Stud Facilities...

Megan, they wouldn't be part of the stud program because I know their faults :) as had been said above, I was over zealous on them.

The lines would be new, my question regarding them pertained to their offspring... Would it be worth it to keep their lines going at all on a stricter regime for their offspring, OR should I just phase them out of my lines, let them and their offspring retire, and start from scratch, OR include their offspring or offspring's offspring in the program.

I am more than aware they are over bred at this point. (Over bred for a number of reasons, but most notably over excitement). I was breeding for me and me alone when I had them, and then I had this stud thought BECAUSE I see that Im bringing in more and more breeds, and seem to be enjoying doing more than just one or two breeds, but am easily over whelmed by not having any sort of real direction aside from color and confirmation improvement.

If your current horses are the ones you're talking about whether you'd want to phase them out or not, that's up to you, really. Like megan said, they're low statted for my taste (foundations should hit around 500s by the time they retire, and the second generation 700 by the time they retire.) They're also overbred in my eyes. If you'd like to keep them, keep them, but bottleneck the next generation, if I were you.

My first set of foundies are hitting the age where they'll get their first breeding. I'm not studding/broodmare any of them out, but I'll sell most if not all the first generation and keep all of the second to continue the line. Maybe that one will have a couple stud slots open, but I'm not entirely sure if I want to stud them only in the second gen.

What I would do, if you're attached to your current lines and still want to start a stud/brood barn - just keep them separate. If you're gonna start a foundation line and stud them out in the first/second gen, do so, but don't mix them into your current, more exposed lines and then try to breed out that foal. Breed out the cleaner, more select lines, and then you can keep your current lines for your own color love. XD

And since I'm such a slow replier, I wouldn't see an issue with offering a few stud slots each generation. Or even to alternate generations, if need be.

Thats actually a great idea, Nitt!

Now, I have to figure out how to train up to 500 on foundation stock before retiring age. I've show (highst entries, to have better chance at stat gain) Train in the areans everyday (now that they'ree available) and treat them everyday. I don't know what else I can do to speed up stat gain without cheating.

Edit: I will likely end up bottlenecking and only keeping a very select few to keep Ikonik and Hatchworth lines alive for sentimental reasons.

I will also cease breeding my current stock so that I can clean up a bit.

Last edited on 2016-05-13 at 12:21:22 by Buck

Nothing actually, but own them from when they where foals. I have 9 years old foundations and they hit 300 about now. Hopefully these make the 500 mark at the end. I have some low statted horses in my overall high stat herd of ponies, but that's alright.

What I would do is narrow down those stallions their offspring, geld all the stallions except for the best one and also keep the mares yourself as show mares. So only one male stud remains from their offspring.

I started with them at age 3. ._. so I lost a few years of treating. Damn that explains a lot.

I am going through and seeing who gets to continue on, and who gets to go into that sweet good night. It's a tough decision lol

Edit: Welp, I started with a mare, and right off the bat got a solid (YAY) but she was a plain bay, so Iused a coat randomizer and got a smokey cream! Kimiko Actually is the start of a beautiful thing on the brood service side....61+ confirmation. I am proud to call her the foundation of this project.

Last edited on 2016-05-13 at 14:09:21 by Buck

Just some food for thought, but not everyone subscribes to the belief that overbreeding is a problem. It is a pretty common belief among some of the top breeders in the game, but it doesn't harm your horses at all to be "overbred" or even to be line bred. It's common practice, in fact, in real life. Champion stallions often have hundreds of offspring, and line breeding is how breeds were created in the first place.

If you want to limit your breeding in these ways, that's cool. It's one way to make the game more challenging, and there are definitely quite a few people who will not use "overbred" or "inbred" (line bred) horses.

There are plenty, however, who will use those horses. You can definitely get plenty of customers if you want them, and your price is right (find that sweet spot where it isn't too high to scare people off, but still high enough to make money.)

You can focus however you like in this game, and I think that's one of the things that makes it a great game. You can focus on color, and you will find people who will want your studs just because they have a great color. You can focus on stats, and you will find customers for that. You can focus on showability (which is tied to stats, but a little more nuanced than just going for the highest possible stat total) or you can focus on conformation. You can do whatever you like, and you will probably find other people who like what you do.

Don't ever feel pressured to play the way someone else wants to play. All ways are equally valid. Do what makes you happy.

It's very true that overbred horses aren't bad horses. There are many very lovely horses out there that had a lot of foals, and those foals go on to get even higher stats and have a lot. It's not a bad thing to own them, or for people to breed to them, just something I personally avoid, along with a few others I know.

