How do I make a layout for my ranch page?
VHR does not provide HTML support for building layouts, but there are plenty of good resources on the web – just try searching for “HTML tutorial” or “HTML help”. Once you’ve got the code you want to put onto your ranch, click “My Ranch” in the left menu bar, then “Edit Ranch”. There is a large box that you’ll need to paste the code into – then click the “Edit Ranch” button near the bottom of the page.

I came from Horseland (or another game) – why isn’t this game like those?
Virtual Horse Ranch is unique and uses its own ideas as well as player suggestions. If all the online horse games were the same, it wouldn’t be very interesting, now, would it? You’ll find the game easy to learn if you surf around, check out the help files and just play!

Is there a way I can create my own dream horse right from the start?
Nope – where’s the fun in the journey if you start at the destination? The long answer is: These horses are not just text on a screen – they’re complex. Each VHR horse is unique – even if it is only by a tiny, tiny difference – because they are created using virtual genetics. When they are born, they inherit stats, height, colour and more from their parents.
The challenge and the fun of the game is taking a horse and breeding it to produce your ideal – and the mixing and matching of horses to get new breeds and new competition winners is the best part of this game.
To sort of explain VHR horses: These horses are bred by players, and although they are only text on a screen right now, they are realistic and fully dimensional. All horses are unique, special, and carry their own attributes, just like real horses!

How do I put a picture on my horse?
To add an image to your horse, highlight the location of the image (Click in the address bar, or right-click on the image and select the location). Copy this using (Ctrl-C), then paste it (Ctrl-V) into the “Image URL” box on your horse – be careful not to paste it into the name box! Once pasted, click “Add/Change Image”.
However, if you are using a photograph or drawing you’ve found on the Internet, instead of a picture or photo you created yourself, you MUST ask permission to use the photograph from its owner before you use it, and you should download the image to your own computer and upload it to a free image hosting site like http://tinypic.com before using it. That way, you’re not infringing copyright, which makes artists and photographers happy – and follows the rules in VHR’s Terms of Service.
If you would like to do your own pictures, but aren’t sure about your drawing, there are a couple of options – the VHR Colouring Book at http://vhrcolorbook.lazydeer.info/ has line drawings of many different breeds free for all VHR players to colour and use as they like. There is also Virtual Horse Painter, a Flash program that can do custom colours and patterns; this is currently in testing at http://www.ssthisto.com/VHRStuff/VHParabnewDemo.html, but it is not quite ready to be used on horses – check back soon!
Virtual Horse Ranch itself does not host images.

How do I shoe my horse?
Sponsor players can become Farriers and shoe their own horses; with enough skill, they can also create “Farrier Deeds” for sale so that other players can shoe their horses. To use a shoe deed, you would go to the Items section of the marketplace, then choose “Vet and Farrier Deeds” – find a shoe deed for sale and buy it. Then go to your Inventory and find the deed you’ve bought. There will be three options – Destroy, Sell and Use – you want to click “Use” – then choose the name of the horse you want to shoe from the dropdown box.

How do I vaccinate my horse?
Sponsor players can become Veterinarians and vaccinate their own horses; with enough skill, they can also create “Vaccination Deeds” for sale so that other players can vaccinate their horses. To use a Vaccination deed, you would go to the Items section of the marketplace, then choose “Vet and Farrier Deeds” – find a Vaccination deed for sale and buy it. Then go to your Inventory and find the deed you’ve bought. There will be three options – Destroy, Sell and Use – you want to click “Use” – then choose the name of the horse you want to vaccinate from the dropdown box. Vaccination prevents your horse from getting West Nile Virus, a contagious disease that lowers your horse’s health and energy.

How do I breed my horse?
First, your horse has got to be old enough to breed – young colts can be bred after 2.5 years of age, while young fillies need to be 3.05 years old before they can be bred. If you have one of each, you will have to wait until your mare is “in heat” – then you can use the ‘breed this horse’ button on the mare’s page to breed her to your stallion. If you only have a mare, you will need to find a stud (you can search the marketplace for them), then click ‘Breed this horse to one of your mares” – this will usually cost money – and then choose the mare you want to breed to him. If he has not been bred five times that day, it will tell you that you have successfully bred your mare to the stallion – then you’ve got ten turns to wait before she foals. Don’t worry if it looks like the foal is going to be ‘late’ – all VHR babies are two days slow!

Will training my mare while she’s pregnant hurt her or the foal?
Short answer: No! In fact, it’ll make the foal better if your mare is trained, and training while she’s pregnant will help.

My horse has Colic – how do I cure it?
Colic is caused by an unbalanced or too-rich diet. If you change your horse’s diet back to something like 35 Oat hay 15 Grain, 35 Alfalfa, and 15 Hot Oats – make sure the percentage at the top of the feed chart reads 100% - your horse should recover in a turn or two.

