stats!

Once stamina is finished, the next skill chosen really depends on what you're aiming for. If going for a fully trained horse, I suggest Lunge over Cavaletti until intelligence is done, then Raised Cavaletti until movement is done, followed by a mix of Jumping Obstacles, Pull a Cart, and Lunge on the Flat (at a gallop) until agility, strength, and speed are done. Tempo and balance get a lot of passive gains, and should be finished by the time those other stats are done.

Here are my recommendations for discipline-specific training:

Barrel Racing (Agi, Sped, Str, Bal)	Jumping Obstacles seems like your friend, but keep an eye on fatigue. An alternative is to rotate through Raised Cavaletti, Pull a Cart, and Lunge on the Flat (at a gallop) to work on all stats while controlling fatigue.
Cross Country (Stm, Str, Agi, Bal)	Alternate Jumping Obstacles with something easier, like Bending & Serpentines.
Cutting (Agi, Int, Str, Spd)	Lunge over Cavaletti until intelligence is finished Alternate Jumping Obstacles with something easy like Ground Drive or Lunge on the Flat
Dressage (Mov, Bal, Tem, Str) && Driven Dressage (Mov, Bal, Str, Tem) && Hunter (Mov, Str, Tem, Bal)	Ground Poles until movement and tempo are finished Lunge over Cavaletti until balance is finished Pull a Cart until strength is finished <- keep an eye on fatigue!
Endurance (Stm, Spd, Agi, Tem)	Collection & Impulsion for stamina Around Obstacles for agi until temp is finished Raised Cavaletti to finish agi Lunge on the Flat at a gallop for speed
Harness Racing (Spd, Stm, Str, Tem)	Collection & Impulsion until stam is done Alternate Pull a Cart with Lunge on the Flat at a gallop to finish strength and speed
In-Hand Jumping (Int, Agi, Str, Stm)	Lunge over Cavaletti to finish int Raised Cavaletti to finish agi Pull a Cart to finish str
Log Pull (Str, Stm, Mov, Tem)	Ground Poles for mov and tem Pull a Cart for str
Marathon Driving (Str, Stm, Tem, Int)	Ground Poles for tem and int Pull a Cart for str
Obstacle Driving (Str, Agi, Stm, Bal)

[Silverine]

Moving the actual step-by-step down here to put some other stuff in the first post.

This is a draft. I will return to edit it later.

My training method has needed some refinement after the new changes. I decided to log my method here so that I can find it, and just in case others will find it useful. Using this method, I can fully train a horse in less than 60 turns. (My exact count is 59 turns.) That comes out to 2 years and 5.5 months if you're playing in regular mode, or 1 year and 2.75 months if you're playing in competitor. (Bump that up to just under 5 years if you're playing in breeder mode, which I don't recommend for training.)

Please note: All of my training skills are maxed. Results of this method will vary if your skills are not maxed.
This method will not work for you if you do not have max Energy Saver and Energy Saver II.

I start out focusing on training stamina. Stamina is needed to allow the horse to participate in more training per day, so I always finish it first.

First 3 Turns
-Arena, Walk, 20 minutes, Collection & Impulsion
-Arena, Walk, 5 minutes, Collection & Impulsion
At this point the horse does not have enough stamina to do 30 minutes of any one task. I do 25 minutes per turn of collection and impulsion until they do have enough stamina. I use collection and impulsion because it gives an extra boost to the stamina training. Building the stamina necessary to do more than 25 minutes takes three turns of the above regimen. Players that do not have their stamina training skill maxed out will be in this phase for more turns.

Turn 4
-Arena, Walk, 30 minutes, Lunge on the Flat
The horse now has enough stamina to do a 30-minute session, but not with collection and impulsion. Still, 30 minutes is better than 25, so skip C&I for a day and do lunge on the flat instead.

Turns 5-8
-Arena, Walk, 30 minutes, Collection & Impulsion
Building up stamina to add more time to our regimen. Right now 30 minutes is the most the horse can handle.

