**The reason I put two dates is because for most of us, the game "died" in 2008, with the major changed HL made. And for others, the game didn't die at all.**

Just logged in and this is what's been posted:

   Dear Horseland Players,

I'm writing to you with some sad news. After more than 20 years, we will be shutting down Horseland at the end of this year. Starting January 1, 2019, the entire website will be down. Players won't have access to any of their pages, animals, images, etc.

It was a really hard decision for our entire team. We've loved being part of this amazing community with you for so many years. As you may know, the main parts of the Horseland game use "Flash" technology. This technology is obsolete, and is no longer able to run on many devices. The future of gaming is in apps. But the cost to develop and run a successful app is prohibitive.

As you may be aware, the Horseland game started in 1994 when I was a girl. I was obsessed with horses and took riding lessons - but never had a horse of my own. I begged my parents nearly every day for a horse. It was then that my father, who was a computer engineer, helped create the original Horseland game for and (eventually) with me. It was how I learned to love computer programming, which I later studied in college and did for a career. The game grew from basic bulletin boards, to a very popular text and 2D image based game. In 2006 we partnered with a cartoon company. They made the Horseland cartoon that ran on CBS, and we updated the game to include 3D shows, the World, and player and horse avatars.

Special thanks to the ModSquad who helped make Horseland a real community!

Please take screenshots and download images of anything you might like to save after the website is down.

We will miss you and all our players.

Best Regards,
Christina
President of Horseland

 I can't help but wonder if they maybe could have found a buyer. Someone who was willing to take the game and try to refurbish it or pump some new life into it. HL is one of several games that I've played and enjoyed over the years. The others were Valenth (adoptables), Mystical Equine (which MAY be returning), Lurapets and Down Under Horse Stables (aka DUHS). 

I'm going to do one last dog on HL, if I can. 

Edit: Or not. I forgot the Flash is needed for dog shows as well as horse 3D ones. x__x

I downloaded internet explorer and I can enter auto shows on that, if that helps you at all lol.

So many memories, it's bittersweet. I did try to make a return this year but couldn't force myself to sit down and 3D train.

Horseland is so outdated that it would require a complete and total rehault to make it more accessible and user-friendly. They not only rely heavily on Flash (which is indeed incredibly outdated and restrictive), but other third party extensions that make it impossible to train on anything other than select browsers. The coding and programming is so old and such a mess that it makes me (just a hobbiest web developer) cringe. The thought of trying to fix it is just... nope. It is literally better to just dump it and start over, which they aren't willing to do.

That said, HL was my first sim game. My best friend introduced me to it when I was like 9 years old (we had to lie about our age to get to the "regular" version. 9 year olds had their own "child" version of HL.. which ironically was pretty much exactly what HL turned into after the changes...) We used to just drown our pages in glitter text and adoptables and chicken smoothie animals and icons and stuff. I started to make graphics for HL using Powerpoint lmfao. I started coding there... My friend would buy all the animals; her page was one of those walls of animals that took three minutes to scroll to the bottom of. I never had that many (even though I kinda loved the idea of having all those), and we never really trained. Just bought them and bred them. It was carefree and relaxing and fun? I pretty much gave up on HL after they got rid of the bank and made you play games for coins. But it was interesting to drop by every now and then to reminisce. 

RIP Horseland. _{^{Long live Horse Phenomena!}}

If HL was so great that they made a tv show, how could they not afford to update their "flash"

Or they just sucked at management and screwed themselves with all the changes they did years ago....

Horseland died when they went to the coins....glad that era is over!

@Sangre: That would probably be it. I'm using Opera. I normally use Chrome, but I can't properly access quiz site Sporkle, on Chrome. lol

@Monny: I gotcha. I know nothing about coding, so I didn't know it would be so complicated. lol
HL was my first sim game, too. I joined in 2005, which is when I first got internet. I spent so many hours on there, especially when I learned how to train properly, and used to get up at 8 in the morning to buy "high pointed" horses and dogs from the H.A. when they became available! Haha!

@Azalie: Agreed to all of that. 

I'm glad I bailed when I did. I don't even feel that sad about its closure. 

It had plenty of offers to be bought, but I think as it was a family business they didnt want it to go on with someone else. Many people are really upset about it :( It was an era for all of us!

Wow😳 don`t know how i feel about this... but i get it though... i hardly use the computer at all anymore(main reason i hardly do graphics anymore) i mostly use my ipad😊 but it`s sad still though!

It all seems real Now, I mean we all new it was going to happen at some point with all the glitches and crashing servers. The different browsers we had to use to train as chrome didn't support the plugin. 

The game was fun I joined in 2011 when it was packed but after a glitch fase in 2015 most players left and never returned.

I had a break in 2016 for a year as the site was going dead and I returned in November 2017 to start playing again. I mean I have some great friends over there and thankfully they've moved over here to start fresh and get used to a whole new game.

