Horses of Hoofprint Bay Guide & Wiki
Horses of Hoofprint Bay is thogli studios' hand-drawn 2D stable sim, released November 4, 2026 on Steam and sitting at 99% positive reviews. You start with one mare and a run-down shack, groom and train, ride Caprilli tests and show jumping, breed foals that inherit coats and quirks, and build up to a 20-horse stud farm. This site answers the questions players actually search: which foal gets which coat, why your horse keeps changing gait, where medical supplies are, how prestige gates the shop, and what the secret names do. The three developers have said there is no roadmap, so this is a finished game to learn well.
Last checked Nov 6, 2026
Release: Nov 4, 2026 · Steam (Windows & Linux, Deck Playable) · full release, no Early Access
Price: US$22.94 · 15% launch discount until Nov 11 · Supporter Pack DLC & soundtrack extra
Reviews: 99% positive (779 reviews, Nov 6) · 'Overwhelmingly Positive'
Capacity: Up to 20 horses in a fully upgraded stable + 13 yearlings · board more at the town breeder
Disciplines: Caprilli tests · show jumping · cross country · riding lessons · trail rides (forest, beach, mountains)
Developer: thogli studios (3 people, Bavaria) · published by The Mane Quest · no roadmap, bug fixes only
Basics
- Release date, price and platformsHorses of Hoofprint Bay came out on November 4, 2026 on Steam as a finished game — no Early Access, and the developers have said there is no content roadmap. It runs on Windows and Linux (the store lists SteamOS/Linux requirements, no macOS). List price is $26.99 / €26.99 / £21.99, 15% off until November 11 ($22.94 / €22.94 / £18.69); the developers quoted €25–30 with regional pricing. Steam Deck is rated Playable, not Verified. Mac, consoles and mobile are not planned — the official FAQ says the three-person team can't build for other platforms right now.
- Supporter Pack, soundtrack and bundlesThe Supporter Pack is optional paid DLC with no gameplay content: a 50+ page digital art book (sketches, animation frames, bloopers) compiled by artist Anna Glinsmann, a booklet of coloring pages (town, hitching post, arena, beach) and an exclusive Discord role. The developers quoted around €7 for it and around €5 for the soundtrack by Michal Sinka. The Support the Team bundle packs game + pack + OST; two more bundles pair the game with other horse games.
- Does your demo save carry over to the full game?It depends which demo. Saves from the October 2026 demo (the Steam Next Fest build) are compatible with the full game because it contains all the rebalancing; saves from the February 2026 demo are not — the developers announced in March that the balancing overhaul broke compatibility. Both demos stay available after launch (the February one on a separate Steam branch), each limited to 25 in-game days. The full game has no day limit.
- Game too hard? Difficulty, auto-jump and what to changeThe official FAQ's answer to 'the game is too hard': use the difficulty settings — pick easier competitions or raise the prestige gain — and if jumping is the problem, turn on the auto-jump accessibility option. Two design choices make the start feel hard on purpose: the starter horse was rebalanced to low stats, so your first class is a Caprilli test (gait transitions + low obstacles), not show jumping; and confidence now takes longer to max, with a warning icon before an unprompted gait change so you can correct it.
- Patch notes and dev updates, in orderAs of November 6 there is no post-launch patch announcement yet — players mention a 'tiny update' on launch day, but the developers haven't posted notes. The big changes since the February demo came in three updates: May (leopard/appaloosa patterns, beach rides, staff screens, starter horses rebalanced down, Caprilli tests, building stages up to 20 horses + 13 yearlings), August (prestige, walks with foals, confidence/desensitization overhaul, cross country, the trainer Maria, personality traits) and October (Next Fest demo = first 25 days of the real game, face markings). The developers say there is no roadmap; they fix bugs.
- System requirements, controls, languages and modsIt's a light 2D game: the store lists Windows 10/11 and SteamOS/Linux requirements and no macOS. Management is mouse-driven (click and drag horses in the yard, right-click to zoom out); riding uses the keyboard with Space as the default jump key (rebindable, arrows for gait hints). 24 languages are supported, including German, French, Spanish, Polish, Russian, Japanese, Korean and Simplified Chinese. The Moddable tag means you can edit game files to make custom colour palettes and change horse and character textures and text files; there is no Steam Workshop.
