Caring for horses is a challenge, but a rewarding one!

In The Sims 4 Horse Ranch, Sims can purchase, rescue, and breed horses! This Sims 4 horse care guide will teach you how to make your horses happy and healthy. Happy, healthy horses do better in competitions and sell for more money so whether you’re making a living in the competition circuit or by breeding and selling horses, you’ll want to keep your equine friends in tip top shape at all times. Of course, taking good care of a horse is also just a reward in itself. It always feels good to have an animal friend you can depend on.

Sims 4 Horse Care Guide

Sims 4 horse care isn’t easy. It requires a lot of patience and dedication to daily routine but you’ll find the rewards are worth all the effort. Read on to learn how to acquire and care for a horse in The Sims 4!

Acquire a Horse

Before you can take care of a horse, you’ll need to get one, first. There are multiple ways Sims can acquire a horse in The Sims 4. Horses can be purchased or rescued at the community board, or bred from two adult horses. Players can also create their own horse or foal from scratch in CAS.

To purchase or rescue a horse, look for a community board anywhere in Chestnut Ridge. They can also be purchased and placed on your home lot if you don’t feel like hunting one down. You can also buy and rescue horses at the Equestrian Centre in New Appaloosa. Click on the community board and choose either Purchase or Rescue. Purchasing a horse costs $1,000 but rescuing one only costs $250. The downside to rescuing is that most of the selection available is elderly horses and horses with unpleasant traits… but that shouldn’t scare you away from rescuing a horse! Rescue horses can become wonderful companions with enough Sims 4 horse care!

If you already own a mare and a stallion, you can acquire more horses by breeding your mare and stallion to create a foal! Foals require lots of socialization because the higher their Temperament skill is when they age into a mare or a stallion, the better traits they’ll grow up with. We’re still working on our horse breeding guide but check back with us soon for more info on breeding!

Lastly, you can create your own horses in CAS. Creating your own horse in CAS is completely free so if you’re just starting in a new save with starter funds and you know exactly what kind of horse you want, making one in CAS when you create your household is probably the best option. If you own the Cats & Dogs expansion pack, you’ll already be familiar with horse customization. All the paint tools, stencils, stamps, and a full colour wheel are available to help you create your perfect horse. You can also select pre-built breeds and select the horse’s tack and accessories for both everyday and riding.

Checking on Your Horse

When it comes to Sims 4 horse care, you’ll want to be listening to your horse a lot. Horses are household members but are not controllable. You cannot click on their portrait to see their needs so you’ll need to pay attention to your horse to see what they need.

The fastest way to do this is by hovering over them to see their status tooltip. Their tooltip will give you all the Sims 4 horse care information you need. You’ll see their name, gender, age, and emotion listed at the top of the tooltip with their other needs listed below. Horses have five main needs:

• Hunger
• Energy
• Social
• Fun
• Hygiene

These needs can be Excellent, Good, Low, or Poor. If your horse has any Low needs, you should take care of them before they become Poor.

If you’re ever confused about why your horse is in a negative emotional state even when their basic needs are met, you can always ask them what’s wrong, located under the Sims 4 Horse Care options. Horses are sensitive and complex creatures; they might feel nervous from being touched if they have low Temperament skill, or they could feel sad that they had to eat from a feed bin or graze when they prefer to be hand fed. It really just depends on your horse’s unique traits and Temperament skill level. Each horse is different and will react differently to different things.

You can also check out their skills and competition history on their profile page.

Grooming

A big part of Sims 4 horse care involves keeping your equine friends groomed. You’ll know when your horse needs a good brushing or their hooves picked out when you see their Hygiene need is Low or Poor. This is easily taken care of with a good grooming session!

Under the Horse Care options, brush your horse and clean their hooves. Foals cannot have their hooves picked so take care of their Hygiene need by just brushing them. For adult horses, make sure to both brush them and clean their hooves regularly to keep their Hygiene in excellent shape!

If you own more than one horse, they will groom each other regularly, saving you the hassle of doing so yourself!