Well I dont know why they changed everything to that stupid 3d stuff...
If they would have never done that thye might still be an active site much like HP :)
But then maybe HP didnt exist.

I started playing HL a long long time ago. I was about 9 or 10 years old. Back then people could actually hack the player points and some had numbers so high it was ridiculous lol.
This indeed was 20 years ago  I am now almost 30 !!
HL was my life. I never had a horse for my own but my fantasy made my barn feel very real on HL lol.
The pages where full of adoptables and other stuff.
I actually learned coding there and make 'pro' graphics with pictures from google ofcourse lol.
I have really good memories on HL... I didnt even mind the new child features; I actually did those from time to time.
Then there was that day where I trained close to about 800 horses, for a training contest. I earned a TON of money doing that, and I no lifed about 32 hours straight. I loved HL and I was on every day for hours if I could.
That is until everything changed without any message up front.
The page was down after a lot of time that servers where crashinh already.
Then 1 day when I came online everything just randomly changed into something completely different.
My money was all gone. I was panicked!  I worked incredibly hard for the money and it just was gone.
I had nothing left to keep my animals active.
All my lines where ruined from then on.  All my hard work was gone to trash.
I was so mad.
I cried a few times over it and it caused headaches and a lot of why questions.
Then  people started leaving, and I saw  "find me on HP" on alot of names.
Then I started to join Horsephenomena.
Since then I have maybe only a few times logged in, and out again, on HL and im on HP.

Please Sam whatever you do, dont do this to us!

Its too bad HL is going to dissapear, but on the other hand, what it turned into, isnt much either. That layout hurts my inner creativity so bad, and the amount of love putted into the game overall has gone a long time ago.
It's sad to see things change this way and eventually die out; it could have been way different, with a base game for older players and the 3d part for the younger ones, or your own inner child. :(

I never really got into HL like I did with HP. I never had lines going on there because I could never stick to a breed, and being a child, I was bad about managing my HL money. But when the changes I happened, I never looked back. HP is what we all wanted HL to be and more, and it still is. I also think Sam is doing a great job developing and improving HP. There's a reason (more like several reasons) why I've stayed here and established lines.

HP FTW!

I started HL way back in 2009, which seems to be the time the game shifted over. Honestly, I had nothing but trouble on that game. People hated me and bullied me for literally everything. I was constantly at the mercy of the Mods who threatened to ban me several times. I was constantly being blamed for things I didn't do. I was also yelled at for "arguing" with old players (I didn't know having a conversation was arguing, but O.K. Mods). Then I had the harassment and stalker story you all know by now, which is when I quit in 2011. HL gave me some of lowest points in my life during my 2 1/2 years there. But I bet if they remained like HP is now (the old HL), it wouldn't have gone the way it did.

I faintly saw the glitch phase that Zodiac was talking about as some were coming into The World with hacked, crazy-looking horses we couldn't buy at the store. But it didn't take off as heavily then. In my time, players were more interested in role-playing and supposed 'racing Shires'. There was a "famous" team back then whose Shire bred to everyone. Their lines were so ungodly. Broken lines, extreme inbreeding, extreme overbreeding (like nearly 100 offspring). It was so bad that they actually ruined the breed fully in 2010 to the point no-one wanted them. Then they switched to Thoroughbreds in 2011 just before I quit the game. I actually started an AQH line to try and counter the ruining of breeds. I had a stallion named Smart Chic Olena that I trained up and was proud of. I was getting into the system of liking it. But since children on there wanted "fast" horses to "race" my hard work and lines were trashed. I was so frustrated I just completely gave up there. The game was dying by inches when I quit, but I didn't know how bad that was. 

Like Gothi, I saw the players in '09 switching here. I actually found Sam's page on HL about creating HP and the link to it. I checked it out then, but I was a kid and stupid. I didn't come here like I should have and save my self a whole bunch of scars. But what's done is done, and I will never regret coming to HP. I agree with Tana 100% about Sam's work here. Honestly, the good memories I've ever had come from here, not HL. 

I honestly don't know how I feel about HL shutting down. I cannot really say I'm happy about the shut-down despite all the bullying I had on that game. But I'm not entirely upset about it either. So I can't really swing one way or another.

***Agree 110% with a z a l i e

I started playing when I was in middle school I spent every lunch in the comupter lab playing that was about 15 years ago now! I was super upset the day I logged in to find all fo the hard earned money changed over to coins and was a miniscule amount of what I orginally had. And seriously with a flippin TV SHOW and couldnt afford to update it to something else, my spouse is a software engineer and is saying there are many other alternative's to flash however apprently they are much more complacated to use though "not as user friendly"  shes saying the site would have to be completely rewritten and 20 years of history would be BRUTAL. This could also be partially why they arent changing it over, also might be super expensive/messy of an overhall. It could also be do to personal reasons as to why they are not selling which the letter did sound very bitter sweet.

