This is an offshoot topic from the HP State of the Union to discuss a training/riding feature. I didn't want to de-rail that topic too much since it was already so long, so I'm making this topic to discuss it further.

Basically, how this would look is you'd be able to go to your animal's page and click on training. In this example, we will use a horse, but obviously this would be for dogs as well. Then you'd be able to pick from a list of options, like say Lunging, Grooming, Trail Ride, etc. If you chose Trail Ride, you'd then be taken to something like this:

It asks you if you want to ride in the woods, around the lake, or around the section. You choose around the lake.

(And then this is where you'd start to get feedback.) "You start your ride around the lake at a walk. It's a little windy today, and you're a bit worried that your horse may spook." It asks if you want to continue walking or pick up a trot. You choose to pick up a trot.

"You've started to trot and you can tell your horse really wants to go into the grass closer to the lake." It asks if you move closer to the lake, or stay on the path. You choose stay on the path.

"Woah! A rabbit darted out in front of you and your horse spooked! Unfortunately, you took a fall, but are not injured. You get back on and continue on your way." It asks you if you want to slow down to the walk or continue at a trot. You choose continue at a trot.

"You can tell that your horse is still a little bit high-strung, and you are having a hard time keeping them at a leisurely trot. You definitely don't want to fall off again!" It asks you if you want to slow down to a walk, continue at the trot, or stop and take a break. You choose slow down to a walk.

"Once you're back down to a walk, your horse seems to be calming down and now you are able to enjoy the scenery a bit more! As you're enjoying the scenery you notice something glittering in the grass." It asks if you stop to pick it up, or keep going. You choose stop to pick it up.

"You found 100k HPD! Nice." Continue on your way?

Etc., etc. And depending on how the ride went you'd get some points, and it would go differently each time. All of the scenarios would be short, and offer a small reward. There would be limits on them to how many you can do with each animal in a day, and they would be entirely optional.

This would be a feature that could be adapted and added to over the years, and we could also incorporate different disciplines into it, or even training things, like teaching your dog to sit.

Again, this would be entirely text-based. No animated, ride-your-horses-around kid type of stuff. HP is made of adults, and we intend to keep our audience.

So, let us know what you think! Any ideas or suggestions? Do you love it, hate it? This is the time to tell us ;).

I think this'll be really cool...almost like a Choose Your Own Adventure book! (or like Neil Patrick Harris' Autobiography LOL). 

Actually DragonCave's done something like this in the past for Hallowe'en...theirs was a hauted house and you had to choose what you did to get to the next page by choosing which of the options you wanted to take after reading the paragraph to take you to the next page.

I think this sounds pretty neat! It would definitely give you the option to get more involved with your animals! 

And could open up a whole new area for player and animal achievements too!

After reading I agree with a limit per player like "You can ride out X more times today!" or per week, or something like that. That way it doenst affect the horses too much and thats nice :D

I like this. Can't promise I'll remember this though, because I also totally forgot about the game, and i'm also not good at games like that lol.
I'm better at a puzzle and stuff xD Or games like World of Warcraft lol.

I've been on the back end of this so I know the ongoings but I'm still excited to see it implemented! 

Yay! I'm glad people are liking this so far!

Aoi, we don't have plans for it to affect horse/dog energy at all :).

Everyone else:

A daily limit would be possible, so maybe like 10 training sessions per account?

Or, alternately, the per animal limit could be really low, like 1 per day or 1 per week even?

10 per acct? I have 30 if I used all of them that wouldnt be fair to someone that only had a few or just 1?

also wouldnt that make some just make accts to be able to take advantage of this?

Well, whether we do it per account or per animal, people with more accounts and more animals are going to able to use this feature more. Similar to the mini games. Since the point gains and money from it would be pretty small, though, I don't think it'll be a huge deal since it would also be pretty time consuming to do for a relatively small pay off.

Lady remember we can only have 5 basic accts so that would stop people from doing that

and exactly like sam said lol 

it could also be a way for some of the "writers" of hp to submit and earn bigger rewards.

or even do a mad limbs type one eventually so its constantly changing and evolving 

was this idea given anymore thought?

It's on hold, but still in the back of my mind! We have a couple projects that will take presidence this year, and we no longer have an outside programmer so we're limited by what I am able to accomplish on my own - and I don't think I'm quite to the level of being able to do this in a way that will be efficient yet.

I think it would be a good addition. There is something similar on another game I play and it is something to do when you are kind of bored but want to do something on the game still. I don't think it would hurt the game. 

**I also want to add the way it is set up in the other game a horse can do it 1x a day and you can't go do it more than every 15 minutes. Something similar here would maybe help keep players from taking advantage of it. 

I think this sounds fun! Similar to what LioDen does with their Explore feature. I definitely think this would be a fun new addition to the game.

This sounds like so much fun. I am logging in and out throughout the week wanting to have things to do on here. I love it!

I 100% approve of this, as long as it's text based and not animated!

I don't have many animals across all of my accounts so when my training is all done and dusted I find that I'm twiddling my thumbs until Sunday each week. This would add a bit more excitement for me!

i think as long as we are still able to train like we are doing now and doesnt effect. to me this is very horseland and one of the reasons i quit that game. i think maybe an add on for when we get bored after training and therefor a choice

Is this idea still open? I think this would be fantastic and so much fun! I would be so happy to gain points for training my horses while 'taking them on a trail ride' or 'grooming them' :=)

Am I the only original HLer that actually enjoyed the World? *hides in corner waiting for the semi-snarky comments xD* I liked it because I could interact with other players and pick out tack and outfits, and yes,  "race". Its the 11 year old in me popping out xD

ANYWHO. I am liking this idea a whole lot!