Horses of Hoofprint Bay Staff: Hiring Laura, Julia and Maria

Horses of Hoofprint Bay staff guide: where to hire, what Laura, Julia, the trainer and Maria do, wages players report, assigning horses and fixing idle staff.

Horses of Hoofprint Bay staff applications page with a trainer's skills and pay

Horses of Hoofprint Bay staff take daily work off your hands once your herd grows: some care for horses, some give lessons, some train, and Maria watches your riding. You hire Horses of Hoofprint Bay staff in the main house, and the main house upgrades decide how many options you get. This guide covers each staff member the material names, what they cost and the assignment mistakes players ran into.

Staff become essential as you grow, as the developers put it in the May 2026 dev update: "as you'll grow your stable and get more and more horses, hiring staff to help with care and training becomes essential". The official Horses of Hoofprint Bay store page on Steam lists hiring staff to stay on top of care and training for a growing herd.

Where to Hire Staff

The in-game text, read out in a full-release gameplay video, says that in the main house you can view your statistics, hire staff and more, and that upgrading the main house gives you more options for your staff. The store page adds that advanced building stages unlock new staff applications.

The staff system changed before release. The May 2026 dev update says the time-limited demo hadn't given management and hiring much attention, so the hiring and staff management screens got a makeover, with new options for assigning horses to staff for care, training and lessons. If you only played the demo, expect the full game to work differently.

Horses of Hoofprint Bay Staff Members

Staff	What they do	Cost reported	Source
Laura	Mucks out, feeds and grooms one horse in the morning before she goes to school	5 coins per day	February demo gameplay video
Julia	Gives riding lessons, up to 8 a day	100 per day	Player report, release week
Trainer	Trains your horses; one player said only 3 horses a day	Not reported	Player report
Maria	A retired competition rider who tells you what to do differently during training	Not reported	August 2026 dev update

Costs are what players and videos showed at the time; check the hiring screen in your game. The All the Help you can Get achievement asks you to hire all staff; on November 7, 2026, only 0.3% of players had it.

Is hiring staff worth it?

Staff cost money every day, so hire them when the income covers it. In the February demo, the player who hired Laura later had to let her go when money ran out. A gameplay video's tips suggest letting staff take over once you have enough horses and work to justify it.

Hire when	Why
Care takes too long each day	Laura-type helpers do morning care for a horse
Lessons pay more than the wage	Julia costs 100 a day in one player's game
You have many horses to train	Trainers save riding time, but watch for overwork
You're learning to jump	Maria's feedback during training

For keeping your budget positive, see our Horses of Hoofprint Bay money guide.

Assigning Horses to Staff

Most staff problems on the official Steam forum come from assignments.

Julia gives one lesson per slot. A player who gave Julia two horses expected four lessons each but got one lesson per horse. Another player explained: assign the same horse to each slot, so one horse can fill several of her lesson slots.
Staff that seem idle. One player's lesson employee didn't seem to do anything for three days; the horses' stats didn't drop and only the wages came out. Another player had trainers who didn't raise boarders' stats in one save, but in a new save the employees worked perfectly. Check the assignments first.
Lesson horses still lose fitness. The in-game library says lesson horses need corrective training depending on how many lessons they do, whoever teaches them.

Our Horses of Hoofprint Bay lessons guide explains what lessons do to your horses.

Training Staff and Overwork

Training staff can hurt horses. In release week, a player on the official Steam forum asked how to stop training staff from overworking horses, because they were "giving out tendon injuries left and right". Another player answered:

Fix	Explanation
Train your staff	Leveling up the staff was called the easiest solution
Assign carefully	Only list horses for the staff members who train them correctly

A tendon injury takes 4 days to heal with treatment and 6 without, according to the in-game library, and the horse mostly needs rest. The library also notes that strength and endurance can be trained by employing a trainer instead of riding the course yourself. See our Horses of Hoofprint Bay training guide and injuries guide.

What Maria Does

Maria confuses many new players. The August 2026 dev update introduced her alongside cross country competitions: to help you get the hang of difficult jumps and combinations, you can hire Maria, a retired competition rider who "sees everything", and she will tell you what you need to do differently during training.

In practice she is quiet. A player who hired her on release day said she just sits in the corner of the screen and says nothing. Another player replied that, from videos they had seen, she only speaks when you mess up a jump, with advice such as that a jump is better done in canter. A third player recommended hiring her for specific jumping tips while practicing. So Maria is useful while you're learning jumps in training, not as a care worker.

Horses of Hoofprint Bay Staff FAQ

Where do I hire Horses of Hoofprint Bay staff?

In the main house. Upgrading the main house gives more options for your staff, and advanced building stages unlock new staff applications.

Why does Julia only give one lesson per horse?

She gives one lesson per assigned slot. A player explained that you assign the same horse to each slot to use all her lessons.

Does Maria do anything?

She gives feedback during training, mostly when you get a jump wrong, according to players. The dev update describes her as a retired competition rider.

Why are my staff injuring horses?

Players report training staff can overwork horses into tendon injuries. Training the staff, or assigning horses only to staff who train them correctly, helps.