Rival Stars Horse Racing is the best horse game you can play in 2026: a racing and breeding sim with real depth that runs on almost every platform, from PC and consoles to phones. Below it are 19 more games where horses are the point, not just a way across a map: stable and ranch sims, show jumping, racing management, breeding, online horse worlds, and a couple of adventures built around one rider and one horse.
We ranked them on three things. First, how much of the game is about horses: care, training, breeding, competition, and the bond with a single animal. Second, how each game is received, using Steam’s user reviews and, where a game has them, critics’ scores on Metacritic, all as of November 4, 2026. Third, how easy it is to play today. Platforms come from each game’s official store page or its developer’s site. Two famous open-world games made the cut because their horses are celebrated on their own; Zelda did not, and the FAQ explains why.
20. My Riding Stables: Life with Horses
Platforms: PC (Steam). Steam reviews: 88 percent positive across about 250 reviews.
Sproing’s 2014 stable sim is the oldest game on this list, and it still works as a first step into the genre. The Riding Stables at Mill Creek start out as ruins, and you rebuild the stables, the riding hall and the guesthouse while paying guests fund the work. It is simpler than the newer sims further up, but the loop of fixing up a yard and looking after the horses in it is the same one the whole genre still runs on, and Steam rates it Playable on Steam Deck.
19. DreamWorks Spirit Lucky’s Big Adventure
Platforms: Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, and PC (Steam). Steam reviews: 80 percent positive across 30 reviews.
This is the pick for younger riders. Published by Outright Games and built on DreamWorks’ Spirit films, it sends you across the wild frontier with Lucky’s mustang, Spirit, and her best friends Abigail and Pru, following a mysterious treasure map. It is an adventure first and a horse sim a distant second, but it is gentle, bright, and on every major platform, which is more than most horse games for kids can say. Steam rates it Verified on Steam Deck.
18. Horse Tales: Emerald Valley Ranch
Platforms: Switch, PS4, PS5, and PC (Steam). Steam reviews: Mixed, 62 percent positive across about 880 reviews.
Horse Tales is a horseback adventure built around Emerald Valley Ranch, with the valley’s mysteries to uncover as you ride its open countryside. Its Steam reviews are the weakest here, so treat it as a console pick for riders who want a valley to explore on horseback, more than as a deep sim. It earns a spot for one more reason: its developer, Aesir Interactive, went on to co-develop The Legend of Khiimori, which sits much higher on this list.
17. Medieval Horse Dealer Simulator
Platforms: PC (Steam). Steam reviews: 88 percent positive across about 220 reviews.
The newest sim here (it launched August 17, 2026) turns the horse trade into a business game. One Slice of Pizza Games has you buy and sell horses, mix their feed, and breed generations of stallions, racehorses, draft horses and war horses, then train them and send them to auction. Around that core sit mining, forging, farming, caravans, a mercenary company and the lords you have to keep happy. If you like your horse games with a spreadsheet’s worth of bloodlines, this is the one.
16. Horse Life
Platforms: Roblox (free to join). Visits: about 373 million.
Sonar Studios’ Roblox game is one of the two big horse worlds on the platform. You tame wild horses, breed them, set up a home, and ride across three maps, all with friends in the same server. Like every Roblox experience it is free to join, it runs anywhere Roblox does, and it is the easiest way on this list to get a group of young riders playing together.
15. Horse Club Adventures 2: Hazelwood Stories
Platforms: Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and PC (Steam). Steam reviews: 87 percent positive across 48 reviews.
Wild River Games’ sequel sends you back to Lakeside to ride with the girls from Horse Club, with adventures on horseback across a colorful world. It is another game aimed at younger players, and a better-reviewed one than most, and it is on Switch, PlayStation, Xbox and PC, which makes it an easy gift for a horse-mad kid with a Switch or PlayStation.
14. Pro Show Jumping
Platforms: PC (Steam). Steam reviews: 83 percent positive across 62 reviews.
If you want the sport rather than the stable, this is the most serious show jumping game around. PSJ Studios built 88 courses with FEI course designers, plus 15 championships, a Career Mode and Puissance, the high-wall event. The whole game is about learning to see strides into a fence, and a course designer with 44 obstacle types lets you build your own rounds and share them with friends. It is niche, it is PC only, and there is nothing else quite like it.
13. The Sims 4 Horse Ranch
Platforms: PC, Mac, PlayStation, and Xbox (an expansion pack for The Sims 4). Steam reviews: Mixed, 50 percent positive across about 290 reviews.
EA’s 2023 expansion adds horses to The Sims 4, and it goes further than you might expect: horses have their own skills (Temperament, Agility, Jumping and Endurance), you can breed, rescue or buy them, and the Equestrian Center runs contests that build to the Ultimate Horse Championship. The new world, Chestnut Ridge, also brings Mini Sheep, Mini Goats and Nectar making. Our list of the best Sims 4 expansion packs shows where it sits among the rest, and the Sims hub covers the whole game.
