Astride Basic Gameplay Guide for Early Access

• Multiplayer
• Horse customization (coat, markings, grey/dun, etc.)
• Horse naming
• Two areas (outdoor jumping, indoor dressage)
• 6 gaits: idle, walk, trot, slow canter, canter, & gallop
• Jumping

Quoted directly from Astride’s official discord server.

Gameplay

• Open-world, go anywhere
• Multiplayer (not MMO)
• Controller support
• Seasons and weather
• Night and day cycle
• Holiday and seasonal events
• Customize key bindings
• Photo mode
• Toggle HUD on and off
• Limited fast travel

Multiplayer

• Visit or invite friends and ride together
• Help your friends with stable work
• Sell and buy horses from other players
• Daily, weekly and monthly high scores

Competition

• Compete in single player or multiplayer
• Ranking and seasons
• Best of country, continent and world
• End of season rewards

Riding/Training

• Loosening and tightening of reins
• Horse swimming in deep water
• Heavier for a horse to go through water
• Photo mode while riding
• Pet horse while riding
• Manual lead changes
• Falling off horse
• Test ride before buying horse
• Lunging work

Quoted directly from Astride’s official discord server.

Horses

• Detailed horse customization
• Personalities and traits
• Purchase and selling horses
• Physical horse market
• Horse AI system
• Possibility for injuries
• Bonding with player
• Change mane, tail and forelock separately
• Change horse nickname
• Roaming in paddocks or when loose
• Skill tree and leveling

Breeding and life

• Breed for colors, personality and genetics
• Small chance for twins
• Mare pregnant belly
• Foal care and training
• Cross breeding
• Horse life cycle
• Feed/care to lengthen horse life in small scale
• Retirement fields

Barn and stable

• Mucking with wheelbarrow
• Stable upkeep and maintenance
• Tack room with inventory
• Choose outfits for horse and rider
• Customize your stable
• Hire stable hands

Horse care

• Horse caretaking minigames
• Mix feed for different horse needs
• Provide horses with hay and water
• Place horses in stalls, paddocks or turnouts
• Saddle and tack fitting

Character

• Character customization from house
• Slider from female to androgynous to male
• Character jump
• Third and first person perspective
• All clothes available for anyone
• Recall active horse with whistle
• Skill tree and leveling

Disciplines (more to be announced)

• Dressage
• Show Jumping
• Cross Country
• Gaited Riding
• Western (DLC)
• Racing (DLC)
• Academic/Baroque (DLC)

Dressage

• Combine keys to perform actions
• Scoring system based on performance and timing
• Piaffe, passage, pirouette, extensions, collections, lateral movements

Show jumping

• Rider looks towards next jump
• Height classes from 40cm to 160cm
• Score system for time and faults
• Striding system, auto jump
• Horse speed affecting jump length and power
• Lead changes over jumps
• Show jumping courses will have seasons and change up

Horse breeds

• Norwegian Warmblood Horse
• Norwegian Fjord Horse
• Icelandic Horse
• Norwegian Dole Horse
• Northlands Horse
• Knabstrupper
• Percheron
• Arabian
• Jutland
• Alter Real

Walking
Press and hold your ‘w’ key to begin walking, continue to hold it to move into a faster walk.Trotting
While at your fastest walking gait, continue holding ‘w’ while pressing shift to transition to a trot.Slow canter
This is one of the WIP gaits, but it is still available. Some people have trouble trotting, while others have trouble achieving this gait from walking. If you struggle to transition to this gait, just slow your horse down by holding your ‘s’ key. This will inevitably bring your horse to a complete stop, however you can use this mechanic to transition from a canter to a slow canter.

The other three gaits (standing, canter, & galloping) can all be reached using the same ‘w & shift’ method, or ‘s’ key methods.