Smarter Horses

I remember first doing a savefile with a horse in 2023, and thinking to myself, "Surely there must be big potential to make the horses more intelligent and even sentient?". Thus, a years-long (in real time) quest began to see what a gamemod could make a horse able to do or not.

Did it succeed at making the horses as versatile as Sunny Starscout, StarSong, Trinket, Cleo, you name it? Eh, not all that well.

But it is able to make horses:
• Do things at most rabbit holes. They can now do things like shopping for groceries or books, watch a movie/match/concert, eat at a diner/bistro, change their name at a city hall, get a spa treatment, take a portrait photo at a school, and more.
• Turn on/off various devices like lamps, stereos, etc., without needing to switch back to a non-pet in the household every time.
• Open the storage inventories of refrigerators, bookshelves, and nectar racks.
• Use horse balls at community lots, which is not possible to do without gamemods due to an oversight by the game's coders.
• Perform better at International-tier horse events. Now a combo of a horse with 10 in both skills and a rider with 10 in Riding skill can expect to win International events on most occasions, whereas without the gamemod you'd be lucky to win an International Cross-Country event even 1-in-30 times.
• Buy a few additional lifetime rewards: Fireproof Homestead, Inheritance, Long Distance Friend, and My Best Friend.
• Choose between further traits: Animal Lover, Cat Person, Dog Person, Equestrian, Evil, Hates the Outdoors, Heavy Sleeper, Kleptomaniac, Light Sleeper, Loves the Outdoors, Night Owl, Supernatural Fan, Supernatural Skeptic, and Technophobic.

———Technical details———
This gamemod modifies 62 sub-files in GameplayData.package.

• Adds ",CH,AH,EH" to "AgeSpeciesValue" of: AskToTakeBreak_BandInstrument, AttendGame_Stadium, AttendHoloAdventure_FutureTheatre, AttendShow_ShowVenue, Bookshelf_OpenInventory_Bookshelf, ChangeStation_Stereo, ChangeVolume_Jukebox, ChangeVolume_MovieScreen, ChangeVolume_Stereo, ChangeVolume_TV, DonateToPlanTheFutureFund_CityHall, EatHere_EatHere, EnterAndExitRabbitHole_RabbitHole, Fridge_OpenFridge_Fridge, GetBodyTreatment_DaySpa, GetDrinks_GetDrinks, GetFacial_DaySpa, GetPackage_DaySpa, GetMassage_DaySpa, GetSalonTreatment_DaySpa, GetPhotoTaken_ITakesGreetingCardPhoto, GoToTheatre_Sim, NPCVisitEquestrianCenter_RabbitHole, Purchase_ShoppingPedestal, SearchForFairies_Arboretum, SellFish_Grocery, SellFruitsAndVegetables_Grocery, SellInRabbitHole_ShoppingRabbitHole, ShopByRecipe_Grocery, ShopForBooks_ShopForBooks, ShopInRabbitHole_ShoppingRabbitHole, SkipSong_Stereo, TakePhoto_GreetingCardPhotoBooth, TakePhoto_GreetingCardRabbitHole, ToggleEnable_StereoCommunity, TurnOff_BubbleBar, TurnOff_MoodLamp, TurnOff_Sprinkler, TurnOff_StarLight, TurnOffSearchLight_SearchLight, TurnOffTrainSet_TrainSet, TurnOffTV_TV, TurnOn_MoodLamp, TurnOn_Sprinkler, TurnOn_StarLight, TurnOnOff_EffectsMachineBase, TurnOnOff_FXTower, TurnOnOff_Jukebox, TurnOnOff_StageLightObject, TurnOnOff_Stereo, TurnOnOff_WallMountedSpeaker, TurnOnSearchLight_SearchLight, TurnOnTrainSet_TrainSet, TurnOnTV_TV, VisitRabbitHole_RabbitHole
• Adds ",AH,EH" to "AgeSpeciesValue" of: AskToTakeBreak_KissingBooth, ChangeName_CityHall, Open_NectarRack, OverseeCompetitionProduction_ServoBotArena
• (PlayWithBall_HorseBall) "AllowOnCommunityLots": False > True
• (EquestrianCenter):
•• CrossCountry - International, places 1st-3rd: 515/480/420 > 450/425/405
•• Racing/Jumping - International, places 1st-3rd: 510/470/410 > 475/435/405
• (EatHere_EatHere) "HorseThirst": 0 > 40
• (GetDrinks_GetDrinks) "HorseThirst": 0 > 85
• (Traits):
•• Adds "Horses" to "AgeSpeciesValue" of these traits: Animal Lover, Cat Person, Dog Person, Equestrian, Evil, Hates the Outdoors, Heavy Sleeper, Kleptomaniac, Light Sleeper, Loves the Outdoors, Night Owl, Supernatural Fan, Supernatural Skeptic, Technophobic.
•• Adds "Horses" to "AgeSpeciesValue" of these lifetime rewards: Fireproof Homestead, Inheritance, Long Distance Friend, My Best Friend.

———What this mod couldn't do———
Unfortunately, some things proved to be impossible with the methods I knew of, including:
• Giving horses more socialisation options, including being able to speak Simlish.
• Enter a horse event on their own (They can however watch horse events on their own).
• Being able to bottom out a horse's Social meter for more than 5 hours without having animal control taking the horse away.
• Making a horse walk up/down stairs.
• Making a horse watch TV.

———Notes———
• The mod is likely to conflict with ones that modify interaction scoring and/or traits. Should any of them conflict, they can be de-conflicted by downloading S3PE → Open the mod (or the other conflicting mod) in S3PE → Delete the conflicting sub-file → Save the mod. This does mean that only one of the mods can modify a specific sub-file at a time.
• When entering a rabbit hole, the horse will unfortunately squeeze and bend into a Slenderman-like demonic creature (as can be seen in image 3 of the gamemod's image set). For rabbit holes specifically, this does not seem to impede the horses at all, so players can consider it as that the horse is... shaping up for the rabbit hole visit. 😎