- Save file location, backups, and where mods goOn Windows saves live under AppData → LocalLow → ThogliStudios → Horses of Hoofprint Bay → Saves~ → Games (one folder per save, with save.json inside), with daily backups (save1, save2…) beside it; Steam Cloud is on. Editing a save marks it with a red ribbon and disables achievements for that save. Mods: there is no Steam Workshop; the store says you can edit game files for custom colour palettes and swap texture and text files, and a third-party demo-era tutorial puts files in Saves~ → Mods → Tack and Saves~ → Mods → Clothes (restart the game; items then appear in the shop). Back up before deleting demo saves — a launch-week bug report says new saves stopped opening after that.
Horses
- Breeding: what foals inherit, potential maths, and the breeding stationFoals inherit a mix of both parents' colouring, white patterns and some personality traits (official), and their strength and endurance potential is roughly the parents' average plus a random roll (community maths: about −4 to +11), based on the parents' potential, not their current training. The breeding station has three stages: natural cover → fresh semen + the foal simulator (previews likely foals) → frozen semen. Players report pregnancy of about 8 rounds, foals becoming yearlings at 4 and adults at 12 rounds, and the mare can't be ridden late in pregnancy until weaning. Breeding also happens without a station if a stallion shares a group with mares — boarders' included.
- Your starter horse: always a mare, same statsYes — the starter is always a mare, and players report she always has the same stats, traits and age; only her colour is rolled. The developers chose a mare so you can breed your first foal early (the February demo already let you breed one or two in 25 days). If you want a stallion or gelding, sell her and buy one at the breeder's sales stable in town. Since the rebalance, starter stats are deliberately low: the first show-jumping class is beyond a fully trained starter, so you begin with Caprilli tests.
- Coat colours and patterns: what exists and how foals inherit themThere is one horse type and no breeds — the developers have said other breeds "are not planned" because every frame is hand-drawn. Colour is a palette: each horse has one slot for the body coat and one for mane, tail and legs. On top sit patterns: tobiano, roan and leopard/appaloosa built from three layers (snowcap or spotted blankets, full-body spots of various sizes, snowflake dots), plus face markings (stars, stripes, blazes, snips) and leg markings. Foals inherit a mix of their parents' colouring and white patterns — but the game does not use real colour genetics, so there's no genotype test and no guaranteed outcomes.
- Do horses die? Age, retirement and getting horses taken awayHorses don't die in Horses of Hoofprint Bay. The official FAQ says age is measured in in-game days (turns), not years; old horses eventually retire to the retirement farm, and a horse you neglect for a long time can be taken away by animal welfare. Retired or confiscated horses leave the game. There is no day limit in the full game — only the 25-day demos are capped.
- Training: every course, what it raises, and licensesEach horse has strength and endurance (each capped by an inherited potential), confidence, and a daily exercise budget — push past it and the horse gets exhausted or injured. Courses in the riding arena raise strength and endurance and cost exercise; you can run several a day until the budget runs out, and courses cost no money. Three courses double as licences: pass Caprilli 1, Show Jumping 1 and Cross Country 1 in the arena before you can enter that discipline in town. Confidence is raised by the desensitization course (approach a scary object, praise curiosity, back off when worried) and by praising right after a requested gait change; a horse that only competes or gives lessons slowly loses stats.
- Trail rides: every route, how to unlock the beach and mountainsRides are side-scrolling 2D with four gaits; canter, gallop and jumps burn strength, and the ride ends when it runs out. You start with the home forest; the advanced forest unlocks at ~10% prestige, the beach at ~30% and the mountains at ~40%, each with a one-off fee (community figures: 1,000–1,300). Several routes need the cross-country licence. Walks (arena or forest) let a nursing mare bring her foal. Quest items sit on the routes — the apple tree is downhill past the bridge and you must stop the horse to pick; the hoof boot is on the trail — and quests resolve when the ride ends. Only 4.4% of players had reached the beach after two days, 2.3% the mountains.
- Where to buy medicine — and other things hidden in the shopMedicine and antiseptic are in the regular shop in town, on a shelf above the horse mannequin at the back — two launch-week threads asked the same thing on the same day. You apply them from the Medical button on the horse-care screen (scrapes and small injuries); serious cases call the vet and you get a bill. Gelding is done in town for about 50. The shop's tack and clothing ranges expand with prestige (community thresholds: tack tier 2 at ~30%, clothing tier 2 at ~40%, tack tier 3 at ~60%).
- Secret names: 38 Mein Pferdehof horse names that swap the coat coloursIt's a tribute to Mein Pferdehof (My Horse Farm), the game the developers grew up on. Rename a horse to one of 38 MPH horse names — Summerrain, Baghira, Samurai, Daydream, Eclipse, Trinity, Jungle Prince, Black Beauty… — and its coat and mane are drawn with the MPH colour palette instead of the default one (that's the purple-ish tint players noticed). Rename it back to undo. Separately, the settings have colour presets — Default, MPH and Rainbow — that recolour every horse in the save; you can save your own.
