The Horse is a helpful companion in Harvest Moon: Back to Nature. While it doesn’t produce any products like cows or sheep, it helps you carry harvested crops and can even be entered into a racing event!

You’ll receive the horse from Barley at Yodel Ranch, but it starts off as a young pony. If you take good care of it, it’ll grow into a full adult, and Barley will reward you with a saddlebag, allowing you to ride it and use it to carry items.

The horse can also participate in the Local Horse Race held every Spring 18.

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Growth Stages

Pony

In your first Spring, if you visit Yodel Ranch, a cutscene will play where Barley and May are talking about a sad little pony.

Barley thinks the pony needs someone to raise it, and since you just happened to be passing by, he asks if you’d take care of it. If you accept, you’ll get to name your new pony.

Barley explains that you need to brush, talk to, and keep the pony indoors during bad weather like rain or snow.

After the event, the pony will be waiting at your barn. You can brush it using the brush tool, which you can buy from Saibara’s shop. To move the pony in or out of the barn, just push it toward the door.

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Adult Horse

After about one in-game year, your little pony will grow into a fully grown horse. Barley will visit and give you a saddlebag, which allows you to ride the horse and use it to carry items.

Tip: Just toss fruits or veggies into the saddlebag to have the horse carry them for you!

The horse also has a hidden stamina stat, starting at 0. It doesn’t decrease, but goes up every time you ride it and make it jump—gaining about +3 stamina per day.

More stamina means better chances at winning the Horse Race. So the more often you ride and train your horse, the stronger it gets!

If your horse has less than 8 hearts when Barley comes to check on it (about a year after giving it to you), he’ll be disappointed and take it back because he thinks you’re not taking good care of it.

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Getting the Horse Back

So… Barley took your horse? No worries, there’s still hope!

Here’s how to get a new one:

• Plant 200 tiles of grass (you’ll need 23 bags of Grass Seeds, sold at the Supermarket for 500 G each).
• Once the grass has grown, Barley will show up and say how nice your pasture looks.
• He’ll give you a new pony, and you’ll get to name it again.

To raise its hearts and max out its stamina, you’ll need to care for it daily for around 85 days.

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Affection System

Your horse has Affection Points (AP), which determine how much it trusts you. It starts with 0 AP, and the maximum is 255 AP.

You can only earn each type of AP bonus once per day. For example, brushing your horse twice in one day only gives you the AP bonus the first time.

Also, horses can’t get sick or die, but certain actions can lower their affection.

Here’s a quick chart of how affection changes:

Action	Affection Point
Whistle to your horse	+2 AP
Brush your horse	+2 AP
Do not brush, ride, or whistle at all in one day	-1 AP
Hit the horse twice with tools	-1 AP
Hit the horse three times	-1 AP
Let it get attacked by a wild dog	-1 AP
Let a wild dog bark at it for a long time	-1 AP
Leave it outside overnight in rain/snow/storm	-5 AP