But hey look at this way Hp has desperatly been needing new players! Heres to maybe a even brighter future for all of us and our horses/Dogs. Please Sam keep Hp as Hp no matter how famous no crazy flash type stuff lol! 

I loved Horseland. I started playing around 11-12 years old and it was a place where I had a lot of friends and was able to spend the summers and after school time. I was horrible at graphics and go back to my old photobucket to cringe every once in a while at what I thought was good. It had its problems that's for sure. I stopped playing for a few years and then returned in 2013 and started back up again. I was not much of a trainer on there, I never had time to 3D train like some other people were able to do so I just stayed to my favorite thing to do and ran some clubs. But it was heart breaking that there club activity had fallen way down. Most people who played HL wished we could make it active again and bring back the spirit that it once had. But I think we also knew that the time of closure would come soon. HL will always have a special place in my memories, but I'm glad HP is like the old HL and that I'm older and able to understand the game more now. I hope to be here for a while :D 

Whatever the reasons we joined HL, good or bad memories aside, I think we'll all miss the community of players and reminiscent how we met our best friends on that little site. Some of our friends came over to HP, we made some new ones, but I think the community of people who shared a common interest (horse-love) is a positive aspect that HL gave us, despite our disagreements of how the game went downhill or changed for us. Part, if not most, of the fun is the players and the community. HP has such a welcoming community that took us in at our different stages of refugee status from HL. There will probably be a new influx of players now that HL is officially closing down, and I hope I can do my part to be as welcoming and inviting as HP was for me. 

Yeah when I joined it was mainly "racehorse shires" looking back now I'm like wait that never made any sense. The speed was your Wi-Fi and the horse was taller in the world. 

I never got into role play as there was some right weird roleplayers.

Eir I hear were your coming from when I first joined I got bullied quite frequently just for being myself sorry if I'm naturally sarcastic or speak the truth. 

I never was around before the switch but everyone preferred it I wish I knew the old Horseland before they changed it all around.

But from Novemeber 2017 - current time I loved it over there  their was only a handful of us but we stuck together and formed our little gang and helped each other even through the little arguments. I managed to achieve a goal over there which i was happy about which was my first 1 Miller horse 

I played HL from 2005ish and kept to myself.  I wasn't dedicated to fully training my lines but they were mine and even though I didn't make friends/interact like I do here I recognised a lot of names etc plus it was HL that led me to HP in Jan this year.  It will be sad to see HL actually disappear.

What I have found is I am dedicated to my lines here and they are trained without fail every week and I'm on G3 and G4 now.  The community here is so welcoming and I've met lots of wonderful people and that has played a big part in me sticking to it so thanks guys (and Sam)!

If HL stayed the way it was when I was an active player with my Rhodesian Ridgebacks in 2006-2008, I would still be playing it to this day.

I know we all bag it out and make fun of how bad it got but I am legit sad.

I made SO many amazing friends and gained so many skills from that game. Not just graphic/coding skills, actual people skills. As a mod for a long time it taught me how to deal with irate people.. I legit used those skills in RL.

Bag it out all you like but I am devastated it's officially over and i'm not ashamed to say it. RIP Horseland.

I made so many good friends from HL and I was thrilled when I moved to HP that so many of them were here. That said, I'm glad to see HL go. I understand that they were trying to make it better in their own mind but the way that HL handled changes, complaints, and other issues was literally horrible. The fact that they alianted the base of players who were actually able to fund the game (I'm sorry but my mom and other parents I knew 100% refused to pay money for online games, especially ones that offered free play too). The adult players, most of whom flocked over here, as well as the older teenagers were HL's bread and butter and they definitely didn't care about that. So in a way, this is fitting.

HL brought some amazing people into my life and I have fond memories, but HP is my home now and I'm happy here. Plus I never have to worry about the management of the game because Sam would never do anything like that.

RIP Horseland, I'll remember you fondly but you weren't what you used to be.

Although Horseland wasn't managed well, it is a game that I've basically grown up with. I never liked how there was always drama, but the players who are left on the game have always been kind and welcoming to me. Thankfully, most of them have already been playing here, and the majority of the others just started actively playing HP. I'm sad to see Horseland go because I have made lifelong friends on that game, and it was a huge part of my childhood, but I won't miss the drama and the lack of attention from staff.

I really enjoy HP so far as you all have basically welcomed us with open arms and are willing to help us figure this out. I also REALLY like that Sam is active on this game, and didn't just abandon us like HL staff did when the game started dying. The community is amazing, and I can't wait to make more friends and be more active on this game. I've clearly been missing out.

RIP Horseland Rhea: 2008-2018

HELLO (Active) Horse Phenomena Rhea: Nov. 2018 - present

My pen pal introduced me to HL and she's the reason I breed MFT's on HP now as that was what she was breeding at the time...I had no idea what a Missouri Fox Trotter was at the time. xD Ironically enough, she dropped out (haven't heard from her in yeaaaars) and I continued to play :P And ended up here after a dry spell when HL started down the tubes.