Turn 9
-Arena, Walk, 30 minutes, Lunge on the Flat
-Arena, Walk, 5 minutes, Collection & Impulsion
I skip C&I on the 30 minute session in order to fit in an additional 5 minute session to maximize stamina gain for the day.

Turns 10-12
-Arena, Walk, 30 minutes, Collection & Impulsion
-Arena, Walk, 5 minutes, Collection & Impulsion

Turn 13
-Arena, Walk, 30 minutes, Lunge on the Flat
-Arena, Walk, 10 minutes, Collection & Impulsion
Same idea as turn 9. Turn down the difficulty on the first session to fit in more time.

Turns 14-15
-Arena, Walk, 30 minutes, Collection & Impulsion
-Arena, Walk, 10 minutes, Collection & Impulsion

Turn 16
-Arena, Walk, 30 minutes, Lunge on the Flat
-Arena, Walk, 10 minutes, Collection & Impulsion
-Arena, Walk, 5 minutes, Collection & Impulsion

Turns 17-18
-Arena, Walk, 30 minutes, Collection & Impulsion
-Arena, Walk, 10 minutes, Collection & Impulsion
-Arena, Walk, 5 minutes, Collection & Impulsion

Turn 19
-Arena, Walk, 30 minutes, Lunge on the Flat
-Arena, Walk, 20 minutes, Collection & Impulsion

Turns 20-21
-Arena, Walk, 30 minutes, Collection & Impulsion
-Arena, Walk, 20 minutes, Collection & Impulsion

Turn 22
-Arena, Walk, 30 minutes, Collection & Impulsion
-Arena, Walk, 20 minutes, Collection & Impulsion
-Arena, Walk, 5 minutes, Collection & Impulsion

Turn 23
-2x Arena, Walk, 30 minutes, Collection & Impulsion
The horse is finally able to fit in more than one 30-minute session. Progress!

Turns 24-25
-2x Arena, Walk, 30 minutes, Collection & Impulsion
-Arena, Walk, 5 minutes, Collection & Impulsion

Turn 26
-2x Arena, Walk, 30 minutes, Collection & Impulsion
-Arena, Walk, 10 minutes, Collection & Impulsion

Turn 27
-2x Arena, Walk, 30 minutes, Collection & Impulsion
-Arena, Walk, 10 minutes, Collection & Impulsion
-Arena, Walk, 5 minutes, Collection & Impulsion

Turn 28
-2x Arena, Walk, 30 minutes, Collection & Impulsion
-Arena, Walk, 20 minutes, Collection & Impulsion

Turn 29
-3x Arena, Walk, 30 minutes, Collection & Impulsion

Turn 30
-3x Arena, Walk, 30 minutes, Collection & Impulsion
-Arena, Walk, 10 minutes, Collection & Impulsion

Turn 31
-3x Arena, Walk, 30 minutes, Collection & Impulsion
-Arena, Walk, 10 minutes, Collection & Impulsion
-Arena, Walk, 5 minutes, Collection & Impulsion

Turn 32
-4x Arena, Walk, 30 minutes, Collection & Impulsion

Turn 33
-4x Arena, Walk, 30 minutes, Collection & Impulsion
-Arena, Walk, 10 minutes, Collection & Impulsion

Turn 34
-5x Arena, Walk, 30 minutes, Collection & Impulsion

Turn 35
-5x Arena, Walk, 30 minutes, Collection & Impulsion
-Arena, Walk, 20 minutes, Collection & Impulsion

Turn 36
-6x Arena, Walk, 30 minutes, Collection & Impulsion
-Arena, Walk, 20 minutes, Collection & Impulsion
This will be the last time we do any sessions that are less than 30 minutes

Turn 37
-8x Arena, Walk, 30 minutes, Collection & Impulsion

Turn 38
-10x Arena, Walk, 30 minutes, Collection & Impulsion

Turn 39
-13x Arena, Walk, 30 minutes, Collection & Impulsion

Turn 40
-17x Arena, Walk, 30 minutes, Collection & Impulsion

Turns 41-44
-20x Arena, Walk, 30 minutes, Collection & Impulsion

At this point the horse's stamina training is finished. That means we are done with C&I training. Finally!
Everything from this point on is geared toward finishing each stat to 100% as quickly as possible.

