The 8 Golden Rules of Hooves of Fire

These Eight rules are to help you with strategy in the game, but before you can think about strategy you need to know how to play the game. If you haven’t read every page of the wiki help section then please do so now.

Especially as there has been an update with many new features. It is important to know about every aspect of the game. A lot of questions asked on the message board can be found within the wiki help.

1) Buy the best

Buy the best horses you can afford. Don't buy geldings buy stallions and try to breed. If they have been unsuccessful at stud geld them. There are Gelding available on the horse market for billions of pounds yet the best horse in the game has won less than $ 200 million so you will struggle to make a profit on that deal. Breeding is the key to being successful.

If you buy a newborn choose a breeder you have bought a good horse from previously (I like to buy from Owen’s, Page and Jacobs), but try to breed the majority of your horses. If you must buy a player sold horse choose one for a higher price than what you have sold your horses for. There is a mark-up on the prices so buying one for the same price as your horses are worth will probably mean it is inferior to your own horses.

2) Expand your stables when you can

Try to expand to 15 stables as soon as you can. Buy Mares and breed to fill your stable. When you use your own stallion you get a free horse, but to improve the class of your stable breed your mares with better stallions than the ones you have. When you breed your own horses don’t worry about inbreeding father and daughter…etc. it has no effect on the foal whatsoever.

The more horses you have the more races you can enter the more races you enter the more prize money you can win. Especially with Group 1 and Group 2 horses. Enter horses in the soonest race possible. Keep your horses in the lowest grade possible. Maidens in No Wins. Group 2 horses in Open Races..Etc.

It is hard to choose races for newborns so I just enter them in first newborn or no wins race. This will also ensure they race over different conditions so you are sure what is best for them. Also always enter races using the races button next to the town button. This is more flexible than using the horses stable or View my profile as you have more choice. Both more later races and earlier races that are not on the horses profile page. You also choose which horse is best for each race

3) Don't bet more than you can afford to lose

Only bet a maximum of 5% of your total cash. If you have £100,000 don't bet more than £5,000 on each race. If you lose a lot - stop betting! Only a very small minority make money in this game betting and of course never chase your losses. Most peoples problem within the game is when they lose all there money betting. Remember gambling is a mugs game.

4) Breeding is the Key to Success

Breed your mare with the best stallion you can afford don't breed on the cheap your stable won’t get stronger. Choose a stallion one fee range up from my best stallion. Send all your stallions to stud every night or any time there isn’t a race available for them. If no one uses a stallion after 2 nights at stud geld him.

Give a stallion a good name and he is more likely to be chosen to breed with. If stuck for a name try to combine its mothers and fathers name. Also adding the stars at birth at the end of a horse’s name can mean your stallion may be used more.

Only breed your younger better class mares as breeding with older mares is a step backwards. Because mares are out of the game for two days every time they breed they are unlikely to reach Group One Level. So once a mare has produced a filly I usually sell. I don’t spend money buying them shoes and saddles as they unlikely to run in enough races. Look at the list of top horses very few are mares.

I don’t usually have more than 3 mares if I am breeding once a day, though if I am away for a few days I do breed 7 mares if you are away for a few days it will also help you get the breeding achievements

Freezing is also another option to selling. If a mare hasn’t produced a filly I can freeze her then later I can unfreeze and give her the Mare Birth Pill so you can continue the blood line at a later date. Also if your horses rarely make it to Group 1’s freeze horses when they reach Group 1 and when you have several unfreeze and race them all in the Pro rooms.

5) Friends can help

Get as many friends as you can and invited your friends to play. Your horses will be happy and healthy with many people brushing and feeding them. Want more friends? - Start by Adding methere are over 500 people in the “Add Me – I need friends on Hooves of Fire” Facebook Group add as many of them as you want- Click the link below and join so others will add you also >>

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=157092917639470&ref=ts

6) Knowing when to Sell

You cannot sell a horse after the age of 10 so any ten year old who isn’t Group 2 or it is isn’t being used to breed then sell it and breed another horse. If you have a big stable try to sell or freeze a horse on average once a day and breed new one. This way the quality of horses in your stable will improve quicker. Also every time you breed you are one step closer to the breeding achievements these make your foals live longer.

For a beginner a horse’s life span is 14 to 21 days. When you reach the pro breeder award for breeding 200 foals the lifespan of your foals is between 20 to 24 days. So it’s worth breeding as much as you can.

Personally I don’t use the selling licence you can buy from the shop. I would rather guarantee to sell one horse every 24 hours to the game as you can only sell with the selling licence when someone buys your horse. You can a lot sell more horses but no one is buying the horses up for sale use up a stable space.

Personally I have found no many horses are sold to other players and as the licence lasts a week the chances are you could go a whole week without selling a horse as with the sell now option you could have sold 7 horses in a week.

7) Buy Improvement

Work out which ground and distance is best for your horse and the buy the appropriate shoes. Also treats from the shop will improve your horses. If you can afford it training shoes, melons (apples for non-pro trainers) and Flame or Ice Saddle is the best combo.

Buy the Flame/Ice saddle once a horse has won 10 races so I know if it is a sprinter or a stayer.
Use boosters on any horse your going to have a big bet on. Only use steroids on poor horse with low win to run ratios so if they die it’s no great loss but they may improve drastically. Also buy a Star or Sonic Brush.

These are expensive $ 80,000 and $ 500,000 but they will pay for themselves very quickly as they are worth up to $ 600 / $2000 per horse. With a Sonic Brush if you have 34 friends with full stables you can earn up to $ 1,000,000 a day! It also it makes your horses much happier.

Train, Feed and brush your horse a few times a day this will improve them and keep them happy. Also when brushing a friends stable and a horse need feeding, feed it, it only takes a second.

8) Knowledge is everything

Learn as much as you can about the game. Read the all the wiki help pages especially after an update to get full knowledge on new features. Take a look at the discussion board once a day and use chat to ask other players questions. Help new starters, who know they may return the favour by using one of your stallions. Never use offensive names for your horses as you will get reported this could lead to banning from the game. If you think a name might offend someone don’t use it also never offend anyone on the discussion board. It’s nice to be nice.

Use Internet Explorer to play the game. I am not a big Microsoft fan but IE plays the game faster than other browsers

Also ensure your adobe flash player is up to date – check it here

http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer

Also clear your internet cache at regular intervals a full cache can slow the game down

http://www.bnl.gov/itd/webapps/browsercache.asp

I you want to play the game on a mobile phone get an android 2.2 device like the HTC Desire, which unlike the i-phone has flash 10.1 and you can play the full game online.

Become a VIP it has a lot of addition features such as selling horse, access the science lab as well as a further insight into your horses ability and what tracks they like. At $5 a month it is about the price of a drink. Think of it as buying beer for the creators as a thank you for all their work on a great game.

Try becoming a VIP for a month when it runs out try it without for a few days if you miss it sign up for it again. It is possible to enjoy the game and succeed as a non-VIP, but as selling, birth pills, star ratings, freezing….etc. are great advantages I could not imagine playing the game without VIP status.

The most important thing to remember is it is a fun game, don’t take it too serious. If your horses are losing and your losing money walk away turn off your Computer give your horses a well deserved rest. Have a coffee come back refreshed and start again in a new country. There are winning streaks and losing runs, but the good times far out way the bad and they are worth waiting for - Enjoy

Credits to Richard Lloyd
Visit his website here