Perfect Stride Horse Card Game Review

Perfect Stride is a card game that allows players from ages thirteen to adult, to compete in a horse race over jumps. Two to four players are dealt cards that signify special riding skills and horse abilities that are used to navigate the cross country race course. Every obstacle successfully cleared earns players jump ribbons and points. The winner is the player that finishes the course first with the most ribbon points.

Each of the players is dealt a Game Summary Card that they can use as reference. This card explains the basic rules of the games and serves as a reminder on what each player must do on their turn, how to use skill and care cards and how many to play. There are five different cards players can use.

The Skill Cards must be matched to the jump difficulty and determine the effort required to clear the jump. If you match or exceed a jump's difficulty, you earn extra points. Skill cards also have a function you can play. For example: "Thanks to a good trim and fresh set of shoes from your skilled farrier, your horse feels quick and agile on this course. If you draw or are given an unlucky event, ignore its effects."

Jump Cards describe the type of jump to be cleared, and the difficulty of the jump. The 'Dinner's Served' card signifies just one of the several types of jump and explains lots of power is required to clear this big stack of hay bales. This card is worth six points.

The Horse Cards describe the types of jumps the horse is good at, and determine points for effort clearing those jumps.

Horse Care Cards give horses special abilities that can be used during a player's turn. For example, if you draw the horse Tempest, the card describes the horse as multi-talented and bold who takes charge if not guided and can be temperamental with an insensitive rider.

Event cards signify unlucky or lucky events that can occur during a player's turn.

Pace Cards determine how fast riders are going and Ribbon Cards are given for each successful jumps. There is also a lead rider token.

Perfect Stride can be played by two, three or four players. Each of the four types of cards and each type must be separated from the main deck and shuffled. The dealer then deals three Horse Cards to each player. Each player then examines their horse cards, choose one horse to compete with and returns the remaining two horse cards to the deck. The dealer then draws ten jump cards and places them face down on the table. This is the jump course and jumps can not be looked at ahead of time, or their order changed. The Finish Line card is placed at the end of the 'jump course'. All the extra jump cards are returned to the box.

The Skill and Event Cards are set out face down. Each rider draws a Pace Card from the pile and the rider with the fastest pace walk, trot, canter or gallop, gets the Lead Rider Token. This signifies that this rider goes first over each jump card. Once the leader is determined, each rider gets a walk, trot, canter and gallop card. Each rider then gets three Skill Cards that are held so the other players can not see them. The ribbon cards are divided into ten piles and placed alongside of the jump cards already laid out. These are stacked highest to lowest.

To begin game play, each player chooses one of their Pace Cards and lays it face down in front of them. Then all players turn over their Pace Cards. The player who has turned over the fastest pace is the new lead rider and gets the Lead Rider Token. At each jump the players draws the number of Skill Cards shown on their Pace Cards. Then the Jump Cards are revealed and players apply their Event and Skill Cards to each jump. At the end of each turn, your Event Card must be discarded and you receive a Ribbon Card. The Pace Card is passed to each player as they play the Jump Card. When the last jump has been cleared by all the riders, they play a pace card for a race to the finish line. The players choose a Pace Card from their hand and the determines the order they cross the finish line. Each rider gets a Ribbon Card from the Finish Line card stack.

Perfect Stride Variations

A shorter game may be played, or simpler card game may be played by pulling out all the Pace, Event and Finish Cards and the Lead Rider Token.

Playing Perfect Stride will take a lot of reading, both of the instructions and the playing cards. It will also require math skills to add points. There is some problem solving as players must decide the best cards to play. And there will be lots of interaction as players discuss strategy and play.

Because of the many different card combinations that could be pulled, you'll never play exactly the same game twice. Junior Rider rules are available from Perfect Stride's website, and the website offers extra instructions as well as bonus downloads and activities. Perfect Stride complies with the USA CPSIA safety guidelines.

The game packs easily into a small box and would be perfect for travel. The artwork is beautiful, with 95 individual pieces of artwork.

Although the game play looks complicated there is lots of support if you don't understand something. The website has instructional videos to help you out. I loved the artwork, from the box it came in to the cards. It would be nice if there were game play for more than four people and perhaps a solitaire game. The list price of $24.95 might be a tad high. I really liked the educational component of the game. You won't learn all about jumping but there are some interesting tidbits about good horse care along he way. I think this would be a great game for Pony Club meetings and rainy afternoons when the weather is not good for riding. You might even get non-horse lovers engaged and learning a bit about horses. (I'm sure my son would have appreciated the equivalent dirt bike game.)

Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.