The Best Horse Games to play on PC and Console in 2020 (Original)

Left to right: The Sims 3 Pets, Red Dead Online, Rival Stars Horse Racing, Star Stable Online, Windstorm: Ari’s Arrival

This article was originally published on July 7th 2020. You can find a newer and updated version right here.

So many of us feel the same way: we remember that one great horse game we played as a kid, having long forgotten about whatever wasn’t good about it. We start to wonder “hey, it’s been years since I played a good horse game, I wonder what’s new in that genre”.

This leads to loads of people typing “best horse games 2020” and “best horse games pc” into their search bar and land on my site only to find out… that the horse game genre has not made as much progress as we’d like it to have, in the past ten to fifteen years. 

But despite all that, there is a bunch of good stuff out there, and if this is your first visit to The Mane Quest, you may not be aware of it all yet. Last year’s article “Best Horse Games to play on PC and Console in 2019” has come to be by far the most popular piece of content on my page, so a follow-up is very much called for. Although I can’t offer that many new good horse games compared to last year, I am able to offer a bunch of new insight into several of these.

Star Stable Online

Available on: PC & Mac

Strengths: loads of content, pretty cartoon art (mostly), constant updates, horse variety

Weaknesses: monotonous quest mechanics, lots of in-game purchases even with lifetime Star Rider option

Full Review: Available Here

Star Stable Online is the biggest and most actively developed horse game out there. It has a bunch of problems with its user experience, but there is a lot of good stuff there, if the kid-friendly art style and “chosen one” fantasy main storyline are up your alley. 

The SSO team often posts codes for free access to the premium Star Rider subscription on their social media, or has free weekends where you can give it a try. Once you start spending money, I do recommend going for the lifetime purchase though.

Read Dead Redemption 2 & Red Dead Online

Available on: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC

Strengths: Top notch graphics with motion captured horses, huge and pretty open world, AAA game scope and story, single player & online multiplayer, breed variety

Weaknesses: not horse-focused, “mandatory” shooter gameplay, limited non-violent options

Full Review: not planned

The AAA blockbuster game with the most detailed horse content, without a doubt. Play the single player story as Arthur Morgan, or create your own character in Red Dead Online. Thanks to a variety of horse breeds with differing personalities and high quality motion capture, as well as the “bonding” mechanics, there’s a lot to love in this game for horse fans. 

This game is rated M for good reason however, and I don’t recommend it to kids or anyone without a certain tolerance for gore, violence and profanity.

Rival Stars Horse Racing

Available on: PC & Mac, iOS & Android, (PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch?)

Strengths: Pretty and polished, simple but nice story & characters, breeding mechanics

Weaknesses: breeding not genetically realistic, could use some quality-of-life improvements in the user experience

Full Review: Available Here

Rival Stars Horse Racing is following the good old horse game tradition of being sold under different names with different features, but being mostly the same game. I’ve outlined some of those differences here. Personally, I am playing the Desktop Edition and am very happy with that. 

Rival Stars is a good-looking racing game with an absolutely hilarious name generator, a nicely diverse cast of likeable characters, and well balanced gameplay progress. Much of the game is UI-based and executed by clicking buttons, which may feel underwhelming depending on your expectations, but hey, at least there’s no minute-long hoof picking minigame.

Horse Isle 3

Available on: PC, Mac & Linux

Strengths: Huge open world, detailed breeding mechanics, extreme horse shape & breed variety

Weaknesses: hard to get into, unpolished and not very pretty, dubious community management

Full Review: not planned. First Impressions video here.

Horse Isle 3 is a bit of an acquired taste in terms of visuals and interface. Its in-depth, genetically accurate breeding system and huge variety of horse shapes and breeds doesn’t really have any direct competition among open world 3D games, however. 

I could not get into the game and don’t plan on spending more time with it, but since it’s free to download you may as well judge for yourself. Recommendation: play the game with someone who is familiar with the mechanics and can help you out. The tutorialization is severely lacking, and getting advice from more experienced players may save you a lot of frustration. 

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Available on: Nintendo Switch

Strengths: big and beautiful open world, pretty  and polished

Weaknesses: not horse-focused, no horse shape variety, many areas not accessible on horseback

Full Review: not planned

As a fan of the lengthy dungeons and item-based progression of other Zelda titles, I am not too fond of BotW as an entry in the series. It does have some really neat horses, however. You can tame the chonky draft type animals at various places on the large map, fight moblins and lizalfos from their backs and use them to traverse most of the world. 

Although their animations and mechanics are not quite as detailed as the other AAA game on this list (RDR2), I just absolutely love the look and style of the BotW horses. They have a certain weight to them, and their movements are beautiful.

The Sims 3 Pets

Available on: PC & Mac

Strengths: detailed horse skills & personalities, stable building options, care for horses and people, detailed horse character creator

Weaknesses: limited variety without mods/custom content, bad pathfinding makes gameplay clunky

Full Review: coming soon!

Do I even need to explain the appeal of the Sims games? You create people, have them earn money, form relationships, have children and raise them… or you just let them devolve into chaos like some cruel, spiteful god. Imagine that, but with horses! 

Jokes aside, The Sims 3 Pets remains the only entry in the long-living series to offer horses, and the 9-year old game holds up well enough while we all wait for The Sims 4 to come up with a horse expansion. 

I’ve been playing it on and off and like the addition of horses to the regular Sims gameplay. And I haven’t even started getting into modded content…

Windstorm: Ari’s Arrival

Available on: PC, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch

Strengths: horse-focused adventure, pretty and polished, open world, support upcoming horse game with purchase

Weaknesses: horse animations are not great, budget constraints noticeable in cutscenes

Full Review: Available Here

Ari’s Arrival has its issues, but if you want a modern-looking single player horse game with a story, this is by far your best option. You get a pretty open world to explore, quests and tasks that are a lot more varied than what other kids’ games offer, and a narrative that’s perhaps not mindblowing but at least solid. Note: Do not play the first Windstorm game. Just jump right into this one, trust me, it’s not worth it the other way around.

I can also tell you that its developers have some incredibly promising plans for an upcoming horse game and that money spent on Ari’s Arrival goes directly into funding the new one. With the still fairly sparse offer of quality horse games, supporting a dev team that takes this audience seriously is not the worst idea, if your finances allow it. 

And More?

Is there something else you think should be included on a list like this? Let everyone know in the comments!

And be sure to head over to the review section to learn more about individual games.