Competitions are the early game bread and butter of how to make money to save up for projects like unlocking new trails for competitions, buying new horses, unlocking new ranch additions, and more. Early game competitions are capped at beginner level, but the 1st place payout increases with each trail competition you unlock - so it's worth it to save your money to unlock new trails when you can!

A fully trained horse (it will have 0% potential remaining) 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. You can give your horse a treat without having to be in the stable or on your ranch; just dismount and click "Horse Information".

In the remainder of this guide, the strategy I describe is best used for a fully trained horse because it will have more energy remaining after each competition. A fully trained horse can canter and gallop around the map and the energy will refill back to max energy - unless you compete. Competitions take out some of the horse's daily energy that they can't get back until the next day, or if you give them a treat.

But, how do you win? The answer is simple: make the most out of your gallop.

Galloping is the speed higher than the canter and actively reduces the energy bar. In competitions, you want to gallop as much as possible without letting the energy bar empty completely, or else the gallop energy will take longer to refill. 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 (as long as you aren't galloping over jumps!). Once you have enough energy to spare for a short distance, gallop again.


Key Takeaways:

• Gallop on the long distances in between jumps.
  
• Canter over jumps instead of galloping over them. Galloping over jumps actively reduces the energy bar, but the jumping animation doesn't speed up even if you gallop.
  
• Don't let your horse's energy bar hit 0, or it will take longer for you to be able to gallop again.

Each in-game day, if you place 1st in a competition, you get a $250 win bonus. Originally, I thought this bonus was per day. But in fact, the bonus is per competition per day. This means that if you do the same race, such as Crystal Lake, twice in 1 day and get first both times, you will only get the $250 bonus once. But if you get 1st in Crystal Lake and 1st in Lupine Meadow for example, you get the $250 bonus TWICE. That's an additional $500 per day.

The 2 highest payout races should be your priority for which 2 races to enter per day so you can earn the extra $500. This actually pays out more than doing the highest payout race twice in one day. The margin of profit is only about $100 or so for these beginner races, but it's worth it when you need every penny!