I have mentioned it once before, but way back in January of 2013 I started an account on an online horse game called Howrse. I went under the name “Flying Aces” because I love airplanes and it sounded cool as a young teen. Back then the choices for foundation horses from the games ‘parent’ horses Ouranos and Gaia were very limited and I chose a dun Hanoverian stallion as my first horse. I was gifted a Helios Ray (a special item in the game from the “Black Market”) to give him a background and a “place” to live. I chose a cute stall background looking out into a stable and gave him some confetti as an animation to bring him to life a little bit. He also received the item Apollo’s Lyre so I could customize his name with colors, fonts, shapes and emphasis (bold/italics).

I won’t lie, when he aged to an adult horse I hated his “base coat”. He had this super square nose that was simultaneously stubby and not cute. His stance was a bit over the knee, which would lead me to believe he was bum high as well. As someone who is used to seeing and looking at decently bred warmbloods in person, the game was not doing the breed justice.

I played on and just accepted him for who he was and knew one day I could save up and buy him a nice special coat with a Golden Apple. It would be submitted by other users and it would be a fantastic addition to my breeding farm, even if he wouldn’t pass the GA coat on to his offspring.

He received all the bonuses available to me with the tutorial except for a companion, and he got all of the needed “Black Market” items needed to keep him forever. He got a Philosopher’s Stone for immortality, a Chrono’s Timer to train him twice as fast, a Croesus Fortune to find items while completing tasks and training, an Achilles Heel so he can go to bed whenever you like even with low energy and not face any repercussions the following day. He got a Ploutos Parchment so his poop makes me money based on how much waste he makes, a piece of cloud to give him back a year of youth, a Poseidon’s Pack so he has the best tack, a Hypnos Blanket so he can sleep in a pasture and skip board at an equestrian center and a Philotes Stroke which allows you to pet him twice per day to give him morale and energy for more tasks.

After realizing he wasn’t that useful breeding wise I actually sold him of to a random player in the direct sales. His genetic total was exactly 350.00 meaning his potenial breakdown would look something like this:

Stamina	38.00		Gallop	68.00
Speed	73.00		Trot	20.00
Dressage	61.00		Jumping	90.00

When he actually was able to break out of his potential and it looks like this to this day. This means all of his statistics are bolded, and he won his first competition because of this.

Stamina	48.10		Gallop	78.10
Speed	94.58		Trot	23.21
Dressage	71.10		Jumping	118.48

With all of this information for Whisper there’s also a bar for “BLUP” or Best Linear Unbiased Prediction. This tells me and any player looking at Whisper what kind of foal he might produce, the closer to 100 the better quality foal is usually born. Whisper’s BLUP is currently at 62.32 which isn’t that great to be honest, but I don’t play my game to rush through the genetics of the game like everyone else does. I just enjoy breeding my farm of horses and hope that I create better foals than before.

That being said, Whisper has only had 4 foals by him and one pending so users in the game can cover their mares. They weren’t that great because he wasn’t fully BLUPed and they haven’t been aged to full adults even after all these years. What has happened after all these years is quite fun.

Three or so years ago I was finally able to save up and buy Whisper a Golden Apple coat. I picked the one that felt the most like him given his name, color, breed and because it had cool markings and I’m pretty happy with it to this day. I’ve also changed his background from the retired stall background to a nice pasture with trees with the firefly animation so it’s almost like you’re in the pasture with him.

He’s now 28 years and 4 months old, he’s 16.2 hh, he weighs 1089 lbs and has won me over 6,000 equus (game money) in competitions. He’s only won 3 competitions, but has placed very well otherwise to get to 6k.

If you would like to see him for yourself join the game or just enjoy the glimpses of him from my posts. Happy Howrsing!!