Howrse Tips

Key to training

Before beginning training, there's important information to understand that will help improve training.
Performing Actions at the Right Time
There is a strategy to Howrse; by following it, you'll get the most out of your game. The time of day/amount of energy your horse has depends on how much energy/morale your horse will get from the action. These are the actions I start with every horse, no matter the breed:
wake up // groom // pasture for 30 minutes // lesson

In order to obtain the most amount of skill possible from training, the morale must be at 100%. Grooming improves the morale of your horse. By doing this first thing, the morale should be at, or close to, 100%. The pasture is next because the horse gains the most amount of energy from the pasture when the horse has a high amount of energy. This will most likely bump up the energy to 100%, or close to it. Your horse has now earned extra energy, because of the timing. Notice when you put your horse in the meadow when it's at about 18% energy, it will barely budge. A lesson should be performed everyday to add extra skill to your horse's top two skills. If this is used everyday, your horse can earn about 50 extra skill points (using a WOY). This will increase the amount of time it will take to train your horse, but it's definitely worth it.
Other Actions and the timing:

Groom: One of the first actions – raises morale which allows to gain skill quicker
Meadow: The more energy the horse has, the more energy it will gain (first thing – your horse has the most energy at this time)
Stroke: Use this when you horse has 0% energy, or close to it. More energy will be given to your horse if it doesn't have a lot at that time
Drink, Carrot, Turnip: time doesn't matter; it won't have an effect
TIP: If you are running out of time for your horse to gain energy, use a carrot (30 minutes), turnip (15 minutes) or stroke (30 minutes). The only mandatory actions for your horse are stroke, groom, and feeding. If you don't have the time (but your horse has the energy) don't bother doing the other actions to waste time.
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Black Market Items & Their Other Uses
A lot of items in the Black Market have a double use – they have their main bonus they add to the horse, but they also help in some way with the training. Most are self explanatory, but some are surprising. Note that you do not need BM items to train your horse.
Chronos' Timer: Allows you to train your horse faster. Just a nice bonus to have; doesn't add skills
Morpheus' Arms: Age your horse without using aging points. Again, a nice bonus, but won't help with skills.
Nyx Pack: Includes a Nyx Star, which cannot be purchase by itself. Your horse will wake up at 6:00 instead of 8:00. Adds more time to train, which results in training faster. Won't help with skills.
Water of Youth: Ages your horse by 1 month, instead of 2. This allows for more lessons to be completed, which adds even more skill to your horse. (I strongly recommend this if you really need the extra skills.)
Black Orchid: Revives your horse to 100% energy, morale, and health. When training in competitions, the day can end very early. By using this in the middle of the day, you can get double the training done. (Strongly recommend) [Note: try not use one everyday; when feeding your horse, you will have to give it 8.3 pounds of grain in order to make up for all the energy that was used.]
Other Bonus items: There are many one pass items that give your horse a bonus. This will help when competing in competitions, but will not have a direct impact on skills otherwise.
Atlante's Pack: This tack pack includes Philotes' Stroke. With this item, you can give your horse another stroke, adding another 14% of extra energy at the most, which results in extra training.
Of all of these, I would most likely use Water of Youth, Chronos' Timer, Black Orchid, and possibly a Morpheus' Arms if I needed it. Again, these items aren't necessary, but very helpful.