HGG Community Forums

I'm interested in hearing this as well.

I know what I've been trying to do, but I've been doing a poor job of it.

You could always rotate your breeding stock through the pasture. That's what I do. I let them get 7 to 15 days in pasture depending on if I want more or less intact foals from that group. This helps me cut down on breeding stock as well, because I don't have quite as many passing SBA, making it less of a task to go through those that do pass. Some months I'll give foundations longer and lined horses less time, some months I'll switch it (although starting now, I'll probably not use pasture bonus on all foundations, just a select group). I generally breed several groups throughout the month so that each group can get a little bonus and I also have time to go through a small group of foals before the next group is born. I hurried along this month though because I wanted time to do a complete overhaul of my foundation mares before next month. (I have 200 and I need to get down to about 120!)


That being said, if you really want to cut down your breeding herd, i suggest coming up with a specific goal (or a few), deciding how many breeding horses you want per generation for each goal/line, and then sorting horses based on how well they fit that goal.

For Example, if you wanted to breed a line of flaxen chestnut drafts with pangare. And let's say you want 2 stallions and 60 mares per generation. First you'd keep all the horses that fit all the requirements. Then you'd want to keep the ones that are only one thing off, for example: horses with the right color but are cobs, or right color but are warmblood, or are the right size/bone but need pangare or flaxen, and so on. Then if you still need a few more, fill in holes with horses that are 2 or 3 off, but fit other requirements.

For lined horses, you could sort by paper level, using the higher papers that fit all/most of the requirements, then filling in with lower papers that fit all/most.

Once you fill in each generation, you'll have an excess of intact horses that aren't very close to your project. These you could stick in a barn to sell or auction. Or if they have decent points, you could just treat them like spelds and show them (or even speld them, if you want).

I have a hoarding problem but most of mine are show horses.

I run 90% of my testing with the bulk barn test buttons so I don’t get the “awww she’s pretty I can’t test her” feels. To stay intact they all must be tested.

What I did first was sit down and write out a list of genes or combinations I liked/loved.

Grullo with all sorts of different patterns was hands down winner so first off I did a search for “not like” grullo and snipped everyone.

I’ve followed a no inconsistent breeders rule since inconsistency testing first came out. I used to auction off my inconsistent horses but with the new showing system I allow them to stay in a show barn and forget about them. So I once again went through my breeders and snipped all inconsistent horses.

Once they’ passed those tests I paper them and sort them into their generations barn. On hj1 Each generation has a 210 stall barn and I’m working towards switching this server over to the same system but since I’m not strapped for space in any generations barn at the moment I have a collection of 60-210 barns.

Once all the foals are all sorted I go through each barn and compare papers spaying and gelding lower papers. I’m trying to build up the number of breeders because I’ve let them dwindle down to almost nothing in some barns so I allow 2 paper levels in each barn until one paper level is starting to become the majority and I’m starting to have a full barn then the lower level is cut.

I also comparison test all studs and they must be superior to sire to stay intact. When I have time I go through and compare brothers and keep the superior boys. If I’m still overrun by studs in a particular generation I snip any of the plainer ones that don’t get chosen for breeding and then keep the highest 3 PT if I really don’t have many mares and they’re sitting about not contributing much.