HGG Community Forums

Sorry for the delay, been a crazy goat baby week.

So breeding "even" is a strategy to produce more intact foals. In order for a foal to pass testing intact it has to be of an acceptable quality when compared to it's sire and it's dam. If the parents are very uneven in breeding ability you will end up a foal that can not compare to the higher quality parent and will be altered.

When you hear someone say they are having a hard time getting intact foals it is almost always because they are breeding uneven ability. This can be very frustrating for people, so the idea of breed even to get more intact foals came about. Remember though that breeding even ability only effects the chances to get a foal good enough pass testing. Once a horse has passed testing intact the statistical benefits of breeding even is now gone. You know that horse made it passed the odds and will be fine to breed.

You can make assumptions about the quality of a horse by looking at the range of PT scores they produce in their foals. Try to breed horses who produce similar PT scores together to get the largest number of intact foals.

So for example say your breeding goal is to get intact foals: If your 3rd gen stallion regularly produces PT scores in his foals in the 10.0 range then you should breed him to mares that produce the same range. Even if those mares are second gen or 4th gen.

If for example your goal is to have a line that looks as ascetically pleasing as possible then breed even generations together. Breeding even generations can sometimes get you even ability but often mare ability will lag behind stud ability. By 6+ generations you can be breeding such uneven quality that it can be very hard to get any intact foals.

Some people who do not understand why breeding even is useful confused the idea with breeding even being important. Breeding an even generation pedigree is like breeding an all matching pedigree. It is a fun thing to do and a neat goal but NOT a way to guarantee your quality is increasing and NOT a way to get rich fast in the game. Breeding star studs to cheap foundation mares to get a string of showers is one of the best ways to make money.

The issue is that some members took things way to far and felt that playing the game differently (ie breeding for fun or breeding for strategy) was an acceptable reason to be mean to other players, to block them, harass them etc. There is no right way to play. There are ways to play that are statistically advantageous, but there is no correct way.

Thank you so much for clearing this up, I can see where PT testing comes in handy when determining breedings to raise it.

I wish you well with your baby goats, they are so cute, we used to have pygmys goats when the kids were in 4H and we still miss them lol

Much clearer for me also, thanks Ammit.

Lovely way of explaining things Ammit :)
Thanks