Reminds me of Cooking Mama. My favorite minigame was the laser cutting board.

I love the pixel art for this game. I did have a problem with the UI where I’d be laser focused on getting the timing right to the point where I’m not paying attention to the track. Sometimes I’d get lost thinking “which horse is me again?”
Maybe having the bar follow underneath the player could help that split attention problem.
Thank you telling me about your experience! I realize now that I neglected any form of instruction or tutorial. I slapped a .gif of gameplay in the description as a band-aid solution
I also appreciate your ideas on how to improve the game -- it gives me direction on what mechanics are fun/should be focused on.