- Stable groups and gelding: keeping stallions away from maresHorses live in stable groups — you get one more group with each stable stage — and daily care (hay, water, mucking out) is done per group, while grooming, grain and injuries are per horse. A stallion in a group with mares will cover them, boarders' mares included (fine + prestige loss + the hidden Oops! achievement), and two stallions in a group with a mare will fight (hidden achievement The boys are fighting). Use the Move button on the care screen to regroup, or geld a stallion in town for about 50 (achievement No more babies, 10.4% of players).
- All 14 personality traits and what they doPlayers have found 14 traits, in opposing pairs: Hard / Easy Keeper (more / less grain), Neat Freak / Mud Lover (gets dirty slower / faster), Sure Footed / Injury Prone, Good / Bad Inheritance (foals' potential better / worse), Energetic / Chill (wants to speed up / slow down and needs more / less exercise or turns 'explosive'), plus Snacky (treats give more confidence), Cuddly (scritches give more), Good Mom (foals start with better current stats) and Rebellious (random gait changes even at full confidence, with a very short warning). Some are hidden until revealed by interaction or a paid vet test; some are inherited, and opposite traits never both pass to a foal. Officially the developers only say traits affect dirt, injuries and gait changes 'a bit'.
- Horse care: grooming, feeding, and every injury and illnessCare is split: hay, water and mucking out are per stable group; grain, grooming, treats and treating injuries are per horse on the care screen (Feed, Groom, Edit Tack, Medical, Move). Groom with the brush and hoofpick to prevent saddle sores and abscesses; treat cuts and scrapes by dragging the right medicine onto the wound (supplies from the town shop), or call the vet. Horses pick up random cuts and abrasions overnight and injuries on rides; untreated ones get worse (infected cut, thrush with hoof abscess…). There's no health bar — each problem shows on the horse. Long neglect or malnourishment ends with animal welfare taking the horse.
- Confidence: praise timing, desensitization, and why your horse bucksThe fastest confidence gain players found: ask for a gait change, then press S to praise the moment the horse does it — the window is very short, and it works during competitions too. The designed route is the desensitization course: lead the horse toward a scary object, praise when it's curious, give it space when it's worried. Treats and scritches add a little (more for Snacky / Cuddly horses). A warning icon now appears before an unprompted gait change so you can correct it; at about 80%+ confidence petting stops producing hearts, which is normal. Rebellious horses change gait even at full confidence. If a horse is 'explosive', it's under-exercised — lunge it and let it gallop a few times.
Management
- Prestige: how to raise it and what it unlocksPrestige is the game's progress meter. You gain it by upgrading buildings, winning competitions, looking after boarders and owning high-quality horses; you lose it by failing competitions, competing on a dirty horse or without appropriate (show) clothing, and letting a horse fall seriously ill. It gates three things: the quality of horses the breeder offers, the variety of tack in the shop, and which trail rides you can unlock. Achievements mark 50% and 99%.
- How to make money (and stop going into debt)Early on, boarders are the steady income (part board ~50/day, full board ~90/day, schooling board adds a one-off fee), riding lessons pay 30–130 a session depending on how quickly you correct the rider, and the quest chain pays the first lump sums. The fastest mid-game money players report is horse flipping: buy a cheap young horse at the breeder, train it a few days, sell it — more reliable than breeding for profit. The two ways people go broke: upgrading buildings whose daily running cost they can't cover (every stage raises upkeep) and having no vet fund when an injury hits. Prize money only goes to the top three.
- Boarders: rates, what they want, and the 500 fineBoarders are the early money. Three tiers reported by players: part board ~50/day, full board ~90/day, schooling board ~90/day plus a one-off training fee; you're paid when the stay ends and can send them home early. Caring for boarders also raises prestige. The traps: a neglected boarder costs a fine (~500) and prestige, and a boarder's mare can get pregnant if she shares a field with a stallion — that's prestige lost, a fine, and the hidden Oops! achievement (22.5% of players already have it).
- Riding lessons: corrections, pay, and the stat drainLessons are an early income: you ride alongside a student and correct their mistakes as fast as you can — the quicker the correction, the bigger the tip, with three pay tiers from roughly 30 to 130 a session. Two things players run into: corrections feel hard at first (zoomed-in lessons and pausing on Esc were added for this), and a horse used only for lessons slowly loses strength and endurance — lessons don't train, so alternate with training courses. Later you can hire Julia to teach up to 8 lessons a day for you (community-reported).