The issue I have with overbreeding is that eventually there's a tipping point where you have this amazing horse, but can't breed it to other amazing horses because of a shared line. In real life it's not a huge issue if the descendants are far off (just like in game, if they're far enough off the game with allow it) but it's something I strive to avoid.

In the real world there are hundreds of thousands of horses to breed to, in the game there are not. Since it's a smaller environment, it's a lot easier to run into half siblings, cousins, etc etc in horse lines. Also, since it's a game, there are people who breed only for color, only for conformation, only for stats. Everyone plays like they want to, but the general population seem to aim for a mixture of all three, in whatever way they like it. I breed for stats, but conformation and color come into play. If I have two horses of the same stat range, but one's at a 43 confo, and one's at a 75 confo, I'd choose to sell the lower confo - in the end, we're all working to achieve what we think is the perfect horse, the epitome of the breed we like.

No one will tell you to chuck all your horses in the rescue center, even if they aren't exactly what they themselves would buy. But since this thread was our own answers to what we'd like in a stud/broodmare barn, draw bits and pieces from us but base it on your own likes/dislikes. c:

Precisely, Nittrous. We're all giving our input about our personal preferences. Which is why I felt I should balance out the input.

Personally, what I want in a horse is high specialty stats, low non-specialty stats, interesting color, and an overall herd conformation average that is steadily increasing. I'm not nitpicky about number of breedings (though, of course, I do tend to breed my horses in the last years of their life, for maximum stats).

All my stallions are available for stud, no matter the age, because not all people breed for stats, and may need to find a stallion with a particular color or a higher conformation. For that, it doesn't matter whether a stud is three years old or twenty.

While I hear what you are saying about Equiverse being a relatively small gene pool (though some rare breeds in real life have tiny gene pools) that could also be an argument for having more stallions made available for stud. Maybe the reason one stallion may have 30 offspring might be because it is the only affordable stud on the market. Smaller ranches are forced to either use their own stock over and over, or whatever they can find in the stud list, and if the pickings are slim, they will not only all use the same stud, but possibly one that is not ideal for their needs, such as using a racing stud when what they really needed was driving (which makes the offspring much less capable of winning at shows.)

I think it would be healthy for the game if more people would make their stallions available for stud, and worried less about the problem of overbreeding. I think, with an increase in available studs, the overbreeding problem would solve itself.

I think a stud barn would be a nice thing to have access to, so if you had the breeds I own, I'd totally be a customer.

I am, however, not at all concerned with the number of foals a horse has had in its lifetime. I breed my mares and stallions together as soon as they're 500+ stats, and make quite a bit of money selling the foals (because of color, short pedigrees, and conformation). I do try to avoid creating a full sibling to the horse I plan on keeping for the next generation, but if they have a full sibling I'm not overly worried. I also offer almost all my high-confo and/or rare-color stallions for public stud once they reach 300 stats, and experiment frequently with color in my lower stat appies.

I enjoy the challenge of finding unrelated horses to breed to, but if you'd rather avoid that and keep with a limited number of foals it's totally up to you. Like Confessor said, there are loads of ways to play the game and still be "successful" :)

Well, I don't feel pressured to cull and clean the herd (planned on that, but needed a reason to do so).

I also do not feel any pressure to play a certain way, I put this thread out to get some feelers, and that's what I recieved, so THANK YOU all for that!

What I will be doing is not a breeding program per-se, but a brood and stud service with a focus on getting decent foundations out there at the age of 17ish. Some will have more foals and some will be limited breeding, and I will organize that when I have my previous herd faded, and the new stock at the proper age. They are all 0 at the moment, so that I have a higher chance of getting them close to 500 by the time they're 17

Apologies from the late response been busy doing grown up stuff ... *recovering from 2 successive hangovers ahem*

Anyhoo breeds, Particularly on this account Clydesdales. But having said that Im only just starting with my foundation lines myself & if it takes as long to get to a decent standard like my Dutch WBs & Trakes on my main acct (about 4yrs!) Im in it for the long haul.

I'd love some more twh studs. They game seems to be lacking in quality horses, or they just aren't where I need them yet. I also think that some breeders haven't transferred theirs over.

What discipline are your Clydes, Khatir? Driving?

Mardi, Same question for your TWH (also I had one just born if you're interested, he should be in the sales. Got some nice color on him)

My clydes are Driving or Endurance but I'd suggest you make them Driving as they would probably have more appeal across other Clyde breeders.