Why Horse Levelling Feels So Slow
Levelling up your horses in the Disney Dreamlight Valley Wishblossom Ranch DLC is super important if you want to keep progressing through the story. The problem is that the usual methods can feel painfully slow, especially when you just want to unlock the next area.
Just like with villagers, you level your horses by increasing your bond with them. The game gives you several ways to do this:
- Give them up to three gifts per day
- Spend quality time with them
- Brush and pet them
- Ride them and jump over obstacles
The catch is that these actions only give your horse one noticeable XP boost per day. After that, progress crawls. If you are trying to get to the next story beat or upgrade a new horse quickly, waiting for the daily reset can feel like forever.
Once a horse hits level 2, you can assign them a skill such as mining rocks, digging holes, harvesting crops, or watering crops. That does open up another way to earn XP, since you can run around using their skill while they tag along.
However, even this more active approach is not exactly speedy. You save your own stamina, which is great, but it still means running all over the valley breaking rocks or digging holes for fairly slow XP gains. If you want something tighter and more focused, there is a much better strategy.
The Secret Horse Levelling Loop Near Wishblossom Ranch
There is a very handy little spot near Wishblossom Ranch that works like a built in training ground for your horses. It is easy to miss, but once you set it up properly, it becomes an amazing XP farm.
Here is where to go:
- Start at Wishblossom Ranch
- Head west from the ranch
- Go underneath the bridge that leads from the ranch toward Glamour Gulch
Under that bridge you will find a small meadow clearing. It already has a few trees and four hay bales set up, almost like a basic obstacle course just waiting for you to use it. If you start your ride at the fence post on the left side of the clearing, you can naturally loop around the entire area and end up right back where you started.
The key mechanic here is simple. Every single time you jump over an obstacle your horse earns a tiny amount of XP. On their own those little gains do not feel like much, but if you can chain them together in a tight loop, the XP starts to add up very quickly.
That is what makes this meadow so good. It is already shaped like a loop, so you can just ride around in circles, jumping over the same set of obstacles again and again. No loading screens, no chasing rocks across the map, just pure, focused levelling.
To really power it up, you can add your own obstacles. Place a few extra shrubs or bushes and turn that simple meadow into a compact training circuit. The original setup has four hay bales, but by decorating the space carefully, you can create a line of jumps with almost no downtime between them.
One example of how effective this is. By dropping four additional bushes mainly between the fence post and the first hay bale, then riding the loop for about ten minutes, it was enough to level up the horse Khan without any brushing, petting, or treats. Just jumping and riding in circles.
How To Build Your Own Mini Obstacle Course
There are a few things to keep in mind when you start decorating this area to maximise XP.
- Do not block the route completely. You still need enough space for your horse to gallop cleanly between jumps.
- Place objects in a smooth curve so you can ride in a comfortable loop instead of zigzagging awkwardly.
- Focus on short spacing. The closer the hurdles are, the more jumps you get per minute, which means more XP.
- Experiment with shrubs, bushes, and decorative items that count as obstacles without totally cluttering the space.
You cannot fill every inch of the meadow because you will just trap yourself, but there is more than enough room to create a tight, efficient route. It is a bit repetitive to ride the same loop over and over but it is still more relaxing and efficient than sprinting all across the valley to mine rocks or dig holes.
Another bonus is that this little training ground is tucked away under the bridge. That means your slightly messy layout of bushes and bales will not spoil the look of Wishblossom Ranch itself. If you care about your valley aesthetics, this is a perfect out of the way place to dump all your functional but ugly setups.
If you do not want to travel to this exact spot, you can technically build an obstacle course anywhere. The game will reward XP for jumping obstacles no matter where they are. The reason this area stands out is that the terrain already forms a loop, so you do less planning and more riding. Plus once you are done, you can simply leave your course there ready for the next new horse you bring home.
So if you are tired of waiting on daily gift resets or slowly levelling through regular work, try turning that quiet meadow under the bridge into your own horse XP grind spot. A few minutes of decorating and some chill laps around the loop can save you a lot of time as you build up a stable of high level horses in Disney Dreamlight Valley.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/life-sim/the-best-way-to-level-your-horse-in-disney-dreamlight-valley-isnt-through-daily-gifts-its-by-creating-a-shoddy-obstacle-course/
