Dressage Scoring Guide

A frequently asked question many players have is how are the Dressage scores tallied. How do some players on the World Leaderboards for Dressage have over 5000 points, when you’re sitting there with barely 1000 points?

So here’s a guide to calculating the Dressage score that will hopefully help everyone understand how it works.

Leaderboard Score/Ranking
First, you need to understand that the scores listed on the leaderboards (both Friends and World) are the total scores earned by that player during the current Dressage season.

You can participate in Dressage as many times as you want to each day (as long as your horse has enough Energy, but remember, only first time earns 100 ). The highest score you achieve each day is the one added to your leaderboard score.

So example: By Day 3 your leaderboard score should be 1559 (500+550+509).
 * Day 1: Your best score is 500
 * Day 2: Your best score is 550
 * Day 3: Your best score is 509

Likes
But wait, you say. That’s not true! I added my best scores from each day and it’s different from the total on the leaderboards! Why?

The answer? Likes.

In dressage, your in-game friends can help Like your horse’s pic. 1 Like = 1 point, so you want to be asking friends to help like your horse because this can help bring up your dressage score. You can ask up to 1000 friends for Likes every day (if you have that many friends in game).

You can either Ask for Likes (the game prompts you to do this after you get your daily high score in Dressage, or you can manually ask by tapping the button under your horse’s pic on the leaderboards), or share your horse’s picture to Facebook and get your friends to Like the pic in game.

(NOTE: Asking for Likes in Dressage does not use up your Friends. You will still be able to hire them as Stablehands or ask for help speeding up breeding/crops.)

Performance Score
So now you know how the points/ranking works for the Dressage Leaderboards.

Let’s talk about how the game counts scores for each performance. By understanding this, it will help you aim for the best possible score each day.

There are a few factors that contribute to the total score for a performance:
 * Horse score
 * Customizations
 * Moves
 * Photos

Horse score
Every horse has a base score when it enters a performance.

So far, the score seems to depend on the horse’s rarity. Every season, there are also three recommended breeds, which you can view by tapping and holding the “?” next to the dressage season name.

According to Horse Haven, these breeds are supposed to receive bonus points during a certain dressage season. However, so far, we haven’t noticed any bonuses during performance - so at least for now, using a Legendary horse for dressage will still earn you the best possible horse score.

Customizations
Customizations (tack) also add to your overall performance score. The maximum score you can get from tack is 100.

When you are in the dressing room, putting tack on your horse will bring up text on top that says “Common”, “Good”, “Great” or “Excellent”.

TIP: Since at this point, we’re not sure how the game decides whether tack is Common or Excellent or whatever rating, it’s a good idea to spend some time in the dressing room mixing and matching tack, and see what you get.

TIP #2: However one other thing to keep in mind is that the tack rating doesn’t really seem to matter. Even tack that is “Excellent” may not receive 100 points when the horse enters performance…. While “Good” or “Common” tack can sometimes receive 100 points.

TIP #3: Using sets seems to help (though you can feel free to mix and match, too). For example, Fabulous’ tack set will always provide 100 tack points. However, it does depend what tack it is, some sets will score less than 100.

(NOTE: Not sure if it’s a bug, but sometimes horses get different tack scores in different performances, even when using the exact same tack set.)

Just try entering and re-entering dressage until you find something that looks good on your horse and lets you receive the maximum tack points.

Moves
Main article: Dressage Moves

Now we have hit the main contributing factor to overall performance points: your horse’s Moves.

Every horse starts off with two basic moves it knows from the start. You are given the opportunity to teach your horse up to two additional moves.

(You do this by going to the Training tab, selecting your horse, and then tapping Train. This will bring up a menu of the moves that are available to teach/train.)

The moves available to a horse will vary according to breed/rarity. For example, the T4 American Warmblood has the two basic moves Piaffe Pirouette and Trot Half Pass. It can learn up to 2 more moves from a list of four options: Extended Trot, Canter Pirouette, Flying Change and Collected Canter.

NOTE: At this point, we’re not sure if it’s a bug or not, but some horses only have two additional move options to choose from in the Training list. If these moves are base 50 points or base 55 point moves, it is not recommended to use that horse in dressage. We’ll explain why in a moment.

So how and why do moves count towards a performance score? Basically in performance, the Move score is: base points + bonus points.

So for example the move Collected Canter has 50 base points at Level 1 (and no chance to earn bonus points). So in a performance, that would be 50 points + 0 bonus points (aka 50 points added to your overall performance score).

HOWEVER! Once you level it up to Level 2, the move will now be worth 55 base points, and will have a 10% chance to have +20% bonus points.

