I want the game very badly, but from stuff on Youtube and just reading about it, are the horses really that interesting? Can you teach them tricks and stuff, or work on anything resembling dressage, or is it all just focused on show jumping and racing? Can they build muscle like the sims can, or are there muscle sliders in CAS? I'm aware that this is just a game, but even the horses rearing when getting tacked up looks so irritating!! Just asking all of this because I wanna know exactly what I'm getting. Even being able to have horses in the game is huge, I don't want any annoyances to surprise me. Lol x(

The horses are very good in the game. Definetly what we were expecting, but I felt that the horses were a bit of the main focus of the EP, I mean the only way you could get Dogs and Cats if you don't do the limited edition code thingie is by CAS or Adoption via PC and Telephone, where you can buy a horse anytime you want at the equestrian center.

Do they poop?

This applies to the limited edition as well.

I like the horses in my game, but I really wasn't expecting anything from them because it wasn't something that really excited me (and I know next to nothing about horses). The main focus does seem to be racing and jumping, but there are other things that they're good for (such as gardening).

There's no visible poop that I've seen, but you have to periodically clean the box stall which results in a bag of horse poop in the sim's backpack. Which the sim can use for fertilizer.

Sorry, no dressage. Just jumping and racing, and a RH event of cross country racing. BTW, even the jumping events run like races inside a RH. You can take jumps to train your horse at an outside horse "park", but there are no visible riding competitions. There are some odd graphics, like the saddle "spin", as well as some odd glitches.

In mine, (I can't speak for others), the horse "glides" back to the beginning off the jump course to start over, sliding across the ground, rather than walking or trotting. No tricks, although they will tap their feet to music if you play an instrument or set up an outside stereo for them (watching the horse tap, the dog howl, and the cat yowl along to your sim on guitar still amuses me).

You do get to interact and "train" wild horses, and you can use your horse in place of a car around town.

It is not a hardcore equestrian simulation, but this is for a general audience. You do get dogs and cats, which offer some really nice interactions, if hardly lifelike renderings.
You also get minor pets, which are like fish in a fish tank; nice to collect, not much to do with them, although you can play with them, unlike a fish (which at least you can cook). You can't even bury the poor turtle when it goes belly up, just clean out the cage. And don't forget, there ARE UNICORNS.

Overall, I think it's among the best of the EPs to date (LN being my other favorite, hate Generations, and find WA still too buggy to travel and get back to an intact base game). If Hidden Springs is 2200 points, or $22USD, or a monthly compilation $20-30, then at $40 this is a freakin' bargain from EA. Are there annoyances? Sure. That's true of Sims3 and every EP to date. That's what mods and working cc are for.

That's good to know.

ooh, really? i haven't come across this yet

Someone mentioned horse poop as fertilizer.

The fertilizer is actually a very good one, by the way. Better if it's unicorn, not horse. I've seen people saying their unicorn-dung fertilizer actually turned plants into life fruit bushes.

If what you're debating is whether you should get the game, the answer is yes. The few issues with it are ones that could be pretty easily modded (for instance, the saddle spin).

If you're wondering if you should get the game, here are a couple things that might help you with that decision (since what everyone wants in a game varies).

Lazy Gamer Pets Review
Let's Play: The Sims 3 Pets

Personally, I like the game, but I haven't added any of my CC objects back into the game yet due to waiting to see if the rig fix will be updated to fix beds as well.

With the horses, I haven't played with them much, if at all, but I am greatly enjoying playing as a cat and dog.
Even though I haven't played with the horses, I do feel that they are a great addition to the game since it is something that has never been introduced in the Sims franchise outside of custom content.

I'm having a lot of fun with horses, but if you're a horsey person looking for super-realism, you won't get it... any more than you get it from your human sims I'm kinda surprised that a lot of animal lovers seem to have had high expectations for the accuracy of the TS3 treatment of animals, when they KNOW how (non-)realistic Sim humans are!

My most recent horse adventure, btw, involved a sim impulsively buying a horse in Egypt, as transportation (they're great for off-road travel). He was able to do that because I have Twallan's traveller mod, and I placed an equestrian center in Egypt. Of course, the horse came home with him from Egypt... and this particular sim lives in Bridgeport, in an apartment Luckily this apartment complex has a very understanding landlord, apparently... my Sim was able to convert the garage and put a stall in there. I also installed the small versions of the Equestrian Center and horse training park in the Bridgeport mountains. There were some... interesting moments involving stairs and subways (animation glitches, as you might expect), and I had to place a few hitching posts around (those provide water and food as well), but generally, having a horse in the city works out pretty well



The Rigfix will not be updated to automatically fix beds. Beds must be fixed manually, because they are more complex objects. Instructions are here if you want to do your own: http://sims3.the-prof.net/forums/in...pic,1472.0.html

Or just wait till your CC beds have been updated by the creators Lots of creators have updated all their stuff by now.

