How to Win International Equestrian Races in The Sims 3

More than a decade after the release of The Sims 3: Pets expansion pack and years of casual playing, I decided to try to be more serious in pursuing the horse riding challenges, especially the "Rider of Legends" challenge.

There are three Equestrian Center competitions in The Sims 3, i.e. Racing, Show Jumping, and Cross-Country. To achieve the Rider of Legends Skill Challenge, a Sim must win all three types of Equestrian Center competitions at the International level. If you can get the first place in all three international races, you will get an epic equine statue, named "Equine of Excellence", as the prize.

It's not easy to win international ranked horse events. I think there is a randomness factor, but you can boost your chance to win without cheats and mods! In this article, I will share what I did to win the international Cross-Country Competition at first attempt and the international Show Jumping and Racing Competitions after about 4 attempts.

Here are the things to do to win all Equestrian Center competitions at the International level in The Sims 3 Pets:

• Prepare your Sim and horse from the beginning:
  • Choose the appropriate personality traits
  • Unicorn / wild horse / certain breed?
  • Build the relationship
• Train your Sim and horse:
  • Master the skills
  • Train Using Challenging Training Equipment
  • Complete the useful Skill Challenges
• Get certain Lifetime Rewards
• Max out the mood on the competition day
• Get the strategy right during the races

How to win International level Equestrian competitions in The Sims 3 Pets

Prepare your Sim and horse from the beginning

Choose the appropriate personality traits

It's best if you create your rider Sim with Equestrian, Lucky, Loves the Outdoors, and Friendly traits. The horse should have Agile and Fast traits. If your horse does not have it, you can train it to have those traits by encouraging it through Reinforcement interaction.

Does it have to be a unicorn or wild horse or certain breed?

No, the winning horse does not have to be a unicorn or a wild horse or a certain breed. My winning horse is a mixed breed. I adopted it when it was a foal from the phone: Services > Adopt a Pet from Shelter.

Build the relationship

Naturally, as your Sim interacts and trains with your horse over time, they will gain points in their relationships. It's better to make sure they become best friends.

Train your Sim and horse

Master the skills

It's very obvious that your Sim should mastered the Riding skill and your horse should mastered Jumping and Racing skills. However, only maxing out those skills to Level 10 apparently is not enough.

Train Using Challenging Training Equipment

Other than mastering the skills, you also have to make your horse and rider to get used to train using challenging and daunting training equipment that will test your horse's abilities, confident, and endurance.

For race trainings, you should get the Dashing Training Posts, then get your horse to Train For Racing in Endurance Training mode for hours everyday. I think you should do the Endurance Training only after your horse has mastered the Racing skill, or else it will cause a bug where the skill bar stuck on level 5 or 6 (like what happened to my 2 horses 🙁 ).

For jump trainings, you should get the water and fire obstacles, then make sure your horse can jump the obstacles easily without making you drenched or on fire! Do it for hours everyday until your horse does not refuse to jump and able to finish the jumping course flawlessly. It's always a good idea to put a shower nearby in case you are on fire, so you can put out the fire quickly (I've got a Sim died because he didn't run quick enough to put out the fire 🙁 ). It's best to jump the fire obstacles after your horse has mastered the Jumping skill to reduce the chance of catching on fire.

Keep training using those challenging equipment especially near the competition day, even after you have mastered all skills.

Complete the useful Skill Challenges

To make your horse training easier, you should achieve some of the horse's Skill Challenges. This should be your goal earlier in your training days. The Jumping Skill Challenges that you should get are Tireless Leaper so your horse will no longer get fatigue from jump training and Frequent Flyer so your horse will be confident in their jumping abilities and not refusing any daunting jumps. The Racing Skill Challenge that you should get is Endurance Equine so your horse will no longer get fatigue from any race training.

Get certain Lifetime Rewards

Spend 4,000 points of your horse's Lifetime Happiness to get the Lucky Mount reward that will make the riders of the horse to be often showered with good luck.

I also get my Sim the Animal Expert reward. It's optional though. The Animal Expert reward can make your animals to live much longer. I just want to spend more time to train my winning horse 😀

Max out the mood on the competition day

Make sure your Sim and horse's needs are all fulfilled on the competition day. Get those Needs' bars and Mood Meter green all the way up. I once failed to fulfill the Energy need and my horse ended up on the fourth position 😐

Get the strategy right during the races

Once you enter an international race, quickly set the pace to Take Risks before the trumpet (bugle) signal. If until near the middle of the race (about 1/3 part of the progress bar), you are still in the fifth or sixth position, change the pace to Go for Broke.

I hope these tips can help you win all the international equestrian competitions in The Sims 3 Pets. Have a fun riding and collect all those international titles! 🙂

Statistics of my Sim and horse after winning all of the three international races

Just to give you an idea what might be needed to be able to win all three types of international level horse competitions, below I share the stats of my Sim and horse right after the winnings:

The rider's stats

The horse's stats