Friendship 'Bonus' a Double-Edged Sword in HoLV

On 10 Summer, Freyr's Horse had a single heart and was painfully slow to ride. On 11Summer, when he saved his game, he was astounded to discover that his Horse had the maximum Friendship Level of 5 Hearts and could run like the wind. He had not made any Wish with the Goddess with respect to the Horse, but had brushed it, whistled to it and mounted it.

11 Winter was a rainy day. All my animals were inside the Barn and the Chickens were inside the Coop. While caring for the Livestock, I accidentally pushed the Horse out of the Barn. I used the Bell instantly to bring him back into the Barn, but apparently the damage was done in terms of his FP.

Although, when I 'talked' to him, he was in a good mood, on the morning of 12 Winter, when I saved my game, my Horse, who had 5 Hearts on the morning of 11 Winter had only 1 Heart on 12 Winter.

In other words, the FP 'Bonus' can work both ways. The accidental effect of pushing the Horse out of the barn, however briefly, was multiplied to the point where he lost 4 out of 5 of his Hearts!

I reloaded and replayed the day, mainly because the Horse's speed is an integral part of the game, especially when you need to race against the Robot Horse.

Your Horse in Sunshine Islands

This is nothing more than a quick post about an aspect of the game that has bewildered many players (including me, initially!) In Island of Happiness, you could ride your horse... although Sunshine Islands follows Island of Happiness in many respects, you NEVER can ride your Horse in Sunshine Islands. It is not a question of allowing the Horse to become an adult as in earlier Harvest Moon games. Nor is it a question of Heart levels. Even at maximum 10 Hearts, you cannot ride the Horse.

The Pets who live in your Stable can be entered in Animal Contests. You can practice the mini-game (that constitutes the method by which the actual Contest is won) for each Pet daily. The Horse pulls a little sled in the mini-game and that is ALL he/she does in Sunshine Islands. The Dog catches a flying disc or 'frisbee'. The Cat plays with a toy on a stick.

Note that your chances of winning the Animal Contests improve as the Pets' Heart Levels increase but the 'Mood' of the Pet always is random. Even at maximum 10 hearts, the Horse can be out of sorts when you enter the Contest and resist. The Dog can display the 'black cloud' at 10 Hearts and be restricted to the distance to which this Mood will restrict him/her. The Cat may be inattentive and slow to respond initially...

Always save your game BEFORE you go to Meadow Island to compete in any Animal Contest that involves a Pet. Although training speeds will improve, the mood of the Animal during the actual Contest could be poor. YOu can win an Animal Contest even at a low heart level if you are lucky. You can lose it if you are unlucky even at maximum Heart Level. The chances of loading a GOOD Mood or GOOD level of attention initially improve with increase in Heart Levels but you always can be given a bad result at random...

Obtain your Horse on 3 Spring in HM DS and Cute DS

I have added a brief Walkthrough for the first week of the game to my 1st Year Events Calendar Guide for HM Cute DS but the updated version of the guide may not have been published yet by IGN. I believe I should add one to my 1st Year Events Guide for the original Boy version of HM DS as well. It offers many useful tips to make the game easier for players.

One of these is a way to obtain a horse on the very second day of the game. You need to spend a little time in the Excavation Site digging for jewelry, but you should do that anyway!

On Monday, 2 Spring, the day on which the game begins, the Supermarket will be open but you will have only 500G which should be spent on seeds. Never mind that. Van will come to the Valley on the 3rd to open his stall on the 2nd floor of the Inn. There you can sell jewelry from the Excavation site for up to 3250G each.

Do not forget to buy at least one item from Karen's Supermarket each day it is open for the first 10 days in order to rescue the Sprite who runs the Shopping Network.

When Tuesday arrives, you can obtain the horse from Takakura by shipping 1000 items. This is easily done as follows:

Buy Bird Feed from Popuri and dump it in the shipping container. You can carry 99 portions of Bird Seed in every empty slot in your rucksack. Even though you will have only 18 slots in the small rucksack, it will not take long to ship whatever amount of Bird Feed is required to bring your total to 1000. As soon as you throw the 1000th item in the bin, you will rescue a Sprite. Go into your house then and when you exit, Takakura will be at your door with a Horse.

It's as simple as that. Even after investing in the Bird Feed, you should have more than enough money to order the first Bird Barn from Gotz.

The horse is not really that useful once you have a teleport stone but until Sunday, 8 Spring when the Casino is unlocked, the horse will make your life MUCH easier!

Unlike some of the other Harvest Moon games (FoMT/MFoMT and Harvest Moon Boy & Girl come to mind), the horse can be ridden anywhere outdoors on the map. Riding the horse will cut your transportation time in half until you have the very useful teleport stone.