An Overview of Equipment

Original article written by Regina Moore posted 9 years 2 weeks ago

Equipment continues to be a subject that baffles many players, including experienced players. Midway through Year 38, equipment was actually simplified for those who pay 500 game points to “equipment check” their horse, in terms of what they need to do to find the second piece for two-piece horses.

SOME DEFINITIONS
EQUIPMENT - A piece of equipment can be any one of nine available pieces. To see the nine pieces, go into a current racehorse or yearling and click on “Change Equipment”. The pieces listed are blinkers, ear muffs, figure-8, front bandages, hind bandages, Lasix, no whip, shadow roll, and tongue tie. Note that these pieces are listed alphabetically. In other words, there isn’t any significance to how important a piece is, based upon whether it’s among the first or last listed.) There can never be more than two equipment boxes checked at one time, because a horse never requires more than two pieces of equipment. In my experience, about 80% of horses require two pieces, 15%-20% require just one piece, and 5% or less don’t require any equipment to run their best.

EQUIPMENT CHECK – Though I’m not aware that it’s an official SIM term, we players refer to an “equipment check” as going into the “Train This Horse” option from the horse’s page, and paying 500 game points to “Tell Me About Equipment”. Assistant trainer Mary Weather will then tell you:

1. A piece of equipment the horse needs. This can be any one of the nine available pieces. If it’s a rare horse that doesn’t need equipment, she’ll say that the horse “doesn’t have any behavioral problems so he doesn’t need any equipment.”

2. If the horse only needs one piece of equipment, after giving the piece needed, Mary Weather will say, “That is the only equipment he needs.”

3. In the majority of cases, Mary Weather will give a piece needed, and then say, “I think he needs one other piece of equipment too.” As of mid Year 39, she will add to that last sentence, “but I will have to observe this horse in training to try to figure it out” OR “but I don’t think I can help you with that.”

FIRST PIECE VS SECOND PIECE -- Though I’m not aware that they’re official SIM terms, we players have used the terms “first piece” and “second piece” for the pieces required for a two-piece horse. The “first piece” is that given when paying the 500 game points for an equipment check, and can be any of the nine available pieces. The “second piece” is one that can randomly revealed by assistant trainer Mary Weather only by a gallop or training over jumps; OR only by the veterinarian, Dr. Hacklu. Some players believe that the first piece is more important to the horse’s optimum performance than the second piece, but I’ve never heard The Steward verify such, so I’m skeptical that this is true.

TRAINING PIECE VS VET PIECE – When talking about two-piece horses, if the second piece is one of the five (blinkers, ear muffs, no whip, shadow roll, figure-8) that can be revealed randomly by Mary Weather “observing this horse further” during a gallop of during schooling over jumps -- then we players have called that a “training piece”. Some players might refer to is as a “gallop piece”.

If the second piece is one of the four (Lasix, tongue tie, front bandages, hind bandages) that can be revealed randomly only by paying for a vet check, then we players have called those “vet pieces”. During an equipment check, Mary Weather will say “I think he needs one other piece of equipment too, but I can’t help you with that” if the second piece can only be revealed by Dr. Hacklu.

POINTS OF CONFUSION
Even some veteran players still get confused about equipment, and what all the different comments mean if various circumstances. Please note the following:

1. An equipment check, where you pay 500 game points, will give the first or only piece needed, and it can be any one of the nine available pieces. There’s no reason to get hung up on “training piece” or “vet piece” when talking about the piece revealed by an equipment check. All nine pieces are equally possible.

2. If you happen to get a piece of equipment revealed during a gallop, or when training over fences, the piece given will be one of the five “training pieces”. Such a revelation means that the horse is a two-piece horse and you’ve been given the second piece. The only way to find the first piece with 100% certainty is to pay 500 game points to do an equipment check. The other way would be to do a series of workouts (see that section, below).

3. If you happen to get a piece of equipment revealed during a vet check, the piece given will be one of the four “vet pieces”. (However, front or hind bandage are lumped together as “bandages” in this case, so the player needs to do workouts with each to figure out which it is. See the workout section, below.) Such a revelation means that the horse is a two-piece horse and you’ve been given the second piece. The only way to find the first piece with 100% certainty is to pay 500 game points to do an equipment check. The other way would be to do a series of workouts (see that section, below).