In performance, that would be 55 points + 11 bonus points (IF the bonus kicks in while your horse is performing). Which would mean it adds 66 points to your overall performance score. Sweet! TIP: The higher the move, the higher the base points - and also the higher the bonus points and the higher the chance for the bonus points to kick in during a performance. So make sure to train your horse’s moves!

Consider investing diamonds in buying extra show coins (up to 300) every day, so you can train your horse. You can also get 100 show coins from joining a performance (once a day), and from Leaderboard rewards.

TIP #2: Remember we said if possible, don’t teach your horse the lower base point moves? There’s a reason for that. You obviously want to pick moves with higher base points so that your horse can potentially earn the most points possible in performance (especially once it’s fully trained).

So for example, let’s take the T4 Black Forest again. From the 4 available additional moves, it has Canter Pirouette, Flying Change, Piaffe Pirouette and Passage. It would be recommended to pick Canter Pirouette and Flying Change as your horse’s two extra moves, because these are both base 60 point moves. Piaffe Pirouette is only base 55 points, and Passage - pfft, a mere base 50 points.

Photos
Each performance, you will be given chances to take 3 photos of your horse. You do this by tapping the little camera button on the right of the screen.

Each photo taken adds 10 points to your performance score - so make sure to take at least 3 (for a total of 30 points). If you set a high score, you will be asked to choose one of the three photos to represent your horse on the leaderboards. Pick the best one - people will be more likely to Like better photos that really show off your horse and its tack.

How To Calculate Overall Performance Points
So to calculate the max potential points your horse can earn from a performance, just add all the above factors together: horse score+tack score+photos score+move scores (4 moves, base points+bonus points).

That gives you the max possible score your horse can earn from the performance, so you know the high score you should be aiming for each day.

NOTE: Bonus points for moves don’t kick in every time! Remember, there’s only a chance you will get the bonus points for each move (which increases as you level up the move), but it might not be awarded each time. You might have to enter dressage multiple times each day to get the bonus points for all 4 moves in a single performance (it’s a very low chance that this will happen, though)! But if you want to set a high score and have a chance to rank higher on the leaderboards…. Well, keep trying and good luck!

How To Math
Horse score (200-240) + tack score (0-100) + photos score (30) + move scores with bonus points (depends on each individual horse) = max possible score.

Some example scores:
Elite horse with tack that gives 100 points and following moves: Passage (lvl 2 - 55pts+20%), Canter Half Pass (lvl 2 - 60pts+20%), Piaffe Pirouette (lvl 1 - 55pts+0%), Canter Pirouette (lvl 4 - 75pts+40%). Mythic horse with tack that gives 90 points and following moves: Collected Canter (lvl 2 - 55pts+20%), Trot Half Pass (lvl 3 - 65pts+30%), Piaffe Pirouette (lvl 3 - 65pts+30%), Flying Change (lvl 2 - 65pts+20%). Legendary horse with tack that gives 100 points and following moves: Extended Trot (lvl 4 - 70pts+40%), Trot Half Pass (lvl 4 - 70pts+40%), Canter Pirouette (lvl 5 - 80pts+50%), Flying Change (lvl 5 - 80pts+50%).
 * Total with no bonus points: 595 points
 * Total with Passage and Canter Pirouette bonus points: 636 points
 * Total with no bonus points: 600 points
 * Total with Collected Canter and Flying Change bonus points: 624 points
 * Total with all 4 bonus points: 662 points
 * Total with no bonus points: 670 points
 * Total with all 4 bonus points: 806 points

Additional considerations
Each dressage season ends on Monday, 8am (UTC+8) and begins again on Tuesday 8am (UTC+8).

Meanwhile, each round of dressage resets at 3pm (UTC+8).

This means that on Tuesday (Day 1 of each dressage season), there is a chance to get your high score added to your total score twice. You do this by entering when the season starts, and again the same day after the round resets.

Depending on where you are in the world, some players might not be awake at this time…. So doing this gives you a bit of an edge, points-wise.

Summary
To rank on the leaderboards you need a high score + as many Likes as you can get from your friends each day.

Train your horse’s dressage moves to max asap, enter dressage every day and try to set a high score in performance, which is tallied by horse score+tack score+photos score+move scores (4 moves, base points+bonus points).

If possible, you want to get the bonus points for all 4 moves (though chances of this are low). Use a t4 legendary horse, use whatever tack gives you 100 points, take 3 photos during the performance and beg your friends for Likes.

Good luck!

Thank you espeon9466 for this guide!