Age of Breeding?

I am really just curious, but at what age do others generally breed their horses? Also, how many foals are bred from studs and mares before they are retired from breeding? Does the quality of the foals decrease at all when breeding? Example: Is the 3rd foal less stats or conf. than the 1st foal? TIA!

~Echo

A lot of people generally breed later in the horse's life to maximize the stats. Personally I go for 19 and 20, but there are also some people that breed early in order to get their next generations going quick or or be able to strategically breed for certain traits. 

Mares can have a total of 18 foals if no breed again solutions are used (each cool down for mares is 7 days, breed again removes the cooldown), and Stallions are unlimited. However many people limit their horses to a more manageable number of animals. Some players prefer horses to only have 2-5 foals in their lifetimes. Inbreeding up to the grandparent's generations is not allowed on EV, so having too many foals can dilute your potential pool of future pairings, however it's really personal preference just like breeding age.

The quality of foals does not decrease at all currently, it's all math with a couple random factors and boosts tossed in. The only known boost is for breeding horses of like disciplines together. There was talk of a pedigree boost in the past, as well as a boost for "prime years" breeding for horses in a certain age bracket, but I don't believe either was ever implemented.