Horses of Hoofprint Bay Training: Stats, Courses, Exercise

Horses of Hoofprint Bay training guide: what strength, endurance and confidence do, how potential caps them, exercise and exhaustion, and why horses lose stats.

Horses of Hoofprint Bay horse jumping an obstacle during training

Horses of Hoofprint Bay training is how a weak starter mare becomes a horse that can win competitions: you ride training courses to raise strength and endurance, and build confidence along the way. Horses of Hoofprint Bay training also has limits, from each horse's potential to a daily exercise budget, and horses slowly lose fitness if you stop. This guide explains the stats, the courses and the rules in the in-game library.

The official Horses of Hoofprint Bay store page on Steam puts it simply: complete training exercises and build up your horse's strength and confidence to qualify for competitions and earn prize money in show jumping and cross country.

The Three Stats Horses of Hoofprint Bay Training Raises

Horses of Hoofprint Bay horse overview table with every horse's stats and training

The Horse Stats & Training book in the in-game library, read out in a full-release gameplay video, describes each bar:

Stat	Bar	What it does	How to train it
Confidence	Green	Easier to ride: reacts more promptly to speed-up and slow-down cues, keeps gaits better and changes speed on its own less	Praise, desensitization, care (see below)
Strength	Orange	The more strength, the longer the horse can gallop and the higher it can jump	A training course that raises strength, or a trainer
Endurance	Blue	Helps the horse keep and regenerate strength during a ride, and lets it exercise more each day	A training course that raises endurance, or a trainer

The library adds that endurance takes longer to train than strength but is more valuable, especially on longer rides. A horse with poor endurance can't canter long stretches, while a well-trained horse recovers strength even when cantering and loses much less during a fast gallop.

Neither stat can be trained past the horse's maximum potential, which the bar shows as a second section, with a third section of uncertainty about the horse's true potential. That's why a weak horse can only go so far; see our Horses of Hoofprint Bay breeding guide for how potential is inherited.

Training Courses and Exercise

You train on courses in the riding arena. A full-release gameplay video shows the first goal after building the arena: finish the first training course, riding carefully because the horse doesn't have much strength yet. More courses appear as you go, including cavalletti, Caprilli, lunging transitions and confidence training.

Each horse has a daily budget. According to the library, the exercise bar shows how much the horse can be ridden today; every training session, competition and trail ride fills it, and more endurance means more exercise per day.

Exercise situation	What happens (in-game library)
Ridden past the red marker	The horse will be exhausted the next day
No exercise at all	It gets explosive; a night in the fields counts as a little exercise
Strength bar runs out mid-course	The horse refuses the jump and the training fails
Course would cause exhaustion	The game warns you before you start (demo video)

For lunging transitions, players on the official Steam forum explain the rule: the horse needs to be in the right gait as it passes each flag, so you can switch any time before reaching the flag. For an exhausted horse, the library says to rest it and only work it carefully for the next couple of days, or it might injure its tendons; our Horses of Hoofprint Bay injuries guide has the details.

Why Horses Lose Strength and Endurance

A common question on the official Steam forum after release was why a horse loses stats over time. The library answers it:

If a horse isn't trained for more than a couple of days, it starts to lose strength and endurance.
Even a horse doing competitions needs a bit of training every now and then.
Mares lose strength and endurance while carrying or nursing a foal, but lose less if they are exercised a bit.
Lesson horses need corrective training depending on how many lessons they give.

Players on the forum added context. One pointed out that mares don't gain stats in late pregnancy or while nursing, so they need training again once the foal is a yearling. Another said this doesn't matter for breeding, because foals inherit potential, not current training, and described training mares to the maximum once to see their potential before breeding them.

Lessons cost fitness too. In a February 2026 demo thread, players noticed that horses lose strength and endurance when used in lessons; one player thought it was for balance, so lessons can't earn money and train a horse at the same time. Our Horses of Hoofprint Bay lessons guide covers lessons in full.

Building Confidence

Confidence works differently from the physical stats. The August 2026 dev update says the developers slowed it down after the demo: unprompted gait changes now show a small warning icon first, so you can correct the horse, and a new desensitization course trains confidence. In it, you approach a scary object (pool noodles in the dev update's preview; a plastic bag in a gameplay video), praise the horse when it is curious, and give it space when it gets worried.

Confidence tool	How it works	Source
Praise after a requested gait change	Raises confidence	In-game library
Desensitization course	Praise curiosity near a scary object until you can pass it	Dev update, in-game text
Treats and scratches	Small confidence gains; more for Snacky and Cuddly horses	Player report, Traits and Quirks book

Our Horses of Hoofprint Bay how to praise horse guide explains the praise timing.

Trainers and Staff

You don't have to ride every session yourself. The library says strength and endurance can also be trained by employing a trainer, and the store page says advanced building stages unlock new training courses and staff applications. Two staff points from the material:

Staff	What the material says
Training staff	A player complained they overworked horses into tendon injuries; another player advised training the staff
Maria	A retired competition rider who tells you what to do differently during training (August 2026 dev update)

More on hiring in our Horses of Hoofprint Bay staff guide.

Horses of Hoofprint Bay Training FAQ

How do I raise strength and endurance in Horses of Hoofprint Bay training?

Ride a training course that raises the stat you want, or employ a trainer. Neither stat goes past the horse's maximum potential.

Why is my horse losing stats?

The in-game library says a horse that isn't trained for more than a couple of days starts to lose strength and endurance. Pregnant and nursing mares and busy lesson horses lose fitness too.

What happens if I train too much?

Riding past the red marker on the exercise bar makes the horse exhausted the next day, and working an exhausted horse risks a tendon injury.

Is endurance or strength more important?

The library says endurance takes longer to train but is more valuable, especially on longer rides, because it helps the horse keep and regenerate strength.