HGG Community Forums

1--I tend to decide on crosses based on what color I'm trying to get from a line. This is easier with "normal" colors than LE lines. So for instance, I have a black/silver black/grullo/silver Grullo line that has S+ winding through it and some Appy and some sabino and some splash and some tobiano. So I tend to put mares from any of my lines that fit those base color and pattern categories into those pastures. Eventually I would like to focus on silver, S+ and Sabino Appaloosa in that line. But top pasture foals that are plain Grullos will go in there to help improve line quality.

2--I can't tell you what to cross in. There is nothing wrong with line breeding in this game but I personally find breeding a really homogenous pasture season after season gets really boring after a while--it's why I abandoned my DP GP wild bay project and mixed a brown stallion with a ton of bling into the line. I'm still breeding those DP wild bays, but this just makes the foal crop more interesting to look at for me.

3--you can buy good quality mares from breeders who breed for increase in foal breeding ability in each generation, preferably taking advantage of the pasture bonus. That is also how you will improve your own mare quality.

4--use the pasture bonus, and when they are restored, take advantage of the pasture emails. Test test test test test, especially using PT of your foals to evaluate the AFPT (average Foal PT) of your mares Keep track of spays and gelds and compare mares in the same "batch" to each other in terms of AFPT and cull the ones who produce lots of spays or who have a comparatively low AFPT. Building a good mare herd takes way more time and patience and trial and error than breeding that superior colt. Remember that out of the however many colts you put on the ground to get that one superior one, you are probably putting the same sort of number of inferior and AGA fillies on the ground for every truly superior filly. My personal response to this issue is to run a huge mare herd and then cull foals very harshly. I always cull on physical characteristics (color, size) last, if I cull on them at all. I would rather keep a superior mare that doesn't quite fit my breeding program than keep beautiful inferior mares.

You should do both if you can afford them but if you can only do one I would pick AFPT. In my opinion it is the single most important and powerful indicator of mare quality (when used as a method of comparison between "like" mares) in the game.

Remember when comparing mares, you MUST compare apples to apples. Same generation, same pasture bonus, same quality of stallion for the offspring. Trying to compare mares with full pasture bonus for multiple foals to those used primarily for breeding with straws would be unfair.