Choosing Competitions for your Horse

Entering competitions on howrse is one of the largest parts of the game. Horses can gain skills form competitions and win equus. Twenty wins is required for BLUPing, and this all plays into the breeder rankings.
But how do you know which competitions to enter your horse in?
Each comp has the top three skills it required to successful in it, so a pretty good way to judge what a horse will be good at is by it's breeds top three skills. The comps that cater to those skills are what the horse will likely be best at.
So here are the competitions with their required skills ordered form most important to least important.

Classical Competitions

Trot competition 

- Trot

- Speed

- Dressage

Gallop competition 

- Gallop

- Speed

- Dressage

Dressage competition

- Dressage

- Trot

- Gallop

Cross Country competition

- Stamina

- Dressage

- Jumping

Show Jumping competition

- Jumping

- Dressage

- Speed

Western Competitions

Barrel Racing competition

- Speed

- Stamina

- Gallop

Cutting competition

- Stamina

- Dressage

- Speed

Trail Class competition

- Dressage

- Trot

- Jumping

Reining competition

- Gallop

- Dressage

- Stamina

Western Pleasure competition

- Trot

- Stamina

- Dressage

Now you just need to pick the competition that matches your horses tops skills. You can check what a breeds' top skills are by going 'Community > Directories > Breeding Farms' from the tabs at the top of the page. Then find your horses breed and click the little book icon underneath it. That will show you what the breed looks like, their possible coats and percentage chance of getting them, and its' talents or each of the skills. (You can also get to the same page by just clicking the horses' breed on its' page with is under 'Characteristics')

While it's not a fool proof way to tell what your horse will be good at it does give you a good idea. It also is a good way to decide which specialty is best for which breed. One should note though that where a horse wins is also decided by where it's skill rank against the rest of it's breed and the horses it competes against. So say if you had a Purebred Spanish Horse that had the best trotting skill out of all Purebred Spanish Horses then it would do well in trotting against it's own breed because, even though trotting is the breeds' and the horses' worst skill, that horse has the highest score in that skill and therefore the best chance of winning.
So if you have a horse that isn't doing well or a new breed you're training try matching the skills to the competition and see how it goes.

Happy Howrseing!