- Every building, every stage: costs, upkeep, what it unlocksOfficially: a fully upgraded stable holds 20 horses plus 13 yearlings, and extra horses can be boarded at the town breeder for a fee. The per-stage costs below come from one community wiki editor in launch week, so treat them as ballpark: stable 2,500 → 10,000 → 50,000 for stages 2–4 (4 → 8 → 14 → 20 slots) with upkeep 10 → 30 → 80 → 200 a day; the parking lot is the one people miss — you need it (and its trailer slots) to take horses to town at all; the main house unlocks staff; the breeding station goes natural cover → fresh semen → frozen semen; the arena unlocks training courses.
- Competitions: disciplines, levels, entry rules and scoringThere are three disciplines: Caprilli tests (gait transitions + low jumps, the entry discipline), show jumping and cross country (late-game, high strength and endurance, with a short-hard / long-easy path choice). No dressage. Levels run Beginner → Novice → Intermediate → Advanced (Caprilli has two); you must pass the matching licence course in your arena first, win a level to unlock the next, and once a horse wins a higher level it can't enter lower ones. Scoring: obstacle faults, time penalties, and only the top three earn prize money. Showing up on a dirty horse or without show clothing costs prestige.
- Caprilli tests: what they are and how to time the gait changesA Caprilli test combines precise gait transitions with low jumping obstacles — the developers added it in May because a fully trained starter horse can no longer win the first show-jumping class. It has two levels (Beginner, Novice) and needs the Caprilli 1 licence from your arena. The timing players settled on: press the gait change as your rider's foot crosses the middle of the two gait indicator lines; early or late transitions cost points, as do jump faults.
- Show jumping: timing, faults, and getting past NoviceThree things decide a round: jump timing (Space by default; if you keep knocking rails, turn on the auto-jump accessibility option or accept the jump-off indicator popup), horse stats (Novice and Intermediate need noticeably more strength and endurance than Beginner — players stuck at Novice are usually under-trained, not mistimed), and the time — about 1 penalty point per 4 seconds over the NPC's time, about 4 per fault (community figures). Top three are paid. The hidden achievement That's too easy… is for winning a Low class with a 100/100 horse.
- Staff: who to hire, what they cost, and how to stop them overworking horsesStaff unlock with the main house: stage 1 gives Laura (groom, 1 horse) and Maria (jumping instructor, tips only); stage 2 adds Fiete (groom, 9 horses), Tara and Bianca (trainers to 70/70 and yearlings to 75/75), Julia (teaches up to 8 lessons a day); stage 3 adds Lucas (groom), Markus and Meilin (trainers to 100/100). Wages run roughly 5–200 a day plus a one-off training fee. The complaint every new player hits: an untrained trainer overworks horses into tendon injuries — pay their training fee, or only assign horses they can handle. Names, wages and caps are community-collected (one source).
- Trailer, parking lot and the one-trip-a-day ruleYou get one trip to town per in-game day, and you can only make it once you've built the parking lot, which comes with the trailer. The lot's stage sets the trailer slots — 2, then 4, then 10 (community figures) — and that is how many horses you can take along for competitions, selling or boarding. In town, pick the arena, choose a class, add horses from the side panel (mixing disciplines is fine) and press Start Competitions; each horse can enter as many classes as its exercise allows.
- Buying and selling horses at the breeder's sales stableEverything happens at the breeder's sales stable in town: buy, sell, book stud services and board your overflow horses (as many as you can pay for). The quality of horses on offer scales with your prestige. Prices players report: buying from around 200, selling 500 to several thousand — a well-trained young adult fetches the most, which is why flipping (buy cheap, train a few days, sell) is the mid-game money loop. Stallions and geldings are for sale; a breeder stud's traits aren't shown before you pay for the cover; pregnant mares can't be bought.
Progress
Live
- Is Horses of Hoofprint Bay down right now?Horses of Hoofprint Bay is single-player with no online servers, so it can't be "down". The card below shows how many people are playing on Steam right now from the official Steam API, refreshed every 5 minutes. If the game won't start or a new day won't load (a launch-week forum thread), the usual causes are a pending Steam update, Steam Cloud sync, or a Steam-wide outage — steps below.
- Horses of Hoofprint Bay player count right nowThe number below is the live Steam player count for Horses of Hoofprint Bay from the official API, refreshed every 5 minutes. For scale: the game peaked at about 5,600 concurrent players on November 5, the day after launch, had 1,700 playing on the afternoon of November 6, and sat at 99% positive from 779 reviews. The demo drew 32,000 players and 40,000 downloads by March with a median playtime of 3 h 26 min.
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