raising foundation foals (ramblings)

i've got 12 two year old arabians that i've been feeding peppermints since i bought them. this has resulted in fairly even stats in all categories, which i'm realizing now is going to affect them negatively when they start showing :/

has anyone else started a line of foundations that are store age doing this? And have you had trouble with them placing in shows?

i think i have a solution, but it's expensive. I have them already specializing in dressage, so i can convert them to something for 10k each and that'll even out the stats. However - i wanted to add this line to my already existing line of foundation arabians, and if they are specializing in something different, i'll mess up the stats of future generations :/

i suppose i could REconvert them back to dressage, but that's 24 EVC down the drain. I should have set them as something like driving, and then when they were ready to show converted them to dressage like my other line, but alas. hindsight is 20/20!

any other suggestions you all might have?

Have you tried just converting them to dressage, even though they already are dressage? I haven't tried it personally, so I don't know if it works, but I've thought about stuff like this with my own foundies. XD

i've tried xD

not with these foals, but with other horses. i get the error message that says something like "this horse is already trained in dressage!" or something along those lines. it's a good thought though! (and of course i'm going to go try it again now just in case something changed lol)

boo. same error.
oh well - it makes sense game wise that you can't convert them to something they already are!

i'm about to swallow the potential loss of EVD/EVC in order to test the plausibilty of setting my already born second gens to dressage and then converting them to endurance. i know i read something about born-with stats not converting but have also seen evidence otherwise. i only have two second gens that have set disciplines, so perhaps i've come up with a solution and will be switching my foundation line to endurance rather than dressage. i will report with findings momentarily!

I've had to do something similar with my foundies that I've gotten from the rescue center. Most come with a discipline other than what I wanted for them, so I would usually treat until 3, then convert for showing.

so converting went a little wonky and I posted on the bug board about it :(
BUT overall it was fairly successful, so i think i might just convert my foundies to endurance at age 3, convert my existing second gens to endurance, and then switch continue to convert the second gens born from my 18 year+ foundies as they are born.

it's a money suck, but it seems to be my only option :/

I feel you. When I started playing again I adopted a strategy I had never used before, to have all my mustangs western and all my andys dressage so that stats are passed better when breeding. I converted all of my younger stock and just left my older stock as they were. But that cost me a ton of money.

i only use peppermints on my show string that is struggling/in a contest/about to retire. now that abbey has given bagged treats more opportunity for stats + training in the arena i feel that its easy to use normal treats on young stock. I set my mares to all have one treat and my stallions the opposite for that discipline so that when foals are born they have (hypothetically) even stats for that discipline.

what you said seems good about converting them although it sucks.

I might not have caught you in time but I still thought I'd ask, is there no way to just start treating for the stats you want and take the hit on the previous two weeks? You didn't treat them for long so while at first you'd probably be a touch behind, you'd balance out by the time they retire. I know that my foundies at 6/7 are just hitting like N3 or so even with treating specialized, so I can't imagine you'd be too far behind. By the second generation I'd think you wouldn't really be able to tell at all. Then you wouldn't have to pay all the money to change disciplines.

i've not converted any more than the test one, so you're not too late! :)

i suppose i could just take the hit, but was also thinking that by converting that i'd be able to give them a boost when they start showing. that would get them more stats more quickly.

i'm hesitant to do otherwise, because on the old ev i was getting foundies to 600+ stats without much trouble, but now i'm struggling to get them to 500 using what seems to be the best methods on the recode. this little string of arabians is pretty much a testing line since i don't much care about stats for my other breeds

perhaps it will even out eventually though. i just need to think some more and maybe do some math D:

(MATH ;_;)

I would take your test one all the way through the process if you haven't already (transferring to one, then paying the EVC to transfer to another) and give at least 2-3 weeks to see how it shapes up against the other horses (keeping in mind it could just be a dud of a horse, you know the one that's always somehow like 50 stats behind the herd? lol) and if it's worth it do your transfer on the others. I don't know if the cost of the EVC ($110k a horse for the entire conversion right?) is going to be worth the change.. You're not going to make $110k back in shows with a store horse so it would be more, do you want to spend that money just to have peace of mind that your stats are as balanced as you want, or can you tough it out for a generation and they'll be better next time?

Also I believe that the reason they aren't getting as many stats despite being able to gain nearly as many stats as old EV if you do everything (treat, show, train, etc.) is something about this way stats are semi-controlled instead of just spiraling to crazy high levels super fast with the use of high stat-giving treats and leaving newer/poorer members in the dust. This is probably incorrect. I might be crazy.

ooh that's a good plan! my test one was a second gen and i'm still figuring out what was up with his conversion.

BUT i can convert my best foal and my worst foal (highest stats and lowest stats) on the day they all turn 3, and then see how they all do in showing compared to each other. excellent suggestion! patience is so hard though D:

i was usually getting about 25+ stats a week on the old EV (using feed and treats), but since my older foundie arabians aren't doing well in shows due to unluckily being at the bottom of their grade level, the max they can gain from specialized treats now is 14 stats a week.

using peppermints i've kept with the 25+ stats a week for my current two year olds, but it comes with the aforementioned downfall of poor show performance :/

I think the wait will be worth it if you think about it as, if I choose to convert, their stats will rearrange to what my test horses are once they're done. And that is the downfall. I use autoshowing cause ain't nobody got time so I just do cheapest shows, but I think once mine bump up in grade they slow down on how fast they gain stats/points until eventually the better horses level up..the sad circle of EV life.

alrighty.
today the testing begins!

i converted my highest (177) and lowest (159) statted horses to endurance and then back to dressage (total cost 20,000 EVD and 4 EVC) in order to refocus their random peppermint-gained stats into intelligence and agility.

all twelve horses are 3 years old, aging in 7 days.
all of their tack is fully upgraded.
i'm going to handpick shows for all of them, and ensure that no horses is in a show with less than 5 horses and preferably not in a show with more than 3 of their stablemates.

*fingers crossed*

reporting back a week later with results :)

the two test horses (best stats and worst stats) are doing as predicted. the one with the best stats at time of conversion is now leading his age mates by about 30 stats, and the worst has gone from bottom of the pack to second highest stats (but still ~30 stats lower than the best). Overall they've gained 57 and 43 stats respectively over the course of 1 week which i think is pretty great (i also track daily stat gain)

i've decided to continue feeding the entire herd peppermints and just suck up the loss of money and credit loss that all this converting will require :P

in the meantime, i've also (today) converted three more horses, this time to endurance, with the intention of switching them back when it is time to breed. i picked the three horses closest to the top of their grade bracket, in the hopes that they will gain a lot of stats from shows today.

depending on how well the test endurance horses do this next week, i might do the same thing and switch three more horses to another discipline on the day they all turn 5.

i'm already handpicking shows with as close to 5 entries as possible, and having my herd split up into different divisions will make it much easier to do without overlapping them into the same shows.

/end rambling thoughts for this week