The first horse I ever trained to level 30 — a T5 with no skills, caught in the wild after forty minutes of failed rope throws — sold for under 20 million silver. The carrots, the feed, and the auto-path time cost me more than that in pure opportunity cost. I remember staring at the sale notification and realizing every 'horse training is free money' guide I had read was technically true and practically useless.
The first horse I trained
That experience is why this guide exists. Horse training in BDO has a reputation as a relaxed, AFK-friendly life skill that 'prints silver while you do nothing.' The reputation is half true: it is AFK-friendly, and it does produce silver — but only once you are training the right horses, at the right tiers, with the right side income (imperial delivery) attached. Everyone who starts at T1-T5 wild catches is training the wrong horses.
The gap between 'training is a waste' and 'training is my passive income' is not skill — it is the tier of horse you are willing to invest in first. Most guides skip that sentence because it sounds obvious, but it is the entire game.
What training actually pays
| Horse tier | Training time (approx) | Typical sale | Silver/hour feel |
|---|---|---|---|
| T1-T5 (wild catches) | 2-4 hours to 30 | 5-20M | Poor — learn only |
| T6-T7 (bred) | 1-2 days casual | 80-250M | Okay once stable |
| T8 (bred, good skills) | 2-4 days + breeding luck | 400M - 1B+ | Real income |
| T8 → Imperial delivery | Same, but turn-in | Fixed imperial payout | Steady & reliable |
The pattern that surprises everyone: the silver per hour of T1-T5 training is genuinely terrible — worse than AFK fishing on most servers. You are paying with your attention for horses that barely sell. The curve only turns positive at T6+, and it turns sharply positive at T8 with the right skills (Drift, Instant Accel, Sprint). Everything below that is training wheels in the most literal sense.
The tier ladder and the real gate
Getting to T8 breeding is the actual barrier, and it is a breeding lottery: T6+T6 rarely gives T8; you need a growing herd of T7s and T8s to make the odds work. The mistake new trainers make is selling every decent horse to cash out early — that resets your breeding pool and keeps you at T5-T6 forever.
The sustainable pattern is a loop: breed, keep the best male/female of each tier, sell the excess, and only sell your T8s when they have the three money skills. It takes patience and a breeding stock spreadsheet most players won't bother with — which is exactly why the ones who do bother have the market mostly to themselves.
Imperial horse delivery: the steady earner
Once you have a regular stream of level-30 horses, the smart move is not the Central Market — it is Imperial Horse Delivery, which buys T8 horses (sometimes lower, depending on the day's request) at a fixed premium that is often higher than the open market and, crucially, sells instantly with no listing tax.
This is what turns horse training from a lottery into an income: the imperial turn-in gives your training a reliable floor. Even on a bad breeding week, a trained level-30 horse that meets the imperial request converts to guaranteed silver. Trainers who combine breeding pools + imperial delivery describe it as 'the most underrated passive income in the game' — and they are mostly right, provided you already climbed to T7/T8.
The dream horse angle
The other reason to train: dream horses (Doom, Arduanatt, Dine). If you want one, you need a T8 base and the training/awakening loop anyway — and the training mastery you build along the way makes the dream horse grind dramatically cheaper. Seen this way, horse training is not an income method at all; it is the prerequisite for a mount that changes your whole game feel, with silver as a byproduct.
Train horses for the horse, not the silver. If you need income this week, grind or cook — horse training only pays people who already climbed the tier ladder and treat it as a long game.
Who should (and shouldn't) train
- Yes: players who enjoy the breeding loop, want a dream horse eventually, or already run life skills and want one AFK-ish lane that needs daily check-ins.
- Yes: anyone on a server where imperial horse delivery reliably requests T8s — check your server's daily request before building a breeding program around it.
- No: players who need silver in the next month — the ramp to T8 is too slow.
- No: players who cannot resist selling their breeding stock for quick cash — that single habit keeps you at the unprofitable tiers forever.
If you fall into the first two categories, start the breeding pool now and treat the first month as setup cost. If you fall into the last two, spend your training time on anything else and buy your horse off the market when you need one.
The bottom line
Horse training is a long-game life skill: terrible silver per hour at low tiers, genuinely good once you hold T7/T8 stock and route it through imperial delivery, and indispensable if your goal is a dream horse. The people who fail at it are the ones who start, see the T5 prices, and quit before the compounding begins.
The honest test for you: do you want a dream horse someday, or do you want silver this month? If the first, start training today and ignore the early losses. If the second, skip the stable and go cook.