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Despite not only being Ocarina of Time’s most iconic addition to the franchise and the very first thing that you see upon booting up the game, getting Link’s horse Epona is actually an optional activity that the player can walk past during a playthrough of the game. Because the only content locked behind Epona is Big Poe Hunting you may not miss any major side quests if you don’t get her, but skipping her at all feels wrong. If you don’t want to miss out on gaming’s best horse, then please read through this guide on how to unlock Epona in the Ocarina of Time Remake
How to Unlock Epona in the Ocarina of Time Remake
To unlock Epona, you’ll first need to head to the Lon Lon Ranch in the center of Hyrule Field as Child Link any time after meeting Princess Zelda for the first time. If you come here during the day, you can find Malon singing a song in the middle of the ranch.
Speak to Malon once and she’ll tell you about a young horse named Epona and how the song that she’s singing calms her down. After Malon says this, pull out your ocarina and she’ll teach you Epona’s song. The young brown horse will then nuzzle up to Link and be nice to him, but you won’t be able to ride this baby just yet. You’ll need to wait until you become Adult Link.
Any time after you reach the Adult Era of the game, head back to Lon Lon Ranch and you’ll find that Ingo has taken the place over and even went so far as to rename the place to Ingo Ranch. Malon works as a stable girl in this dark future and she’ll tell you about Ingo’s horrible business practices and how he has essentially ruined the ranch.
It’s now up to you to both save the ranch and especially Epona from this fate. To do that, approach Ingo during the day and pay him 20 rupees to ride a horse around the ranch. You’ll be able to interact with any of the horses, but to progress this side quest you’ll need to ride Epona.
Epona will not recognize you at first and attempting to mount her will only result in you being thrown off. You’ll need to calm her down first by playing Epona’s song on your ocarina. Once you do, you’ll be able to mount Epona to the shock of Ingo.
Thinking that Epona will throw you off at any second, Ingo will make a bet with you for twenty more rupees. The terms of the bet? Whoever can race a single lap around Lon Lon Ranch the fastest pays the other twenty rupees.
This race will be quite easy, as Epona can far outpace Ingo’s horse with only a few boosts. Just make sure you don’t consume every boost at once, otherwise Epona will slow down and that may cost you the race. You should always keep a single boost in reserve to prevent this.
After beating Ingo in the race, he’ll refuse to accept this loss and will instead double down. He wants another race. This time if you lose you’ll still have to pay rupees, but if you win he’ll let you keep Epona. Despite the higher stakes, this race is identical to the previous one. Just run around the ranch as quickly as you can and Epona will be yours!
Or at least she would be, but Ingo is still a very sore loser! He’ll lock you in the ranch and claim that you may never leave. Unfortunately for him, he forgot that horses can jump. Make Epona charge forward toward the fenches surronding the ranch and she’ll jump over them, freeing yourself and her!
From this point on, you’ll be able to freely ride Epona around Hyrule Field and call her to your side at any time by playing Epona’s Song on your Ocarina. Ingo still owns the ranch for now, but if you want to take that away from him you can do so via the opening steps of the game’s Biggoron Sword Trading Sequence.
