How to Get Epona in Ocarina of Time and What She Unlocks

Ingo bets a horse he does not own against a stranger he has already lost to once, and when he loses her he padlocks the gate on his own ranch to keep the stranger inside. It is the single pettiest thing anyone does in Ocarina of Time, and it is also the game quietly teaching you that Epona can jump.

Nothing in the main quest makes you own a horse. The Longshot crosses the broken bridge in Gerudo Valley just as well, so you can walk into Ganon's Castle having never set foot in Lon Lon Ranch as an adult. What you cannot do without her is play the Horseback Archery Range, and that range holds a Piece of Heart and one of the game's two quiver upgrades. Here is the whole sequence, both races, the escape, and the prizes.

Epona at a glance

Step 1: learn Epona's Song as a child

Epona's Song is the gate, and it sits at the end of a small chain that runs alongside the Spiritual Stones.

You first meet Malon in the Market in Hyrule Castle Town, where she is looking for her father, Talon. She does not give you anything there. Zelda Wiki has her handing over the Weird Egg along the path to Hyrule Castle, and the decompiled code shows she only moves onto the castle grounds after your first visit there, so walk up to the castle once, go back into the Market, and come out again. Our Hyrule Castle guide has that order step by step. Hatch the egg, and the Cucco inside is what you use to wake Talon, who has fallen asleep near the entrance to the Castle Courtyard instead of running his ranch. Wake him and he goes home.

Now visit Lon Lon Ranch as a child. Malon is out in the paddock, she introduces you to a foal named Epona, and she teaches you the song her mother composed:

Play it near young Epona and she stops bolting and comes to you. That is all you get as a child — the ride comes seven years later. The song has a second job from the moment you learn it: play it beside any cow with an empty bottle on hand and the cow produces Lon Lon Milk, which is the cheapest healing in Hyrule once you have bottles to spare. Our bottle locations guide covers where those come from.

Step 2: pay Ingo, then beat him twice

Come back as an adult and the sign says Ingo Ranch. Ingo talked Ganondorf into handing him the place, threw Talon out, and kept Malon working the ranch by threatening the horses if she disobeyed. He is also stuck: he plans to give Epona to Ganondorf as a gift, and he cannot tame her. Malon can. So could you, seven years ago.

The sequence is a money game with three steps.

Two things people get wrong here.

Play Epona's Song before you race. The ranch has several horses, and Epona is the one you are here for. Play the song and she trots over to you, so you are riding her rather than one of the ranch's other horses.

Ingo offers the race, you do not. He proposes the wager once he has watched you ride and decided you are worth beating. Ride a lap or two first if he is not biting.

The first race is one lap around the corral. The second is the same track, run harder by Ingo, with Epona herself as the stake. Lose either one and you simply pay again — nothing is missable, it just costs Rupees. Hug the inside line, use your speed boosts on the straights rather than the corners, and keep at least one in reserve for the final stretch.

Step 3: jump the fence

Win the second race and Ingo keeps his word in the worst possible way. He gives you Epona, then announces he will never let you leave the ranch, and shuts the gates.

The answer is the thing the corral has been training you on for two races. Build up speed, whip Epona into a boost, and jump the ranch wall into Hyrule Field. That is the intended solution and the only one — the gate stays shut.

The aftermath is one of the better small payoffs in the game. Having lost the horse he was saving for Ganondorf, Ingo folds completely, hands the ranch back, and turns into a polite man who says he feels honoured to work there. Talon comes home. Malon goes back to the paddock and finally asks your name.

How riding actually works

Epona has one resource and it is drawn on screen as carrots.

• Six speed boosts. Whipping her spends one carrot for a burst of speed, up to six in a row, and they refill after a few seconds. Boosts are also what clears fences and walls, so a jump you fluff is usually a jump you attempted on an empty meter.
• You are untouchable. Enemies cannot hurt Link while he is mounted. Hyrule Field's roaming enemies stop being a consideration.
• The Bow is your only weapon. No sword, no spin, no bombs. If it cannot be solved with an arrow it cannot be solved from the saddle, which is why the Fairy Bow from the Forest Temple is effectively part of the horse kit.
• She comes when called. After you win her, playing Epona's Song brings her to you across Hyrule Field, Lake Hylia, Gerudo Fortress and some other open outdoor areas. Indoors and in dungeons, nothing happens.

The Horseback Archery Range

This is the reason to bother. Behind the Gerudo's Fortress, down a dirt path past the Thieves' Hideout, there is an oblong range with a target board at each end and three more along the cliff wall, with pots stacked on crates in front of them.

