Horses of Hoofprint Bay includes an in-game library — an encyclopedia of equestrian knowledge that covers both the game mechanics and real-world horses. It is worth calling out separately from the rest of the guide, because it is the feature that makes the game educational rather than merely equine-themed.
The systems in this game are modelled on real practice — hoof picking preventing abscesses, desensitization building confidence, Caprilli tests assessing training progress. A library that documents the underlying knowledge gives the player a way to understand not just what to click but why. It also means the game can teach something genuinely useful to a complete beginner, which is the kind of thing that separates a cozy sim from a themed one.
The dual purpose is the point. Entries covering game systems tell you what a trait does, what a threshold requires, or what an upgrade unlocks. Entries covering real horses explain what a saddle sore actually is, why hoof care prevents abscesses, what desensitization involves and why it works. Players who came for the management layer will use the first kind; players who came for the horses will use the second. Both are in the same place.
The library is also the fastest way to understand the game's deeper systems without external guides. When a trait name on a breeding screen is opaque, the library entry for that trait will explain both what it does mechanically and what it means about the animal. That combination — the number and the meaning — is exactly what a wiki page on the trait would need to give you, which is why the breeds and traits pages on this wiki are worth cross-referencing against the in-game library once you have it in front of you.
Chinese-language coverage of the game has specifically highlighted the educational value alongside the play value, and the studio's German horse-riding background shows in how consistently the real mechanics are respected rather than parodied. For a game whose core loop is brushing a horse and picking out its hooves, that consistency is what makes the whole thing work — and it is why the library got the attention it did.