Your first days

The first days of any horse game are the most exciting and the most confusing. There's a lot on screen and all of it looks important. This guide walks through a new yard's first week in a calm order: what to do right away, what can wait, and what to watch out for.

Day one: pick your foal

When you open your account, your groom brings you three foals. Each card tells you three kinds of things:

• Today's numbers: Speed, Acceleration and Stamina. This is how the foal is now, not how good it can become.
• What it likes: its best surface (dirt, turf or synthetic), its ideal distance, and whether it enjoys the mud.
• Your groom's word: the gold tags are your groom's guess at the foal's future. "A gift for speed" means speed will shine later on; "little room to grow" means its development is limited. "Will bloom late" means a foal that looks dull today but can climb high with patience.

It's tempting to pick the foal with the best numbers today, but the groom's word often matters more. Today's best foal may stall tomorrow. Look at the foal's type too: a sprinter explodes over a short trip, a stayer wears rivals down over a long one, and a balanced horse suits every trip but flies at none.

Give your foal a name. Names can be up to eighteen characters, and the race caller reads them out loud, so names that can't be pronounced or are inappropriate are refused. The first foal is a gift; later ones cost Doko.

A foal from the foal counter is already of racing age and can run on day one. Foals born at your stud have to grow up first.

Your first race: the free practice

Every account's first race is a free practice run. There's no entry fee, it leaves no wait on your horse, and it shows short tips while you learn the controls. Try three things:

• Push the joystick forward to drive on and pull it back to ease the pace. Pushing is fast, but it burns the stamina tank.
• Tap Urge when the rhythm ring glows. Hit the moment and the horse gives you a short burst; miss it and it costs you tank.
• Push sideways to change lanes, and tuck in behind another horse, in its draft.

You don't have to win the practice. The point is to see what the white line on the stamina bar means: it's the energy needed to reach the finish at this pace. Whatever sits above it is yours to spend in the final stretch. More in Race tactics.

Your first real races

After the practice you'll see three lobbies on the race board: Sprint, Mile and Long distance. Each lobby shows its distance, surface, going and class. To find the race that suits your horse, check the fit gauge on the entry sheet: "Good fit," "Fair fit" or "Poor fit." Entering a poor-fit race is a waste of Doko and time.

When you enter, your horse takes a slot in the field. You don't choose the slot; the next free one is yours. When the field fills, you're called to the gate, and the start follows a short countdown. After a race, your horse needs a short rest.

A good rule for your first week: race your horse when its condition is high and its fatigue is low. A tired horse runs poorly and risks injury. See Yard care.

Start training

From day one, train whenever you can. There are four kinds of workout, and each one builds something different:

• Sprint work builds Speed and Acceleration,
• Long gallop builds Stamina and a little Speed,
• Gate practice builds Acceleration and the break,
• Trail walk builds a little Stamina and, above all, morale.

Every workout has a price: condition drops and fatigue rises. So it's a good habit not to work a horse hard right before a race, and to rest it after one. The full list and advice are in Training.

Come by every day

Padooko rewards short, regular visits.

• Daily reward: every day you visit, you get Doko, and the reward grows as your streak goes on. On the seventh day of the week you get a crate voucher instead of Doko. Miss a day and the streak starts over.
• Quests: daily and weekly quests are jobs like "Enter races," "Finish in the top four" and "Do some training." They pay Doko, rest tickets, and on the weekly set a Silver Crate.
• Yard events: now and then something happens in the yard. A shoe comes loose, a sponsor shows up with an offer, a storm blows in at night. You pick one of two answers; some events can reveal one of your horse's hidden traits early.

When to get a second horse

Sticking with one horse for the first few days is fine. Once you have enough Doko to buy a foal and keep feeding it, think about a second horse. Two horses mean one can race while the other rests. But every horse has a daily feed bill: an empty yard pays nothing, a busy one pays every day. For the ways to buy a horse, see Market.

Mistakes new players make

• Entering every race. The house prize is highest in your yard's first races of the day and shrinks after that. Fewer, better-chosen races pay more.
• Racing a tired horse. With high fatigue a horse is both slower and more likely to get hurt.
• Pushing from start to finish. The tank runs dry and the horse fades in the straight. An even pace is the fastest way round.
• Ignoring the fit. A turf horse on heavy dirt makes a good horse look ordinary. See Tracks.
• Spending on gear too early. In the first days, Doko does more for you as feed, training and a second horse.

Protect your account

If you started as a guest, link your account to an email address, or to your Apple or Google account, so you never lose your progress. With a linked account you reach the same yard from the web, and soon from your phone too.

By the end of your first week your horse will have run a few races, started to find its class, and begun to show its character. For the next step, read Season and rating.