Two keys get you in: the Gerudo Token — the membership card you earn by freeing the four imprisoned Carpenters — and Epona, because the Gerudo who runs it will only talk to you while you are mounted. Each attempt costs 20 Rupees.

Epona gallops up and down the range on her own. You get 20 arrows and the run ends when the arrows run out or when she reaches the second end target, whichever comes first.

Read those two tables together and the strategy falls out. Twenty arrows at 100 points each is a theoretical 2,000, so 1,500 needs an average of 75 points an arrow — fifteen bullseyes and five misses, say, or eight bullseyes with the other twelve arrows all scoring 60. You cannot coast on 30-point grazes. The same target can be hit more than once, so pick the boards you can actually centre and hit them repeatedly rather than chasing every new one that slides past. Pots are worth the full 100, which makes the crate row the most forgiving points on the range.

The 1,500 prize is explicitly a second visit: you take the Piece of Heart on the run that clears 1,000, then come back for the quiver. Budget 40 Rupees minimum, and realistically more.

Every quiver upgrade in the game

Ocarina of Time has three quivers and only the first one arrives on the critical path. Zelda Wiki lists them in the order they are typically obtained and notes that the two upgrades can be taken in either order.

Neither prize has a fixed size. The decompiled code for both minigames checks which quiver Link is carrying when it hands the prize over: still on the 30-arrow quiver, he gets the 40-arrow Big Quiver; already on 40, he gets the 50-arrow Biggest Quiver. Win the Kakariko gallery first and the horse range tops you out at 50. Win the horse range first and it only takes you to 40, and Kakariko finishes the job.

So the horse is worth exactly 10 arrows of carrying capacity plus a quarter-heart. That sounds small until you are standing in Ganon's Castle rationing Light Arrows.

Malon's obstacle course and the free cow

Once the ranch is Malon's again, she offers a second minigame that only exists after you have won Epona.

The course is two laps around the ranch's centre pen over eight fences of varying heights, and you have to take them in the proper order — miss one and the run is void. Her standing record is 50 seconds. Beat it and she sends a present too heavy to carry: a cow, delivered to Link's house in Kokiri Forest, which is a permanent free source of Lon Lon Milk for anyone who bothers to walk in with an empty bottle.

You can rerun the course as often as you like to chase your own time, but the cow is the only prize. There is nothing further to win.

What else a horse is good for

Four things, in rough order of how much they matter.

1. The Big Poe hunt. Ten Big Poes haunt Hyrule Field, and they spawn when you ride past their point — crossing on foot usually pops an ordinary Poe instead. Selling all ten to the Poe Collector is what buys your fourth bottle. The bottle locations guide has the full spawn list.
2. The Biggoron trade timers. Three legs of the Biggoron's Sword quest run on a clock, and the worst of them is a three-minute sprint from Zora's Domain to Lake Hylia. On horseback it stops being a coin flip.
3. The Gerudo Valley bridge. Epona can jump the broken span at a gallop. This is a convenience rather than a gate — the Longshot from the Water Temple crosses it too.
4. Getting anywhere. Hyrule Field is enormous and the warp songs only drop you at temple doorsteps. See the songs guide for which melody lands where.

And the honest counterweight: Epona is optional in the strictest sense. No medallion, no Spiritual Stone, and no dungeon in the main route requires her. If you are speeding to Ganon, skip the ranch. If you are clearing the map, the Piece of Heart, the fourth bottle and a quiver upgrade are all sitting behind one afternoon at the ranch and two trips to the archery range.

Quick Action Checklist

• As a child, meet Malon in the Market, then take the Weird Egg from her on the path to Hyrule Castle, hatch it, and wake Talon by the castle.
• Visit Lon Lon Ranch as a child and learn Epona's Song from Malon in the paddock.
• As an adult, pay Ingo 10 Rupees to ride, then play Epona's Song so you are mounted on Epona and not one of the other horses.
• Accept his 50-Rupee race — one lap of the corral — then accept the rematch he stakes Epona on.
• When he locks the gate, whip Epona into a speed boost and jump the ranch wall.
• Free the four Carpenters for the Gerudo Token before heading to the Horseback Archery Range.
• Ride to the range, pay 20 Rupees, and hunt bullseyes and pots at 100 points each.
• Clear 1,000 points for the Piece of Heart, then return and clear 1,500 for your next quiver upgrade (40 arrows, or 50 if you already won Kakariko's Shooting Gallery).
• Beat Malon's 50-second obstacle course record for a free cow in Link's house.
• Empty your bottles before riding out after Big Poes — you can only bottle a soul on foot.