The Sims 4: How to Complete the Championship Rider Aspiration

The Sims 4 Horse Ranch Expansion Pack is all about horses, ranches, and nectar making. There are even two aspirations centered around two of these new features. One focuses on being a master nectar maker. The other is becoming a champion horse rider – and that’s the one this guide will focus on. Although the Championship Rider aspiration has only one tier of tasks to complete (as opposed to 3 or 4 like many other aspirations in The Sims 4), it is by no means easy to complete. If you’re struggling to get all the tasks done or are looking for some tips, this guide will help you.

We’ve got more guides for The Sims 4, including these for you to check out:

• The Sims 4 Chestnut Ridge World Guide
• The Sims 4 Horse Ranch Cheats 
• The Sims 4 Goal Oriented Teen Aspiration Guide

Also, be sure to read our review of The Sims 4 Horse Ranch Expansion Pack.

What Is the Championship Rider Aspiration?

Championship Rider is one of two aspirations that comes with The Sims 4 Horse Ranch Expansion. While the other aspiration is all about nectar making, this aspiration focuses on making your Sim a master horse rider. It is also beneficial for the horse they choose to work with.

The Championship Rider aspiration only has one level of tasks to fulfil, but they will take a lot of time and dedication to complete. When you see the tasks, you’ll understand why. There are 4 tasks altogether, and they are:

1. Achieve Level 10 Horse Riding Skill
2. Compete in 15 Horse Competitions
3. Win Gold in 5 Master Horse Competitions
4. Place at the Ultimate Horse Championship

Each of these tasks will take a long time to finish, but this aspiration isn’t impossible to complete. You just need a lot of focus, time and patience. In this guide, we’ll take you through every task and give you some useful tips on completing them.

Keep track of the aspiration tasks via the Aspiration panel.

Before You Start Working on the Championship Rider Aspiration

When you select an aspiration for your Sim in The Sims 4, you want to consider a few things. Does the aspiration suit them? What are the benefits of working on the aspiration? Will my Sim be able to finish it? While having an aspiration chosen for your Sim is mandatory, completing it is optional. However, working on aspirations can have a lot of benefits for your Sim. Having goals to work towards leads to them growing as a Sim. Along the way, they’ll raise skills, get out of the house, make money, and meet other Sims. What exactly you get out of it depends on the aspiration you chose, but whatever you go with, your Sim won’t be the same as they were before they starting working on their aspiration.

The Championship Rider aspiration requires a few things before you really get going. There are also some important things to consider that will help with your progress.

Get a Good Horse!

First up, and it’s probably an obvious one, but you need a horse. Ideally, a good one. There are a few ways to acquire a horse in The Sims 4 Horse Ranch. You can adopt one, have a foal, and create one in Create-A-Sim. 

There are pros and cons for each of these options. It’s probably better to adopt a horse for a thousand simoleons than get a rescue horse for less money. This might be more expensive, but with a rescue horse, they usually come with at least one negative trait.

Getting a Foal

There are three ways to get a foal. You can create one in Create-A-Sim, adopt one, or get a horse pregnant.

If you want to breed your horses to get a foal, it’s pretty straightforward. You first need to own two horses, then get them to breed. A few days later, a foal will be born. Foals will age up automatically after 10 in-game days. There are a few benefits to having a foal and raising them to be a competition horse. Although you obviously can’t ride them or level them up in most of the skills, you can help raise their Temperament skill. This is done by socializing with them. Temperament is a skill that appears in horse competitions, so getting a head start is a good idea. You’ll also develop a bond with your horse, which will help with skill raising and interaction in general.

You can’t ride a foal, but you can raise their Temperament skill and develop a bond with them.

Creating Your Horse in Create-A-Sim

The third option is making your own horse in Create-A-Sim. If you’re planning to work on the Championship Rider aspiration and are starting with a new household, this is an ideal option. This allows you to choose the traits you want for your horse, so they don’t end up with any negative ones. When selecting traits for your horse, avoid the following ones:

• Aggressive
• Defiant
• Fearful

These will hinder the progress of levelling up your horse’s skills in order to succeed in horse competitions. There are a few other traits to watch out for as well, such as:

• Energetic – while it will be easier to raise most of the skills, Temperament will take longer to gain
• Mellow – horses with this trait will gain the Temperament skill faster, but the other three (Agility, Endurance and Jumping) will take longer

With this in mind, with 3 trait slots up for grabs, you ideally want to have at least one or all of the following traits:

• Brave
• Friendly
• Intelligent

Having the right traits for your horse will mean that completing the Championship Rider aspiration will be much easier. However, it’s not just your horse you need to think about, but also the Sim carrying out the aspiration.

