… win a Horse race

To get a festival horse, you have to win a horse race token. To get a horse race token you must complete a horse race. Alternatively you can buy a token if you have kindred reputation standing with either Inn League or Ale Association. For those who want to do the race but have trouble running it, I have a few tips:

  • Use only the Michel Delving race track, avoid Breeland.
  • Lower your graphic settings to the bare minimum, turn off “post processing”, turn off “distant imposters” (in graphic settings advanced).
  • Scroll back with your mouse wheel until you hover above your character, not really top-down, but half way. Scroll out as far as you can to have a good overview.
  • Use your left hand to press the W-key to ride forward, use your right hand to press the right mouse button to steer. If you don’t like using the W-key, you can use auto-run (Num-lock by default) if that’s more comfortable for you. Make sure your mouse hand has enough room next to your keyboard to move from left to right.
  • Pick the horse (pony) to the right. Stand as close as you can to the red start line or a little past it, but so that you can still mount the horse.
  • Press the W-key (or the auto-run) as soon as your character is almost done mounting up, so you depart immediately. Don’t take your finger off the W-key, keep running, never stop.
  • Don’t ever ride on the planks, avoid them. In stead, ride through the sticky mud that will give your character a slow debuff. Don’t worry about it.
  • Cut every corner you can, but don’t skip any ports. Ride as much as possible from one port to the next in a straight line. Think straight, don’t try to follow the path exactly.
  • Use your mouse to steer in a straight line between the carriages. Don’t zigzag.
  • Don’t jump the tree, in stead, pass it on the right side.
  • After the second water pool ride very close to the right side of the road to cut corners. Use your mouse to steer. Keep to the right side on the bridge, cut another corner after the bridge. Keep right and think in straight lines.
  • Because you go around in a clockwise circle, your mouse hand keeps going more and more off to the right. Every time your mouse is going too far away from you, lift it up and bring it back to where you are more comfortable. Lifting up your mouse doesn’t interfere with the ride. This way you can keep steering to the right to make the full circle. Don’t forget to keep that right mouse button pressed for smooth steering.
  • Arrive.

I hope this helps a bit. I know the track is not an easy challenge for every one, but even if you only manage to do it once, that’s already enough to get your horse token! Good luck and have fun!

6 comments

  1. Thanks, Hymne, for sharing your excellent tips. I finally managed to win the Horse Race during the Farmer’s Faire with one of my characters! All this time I thought I had to zigzag through the carriages and jump the tree. Never thought to do it this way, but now I did as keeping as much to the right as possible and I won 🙂
    Steering with my mouse gradually became easier with training. Now it’s a fun challenge to steer with my mouse through the rest of Middle-Earth.

    • Oh I’m really glad to hear that! I remember having a hard time myself in the beginning and taking a different approach to the circuit really made a difference. Thanks for letting me know!

  2. Lenira Ashleaf

    These tips are really great, but there’s another that I’ve found useful: ride the track on a regular mount before you run the race. I don’t know whether it actually improves the computer’s performance as I’ve been told, but I know that it definitely does help get me in the mindset, and that always improves my performance.

    (On an unrelated note, I have been visiting this blog for a while now, and I just want to say that I love it! Thanks!)

    • Yay thanks for that tip! I thought it was so self evident that people would try out the course with their own horse before trying for real that I didn’t put it in the notes, but I realize now that it’s perhaps not that logical for everyone. I’ll add it to the tips and thank you for your kind comments! 🙂

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