4. Some players erroneously think that vetting and/or galloping will eventually give them both pieces of equipment on a two-piece horse. This is just plain not true. Any piece revealed during either activity will only be the second piece needed. If the horse just needs one piece of equipment, or no equipment, then galloping and/or vetting will never reveal an equipment piece.

5. Some players are resistant to thinking of “no whip” as a piece of equipment, since it’s actually the lack of equipment (ie, the rider not using a whip). But it’s just as legitimate a piece of equipment as any of the other pieces.

6. Some players are resistant to thinking of front and hind bandages as pieces of equipment. They are not only as legitimate as the other pieces, but they’re separate pieces. It is possible for a horse to need front bandages as the first piece and hind bandages as the second piece, and vice versa.

7. If during a vet check, Dr. Hacklu tells you that “Have you ever noticed that horse is sore in the morning? Maybe try some bandages.” – he doesn’t say if they’re front or hind bandages. So, that’s a little mystery you have to find out for yourself, and two workouts – one with front bandages and one with hind bandages – should determine which is needed. However, if an equipment check told you that the horse needs front bandages (which would be the first piece), and you then get the “maybe try some bandages” comment by Dr. Hacklu, you know by default that the horse needs hind bandages as the second piece. Likewise, if an equipment check told you that the horse needs hind bandages (which would be the first piece) and you get the “maybe try some bandages” comment by Dr. Hacklu, then you know by default that the horse needs front bandages as the second piece.

8. As far as I can tell, what equipment requirements a horse is born with is entirely random. Some players try to think logically, as in, “Most Quarter Horses race with blinkers and a shadow roll, so my Quarter Horse probably needs blinkers and a shadow roll.” In my opinion, that kind of thinking will get you into trouble. It’s impossible to accurately predict ahead of time which equipment piece(s) a horse will need, or if the horse needs any equipment at all.

9. Some players seem to feel that two-piece horses need one training piece and one gallop piece. I have found equipment for well over 1000 youngsters since Year 30, and this is simply not true. A two-piece horse might need two pieces that are both training pieces, two pieces that are both vet pieces, or a vet piece and a training piece. There’s no way to predict what the case is going to be for any particular horse.

WAYS TO FIND EQUIPMENT
The fastest and most reliable way to find equipment is to pay the 500 game points to equipment check the horse. If the horse needs just one piece, or no pieces, you’re given that information and you’re done finding out that horse’s equipment. If the horse needs more than one piece (again, roughly 80% of horses), and the second piece is a training piece, you can gallop the horse every few days and hope that Mary Weather will reveal what the second piece is.

If the horse needs more than one piece, and the second piece is a vet piece, then you can vet the horse repeatedly, at the cost of $1000 each time ($500 for newbies, $750 for juniors) and hope that Dr. Hacklu will reveal what the second piece is.

For players who aren’t going to pay the 500 game points to equipment check the horse, then they sometimes choose to constantly vet and/or gallop, but those tasks are only going to reveal the second piece, and even then, only if a second piece is needed. What’s more, the money to vet the horse is wasted, if the second piece needed is a training piece, and the time galloping is wasted if the second piece needed is a vet piece. You’re only going to know if the second piece needed is a vet piece or a gallop piece by spending the 500 game points to equipment check the horse.

In the old pre-Year 30 days, there wasn’t any such thing as equipment checking, and players had to rely on trial-and-error, as well as the running lines of races, to figure out which equipment pieces helped their horses perform better. One can still do this, but, of course, it usually means a lot of losing races, in the name of experimentation.

In my opinion, that best way to find out equipment, if one doesn’t want to pay the 500 game points, or doesn’t ever get the second piece revealed by a gallop or vet check, is to use timed workouts.

TIMED WORKOUTS TO FIND EQUIPMENT
Per the FAQs, a horse will train faster with correct equipment. Likewise, he will train slower with incorrect equipment, or no equipment. (Though, in the latter case, if he’s a rare horse that doesn’t need any equipment, then he would train faster with no equipment.)

