You can level up with careers only, but it tends to be a little slower. If you go to the last tab on your horse you can see how many points you are earning each time they go out on careers. You can see what they are earning in the discipline and halter shows as well. If your horse places well, you earn a lot more points in the halter shows at least until they get more established.  I just checked one of my aged mares and she is earning 1,145 in points with careers but you don't start out there, lol. 

Tack is mostly cosmetic. I think I recall that encrusted tack will give a small show boost? I am not seeing it on the wiki in the showing section so I may be remembering that wrong. I don't have the time to hunt for gems so I don't really worry about the boost anymore - I don't think it is a very big boost anyway. :D

Thank you so much for the help :)

Halter shows tend to be the fastest way to level low level and low PS horses. Shows don't really start outpacing halter until minimum state level. I don't remember if it's state tier 1 or state tier 2. I think it's tier 1 though. Career and exploring will give experience, just not as much as halter or shows. Career is good for having an easy income. Once you get high PS and high level horses, often times the cost of shows and halters are canceled out and give more bits for your bank. As for tack, encrusted for sure gives a small show boost. There are some other tack like enchanted lake or snowflake tack that will often give a show boost on top of a twin boost. (Enchanted lake and snowflake tack are examples, I may be wrong on if those two specific sets give show boosts as well as twin boosts). 

Thank you so much for the information:)

I am adding to the tack talk, tack helps horses who compete in Discipline Shows get a small show boost, but this boost does not carry over to halter horses.     But in case it helps anyone reading this:

“Tack of English, Western, driving, and racing can all be used on any horse regardless of their discipline. The bonus will be on it! Halter horses do not require tack though being groomed will help the scoring. Halters, polos, and blankets are all just for looks.” -beni / Discord Server / Help Chat / April 3 2026

The wiki is a work in progress, it is mention on this page https://horsefable.wiki/account/craft-room/ under Tack, but I will make a note to see if we can help include it more

Thank you that is really helpfu  information 

As others have stated, halters are the best for lower ps horses. Especially wild and foundation horses! Horses with 5 stars have the ability to score more points on halter shows compared to 4 star and 3 star horses and thus level faster. I find my five star horses that are exclusively haltered are about 5-10 levels higher compared to 4* horses of similar age/breed. 

I personally use disciplines to level most of my herd. However, I have spent A LOT of time breeding horses with higher and higher ps. Horses with high ps can compete in more “advanced” competition and earn both higher prize money and higher points. They can even move up tiers and earn even more points. They can also participate in more discipline competitions in a day (10 at full energy) compared to halter shows (which is only 5 at full energy). Over time, if a horse is getting at least ~1000 points per entry, discipline shows can net you ~10,000 points in a day versus around ~5,000 points in a day for halter shows. Again, I do this ONLY with my high ps horses (horses that are 2,200+ PS) 

Also, I can confirm encrusted tack nets extra points. Now I haven't actually done the math, but from my observations, I have seen an added bonus of about +200(ish) points per discipline entry. I try to equip all my horses with encrusted tack because any bonus is beneficial when it comes to leveling lol :P 

Leveling is a lot of work, but it is worth it! Keep at it! :)

Thank you so much this is so helpful:)

I've just started working on studing out my horses and would really love for them to become among the top of their breeds:)

Also you may want to check your crossbreed horses to see if they qualify for any crossbreed campaigns. Campaign crossbreeds are able to be shown in halter classes which may help them level up faster. 

Thank you:) I hadn't even thought about that