HGG Community Forums

Its all personal opinion on what genes you have but if i was to choose one. It would be satin.
http://hj2.huntandjump.com/horse.php?horseid=319780

That girl has satin.

Now on the testing part most go without consistancy testing

Showing Aptitude and Mare/Gelding advice are MUST HAVES. That's why Ammit made them free, so that even hard-up players can still have them done.
I know that some players don't bother with consistency testing, and I'm starting not to, either, just because all it does is show you whether the showing score will undulate or stay stay steady. Plus, even if it only costs 100hb, that will start to add up when I get bigger crops of foals.
If you have a Basic upgrade, you could paper horses and Performance test or PT them. These are dosh garn helpful, but not completely necessary, hence only being available to basic upgrades.

Thanks guys:-)

Agree with most of the above. I never consistency test, ever. This is the cull process for the thousands of horses I breed every season.

1. Gelding advice and strict mare advice for every horse. Showing aptitude test. Leave the box clicked to geld/spay... they're not worth keeping if they don't past SAT and I've learned this lesson... there's always next season.

2. Then I pull them all from the pasture to the main barn (unnecessary if you hand bred a batch) and start going through them. I personally don't keep spays or gelds for lower generations but if you're just getting started and not breeding a lot of horses you'll probably want to. I go through and make a note on the mare's page if her babies were spayed or gelded so that I can later cull THEM.

3. Then I go through stallions. I look at all of them and see if they got the colors I was breeding for. If you bred in a pasture don't forget to check your email to see which is the best one. If they werent the best one and didn't get the color, I usually geld outright. Then I take a look and see how many studs are left, and paper my favorites. Everything that didn't meet my papering criteria for that generation gets snipped, note made on the mare page. Here are my standards:
2nd generation - B. No exceptions.
3rd generation - A. VERY rare exceptions.
4th generation - A. No exceptions.
5th generation - *Star. I used to make exceptions but they are extremely few and far between now, because I breed a lot of *Star studs. I cull a whole bunch of A's.
Everything above 5th gen must be *Star.

At this point I go through the stallions again, if there are several left. When you start out there probably won't be, but if you're breeding horses in pastures you'll find yourself with a lot of intact stallions. Cull again based on color if there are, or, if you're working at the higher generations you're currently breeding, start comparing. Yes, comparison testing is expensive, but if you're breeding quality it's totally worth it, especially at the 4k it costs when you're upgraded. Some people compare to sire to see if the stud is superior to his sire. I generally have a horse that's already been extensively comparison tested in each generation, which is my benchmark stallion for that generation. If a horse doesn't compare as good as my benchmark, he gets the snip, unless there's something wildly spectacular about him or I have nothing to compare him to. In upper generations where I don't have a benchmark yet, I compare to sire.

Be ruthless. Don't get too attached. Mantra: There is always next season.

I auction the majority of the horses that get culled, but that's because I breed SO MANY. My criteria for keeping a horse as a show horse is basically generation (upper generations tend to make better show horses), and also, how much money I spent on it. If I forked over the bucks to comparison test a stallion and he didn't make the grade, he gets to stay around in my barn to earn his keep and make up the money I spent on him as a foal. However, if you're breeding less than 100 horses a season, I'd recommend keeping everything. There are two ways to make money in this game: have a BIG show herd , and breed a bunch of horses and sell your culls. I do both. My weekly show bonus is three quarters of a million hb's right now and growing fast. When you make a bunch of hb's you can purchase IV's to buy more barns, to keep more of a show herd, which makes you more hb's, and after your show herd ages a bit you won't have to worry about how to finance your breeding addiction.. I mean operation. Also, show your breeding stock.

4. I do mares last. If they passed strict mare advice and showing aptitude test they generally get to stay, unless they really lost the genetic lottery and didn't get any of the color I was breeding for. I show most of my mares, except the cream of the crop in my pastures.

5. Cull broodmares. When I go through and make notes on a mare's page that her foal was gelded by GA or SAT, spayed by SMA or SAT, or gelded because of inferior papering or comparison testing, I have a three strikes policy. Three gelds or spays gets a mare snipped, unless she has produced more than 50% of foals that were not snipped (so, for example, if I have an older mare who has produced a higher percentage of intacts or some good PTs or good quality mares and stallion, she stays even if she has a few gelds inthere... they all do). Some people eliminate all of a mare's descendants when they cull her from the brood herd... I do not, but if a horse's dam has been culled that counts as a strike and sometimes two strikes if she's not particularly valuable in terms of color. Obviously, this process is a little bit subjective, and if I absolutely adore a mare she does occasionally get a little leeway on the three strikes system.

6. I performance test upper generations, generally: at this point, 7th gen on. Performance testing can tell you who it'll be good to keep as show stock if you're deciding that, although a horse with a substandard PT can make an excellent show horse. I find it more valuable as a barometer of the mare's performance (the average PT of her offspring, which you can see on her family page if you are upgraded. If not, you can calculate the regular way of calculating averages).

Hope that little novella is helpful to someone. :)

I just want to correct one thing Cheers said.

"Strict Mare Advicd tells you if a filly will be a better breeder than her mom."
That is not true. It only tells you if a filly will be significantly worse than it's dam or not.

That's funny. XD And now we see them as necessary! :P