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How to play Hold Your Horses

Hold Your Horses is an endless runner on horseback. Your horse gallops on its own, and you jump or duck to get past whatever turns up. Every second you survive is a point, and the ride keeps getting faster.

Controls

Keyboard: Space or the up arrow to jump (hold for a higher, longer jump), and hold the down arrow to lower your head.
Touch: tap the right side of the screen to jump (hold for higher), and hold the left side to lower your head.
In the air, holding down pulls you back to the ground fast. On a phone, turning it sideways gives a bigger view.

Obstacles

New obstacles are added the longer you last, so the early seconds are gentle. Hay bales and fences are jumps from the start. A few seconds later, low branches appear that you duck under. Over the next half minute come the water trough, the laundry line, and rows of hay bales, and after that crows arrive that you have to jump or duck depending on how high they fly. Tall fences need a higher jump.

Scoring and ranks

Your score is the number of seconds you last. It maps to a rank: Rocking horse, Foal (10), Pony (25), Trotter (40), Galloper (60), Thoroughbred (80), Racehorse (100), Dark horse (120) and Legend of the plains (150). The game also marks milestones at 30, 60, 90, 120 and 150 seconds.

Tips

Match the jump to the obstacle. A short tap is enough for a fence, but the water trough and rows of bales are wide, so hold the jump longer.
Duck early and stay down. Branches and the laundry line are long, so keep the key held until you are clear.
Use the down key in the air to land sooner when the next obstacle is close behind.
Expect the speed to rise steadily. You start slowly and the pace goes up every second, so timing that felt generous early on gets tighter. Do not rush ahead of it.
Challenge a friend from the game-over screen. They get the same obstacle course, so the comparison is fair.

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