For players that can’t or don’t want to spend the 500 game points to equipment check their horse, they often do a series of ten timed workouts, starting with no equipment for the first workout, and then using one of the nine equipment pieces for each of the remaining nine workouts. (Obviously, all the workouts need to be at the same distance and surface, so that it’s an apples-to-apples comparison.) The two fastest workouts would point to the two equipment pieces needed for the horse. However, I’m not sure how this translates for a horse that needs just one piece of equipment, since I don’t use this method.

For players who spend the 500 game points to equipment check the horse, and can’t find the second piece via galloping in a reasonable timeframe, or via vetting (or they don’t want to pay the money for the latter), then they use timed workouts to find the second piece. So, if I already know from the equipment check that my horse needs blinkers, and the second piece needed is a training piece, then I’ll work the horse in blinkers and ear muffs one week, then blinkers and no whip the second week, etc., until I’ve been through all the training pieces in conjunction with the first piece. The fastest workout will point to the pair of pieces the horse needs (of which I’ll already know the first piece, which is blinkers, in this example).

If I already know that my horse needs blinkers, and the second piece is a vet piece, then I’ll work my horse with blinkers and Lasix, and then blinkers and a tongue tie, etc. The fastest workout will point to the pair of pieces that the horse needs.

If I already know that my horse needs blinkers, and a vet check revealed that the second piece is “bandages”, then I’ll work the horse out one week in blinkers and front bandages, and the next week in blinkers and hind bandages. The fastest workout will tell me whether its front or hind bandages that is the second piece.

For players that have spent 500 game points to find the first piece, some are very resistant to the idea of bothering with workouts to find the second piece of equipment. They will gallop a horse continuously to find a training piece, or risk spending a tremendous sum of money vetting a horse continuously to find a vet piece. Some players have reported over 40 attempts at galloping or vetting a horse before the second piece was revealed. (In the case of vetting, even after spending all that money, it could turn out that the second piece is “bandages”, so you still need to do workouts, anyway, to find out whether its front or hind bandages.)

For myself, I will gallop yearlings that need a training piece as the second piece, every few days, for Weeks 1 through 4. If the second piece hasn’t been revealed by Week 5, when yearlings can safely be given workouts, then I’ll switch to using workouts to find the second piece, and no longer gallop those horses. For yearlings that need a vet piece as the second piece, I won’t spend any more than 10k per horse on vetting. So, if after ten vettings, the second piece hasn’t been revealed, I’ll resort to using workouts to find the second piece.

One problem with using workouts to find equipment is that they aren’t 100% reliable. It does happen, on rare occasions, that the fastest work is later found to be with at least one incorrect equipment piece. In other words, a later gallop or vet check might give a second piece that is different from the one with the fastest workout. But these occurrences are infrequent enough, that workouts being dependable 90%-95% of time is a good reason to count on them.

Another problem with workouts is that, sometimes, the fastest time is only a tick or two faster than the second (and sometimes third and fourth) fastest time. For example, a horse with blinkers as the first piece might work 3f with a blinkers and a shadow roll in 36.10. The work with blinkers and no whip was 36.09, and the work with blinkers and ear muffs was also 36.09. So, with the times so close together, it’s hard to feel confident that a shadow roll is the correct second piece. In this case, I would work this horse at a different distance, say 2f, three different times, using those same tied pieces. Usually, I’ll get a bigger gap between the fastest work and the other works, at a different distance.

Also, know that any tiredness a horse has (such as from a recent gallop) can interfere with the workout time. If one is using timed workouts to find equipment, it’s extremely important that the horse is fully rested before each workout. It generally takes horses four days to recover from a timed work. I’d suggest five days, just to be safe. I myself only train my yearlings once a week, because it helps me stay organized, as well as insuring each yearling is fully rested between each timed work.

IMPORTANCE OF EQUIPMENT
Equipment is important for success in races, but it’s not the most important thing. Horses can win races with incorrect equipment. If you have the standout horse is a race, that horse is likely going to win, with or without correct equipment. But for most horses for most races, the fields are competitive enough that every little advantage is needed for any particular horse to prevail. That’s why most of us really want to find out the correct equipment for our horses, though some players only spend the game points and/or time to figure out equipment for their most promising youngsters.

In a separate article, so it’s easy to reference, I have included the actual equipment check, gallop, and vet comments for each piece of equipment.

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