The Ranch of Rivershine is something cute for all the horse girlies out there. In this ranch simulation game, you’ll run your own horse stable, care for your horses, participate in competitions and breed award-winning foals. Developed by Cozy Bee Games, if you love horses and all things horsies then you won’t want to miss out on this one.
There’s so much to do when running a ranch, from fixing up your stable to setting up a full-blown obstacle course and field for your horses to train. You’ll even saddle up and train your horse’s skills yourself in several disciplines such as speed, endurance and flexibility. Don’t forget to take care of their diet with a variety of grains and hay that you can grow yourself, and buy the best tack and equipment for them all to win ‘Best in Show’.
With so much to see and do at The Ranch of Rivershine, it can be easy to miss a few things. That’s why we’ve got this beginner’s guide to make sure you don’t miss a thing!
Disclaimer: The Ranch of Rivershine was released on the 12th of May 2023 in Early Access. As such information in this guide is subject to changes and additions.
Looking After Your Horse
The success of your ranch is determined of course by the success of your horses. And at the beginning, you’ll start off with one from the auction house. In order to unlock the potential of this and all horses you’re going to have to earn its trust by caring for and riding it.
In the beginning, the horse won’t trust you at all but if you commit to feeding, brushing and caring for it daily then this will slowly go up. These activities include:
- Feeding – Hay, Grain and Treats
- Grooming
- Cleaning their stalls
If you forget to do any of these things not only won’t your horse’s trust in you not go up, but they might get sick in the process. If your horse gets sick then you’ll need to call in a vet to treat them which will cost you a lot of money. Something which you can’t afford at the beginning of the game.
Training Your Horse
You can train your horse in a number of skills:
- Speed
- Endurance
- Jump
- Flexibility
You can begin training your horse simply by riding it around and engaging in various activities such as jumps and turns to improve its skills. Depending on the type of horse you have, however, it can reach a maximum potential limit for those skills.
As you improve in The Ranch of Rivershine then you’ll be able to unlock and breed better horses with higher potential limits. This brings us to our next point.
Breeding Horses
The only ways to get horses to The Ranch in Rivershine are to buy them from the auction house, find them in the wild or breed them yourself. Breeding is by far the best way to get the highest potential out of each horse. When you breed horses you can choose them more selectively to hopefully get a foal with similar or better skills, personality traits, and coat colours.
But it doesn’t stop there, because once you get your prize foal out you’ll need to earn that foal’s trust as well. The activities you can do with a foal differ from that of a full grown horse. And by doing this young foal training you’ll be able to build their trust early on as well as fully develop their potential for when they mature.
How To Earn More Gold
You can earn gold on The Ranch of Rivershine in a number of ways but there are two that you should focus on to get the most. The first is by winning competitions, which require a well-trained horse that trusts you. And secondly by breeding excellent foals and horses and selling them at the auction house.
A horses sale value will depend on these factors:
- Coat – Colour and Markings
- Stats
- Trust
- Competition wins – Just one ribbon is enough
To a lesser extent, you can also get some nominal gold by completing quests, selling items and your own horse feed to the local merchants.
How to Win Competitions
Competitions are the early game’s bread and butter of how to make money to save up for projects. Money is extremely useful and you can use it to unlock features like new trails for competitions, buying new horses, ranch additions, and more.
A fully trained horse can compete up to twice per day without needing a treat to supplement energy. A non-fully trained horse will likely need an apple- or if you have none, a carrot- to gain some energy back so you can fit in another competition in that same day.
Competitions in The Ranch of Rivershine involve Geting from one point to the other in the fastest time possible, while completing the obstacles such as jumps. During the competition you’ll be able to see the stamina bar of your horse. Competiting in the race will drain the energy bar and choosing to gallop will drain it even more. You’ll need to balance your gallop with the energy bar to make sure that your bar doesn’t drain completely. Because once it does it’ll take a few seconds to start refilling again.
Gallop as much as you can and then slow to a canter once your energy bar is almost empty in the red. The energy bar will naturally refill as you canter, or jump. Just canter over jumps instead of galloping over them because it doesn’t make much of a difference and it’s better to just use energy over the road.
Once you have enough energy to spare for a short distance, gallop again.
Coat Colours
There are a number of different coat colours that you can obtain for your ranch. Some of the coat colours can be bough through the auction house, some are made by breeding and the rest can be found on wild horses.
While exploring the trail maps, you’ll be able to encounter wild horses with unique coat colours and patterns. Catching these wild horses is the only way to integrate these unique coats into your stable of horses.
| Location | Rarity | Colour | Variations |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auction House | Random | Bay | • Bay • Dark Bay |
| Chestnut | • Chestnut • Flaxen Chestnut | ||
| Black | |||
| Common | Dun | • Red Dun • Bay Dun • Grulla (Black Dun) | |
| Tobiano | • Tobiano • Tobiano with Ink Spots | ||
| Dominant White | • Full White • Fullt White with Hidden Patterns | ||
| Rare | Roan | • Strawberry Roan (Chestnut Roan) • Bay Roan • Blue Roan (Black Roan) | |
| Overo | |||
| Legendary | Silver | • Bay • Dark Bay • Black | |
| Appaloosa | • Blanket • Snowcap • Leopard • Few Spots • Snowflake • Birdcatcher | ||
| Wild Horse | Buckskin | ||
| White Splash Pattern | |||
| Gray | |||
| Dark Bay Roan |
Grow Crops For Feed
In The Ranch of Rivershine you have a farm to grow grains and hay for horse feed. This not only saves you money in the long run but you can even sell your surplus to the local town for some extra cash. I time you’ll be able to also expand your ranch with an orchard and grow apple and pear fruit trees, which make a delicious snacks for your horse friends.
Do note that seasons exist in this game and that certain crops can only be grown in specific seasons. And you’re able to invest in fertiliser to try and boost your crop production. The best ones are the ones that shorten grow time, or adds an additional harvest yield.
Grow the best mix of grains and hay to give your horse a healthy diest boost, which will give them more energy and gain their affection.
The Ranch of Rivershine
Settle into a new town and learn the ropes of running your own ranch! Repair your stable and add new stalls, expand your pasture or build new obstacle courses for your arena. Make the ranch your own as you care for your horses and grow your herd! Saddle up and improve your horse’s skills in multiple disciplines such as speed, endurance and flexibility! Equip your horse with the best tack and participate in different cross country courses to become your town’s champion!
The Ranch of Rivershine is available on Early Access now on PC – Steam.