When choosing any horse, traits can make a big difference in how easy it is to complete the aspiration.

Make Your Sim a Horse Lover, Not a Horse Hater

It’s no good having a top-notch horse if you haven’t got a top-notch Sim. Even if they have the Championship Rider aspiration assigned to them, if they aren’t suited to it, completing it will be a lot harder.

There are a few things that can help or hinder your Championship Rider Sim. First, make sure they do not have the Dislikes Horse Riding preference. This is a big no-no. Horse riding is central to this aspiration, so if they hate horse riding, life will be that much harder. Your Sim will forever be unhappy while riding a horse, putting them in a bad mood and affecting their efforts of raising the Horse Riding skill and being successful at horse competitions. While playing The Sims 4, if the game ever asks you if you want to accept your Sim gaining the Dislikes Horse Riding preference, reject it! If anything, you want them to have the Likes Horse Riding preference. Whether you’re creating a new Sim or playing with an old household, jump into Create-A-Sim and set their preference to Likes Horse Riding. They’ll be happy while Horse Riding, gain Fun, and have an easier time raising that Horse Riding skill.

Something else you should think about your Sim having is the Horse Lover trait. This will give your Sim a boost whenever they interact with their horse, making socializing and skill raising easier.

The last thing you need is a Sim who hates horse riding. Setting your Sim as Likes Horse Riding will help out a lot.

Take Good Care of Your Horse

A neglected horse is not a happy horse. In The Sims 4 Horse Ranch, not paying enough attention to your horse can lead to them becoming Uncomfortable. This is not good news for levelling up or succeeding in competitions. Your horse’s needs and happiness should come first when working on the Championship Rider aspiration. Make sure they are well-fed, full of energy, not bored, don’t feel lonely, and are clean. Keeping on top of your horse’s needs should put them in a good mood, ideal for skill building and competitions.

Horse Essentials

When owning a horse, you should have each of the following:

• A feeder to put food in. Remember to keep an eye on this and keep it topped up. Some Lots around Chestnut Ridge have wild prairie grass growing, which your Sim can harvest and place in the feeder, or your horse can eat from. Wild prairie grass can also be bought in Build Mode.
• A water trough. It helps with fatigue gained from intense riding and training. 
• A horse bed. Horses don’t always use horse beds. Sometimes they sleep standing (or lying) where they are.
• Exercise ball. The exercise ball boosts their Fun Need.

You can also set up a paddock and horse stall for your horse, so they can have their own space.

Have an area set up just for your horse with everything they need.

There are also obstacle barrels and jumps for horses to raise their Agility and Jumping skills respectively. You can buy your own. However, you can find plenty of these around the three neighborhoods of Chestnut Ridge, so it may not be worth spending your money on these. They require plenty of space to place down as well. You might as well use the free ones around the neighborhood.

Taking Care of Needs

You have everything you need to take care of your horse, but you’ll still need to get involved to keep your horse’s needs in check. For every need, you should do the following:

• Hunger – keep their feeder filled, place some wild prairie grass on your Lot, or you can hand-feed them (you’ll need food on you such as apples and carrots to do this).
• Energy – if your horse’s energy level is getting low, let them rest. Wait a while before training them, riding them, or entering them into another competition or community job. 
• Fun – horses don’t seem to enjoy training-based activities, but they do love a ride. Aim to ride your horse once a day to stave off boredom.
• Social – interacting with your horse will stop them from feeling lonely (and also raises Temperament and relationship). Horses can also interact with other horses.
• Hygiene – this is easy to do, you just need to keep an eye on it. Keep your horse sparkling clean by cleaning their hooves or brushing their coat.

In general, you want a happy and well-cared horse if you want an easier time completing the Championship Rider aspiration.

Monitor your horse’s Needs by hovering the cursor over them, which will display their Needs. Keep a look out for Needs in the orange.

Live in Chestnut Ridge

This probably goes without saying, but if you own a horse, the best place to live is Chestnut Ridge. This world came with The Sims 4 Horse Ranch and was designed for horses and horse-loving Sims alike (as well as ranchers and nectar makers). There is a ton of space to ride around, there are lots of free facilities for horses such as training activities, the pre-made homes are affordable and horse-friendly, and you have access to community boards for jobs and competitions, plus the Equestrian Center for all your horse needs. You can have horses in other worlds if you wish, but Chestnut Ridge is the ideal place if you’re serious about the Championship Rider aspiration.

