Häst & Ponny: Varsågod och rid!

Summary
Enter the Greenfield Stables, learn about horses, and become a skilled competition rider.

Audio/Video
The stable has realistic ambience - doors creak when opened, and there are sounds of horses throughout the building, plus appropriate sounds of the horse walking when being led to a lesson. Riding sequences have hoofbeat sounds that change depending on gait, and the horse will neigh when refusing a jump. Spectators will chatter and cheer during competitions, and there is an announcer. The NPC voices are not stellar, but this was common at the time of release, and there is not so much dialogue that it gets irritating. The graphics are a mix of 2D and 3D. The horses all look hand-drawn and unique, but are static save for some eye blinking and ear movement. Horses have their own individual name signs on their stall doors, and their tack has a little variety in the colours of saddle pads and brow bands. The appearance of your horse will change depending on which one you choose to ride, though this is only seen during competitions and some parts of lessons. The environments are 3D, and look semi-realistic, but are very static except for doors, which have an opening animation when interacted with.

Story
There is very little in the way of story - your objective is to learn as much as you can through the various lessons, and then go on to compete in the three available disciplines. There is some flavour text, with each horse having its own card that features its pedigree, likes/dislikes, and a blurb describing their personality, but these things do not affect gameplay in any way. There are a few NPCs, but you can't interact much with them, and they usually show up to make some short comment to you, then disappear again.

Gameplay
Club Room This room is mainly here for roleplay and immersion purposes. There is a message board, a diary that can be locked with a password, a selection of posters you can put on the wall, and some minigames on the table. These games don't affect the rest of the game in any way, and are only there for passing time and potentially learning some new horse facts. 100 Horse Questions - Answer trivia questions by picking the right choice out of three possible options. Dress Up - Mix and match clothing items on a paper doll. Horse Parts Quiz - Correctly name the parts of the horse, or of the saddle and bridle. Jigsaw Puzzle - Choose from one of three images and assemble the pieces. The Lost Horse - Find the right horse in a herd, based on the description provided. Lessons Once you have selected a horse and entered its stall, it needs to be groomed and saddled before it can be taken to the arena for lessons. There are some brushes, but the horses do not get dirty, so this is mostly just for flavour. Hoof picking is the notable exception, having a small graphic of the hoof that you remove dirt from by dragging the hoof pick over it. After completing these steps, you may put the saddle and bridle on the horse, and lead it to the riding arena. After knocking on the door, you may enter and begin your lesson. Once a lesson has been completed, the horse must be taken back to its stall to be untacked and have its hooves picked. The lessons themselves mostly revolve around theoretical knowledge, with the bulk of information being delivered through PowerPoint-style presentations and a narrator's voice. There are also short video segments. Gameplay in this section is focused on answering questions, either by picking one of a set amount of answers, or by clicking on 2D outlines of a horse and rider. Riding segments, of which there are comparatively few, are done in a top-down view. They only appear in the Intermediate and Advanced tier lessons. Competitions Competitions consist of three different disciplines - dressage, show jumping, and cross-country. Despite there being twelve horses to choose from in the stables, only five of them can be ridden in this game mode - Amigo, Jazz, Misty, Prince, and Shalimar. The horse is controlled with the arrow keys, and jumping is done by pressing Space. A bar at the bottom of the screen indicates the horse's gait and time taken, with extra add-ons for the individual disciplines. A sound cue - cheering spectators - will indicate when an action has been performed correctly. In dressage and show jumping, you can choose between third-person and first-person camera, while cross-country is first-person only.

Show Jumping Show jumping allows you to preview the course plan either by a still image, or by watching a demo ride. The status bar displays the amount of knockdowns, refusals, and obstacles cleared. Which obstacle to jump next is indicated by an arrow on the ground in front of the obstacles. Poles can be knocked down from the obstacles if you don't time the jumps right, or by bumping into them while still on the ground. It is only possible to jump when directly in front of the correct obstacle. The horse may refuse to jump if approaching an obstacle from the wrong side, or if the jump command is not given in time. Three refusals will result in elimination. You can also be eliminated if you ride the wrong way for more than 30 seconds after the starting signal. Dressage Dressage requires you to complete specific moves in the correct order and gait. The status bar displays total score and errors made - four errors will result in elimination. There is very little indication for what to do and when, so it is necessary to memorise the required moves in each class before competing. Cross-Country Cross-country takes place in a closed woodland valley, with the objective to ride from point A to point B as fast as possible. Obstacles are unable to be knocked down, and refusals are not counted, so time is the only concern here. The status bar displays a landscape, but it is there only as filler, and does not indicate progress through the level.

System Requirements & Compatibility
Operating System: Windows 98/ME/2000 Processor: Pentium 90 Memory: 12MB RAM (16MB recommended) Graphics: Graphics card 256 colors, 640x480 resolution Audio: 16-Bit SoundBlaster compatible sound card Due to its age, it will be very difficult or even impossible to run this game normally on a modern computer. It is highly recommended that you use an emulator to simulate an older system.