12. Pocket Stables
Platforms: Switch, PS4, Xbox, PC (Steam), iOS, and Android. Steam reviews: 90 percent positive across about 190 reviews.
Kairosoft’s pixel-art management sims are built for short sessions, and this one is about racing: you run a ranch, train your racehorses, and chase a Triple Crown. It is light, quick to learn and hard to put down, and it is on more platforms than almost anything else here. Steam rates it Verified on Steam Deck, which suits a game made for five minutes at a time.
11. Wild Horse Islands
Platforms: Roblox (free to join). Visits: about 691 million.
With about 691 million visits, Happy Acres’ Wild Horse Islands is one of the most-played horse games anywhere, and it has been running since 2021. You capture wild horses, train them, bond with them and customize them, then ride the islands with whoever else is in your server. For a free game it has a surprising amount of horse in it.
10. Equinox: Homecoming
Platforms: PC (Steam). Steam reviews: 80 percent positive across about 1,350 reviews.
Blue Scarab Entertainment’s online horse game, released March 5, 2026, mixes riding with a murder mystery. You come home to an island on edge, trying to find out what happened to your mother and why a local died suddenly, and every trail you ride turns up another clue. It is built to be played with friends, with group races across more than 15 courses and plenty of rider and horse customization. Steam lists it as an MMO and rates it Unsupported on Steam Deck, so plan on a PC.
9. Horse Racing Manager
Platforms: PC and Mac (Steam, Early Access). Steam reviews: 89 percent positive across 240 reviews.
Sheep Meadow Road Games’ management sim treats racing as a career. You start as an unemployed manager or a jockey, buy horses at auction, breed and train future champions with a Pseudo-DNA system, and balance staff, finances and race entries across a range of tracks. Jockey Mode puts you in the saddle for the races themselves. It has been in Early Access since October 24, 2025, and it already has the deepest breeding model of any racing game here.
8. Unbridled: That Horse Game
Platforms: PC (Steam, Early Access). Steam reviews: 85 percent positive across about 500 reviews.
Mind Evotion Games calls Unbridled “the ultimate horse simulator,” and its feature list backs up the ambition: a horse creator, daily care, a riding school, horseback archery, gardening, an obstacle course builder and breeding, with online co-op so a friend can ride alongside you. The studio lists competitions such as show jumping as still to come, which is the main reason it is not higher. It has been in Early Access since February 19, 2025, and it is the one to watch.
7. Shadow of the Colossus
Platforms: PS4 (plays on PS5). Metacritic: 91. Also in the PlayStation Plus Extra Game Catalog.
There is no stable, no breeding and no shop in Shadow of the Colossus, and it still belongs on any list of horse games. Bluepoint Games and JAPAN Studio’s 2018 remake of the PS2 classic sends Wander and his horse, Agro, across an empty land to bring down sixteen colossi, and Agro is the closest thing the game has to a second character. She is the only company you have, she carries you between every fight, and the game is built so you feel it. This is the open-world pick for anyone who wants the bond rather than the chores. It is on the PlayStation Store and in PlayStation Plus Extra.
6. Horses of Hoofprint Bay
Platforms: PC (Steam, Windows and Linux). Steam reviews: 100 percent positive across about 85 reviews on launch day.
The newest game on this list came out on November 4, 2026, and it went straight in. Thogli Studios, which describes itself as “three horse girls,” made a hand-drawn 2D barn game that starts with a run-down stable and a single mare. From there you groom with a brush and hoofpick, treat injuries, train your horses’ strength and confidence, ride trails, and enter show jumping and cross country for prize money. Foals inherit their parents’ coloring, markings and personality, a breeding lab opens up late in the game, and you hire staff as the yard grows. The studio says it was made entirely by humans, with no generative AI. It is $26.99, with a 15 percent launch discount until November 11, and Steam rates it Playable on Steam Deck. Launch-day reviews are a small sample, so it could climb or slip once more people finish it. Our guides cover how to buy horses and how to breed foals in it.
5. The Legend of Khiimori
Platforms: PC (Steam and Epic, Early Access). Steam reviews: 81 percent positive across about 2,000 reviews.
Khiimori is the most unusual horse game here. You play a courier rider in 13th-century Mongolia, bonding with your horse and taming the open wilds, and the horses are the whole game: you breed and train them for specialized abilities, and those abilities are how you get to every corner of the landscape. Aesir Interactive and NightinGames launched it in Early Access on March 3, 2026, and publisher Mindscape says the full release is planned for PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Switch 2.
4. Star Stable Online
Platforms: PC, Mac, iOS, and Android, with progress shared between computer and mobile.
