At the beginning of the game, when you're creating your character; you're prompted to choose the cat or the dog preference. This decides which animal you will be offered to adopt later in the game.

The animal will be offered to you by Marnie one morning when you leave your house; this event is specifically triggered when you earn your first 1,000g. The event will not be triggered if it isn't sunny or on a Wednesday or Friday.

You don't have to adopt the pet that Marnie brings, but if you choose to adopt the pet then the name you choose for it cannot be changed (unlike Coop or Barn animals).

Once a day, you can click on your pet and a small heart bubble will appear, indicating 12 friendship points (your pet's maximum amount of friendship points is 1000).

When you reach this 1000 points, the next time you pet your animal you will receive the message
"<Animal Name> loves you ♡". Unfortunately, this is the only way to check your pet's friendship level in-game.

If you fill the water bowl just north-west of the house, then your friendship with your pet will increase by 6 points.

Once you have bought a Stable from Robin, you will receive a horse which you can ride. The horse gives you 30% increase in movement speed. You will be prompted to name your horse when you attempt to ride it for the first time. And like your cat or dog, you cannot change the name that you choose.

Your horse will wait for you if you leave it somewhere, but if you go to bed after leaving your horse outside of the Farm, it will automatically find it's way home in the night and be in the Stable the next day.

Horizontally, the horse can go anywhere. However, when travelling vertically the horse requires two squares so cannot fit through some tight spaces (it can still travel through gates though). Also, your horse will not slow down when riding through crops on the farm.

Fun Facts:

• There is a bug where if you park your horse behind the ice cream stand while it's unattended; you'll be able to buy ice cream.
  
• There is also a bug where if you ride near a wood fence, you can pass through it.

I hope that this guide proves helpful to some people!

Please rate this guide and let me know if it was beneficial to you, and do call me out if I've made any mistakes so that I can fix them as quickly as possible!

Here is a complete collection of my guides (including this one), so that you can access anything that you need from right here!

Animals

Barn Animals

Coop Animals

Pets

Artisan

Honey

Community Center Bundles

Boiler Room

Bulletin Board

Crafts Room

Fish Tank

Pantry

Vault

Quests

Story Quests

'Help Wanted' Quests

Upgrades

Robin's Buildings

Tool Upgrades

Villagers

Gifting

Other Helpful Guides

Abandoned JojaMart Bundle by mitzirox

In addition, please let me know if there's anything else you'd like to see a guide about, as I'm more than willing to work on more!

Happy Farming!