My horse is Exhausted – how do I cure it?
Exhaustion happens when your horse is worked beyond his energy levels. If one of your horses is exhausted, make sure you have your horse in the stables, not the pasture. Set its diet to 35 Oat Hay, 15 Grain, 35 Alfalfa and 15 Hot Oats – this will cause it to gain energy back more quickly every turn you take. Then train lightly (One obstacle or one teamwork per turn only) – the horse should recover after a turn or two.

HELP! My horse has got West Nile Virus!
West Nile Virus is contagious via mosquitoes, and can spread through your stable quickly if not cured. If one of your horses gets WNV, vaccinate all your horses in the stable – this prevents any more horses from getting the disease. You can do this by vet skill as a sponsor, or by visiting the Items marketplace and purchasing a vaccination deed for each horse. Once vaccinated, your sick horse may be cured of West Nile in one of two ways. A cure deed (or vet skill: Apply Medicine) will work immediately if you use it BEFORE training your horse, but can be costly. Otherwise, you can exhaust your horse – because VHR horses can only have one sickness at a time, the exhaustion gets rid of WNV. Then you can treat the horse for exhaustion – which isn’t contagious!

How do I use contracts to lease horses to other players for training, breeding or showing?
Click on the Contracts link on the left-hand menu. This will pull up a list of contracts that others have made to you, that you have made to others – and from here you can also make new contracts. To accept a contract click accept contract. When the contract is over and you want to return the horse go to the contracts screen and click return horse – this will send the horse back to its owner. To create a contracts with another players select the horse you want from the drop down menu of your horses and type in the player name of the player you want to make a contract with. Make sure that you put the agreed upon amount of money in for the contract and click on Create Horse Lease deed. The next screen will ask if you want to allow breeding or competing. Click Create Horse Lease deed again and you contract is completed. Now the other player must accept the contract.

At what age do horses die/ get deleted / Retire?
Horses on Virtual Horse Ranch can not die. At the grand old age of 33.2 years, they will automatically be sent to the Happy Horse Retirement Facility, where they’ll remain – this way, you can always see the parents and grandparents of your new foals. They also retain their places in the Top Horses records and the Hall of Fame!
Only a horse without foals can be deleted entirely, and it is not possible for players to delete adult horses.

What does the “Retire Horse” button do?
“Retire Horse” can be used on ANY horse over 2.5 years of age and sends it to the Happy Horse Retirement Facility. This cannot be undone – once they’re retired, that’s it. Be sure you want to retire your horse before pressing this button! Some people do this when a horse is too old to breed, but not so old it’s automatically retired – and some people do it if an adult horse isn’t quite what they were hoping it would be.

What does the “Release Horse” button do?
“Release Horse” is the only way players can delete horses, and only works on a horse that’s less than 2.5 years old. When a horse is released, it is gone forever – it doesn’t exist, and it’s as though the horse never existed at all. Be absolutely sure you don’t want the foal before you click this button! Some people do this if a foal isn’t quite what they were looking for, or they’ve got too many horses and want to pick and choose only the best.

Help and Support

I can’t remember my password!
For security reasons, we can’t send you your password through a message – but if you send a message to support stating the ranch number of the account you can’t get into, we can have the server send your login and password details to the e-mail address you gave us when you registered your account.

I gave my password and user name to someone else, and they’ve done something terrible! Help!
Unfortunately, you are responsible for your account and if you let someone else use it by giving them your user name and password, you’re letting them do anything they want to it. NEVER give out your log in information, make sure your password is difficult to guess, and always log out of VHR when you are done playing.

What makes a good password?
It should be very hard to guess – even someone who knows you shouldn’t be able to guess it on the first – or fourth – or tenth try. Passwords that use numbers between or in the place of letters (1 for L, 0 for o, 3 for E and so on) are harder to guess than passwords that only use letters. A password like “app13sauce” is much harder to guess than “applesauce” – and the longer it is, the more difficult it is to guess. But don’t make it so long you can’t remember it!
Most important: Your user name and password should NEVER be the same word, and they shouldn’t be your ranch name, your player name or anything like them.
A password is only as safe and secure as you make it. If you give it to someone else, you’re giving them the keys to your ranch!

Someone bought my horse and did something terrible!
The moment you accept a bid or put your horse up for sale and someone else buys it, that horse becomes theirs to do with what they want. If they want to breed it and keep dozens of foals, that’s their right. If they want to starve it and retire it, they can do that too. And if they want to use it as a successful competition horse they can also do that. If you particularly like a horse, or its colour, and don’t want to have anything happen to it that you wouldn’t do, it’s best if you keep the horse!

Someone’s been rude and upsetting me! Someone’s swearing at me! Someone’s named their horse or ranch something offensive!
Please contact support with ALL the details you can give us – the other player’s name, their ranch number if possible – and if they’ve sent you messages that are upsetting, copy and paste those messages into your support ticket. The more information you can give us, the better we can handle the issue – we do not tolerate abusive behaviour on this game.

If anyone else has ideas, suggestions or other comments on the FAQ to update it and include the most commonly asked questions on the game support system, please do add ‘em and forward them on.