Whichever one relates to their name the most and looks best with their coat color. For instance, if a horse's name has something to do with stars, I'm likely to use the milky way background.

And most of my exploring horses have some wild-looking background.

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^^ I agree that many of them simply look strange. For example, I have a PON with the apple orchard background, and two of the horse's hooves are on top of the log, which looks really weird.

I love the Hay Field impresionist feel.

The new Oak and Castle and Valley of Eden designs look great with every horse.

The simple old orchard looks great with many horses.

Love the tulip and wisteria views.

The atmospheric thunderstorm, and secret ruins are useful.

Also like both waterfalls.

Do like the Underwater and on the Moon views less often used.

Least like the claustrophobic Auction and Stall.

Have never used the plain colours, but do understand that they may appeal to others.

Have not voted as not sure about which category listed I like best.

I also like to tie the name of the horse with similar themed background if possible.

I voted for stable settings, but I actually also like arenas.

Fantasy because I'm trying to ESCAPE from my life

I’m personally not the biggest fan of fantasy styles like floating islands, or unrealistic backgrounds like the moon, but they have their place! Anything else is great for me, from scenic backdrops to stable/pasture/competition ones. I love the style of the new backgrounds overall - my favorite is Desert Arcadia, followed by Hills of Tuscany, as some of the others either have such busy, highly detailed backgrounds that they detract from the horse, or it looks like a horse is standing on top of blades of grass, rocks, flowers, etc, so I would especially appreciate attention to detail on that. Just keeping the immediate foreground clear, with low cut or no grass would be one solution, otherwise just testing the background with each breed model before release would work (I say that because the new beach background, for example, looks stellar with most breeds, but I know for sure that the ISH have a back foot that connects really awkwardly with a rock).

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Speaking of that beach background, will we ever see the re-release of those event shop backgrounds and items? I initially didn’t pay them much attention because all of my horses are on randomized scenic backgrounds, which will show the event ones occasionally, but now I am wishing I had purchased them so that I have the option to select them individually. I’m regretting missing out on that summer event tack too </3

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Finally, I’ve mentioned this before, but I would LOVE to see a way to select *certain* backgrounds to be randomized, either one you could set for all of your horses at once, or individually. That way I could see just my favorites, and skip the ones I don't care for, but still get a variety instead of setting one specific background for each horse.

Can we please have more dynamic backgrounds that change with the seasons?!?!

I have an idea for a new background we have a winners circle but no race track background for the thoroughbreds why not make one.

I prefer the backgrounds that aren't too contrasty, mostly simple, but have rich color. My favorites are the Pasture, Night Pasture, Forest, Northern Lights, Thunderstorm, Water Lily, and Field (seasonal, esp. fall and the rainy day). Underwater is great too, if a little strange to find a horse there! Enchanted Forest, which would seem to not fit my preferences mentioned above, actually works well because of its dark, rich colors. I think it spotlights the horse in the center with dark color all around.

Mountains, Moab Desert and Rainbow Beach I find too hard to see the horses against (distracts from the horse's outline, especially if they have any pattern at all).

Some suggestions: Sand Dunes (for Arabians), Tropical Beach (Tahiti-style turquoise waters), Willow Tree Pond (kind of like Water Lily, but in blues and greens). And, if horses can live underwater, then they can also live in a cloud pasture in the sky!