Feeding

Of course, horses have a big appetite. They are grazers, so they need plenty of hay to graze on throughout the day, whether from their feed bin, wild prairie grass, or straight from your Sims’ hands! Feeding is a big part of Sims 4 horse care and there are multiple ways you can feed your horse!

Foals can be bottle fed or trained to graze on prairie grass. Bottle feeding is under Sims 4 Horse Care in the social pie menu. To train your foal to start grazing on prairie grass, click on any patch of grown prairie grass to call them over to eat. They might be upset at switching from milk to hay at first but keep at it to build their Temperament skill until they can graze on their own. You can also call your foal to drink from a water trough and eat from a feed bin.

Adult horses will often choose to graze on any available prairie grass when they get hungry but you can also keep their feed bin stocked. It costs $30 to fill up a feed bin but if your Sims have prairie grass in their inventory, they can use that to fill the feed bin for free. Make sure to provide them with a water trough, too!

Needy horses might require more personalized Sims 4 horse care and want your Sim to hand feed them. Sims can hand feed a horse if they have prairie grass in their inventory. Other foods that can be hand-fed to horses include apples, carrots, and strawberries. Collect prairie grass by clicking on any grown patch of prairie grass and cutting it down.

Mucking

Since horses eat and drink a lot, they also relieve themselves a lot. Mucking out horse beds and picking up horse manure is another aspect of Sims 4 horse care you’ll need to stay on top of. Horse beds gradually become dirty over time but cleaning the horse bed once a day will keep it nice and tidy for your horse.

Horses don’t always go to the bathroom in their horse bed, though. It would be polite if they did but that’s not realistic. Horses relieve themselves just about anywhere and everywhere they feel like doing so. In the barn, in the pasture, out on a trail ride. Doesn’t matter. When they need to go, they just go! Click on piles of horse manure to either dispose of them or keep them in your inventory.

Why keep horse poop in your inventory? For fertilizer, of course! Horse manure is an excellent fertilizer for plants and the better quality of horse manure, the better quality of fertilizer. Well cared for horses provide you with higher quality manure for fertilizer. Hover over a pile of horse manure to see its quality.

Socializing

Don’t just feed and groom your horse and call it a day for Sims 4 horse care! Horses are social creatures and part of their Sims 4 horse care involves socializing! Horses can socialize with other horses and animals or Sims. Even if your horse has plenty of other animals to interact with, don’t skip out on spending quality time with your horse. The more you interact with your horse, the more you build their Temperament skill, which dictates how well that horse behaves when interacting with other horses and Sims. It also unlocks new social interactions. You can find plenty of social options in the Friendly category when clicking on your horse.

Don’t forget that Sims 4 horse care requires providing your horse with fun, too! Horses can gain Fun through certain social interactions and may also canter around on their own for fun but the best way to ensure your horse gets all the Sims 4 horse care they need is by providing them with a horse ball. Purchase one in Build/Buy and place it down for them to play with. Horses will interact with it on their own but can also be called over to play with the ball.

Training

We’ll have a larger training and competitions guide available soon but here’s a quick summary to get started with Sims 4 horse care!

Horses have four different skills; three of them are directly related to training and competitions. Horses can start learning the Temperament skill as a foal, but when they become adults, they’ll also be able to build the Agility, Jumping, and Endurance skills.

Agility is linked to the barrel racing competitions at the Equestrian Centre. Build this skill by practicing on training barrels found at the park, Equestrian Centre, or along any of the trails in Galloping Gulch. You can also purchase and place them on your home lot.

Jumping is linked to the show jumping competitions. You can work on this skill by practicing jumping on the training jumps in the park, Equestrian Centre, or along the trails. You can also buy and place them down on your home lot. As your horse becomes a more skilled jumper, you can add to the jumps to make them more advanced.

Endurance is connected to Western pleasure riding at the Equestrian Centre. To build your horse’s Endurance, spend plenty of time trail riding with them around Galloping Gulch. The breathtaking views alone are worth it!

Strapped for time? No problem! For a fee, you can send your horse to the Equestrian Centre to be trained in the skill of your choice by a professional trainer!

If you loved our Sims 4 horse care guide, check out our full Horse Ranch category for more horse guides!