Turn 45
Finished stats: Stamina
-2x Arena, Walk, 30 minutes, Ground Poles
-18x Arena, Walk, 30 minutes, Raised Cavaletti
If your intelligence player skill is maxed, your horse should only need 0.02% more in that stat. That's what the first two sessions are for. If you haven't maxed your intelligence skill, do ground poles until the horse's intelligence is finished, then switch to the raised cavaletti.

Turns 46-49
Finished stats: Stamina, Intelligence
-20x Arena, Walk, 30 minutes, Raised Cavaletti
Here we are working on buffing up the horse's agility while finishing off their movement. This will take a few turns. At some point in this section, the horse should reach 100% in balance. Don't worry if it doesn't - everything we work on works on balance, so it'll get finished eventually.

Turn 50
Finished stats: Stamina, Intelligence, Balance
-5x Arena, Walk, 30 minutes, Raised Cavaletti
-10x Arena, Walk, 30 minutes, Jumping Obstacles
-5x Arena, Gallop, 30 minutes, Lunge on the Flat
The first five sessions here finish off the horse's movement stat. After that I switch to jumping obstacles to start working on speed, resume working on strength, and really boost our agility to finish it off faster. However, it's a tough exercise and really pushes on the fatigue. I limit that skill to 10 sessions per turn. I finish off the day with 5 sessions of galloping on the flat. This cuts down on the fatigue gain and gives a nice starting boost to the horse's speed.

Turns 51-53
Finished stats: Stamina, Intelligence, Movement, Balance
-10x Arena, Walk, 30 minutes, Jumping Obstacles
-10x Arena, Gallop, 30 minutes, Lunge on the Flat
Working on finishing off agility and boosting speed. Again, jumping obstacles is a really tough skill. Limiting how much we do it on one day and switching to another skill (galloping on the flat) prevents fatigue from eating into our gains. At some point in this section the horse should also finish off its tempo stat. As with balance, don't worry if tempo isn't completely done. It will be finished by the end.
(On turn 52 I usually do 11 jumping obstacles and 9 lunge on flats, because the agility score would end at 99.89% and that bugs me. So I end at 99.9%. But that is just a silly idiosyncrasy of mine and totally not necessary.)

Turns 54-55
Finished stats: Stamina, Intelligence, Movement, Tempo, Agility, Balance
-10x Arena, Walk, 30 minutes, Pull a Cart
-5x Track, Walk, 30 minutes, Lunge on the Flat
-5x Arena, Gallop, 30 minutes, Lunge on the Flat
The horse only has strength and speed left to finish. I start off with 10 sessions of the most difficult skill, which also happens to be an absolutely ridiculous strength booster. The five walk sessions at the track bring fatigue back down to manageable levels while still helping speed, then the arena gallop ends the day with a nice speed booster.

Turn 56
Finished stats: Stamina, Intelligence, Movement, Tempo, Agility, Balance
-8x Arena, Walk, 30 minutes, Pull a Cart
-5x Track, Walk, 30 minutes, Lunge on the Flat
-7x Arena, Gallop, 30 minutes Lunge on the Flat
For me, this turn starts with the horse at 99.91% strength. It takes 8 sessions to finish up at 100%. (The first session adds 0.02%.) Then I finish up the day working on speed.

Turn 57
Finished stats: Everything except Speed
-10x Arena, Gallop, 30 minutes, Lunge on the Flat
-10x Track, Walk, 30 minutes, Lunge on the Flat
Working on speed, keeping fatigue low.

Turn 58
Finished stats: Everything except Speed
-7x Arena, Gallop, 30 minutes, Lunge on the Flat
-13x Track, Walk, 30 minutes, Lunge on the Flat
After the first 7 sessions, the gains from the two exercises are equal. So I use the exercise that causes less fatigue.

Turn 59
Finished stats: Everything except Speed
-2x Track, Walk, 30 minutes, Lunge on the Flat
If your player skills are leveled like mine, and you have followed all of the steps, you should only need these last two more sessions to finish up your horse!

Congratulations! Your horse is fully trained!