horses have a pretty high chance of running, but if you can get the bar to 75% or more you'll have an option to to call the horse over. foals and heavier breeds tend to like pets and treats more than the others, while horses with a red "angry" icon will likely run away if you pet them.

Personally for me, whistles and lassos are completely useless along with petting. I have seen folks say using them helps them out but to each their own. I mostly rely on treats, not as a singular item, like an Apple or Oats or whatever, but the combination treats. So take an Apple, mix it with an Oat to get a Oat Apple Treat and usually these work the best. To craft treats, you need to go to Account and under it is Craft Room and go to the Cooking tab. Each time you craft a treat, it does cost $100 bits if I am remembering this correctly and the same applies if you wish to add molasses to it as well to make them sweet treats. Some horses prefer certain treat items/sweet treats over others and sometimes even that fails.

For example, semi recently, I tried to capture a wild and it was liking Clover treats, so Oat Clover and Alfalfa Clover. I got it high enough and one or two more treats would have been enough to get the Try to Call option but it ran away on the next treat and I so badly wanted to scream into the void, annoyed at it. 

I try to keep 20 items of each treat, not sweet, since I can have the above happen and have horses crave one type of treat over the other and do not wish to run out.

Hi :) It can be super frustrating, especially if it's a horse you really wanted (or if it just eats all your treats and then runs).

I've caught a lot of wild horses (most of the ones on my account are wild). Here are a couple of things I do that seem to help:

1. I have 20 horses that I explore with - sometimes you can use all of a horses energy and not encounter a wild, so I find having a few horses helps. If I think it's been too long since I've encountered a wild, I refresh the page or close the browser. I don't know if this really does anything, but mine can get a bit laggy and I've found I usually have an encounter shortly after I do this. This gives you more chances to encounter (and then catch) a wild.

2. If you do catch a wild horse, it's been said there is a 15 minute cool down before you encounter another one. If you still have energy left (and you're only interested in catching lots of wilds) it's probably best to wait the 15 minutes before you explore more, otherwise you're just using your horses energy up.

3. Every time you do an action, there is a chance the horse will run. This seems to be pretty random, but it also factors in horse bond (the meter above the horse that increases or decreases) and horse wildness (the icon of the horse that is red, orange, yellow or green). If you really want to catch a horse, I think it's possibly best to do it in as few actions as possible (which reduces the number of chances it has to run away).

4. If you're using just pets or treats, you need to get the meter above the horses head to 75%. After this a green button appears below the horse letting you catch it. Sometimes the horse ignores you, but I've never had one run at this point - I just click the button again and they're caught.

4. You can catch horses just using pets, or a combination of items. If it's a horse I'm not fussed about catching, I mostly just use pets. Each time you successfully pet a horse, it becomes less wild (and I think a little easier to catch). If I run out of energy, I just spam the whistle / lasso - they both have a chance of catching horses, even if the meter isn't at 75%. How well these work is partly dependent on how friendly/wild the horse is.

5. TheDustyAngel is right about horses preferring treats with certain ingredients - this seems to be based on breeds. For example, all chincos will like the same treat (I think it's alfalfa or treats made with alfalfa). 

When you give a horse a treat, the meter above it's head will increase by a certain amount. Giving a horse its preferred treat will increase the meter by:

5 points (for plain treats e.g. alfalfa);

10 points (for crafted treats e.g. alfalfa apple treat);

20 points (for sweet crafted treats e.g. apple alfalfa treat that has been combined with molasses).

This makes it easy to tell if you're giving the horse its preferred treat. For example, if I gave a horse clover and the meter increased by only 1 point, I'd know that the horse breed prefers something else. The lowest bond increase for crafted treats is 4 points and for sweet crafted treats it's 8 points (I think). This is all based on what I've seen, so I could be wrong!

I hope it helps - feel free to reach out if you have more questions :)

How do you catch horses with just pets, whistles and lassos? Is there a best order to use them in? When should you use each? Is it worth it to catch horses who are red and how do you get them to become more tame without running away?

Sorry I'm a wild catching newbie!

I don't suggest trying to catch a red horse, if you do, I suggest you only use pets, they are very likely to run, so you don't want to use all your treats, then have them run away.

I just had a green horse run, you never know, a horse can always run, even when its green!

@esquire I often catch horses that are red, but KatieLee is right, they are more likely to run.

If it's a rare horse that I really want to catch (e.g. a teke) or if it's a horse that I really want because of the colour / breed I use sweet treats. 4 of the breed's preferred treat and you're at 80% - the horse can always run though and you've lost your treats. But if you really want the horse, the risk is possibly worth it.

In all other cases, I start with pets (because it doesn't consume anything other than energy). I usually pet 3 or 4 times to see what the meter does. If it goes up, down, back up and then up again I usually continue with pets until I can either catch the horse, it runs away or I'm out of energy. If I'm out of energy and the horse isn't at 75% (but is close) I'll give preferred treats to get to 75%.

If the meter jumps around a lot or if it ends up at 0% (or a long way from 75%), I resort to the lasso and whistle. I usually start with one lasso, 2 or 3 whistles, back to lasso, then more whistles and so on. I haven't fully worked out the best method yet, partly because of the random chance for the horse to run. If after all this I haven't caught the horse I'll just abandon it.

Ok thanks for the tips! In my experience whenever I usually start with a treat first then go to pets and petting always drops the meter to zero and the horse would run away so I've just been giving copious amounts of treats and hoping it works haha 

So basically your formula so to speak is 3-4 pets then trying lasso and whistles? Does the bar usually go up when you do this or does the horse just come eventually?

You're welcome! I really hope they help - I love catching the wilds and seeing all the cool variations.

Treats will always increase the meter but with pets it does go up and down. I used to do treats  first and then pets like you, but it was so annoying when the pets would just drop the meter all the way back to 0.

Now I always start with pets and basically use up all my energy. Then it's just the lassos and whistles - 1 lasso to 3/4 whistles. The lasso can help reduce the wildness making the horse easier to catch (but it feels like it can be more risky too, because I've lost more horses on the lasso than whistle). Horses I really want get only sweet treats and nothing else.

I've started noting the treat/bond increase - it won't be long until I have a list. I'd be happy to share if anyone's interested, but it's also pretty easy to figure out.

^ that was my alt account btw 😆

I'd definitely like a list once it's finished! By using up your energy you mean the player energy right?