The Best Horse Games to play on PC and Console in 2022

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

This article was originally published in July 2020 and was updated in April 2022. To view the original 2020 version, click 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 2022” 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 fifteen years. 

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. The Best Horse Games articles remain among my most popular content, so I want to keep this list up to date. This year, instead of posting an entirely new article I’ve decided to update this existing best-of with all that is new.

Update: Now that my own game, Horse Tales: Emerald Valley Ranch has been announced, I also need to include it here. Learn more about the game and my involvement right here, wishlist it on Steam or find the console editions up for preorder in your local game stores.

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.

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 realistic-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.

Nowadays, you should keep an eye on developer Aesir Interactive because I work there now and am the Creative Producer on their current WIP horse game, which I cannot wait to share more about. My reviews of the Windstorm games were written before I joined the company though and remain unedited.

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. If you’re more of a social player, make sure to check out some of the numerous trail riding communities that have sprung up in Red Dead Online.

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 as Phar Lap)

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

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. I recommend the Desktop version because I vastly prefer the pay-once model over microtransactions and waiting. Be aware that the console editions (Phar Lap: Horse Racing Challenge) do not get regular updates and only contain a fairly bare-bones version of the game, while the mobile and desktop versions have been getting significant updates.

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. With recent updates like free ride and cross country jumping, I’m excited to see what’s in store for Rival Stars’ future too.

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: might come someday

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…

Horse Club Adventures

Available on: PC, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One

Strengths: open world adventure, cute cartoony art style, single player story, neat customization options

Weaknesses: wonky horse animations, subpar controls and camera, missing various quality of life improvements

Full Review: Available Here

Horse Club Adventures is my favorite recent release: it is a solid story-based single player open world game based on the Schleich Toy Line. The game definitely aims at a younger target audience, but may be able to scratch the horse game itch for adult players too, if you can look past some suboptimal controls and the usual issues (read: wobbly legs) caused by the HAP animation pack

It’ll be getting a sequel in 2022!

DreamWorks Spirit Lucky’s Big Adventure

Available on: PC, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One

Strengths: it’s Spirit (arguably), Photo Mode is cool if you have the patience for it, cute cutscenes and story

Weaknesses: really weird horse proportions and animations, frustrating user experience, no keyboard and mouse support on PC

Full Review: Available Here

I had plenty of issues with this game and generally would recommend Horse Club Adventures instead of this one. But if you’re attached to the Spirit Franchise, or if the Western setting appeals to you more than the alternative, SLBA is an okay choice for ‘single player open world narrative horse game’. I’m still kind of amazed we got two games in that category last year, and even though I complained about this one a lot in my review, it’s still a significantly more complete game than much of the competition.

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. 

And More?

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

Be sure to head over to the review section to learn more about individual games, and to keep an eye on News for upcoming games. And if you haven’t already, consider joining the TMQ community to discuss available horse games and new releases with likeminded enthusiasts.