Winning Horse Competitions?

@oliviakirch   Hi!  Apologies for the delay.  I saw your post several days ago but it took a while to test.  Are you still having trouble getting the gold in competitions?  It seems to me that maybe winning is mostly by chance.  Although, I don't think you need to get gold in every competition for your horse to become a champion.  I'm not sure if I'm allowed to share an external link so maybe do a search for this:  The Sims 4 Horse Ranch: How To Complete Championship Rider  at thegamer .com.  This tutorial has lots of good tips for becoming a champion.  

So far, I've tested with my two horses who finally got to level 10 jumping, endurance, agility and temperament.  I entered both of them in competitions; one for barrel racing and the other for endurance.  Both of them got gold medals right away.  Since we're only allowed to enter the competitions once per day, I had to wait for the next one.  The next day, one horse got a bronze for barrel racing at the intermediate level, the other got a silver for endurance at intermediate.  The next day, they both got gold at the expert level in each category. 

I wasn't even sure how the expert level would go, since neither of them achieved gold at the intermediate level.  However, I wanted to see what would happen.

At this point, I really don't know if there is a best method for getting the gold.  I didn't do anything special before entering the competition.  The horses' needs were at least good or better.  They didn't do any practice.  Their moods were both happy and fine, at different points.

Also, this is likely the best place to ask this question.  If we can identify a consistent problem with attaining these goals, then it might be time to create a bug report.  Since the system for competitions is so complex, it might take a while and be rather difficult to pinpoint a bug, though.

At any rate, I plan on continuing my test of this system and also using some of the tips available at thegamer to see if I can get that champion horse.  I hope this helps!

What is your sims mood? I’ve had a couple sims now reach the ultimate riding competition after getting gold in all the others. What I find works best is if my sim is also confident or very confident going into the competition. It’s not fool proof but every time I’ve gotten gold my sim was also confident. 

I suspect Sim & horse skills and moods all increase the % chance of getting gold, but that there’s still an element of chance so it probably never reaches 100% 

As my horse and Sim level up, I find I get gold more frequently. But you only need to place - not necessarily get gold - to unlock the next level. Even for the aspiration I believe it’s only to place in the ultimate championship, though you do need those 5 golds at master level.

I'm glad I found this, as I am also having the same issue. Champion genes, curious, intelligent, free-spirit and brave. Both my Sim and the Horse are completely maxed out, in great moods (confident/very confident, energised ect) and all needs met to a high standard. Nonetheless I am persistently getting bronze or silver, in all competitions, even beginner.

I do play with mods, however, this horse's sire got constant Golds, so I don't think its modding that causes this.

I agree with @JonaO703 that it seems to be random. I have gotten gold and silver with my horses and Sims needs all at excellent so I do think it's somewhat random. I haven't tried having my Sims confident as @shannon730 suggested but I will give that a shot too!

Okay I Won gold 3 out of 4 times by having the horse have excellent in all areas of comfort and my Sim was playful from watching the horse play with the ball. He is a horse lover. Went back next day to try again on the 4 th item that I only had silver in and got gold. You can re-try for gold if you got silver or bronze. 😉