Draft Horse Population Groups for Wagons in RedM

ViceFx TeamMay 21, 20252 min read646 views

Rockstar provides several Draft Horse Population Groups that can be used with CreateDraftVehicle() to automatically spawn appropriate horses for wagons.

Instead of specifying individual horse models, these groups let the game choose matching draft horses based on a predefined population category.

Native

Lua

local vehicle = CreateDraftVehicle(
    modelHash,
    x, y, z,
    heading,
    isNetwork,
    scriptHostVehicle,
    dontAutoCreateDraftAnimals,
    draftAnimalPopGroup,
    p9
)

The important parameter is:

Lua

draftAnimalPopGroup

This expects the hash of one of Rockstar's draft horse population groups.

Available Population Groups

Regional Groups

These groups are intended for different regions of the map and influence the types of draft horses selected.

Group	Description
`DRAFT_HORSES_SOUTHERN`	Southern-style draft horse population commonly used around Lemoyne and Saint Denis.
`DRAFT_HORSES_NORTHERN`	Draft horse population typically associated with colder northern regions such as Ambarino.
`DRAFT_HORSES_WESTERN`	Draft horse population suited to western territories like West Elizabeth and New Austin.

Economic Groups

These influence the overall quality and appearance of the spawned draft horses.

Group	Description
`DRAFT_HORSES_POOR`	Common working horses used for basic utility and cargo wagons.
`DRAFT_HORSES_MID`	Standard everyday draft horse population.
`DRAFT_HORSES_RICH`	Higher-quality draft horses commonly seen with luxury coaches and wealthy NPC transport.

Specialized Groups

These are intended for specific wagon types.

Group	Description
`DRAFT_HORSES_FARM`	Draft horses intended for agricultural and ranch wagons.
`DRAFT_HORSES_STAGECOACH`	Draft horses used by stagecoaches, often producing more visually consistent horse teams.

Note: Rockstar has not officially documented the exact contents of these groups. The descriptions above are based on observed in-game behavior.

Hash Values

Lua

local DraftAnimalPopGroups = {
    -- Regional
    DRAFT_HORSES_SOUTHERN   = joaat("DRAFT_HORSES_SOUTHERN"),
    DRAFT_HORSES_NORTHERN   = joaat("DRAFT_HORSES_NORTHERN"),
    DRAFT_HORSES_WESTERN    = joaat("DRAFT_HORSES_WESTERN"),

    -- Economic
    DRAFT_HORSES_POOR       = joaat("DRAFT_HORSES_POOR"),
    DRAFT_HORSES_MID        = joaat("DRAFT_HORSES_MID"),
    DRAFT_HORSES_RICH       = joaat("DRAFT_HORSES_RICH"),

    -- Specialized
    DRAFT_HORSES_FARM       = joaat("DRAFT_HORSES_FARM"),
    DRAFT_HORSES_STAGECOACH = joaat("DRAFT_HORSES_STAGECOACH")
}

If your framework doesn't provide joaat(), you can use the equivalent precomputed hash values instead.

Example

Lua

local wagon = CreateDraftVehicle(
    joaat("WAGON02X"),
    x, y, z,
    heading,
    true,
    true,
    false,
    joaat("DRAFT_HORSES_STAGECOACH"),
    0
)

The game will automatically create a suitable team of draft horses based on the selected population group.

How Population Groups Work

Population groups do not specify exact horse models.

Instead, they tell the game:

Which collection of draft horses can be used.
The game randomly selects valid horses from that collection.
Those horses are automatically attached to the wagon.

This gives Rockstar's wagons more visual variety while keeping them appropriate for their region or purpose.

Snippet RedM