The Sims 4 Horse Ranch – Review

This article is made possible by the EA Creators Network, by providing us with limited early access of the new expansion pack. The software of the pack we used was not final, and minor changes can happen before release. We will edit the article if features have been altered, removed or added before release. #EAPartner

Chestnut Ridge

The new world is called Chestnut Ridge. It has 3 neighbourhoods: Galloping Gulch, New Appaloosa and Rider’s Glen.
The builds in the world are made by 4 Simmers, Ninnster, Simproved, ChrissieYT and DoctorAshley. In the map below you can see the lot sizes, and who build what lot.

In New Appaloosa you can find the Equatorian center, where the horse competitions are held (it’s a rabbit hole). It’s also the little town center with some shops.

In the Galloping Gulch, there is a mysterious spot for you to discover/explore. But I won’t spoilt too much for it. I did get the tip from SimguruPopcorn to turn sound on, at least at the beginning.

We will be hosting a live stream to do a better overview of the world later.

Horses

Horses are part of your household, the same as cat and dogs are part of a houshold. You can not control them, but you can direct them and give them “tasks”.
You can train horses, care for them, breed them, sell them. Adopt rescue horses, buy a new horse, or you can create your own horse in CAS.
Creating your own horse is also similar to cats and dogs. You have the ability to paint your horses in all the colours you want, using a paint brush, or stensils.
Or you can select “pre-made” horse breeds, which you can customise later.

You can create foals, adult horses or elder horses. Aside from breed, (either real world excisting ones, or your own made up ones) you can also change their voice pitch. Give them names, where a last name is optional for horses.

Horse Traits

There are 11 horse traits to choose from.

Each trait has it’s pro’s and con’s. Building either athletic skills faster, or temperament skill faster. Or harder to train.

Breeding horses

You can also make a living with breeding and selling horses. You can encourage horses to breed under the friendly interaction. You need to be friends with the horse to encourage them.
A mare is pregnant for about 2 days.
When you breed 2 horses of the same breed, the foal will also be that breed. When you mix 2 breeds, it becomes a mixed breed.
Breed does not have impact on the value off a horse. All bred foals are worth $1000.

There are ways to increase the horse’s value. By training them, the higher the skill level, the higher the value.
By entering competitions. The higher they place, the more value they become. And once they master a certain horse discipline a horse gains the trait: Champion horse. When a horse with that trait breeds, it can give the foal the “champion genes” trait, and increases the value from $1000 to $1100. The Champion genes trait will help your horse gain skills faster.

Training horses

Horses can learn 4 different skills. Agility, Temperament, Jumping and endurance. You gain skill by interacting and training your horses.
Temperament is trained by talking and caring for your horse, jumping is trained with the horse jumps and agility with the horse barrels.
Endurance is trained by going on rides with your horse.
Don’t have time to train your horse yourself? You can also send them to the horse trainer by using the community board. Depending on your horse’s current skill level, the price of the training will vary.

Foals can also build skill, but only temperament. They’re too young to be riden or to do tricks.

Riding Skill

Not only do horses have skills, the Sims themselves also have a new skill, horse riding. It’s a 10 level skill, that can be built by kids and up.
Yes, children can ride horses, and the interactions are pretty cute. They will also develop their motorskill when riding horses.
Though one thing children can not do compared to teens and above, is train with the barrels and jumping items while riding the horse. But once you reach level 3 of the riding skill, you can direct the horse to practice on their own, which children can also do.

Mini Sheep and Mini Goats

New farm animals are mini goats and mini sheep. And they are adorable.
Unlike horses, they don’t join your household, so you are not limited to just 7 (because you’d need at least 1 Sim).
They work similar to the chickens in The Sims 4 Cottage Living.
But they don’t need an item or structure to be held at your ranch. Both the mini sheep and mini goats are free roaming, but you can make a paddock for them if you want.
There are no visible changes of life stages for goats and sheep, but they start out as Young Adults and will age until they are Elder before they sadly die.

Both sheep and goats have different colours to choose from when you buy them, they are not customizable.
You have white, cream, dalmatian, green, red, orange, black sheep.
Where the white and cream ones are the cheapest for $150, dalmatian for $200, the coloured ones for $400 and the black sheep is a whopping $2000.
Goats also come in different shades, but they all have the same price.
How much the wool or milk will sell for, depends on a few things, for sheep it depends on the colour of their wool, and for both sheep and goats it also depends on how happy they are. The happier they are, the higher the price. So take good care of your little animals, by cleaning them, feeding them and socializing with them.

Goat milk and sheep wool also have cross pack compatibility, but we could not test that with the access we had for this review. We just know that it will work together with Cottage living for milk, like cows do, and that you can knit and embroider with the wool. We will update how that works later.

Nectar

Making nectar can be a very lucrative business. It’s a new skill that comes with this pack, but it’s one of the minor skills, only 5 levels. This means that there is no book to learn the skill, you only learn by doing.

To craft nectar, you need harvestables. For level 1 you can make apple and grape nectar. The better you get at it, the more options you get to craft nectar.

To improve your nectar, you need to age it. You can do this by just having it around, but if you want to speed it up, you should put it in a basement or in a nectar rack.
There are benefits to the types of nectar as well, to improve your mood for example. Those benefits will get even better the more your nectar is aged. It will also be worth more, so if you want to make money on your nectar, aging it is advised.
There are 4 levels of aging: Not Yet Aged, Lightly Aged, Moderately Aged and Finely Aged.

Conclusion

I find it hard to say if this pack is worth it or not. It is very clear that a lot of work and hours went into this pack. The details in the horses, the animations with them, are amazing! That must have been a lot of work.
But because of that, I do think that the rest of the pack lacks some depth. It adds a huge ask of the community to the pack though, and I hope that the horses and the way they are added to your Sims lives, is what was wanted.
I personally love the way they move and react.
Nectar making is pretty cool for a way of making money, but to me isn’t all that different to making Fizz. But the rack that comes with it I do like, and the aging of the nectar, adds a little bit to it.

All in all, I think that if this pack is for you really is a personal choice.
The world is pretty, the sheep and goats for me in gameplay were a little annoying, but then again, I don’t really play all that often, I mostly build.
Build/buy mode is pretty neat, but not that special, just a new theme, so if you want that theme, go for it!
CAS I do like, it’s a new style in my opinion that has been added.

In the coming weeks we will continue on content about this pack, through streams and we will expand on Build buy and CAS.
We would like to thank the EA Creator Network again for the opportunity for the Early Access.
And once again, a reminder that the software we used for this review, was not final and small changes are possible before launch.