Chestnut Ridge was created with horses and their riders in mind, making it an ideal place to live and raise a horse.

Make Horse Riding Your Sim’s Full-Time Career

Completing the Championship Rider aspiration takes a lot of commitment. Since your Sim will be busy mastering their Horse Riding skill, maxing out their horse’s skill, and going off to competitions, this is very true. In fact, they probably won’t have time for much else, except your Sim tending to their needs. If you’re serious about finishing this aspiration, it’s best that you don’t have any distractions that will take time away from skill building and horse-related activities.

It’s best that your Sim doesn’t have a career. Being a Championship Rider is practically a full-time job. If your Sim signs up for another career, they’ll be away at work for hours, taking time away from working on their aspiration. If you’re worried about your Sim being unemployed and not making any money to pay the bills, don’t. They can make money by doing community jobs and entering competitions. Competitions do cost money to compete in, but if your Sim places, they’ll get their money back, and more. The harder competitions will make your Sims some serious cash, and a decent income if they enter daily.

Championship Rider Aspiration Tasks

Now it’s time to get down to the serious business of making your Sim a Championship Rider! They will master horse riding, and horse competitions, and ultimately become the best in all of Chestnut Ridge. To make it to the top, your Sim and their horse will have to work hard.

Achieve Level 10 Horse Riding Skill

The first task listed in the Championship Rider aspiration is your Sim maxing out their Horse Riding skill. Mastering any skill in The Sims 4 is difficult, but not impossible. To become a master of horse riding, your Sim is going to need a lot of time and commitment. In other words, they’re going to need to spend a lot of time riding around on horses. This is the best way to max out the Horse Riding skill, by actually doing it. Your Sim will end up working on their Horse Riding skill anyway, as they train their horse up and ride them around.

Your Sim should ride their horse at least once every day. That’s probably all your Sim needs, and their horse. This will also raise your horse’s Endurance skill. The rest of the time should be spent working on your horse’s Agility, Jumping, and Temperament. As your horse works on their Agility and Jumping, your Sim’s Horse Riding skill will increase. As with any skill, it’ll go up pretty quickly at first, but as they progress through the levels, it will take much longer to reach the next skill level. Keeping working at it and eventually they’ll make it to the top.

At first, your Sim will look a bit nervous riding a horse, but with plenty of practice and experience, they’ll soon improve.

Look to the Community Board

The Horse Riding skill also improves when your Sim signs up for community jobs. They’ll make some decent bucks from doing this. A good time to do this is after a competition, which your horse cannot do another after a cooldown time. Community jobs do take longer to finish than competitions, and generally make less money, but they do have benefits. Your Sim will get paid depending on the level of Horse Riding and the specific horse skill listed for the job. Also, your Sim will gain Horse Riding skill, and your horse will get a boost in one of the four skills depending on the job.

There are other ways to boost your Sim’s Horse Riding skill. There is the traditional way of reading up skill books, but this takes longer, and to be honest, it’s less fun.

It’s generally very hard to avoid maxing out your Sim’s Horse Riding skill. If they ride their horse every day for several hours, they’ll eventually get to level 10. They’ll also need to master Horse Riding if they want a shot at winning the Ultimate Horse Championship.

Boosts your Sim and horse’s skills by doing community jobs and sending your horse to classes.

Compete in 15 Horse Competitions

For the second task of the Championship Rider aspiration, you have to enter 15 horse competitions. Note that it says “Compete”, not “Place” or “Win”. That’s right, you just have to enter a horse competition 15 times to fulfil this task. Saying that, 15 is a lot of competitions! 

Altogether, there are 17 horse competitions that you can enter. There are four types of horse competition: 

• Barrel Racing
• Endurance Racing
• Show Jumping
• Western Pleasure

You can only enter one competition a day, or your horse can anyway. If you have another horse, you can enter them on the same day. However, if you’re working with just one horse for the Championship Rider aspiration, you’re limited to one competition a day. With this in mind, when selecting a competition to enter, note your Sim and horse’s skill levels, and enter the one that they’re most likely to win. It would be a shame to enter a competition and not place. If this does happen, it’s not the end of the world. Just try again the next day. If you’re Sim is struggling to do well, work on their Horse Riding skill or their horse’s skills.

