The Horse Race Tests have gone viral on Twitter and other social media platforms over the past few weeks, but what are they actually? Where did these videos come from?
The seemingly simple series of videos started with an indie developer posting a “prototype” for a new game they were working on, with some strangely shaped horses racing through a simple series of obstacles to get to a carrot.
This small video quickly turned into an entire series, complete with its own plot arcs, characters, ridiculously well-detailed fan art that tells a narrative of its own, and a conclusion that left fans wanting more.
Here’s everything you need to know about the Horse Race Tests.
What are the Horse Race Tests?
Running from April 1 to April 25, the HRT or Horse Race Tests are a series of videos that are, on their surface, incredibly simple. They’re some strange blob horses with different visual designs getting thrown through a maze, bouncing around and loosely interacting with each other.
The series had viewers betting on which horse would win, just like any other actual horse race. The horses bounce around seemingly at random until one ultimately gets to the carrot.
Early races were simple. They lasted the length of one video, only around 2 minutes, with a horse reaching the carrot with relative ease each time.
However, the creator kept warping the maps to get horses trapped in particular zones with each other, creating more drama and having them bounce off of each other more often in the simulation.
“I was experimenting with getting the horses more easily trapped in that zone and it seems like this shape works a bit better,” the dev said when trying to come up with new map shapes.
Eventually, fans got tired of seeing their favorite horses lose. Cyan in particular garnered an early fandom, with them having a big frown and almost always failing to get through the early sections of the maze. White, meanwhile, was a serial thrower and couldn’t secure a win early on.
This came to a head when Brown, Cyan, and White were all put into one map on e1m2t1, and Brown still won despite Cyan and White having a solid chance. But eventually, the horses got real names, and the storyline began to form. Things began getting strange.
Cyan was completely missing from e1m3t4’s main race, being left all alone on a map after getting to the carrots. This was the creator essentially throwing Cyan a bone so they could finally win a race. But, after this, the next race looked different.
Every contestant was replaced with “Nightmare” horses.
There were a few races alternating between the Nightmare subplot and normal races, until White (Superstitional Realism) was placed against A Mysterious Figure in the first crossover between two realms, with White essentially facing its own mirror form.
Eventually, it came down to White and Orange having to face 3 Nightmare horses, one of which bore a striking resemblance to Cyan: Garbage Bin.
And, with this horse that may or may not be Cyan winning, the races concluded. No victory screen or anything like normal, just straight to credits.
There’s a lot more to the story than that, with Jovial Merryment and Yellow having something of a romantic subplot, but a lot of the “story” here is generated by the community rather than the original uploader and is based on conjecture. However, it’s pretty safe to say the way it ended was a complete and total cliffhanger, leaving a ton of fan questions unanswered.
Complete list of Horse Race Test characters
The full roster of characters in the HRT and their colors are as follows:
Regular Horses
- Bullet’n Board – Blue
- Comely Material Morning – Pink
- Cyan
- Door Knob – Brown
- Downtown Skybox – Grey
- Jovial Merryment – Orange
- Resolute Mind Afternoon – Red
- Superstitional Realism – White
- Yellow
Nightmare Horses
- A Mysterious Figure
- Garbage Bin – 006
- Nighttime Knifemare – 003
- 005
- 006
- 008
- 009
- 00B
- 00E
- 2B5
Are the Horse Race Tests ever coming back?
At this time, there’s no indication the Horse Race Test will come back. Its creator is a game developer who has other projects they’re working on, and, while they did purposely put something of a plot in the races, much of the larger story here is community driven.
Though it arguably ended on a cliffhanger that didn’t explain much, most of the plot here is completely up to interpretation. There’s a good chance the Horse Race Tests never return.
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