Well, I had a look at the site and it's ASP, which means you can do exactly the same thing with PHP. You will also need a database to hold user data, store points, hold bank accounts, hold stable inventories, hold prize info etc. PHP has native and direct support (no abstraction layer) for quite a number of databases. With ODBC (abstraction layer), you can even use MS Access if you really want to. However, I recommend MySQL. It's open source, is available under a GPL (i.e. it's essentially free), is strongly supported by PHP and is relatively easy to learn (SQL commands are written in something approaching plain English).
Step one is to sit down with a piece of paper and a pencil and work out: 1. All the things you want your site to do; 2. How the structure and navigation is going to work. Step two is to get yourself a solid PHP/MySQL primer (Wrox, O'Reilly, Sams, New Riders ... take your pick). A book will tell you how to install LAMP or WAMP (you'll soon find out what these mean) and will show you what PHP can and can't do. Solid HTML skills are more or less necessary, but not much more, and there are lots of people at this site who are generous with their time and knowledge.
Finally, if you do another version of Horseland, try and pay a little bit of attention to the look and feel of the site. Horseland is an eyesore, but perhaps it appeals to 12-year-old girls who are mad about horses.
Norman
