Breeding horses in The Sims 4 can be tricky to master, especially if you’re entirely new to the Horse Ranch expansion. You’ll have to ensure that your horses like you and each other. You must also give them the proper requirements to breed and choose two willing horses. However, you can’t force them but only encourage them. With this in mind, waiting for the magic to happen can be frustrating. Keep reading to learn how to breed and age up horses in The Sims 4.
Before you get down to trying to get a baby horse, You’ll need to cover the basics. You should have:
- One adult or elder stallion
- One adult or elder mare
- A bed for the new foal
Once you’ve got both horses and the proper preparations for the new baby horse once it’s born, it’s time to get started. You’ll want to ensure you’ve interacted with both horses, so buying or rescuing a new horse without spending some time with it won’t work. It’s much easier to encourage your horses to do anything when they trust you and have a strong connection.
Once you’ve spent some time bonding with your horses and are friends with them, approach one of your horses.
- Select the horse (Either one will do).
- Select Friendly Interactions.
- Choose More Choices.
- Select Encourage to…
- Choose Encourage to Breed with…
- Select the stallion or mare that you would like your horse to breed with.
This process is only sometimes successful. The horses may choose not to breed, or they might even have a decrease in their friendship meter over it. To promote success, ensure all of your horses’ needs are being met with Excellent rankings. Satisfied needs will keep your horses much happier and willing to breed.
If your horses are successful in their breeding attempt, you will see a message on your Notification Wall saying that your mare is expecting and will soon have a baby! From here out, you must wait for your mare to give birth. Once she is in labor, you can soothe her through the process until your new foal has arrived.
How To Raise and Age Up Horses
Once your new foal is born, you can take care of it immediately. Several factors go into raising a horse properly; none should be overlooked. Not only do you have to make sure it’s fed and clean, but you also need to make sure that its fun needs are met, and you need to build a friendship with it.
First, you need to be aware of the horse’s hunger needs. To begin with, you can bottle-feed your foal, but other options are also available. You can build a horse feeder and fill it with Prairie Grass or Hay. Hay can be purchased from the feeder menu, while Prairie Grass can be purchased or harvested from around your Horse Ranch. Though, if you decide to feed your foal Prairie Grass or Hay, you must train them to eat it first, which can take quite a while. If it’s not working out how you would like it to and your horse won’t eat, don’t be afraid to fall back on battle-feeding until it is a bit older! Before they can eat without your help, their Temperament Skill must be at least Level 4.
Next, you must ensure your foal’s hygiene needs are met. Caring for a horse’s hygiene in The Sims 4 is relatively easy and can be done in a few simple steps:
- First, clean up any manure your horses deposit around the yard or their beds.
- Next, make sure you clean their beds whenever they are dirty.
- Finally, tend to your foal’s personal hygiene. This can be done by brushing your foal regularly and, once they’re older, cleaning their hooves as well. Your horses will stay healthy with all the hygiene needs taken care of.
Your horse’s social and fun needs are also as important as their physical needs. Just like any person, a horse has social needs as well. Horses are very expressive, loving animals, but they can get upset without an outlet for their social traits. Not only should you spend plenty of time interacting with your horse, but you should also have other horses around to interact with. If you’d like your horse to socialize with other horses, use the Encourage to Socialize with… option in the Friendly Interaction menu.
Your horse will gladly interact with the chosen horse if it trusts you enough. In addition to social needs, you should also tend to your horse’s fun needs by purchasing a Hay Now! One Big Ball. Once you have it placed in the world from your build menu, you can interact with it and tell your horse to play with it.
Your horse will age up by itself in The Sims 4, provided its needs are well taken care of. However, unlike Sims in The Sims 4, you cannot force “Age Up” a horse, so there’s no telling when your horse will age up from a foal to an adult horse.