Thanks, Srikandi.

I tend to break everything I touch when it comes to modding, so I will probably just wait until the creators update the beds.

I've been around horses my whole life - trained them, competed with them, owned them. I have a pretty good knowledge about the equestrian world, and I can honestly say that the Sims 3 representation of horses is absolutely laughable. I mean, obviously we don't expect the EA creators to spend all their time and energy creating all new content and interactions to make horses authentic because that would be impossible. They would have to dedicate an entire expansion pack to horses, which obviously wouldn't appeal to everyone. Sims 3 horses are BASIC. You can't do tricks or ground training. You can't make specialised feeds. Your horses never gets sick. There is no farrier service. If you think the horse spinning when he gets untacked annoys you, wait until you see your sims ride! I have a sim who rides at 'international' level and they still flop around in the saddle like a sack of potatoes. They even mount the horse from the wrong side! Come on EA, did you not do ANY research?! :P

Training is entirely concentrated on show jumping and racing skills. You build your horse's show jumping skills by jumping different types of jumps. I rather like this aspect as your horse can jump more complex jumps as his jumping skill increases. When you start out training your horse can only jump small cavalletti's and will refuse larger jumps. He then moves on to oxers and wall jumps as his skill increases. Race training is boring. All you do is gallop around between markers and this increases his racing skill. You can compete in cross country which combines the show jumping and racing skills (i.e. there is no extra training feature for this). There are 3 levels of competition - beginner, advanced and international. Obviously as your horse becomes more skilled he can compete in the higher level competitions, and thus get more reward money. You also get trophies, which is cool!

Horses don't build muscle like sims. Changes to a horse can only be made in CAS. One feature that makes up for this though is that you can change your horse's coat/mane/feathering at any time during gameplay. This is a god-send if you own a stud farm. One of my foals was born with an all-black mane and an all-white tail. Uh... wtf? That would never happen in real life haha. Breeding is a lot of fun. It's always exciting seeing what colour foal you will get. I've gotten some gorgeous, true-to-life coloured foals. I've also gotten some butt-ugly-crime-against-nature foals whose genetics would never work in real life, but hey, what do you expect in a game?

Overall, the expansion is lacking in horse authenticity, but if you love horses as much as I do, that just doesn't matter because they're still fun to have in the game

That one really annoys me, too!






I'm kidding, I know what you mean. Some of the wild horses have plaited tails too (and the way it's plaited bothers me, don't they know horses have a bone in their tails?)

But, once your sim gets a reasonable riding skill, it's fun as heck to gallop around the neighbourhood!

My sim mounts from the correct side, although when she first started riding she was mounting from the right (which I think was supposed to be a beginner's mistake). She should face the rear of the horse and turn the stirrup towards the front, however, to be more correct.
I also think she's developed a pretty good seat as her riding skill has advanced - I don't see her flopping around at all anymore.

I love this horse - I think they did a great job on the bay coloring.

Also agree with that. Noticed it right off. Either they were too lazy to have the Sim move to the correct side or they had no idea it even mattered.

No no no! x_x Theres no right and wrong side! Makes uneven saddles, rider muscles and horse's back muscles. One should always variate between the two if you even have to get up from the ground. /horsenerd rant over.

Disagree. Really. Would you like to tell me *why* you should always mount on the left side?

I actually agree with you - I was just saying in my post that EA does have the sims mounting from the traditionally correct side as opposed to what was being stated.

Ah, hope restored somewhat xD
I have no idea why people defend the left side rule so fiercely.
The only reason I can think of why it should be done is when the horses were used in the army and all the soldiers had to get up from one side to keep things orderly.
But that doesnt apply here.
And the only other reason I have ever gotten is "Because we have always done that"

There is a correct side to mount horses?! I never knew this. Why?

There isnt. There is a traditional side and there is no reason for it.
There are on the other hand good reasons to variate

If I tried to mount from the other side, I think I would end up backwards. Perhaps that's why it happens to the sims?

Stupid question of the day: I haven't bothered with the horses yet (except for trying to keep them out of my parks) --- Is there any way to get the dung without having to have the horse? Can I just visit one of the equestrian lots and help myself?

I had no idea either, and I used to take lessons. Although the lessons mostly consisted of me getting the horse ready to ride and then cleaning it up afterwards with a short interval of terror in between.