HGG Community Forums

Ok what is red yellow and blue on the mare papering for? Sorry for the questions. If I post one of my mares and her foal from this year and I tell you what I get can you tell me if I am right on it. I just want to see that I am getting it correct.

Mare papering goes Failed, Yellow, Red, Blue, *Gold.

Obviously Failed is pretty self explanatory. In general I've heard that Yellow is roughly the same as C papered stallion...and the categories continue to match up that way as they move up.

(Stallion papers are Showable Only, C, B, A and *Star)

I expect my foundation mares like your girl to paper Red and have an AFPT of 10.0 or higher. Your girl is definitely on her way, but I wouldn't expect 3 10.3 and higher foals. Even with the full pasture bonus and perfect foundation stallions, I've never had a gen 2 foal with a higher PT than 10.5 so you are already close to the ceiling with that first foal!

Remember mares are papered based on the quality of their foals, while stallions paper based strictly on their own breeding ability! The quality of the stallions you're putting with your mares will have an effect on their AFPT and their paper level.

There is no right or wrong way! Especially when you are starting out, just play around and find what your goals are going to be. What colors do you love? What horses do you just seem to form that attachment with?

The only real reason to breed horses in large batches is if you are trying to use the pasture bonus--the maximum bonus is reached when mares are in a pasture non-stop for 30 days without being bred. If you breed handfuls of mares at a time, it might get harder to remember who has the full bonus and who got bred at the end of last season so maybe you need to wait til the end of this one to breed them again. But honestly, there is no right or wrong way to do this except to not have fun!

Also, remember, breeding foundations (or really any mare) is a gamble. There is no way to tell from the beginning that a mare will be a star or a dud...the only way is to breed her a few times and then compare her to her mates. There are lots of ways to test stallions before you start breeding them, but with mares its all about having a go and then evaluating the product!