Confident horses (and Sims) tend to do better at competitions.

How Competitions Work

Every competition has different skill requirements, both for your Sim and horse, but especially your horse. Note that these skills are a guide rather than a requirement. You don’t have to match the required skill level to enter. You can enter a competition if your Sim or their horse doesn’t meet the required skill levels. They can even win! It is ideal though to meet the minimum recommended level, if you don’t want any disappointments.

Every competition has three skills: one is always your Sim’s Horse Riding skill. The other is two horse skills depending on the competition. When you go to select a horse competition to enter, it’ll show you the recommended skills. It will also tell you if your Sim and horse meets the recommended level. This will give you an idea of whether or not your Sim and their horse is ready. If you’re not sure, you can always give it a try. You never know; you might win!

All competitions (except the Ultimate Horse Championship) has four difficulty levels: Beginner, Intermediate, Expert, and Master. The only competition available at first is Beginner. You have to place at each level to unlock the next difficulty up, right up to Master. You don’t need to win and get gold in every difficulty level to unlock Master. The same goes for the Ultimate Horse Championship – except if you want a great chance at winning, you’ll need to master Horse Riding and your horse’s skills.

Competitions require an entry fee. If you find yourself short on money, complete some community jobs before entering. Hopefully though, with a well-trained horse and Sim, you’ll be raking in that prize money from competitions. You can make a good living from it!

Win Gold in 5 Master Competitions

The third task of the Championship Rider aspiration follows up from the previous one. It’s a little more specific though. This focuses on Master competitions, and not just that, but getting the top prize in 5 of them! That’s quite an ask, but not an impossible one.

Master competitions are the highest level of each of the four competitions. You can’t even enter these without placing in the previous difficulty competitions. The good thing about this task is that the master competition doesn’t have to be different. If your Sim and their horse excels in one particular competition, focus on that one, reach the master level, and then win 5 times. You’re not guaranteed to win every time, even if you do meet the required skill levels. It’s not like you have to get gold 5 times in a row, so if you fail to achieve the top prize in one master competition, just try again the next day.

Place at the Ultimate Horse Championship

This is it. The fourth and final task of the Championship Rider aspiration, and it’s the biggest and best of them all. This is what you’ve been working towards, and it’s the finale of the aspiration. You have to place at the Ultimate Horse Championship! Notice that I said “Place”, not “Win”. This will probably ease some stress for you, because to get that gold, you must max out the Horse Riding skill, and all four horse skills.

If you want to at least place, you probably don’t have to have everything maxed out. Saying this, while working to reach qualifying for the Ultimate Horse Championship, your skills should be at around level 9. Ideally, you want them at level 10, but you could possibly get away with having skills at level 8. If your skills do fall a bit short and you fail to place, keep levelling up those skills. You’ll get there eventually. The previous tasks for Championship Rider have prepared you well for this.

Before you can even attempt the Ultimate Horse Championship, you have to place in all the other competitions.

Rewards for Completing the Championship Rider Aspiration

If you’ve fulfilled every task in the Championship Rider aspiration, congratulations! All that hard work finally paid off. Is it worth it though? By the end of it, you’ll have a Sim with level 10 Horse Riding skill, a horse that has probably maxed out all four skills (and is now very valuable), and several competition titles to their name. Apart from all this, what else do you get? In actual fact, like all aspirations in The Sims 4, your Sim will get a reward trait for their efforts.

The Grand Champ Trainer trait is what your Sim will get for completing the Championship Rider aspiration. This bonus trait comes with several perks, including:

• A Sim with this trait will be able to train horses faster, increasing the rate of their Agility, Endurance, Jumping and Temperament.
• They can sell horses for higher prices. The highest value a horse can be is around 20,000 simoleons, so imagine what a Grand Champ Trainer can sell this horse for!
• While riding and training, the Sim and their horse will gain Confidence, which helps with skill building and entering competitions.
• This Sim will rarely have a bad time riding this horse, meaning they won’t gain any negative moodlets or go into a bad mood.
• The horse’s Fun Need will improve quicker when being ridden by a Grand Champ Trainer.
• The Sim will have the Give Competition Advice social to help aspiring horse riders.

As you can see from this list, this trait is very rewarding for keen horse riders in The Sims 4, so it’s worth completing the aspiration. If you’re new to The Sims 4 Horse Ranch or just the horse riding aspect of the Expansion, this aspiration is a good way of encouraging you to explore horse riding and get the most out of it.