Star Stable is the long-running online horse game. You ride and care for your own horses across the island of Jorvik, raise a foal into a healthy horse that joins you on your adventures, and the studio keeps adding to Jorvik with regular updates. You can start for free, but a free account stops at level 5; Star Rider membership, as a subscription or a lifetime purchase, opens up the rest of the game, including stables such as Jorvik Stables and Starshine Ranch. It is the pick for anyone who wants a horse game they can live in for years.
3. Red Dead Redemption 2
Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, and PC (plays on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S through backward compatibility). Metacritic: 97 on PS4. Steam reviews: 92 percent positive across about 860,000 reviews.
Rockstar’s western is the one big open-world game here, and its horses are the reason. Every horse has its own bond level, from 1 to 4, and raising it pays off: a closer horse hears your whistle from farther away, holds its nerve around gunfire and predators, gets small stat boosts and learns new moves. Getting there means looking after it, so you brush your horse, feed it, and learn how to call your horse when it wanders off. You can also lasso and break a wild horse, and your horse doubles as Arthur’s storage for long guns, pelts and outfits, as our guide to storing items on your horse explains. Our Red Dead hub has every guide for the game.
2. The Ranch of Rivershine
Platforms: PC (Steam). Steam reviews: 94 percent positive across about 2,090 reviews.
The Ranch of Rivershine is the best cozy horse game you can buy, and one of the best-reviewed games on this list. Cozy Bee Games’ ranch sim has you build up your own horse ranch, raise foals, care for your horses and train them as you explore the countryside around town. Cross country competitions give the training a goal, and the villagers you befriend help the ranch grow. It spent two years in Early Access before its full release on May 23, 2025, and it came out the other side as one of the best-reviewed horse games on Steam. If you want a horse farm to look after rather than a racing career, start here.
1. Rival Stars Horse Racing
Platforms: PC and Mac (Steam), PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, iOS, and Android. Steam reviews: 91 percent positive across about 5,100 reviews.
PikPok’s racing sim is the most complete horse game you can play. Racing is the heart of it, and around the races sits a full stable career, with an in-depth breeding system for future champions, show jumping as a second discipline, a Horse Creator for designing your own, and Photo Mode for the results.
What puts it at the top is how many kinds of horse fan it serves at once. Racing fans get a career with real decisions, breeders get bloodlines worth planning, and anyone who just wants to look after a beautiful horse gets that too. Multiplayer racing and the Betting Party mode give friends a way in, and it plays almost everywhere: the Desktop Edition is on Steam for PC and Mac (Steam rates it Verified on Steam Deck), the official site lists PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox Series X|S and One, and Nintendo Switch, and there are iOS and Android versions too. There is even a separate VR Edition on Steam if you want to ride in a headset.
Honorable Mentions
These just missed the cut. Umamusume: Pretty Derby is a free racing and training game whose Steam page says it won Best Mobile Game at The Game Awards 2025, but its racers are anime “horse girls” rather than horses. Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord has the best mounted combat on PC, though its horses are gear more than companions. Crimson Desert has a horse you can tame and ride across a huge open world, as our guide to taming a horse in Crimson Desert shows, and My Little Pony: A Zephyr Heights Mystery is a sweet pick for very young players who prefer ponies.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best horse game in 2026? Rival Stars Horse Racing. It has the best mix of racing, breeding and horse care of any game on this list, and it is on PC, Mac, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and mobile. If you want a cozy ranch rather than a racing career, The Ranch of Rivershine is the pick.
What is the best free horse game? Star Stable Online is the deepest free start, but a free account stops at level 5 and the rest needs a Star Rider membership. On Roblox, Wild Horse Islands and Horse Life are free to join and play with friends.
What is the best horse game for kids? DreamWorks Spirit Lucky’s Big Adventure and Horse Club Adventures 2 are made for younger players and are on Switch, PlayStation and PC. Pocket Stables is simple enough for kids too, and Roblox’s horse games are free and social.
Which horse games let you breed horses? Most of them. Rival Stars, The Ranch of Rivershine, Horses of Hoofprint Bay, The Legend of Khiimori, Horse Racing Manager, Unbridled, Medieval Horse Dealer Simulator and The Sims 4 Horse Ranch all have breeding. Outside this list, Minecraft has it too: here is how to breed horses in Minecraft.
What horse games are on Nintendo Switch? Rival Stars Horse Racing, Pocket Stables, Horse Club Adventures 2, Horse Tales and DreamWorks Spirit Lucky’s Big Adventure are all on Switch. Mindscape says The Legend of Khiimori is planned for Switch 2 at its full release.
Why aren’t Zelda or Minecraft on the list? Both have well-loved horses, but riding is one feature among many rather than the point of the game, which was our bar. If that is what you are after, we have guides to taming a horse in Breath of the Wild and taming a horse in Minecraft, and our Minecraft hub has the rest.