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Ren · Dec 22, 2018 5:28 PM

Mini venting session and a question/plea for help.

My plan for this month was to get my stable all in order, pastures, barns, the whole lot. Because of that I've done minimal breeding and also decided not to participate in SS, part of that was because of being so busy in real life and my anxiety was already running high and the thought of disappointing a SS was just too much. My anxiety spikes anyway during the holidays (yay....holidays...) so I opted to be an elf and open my barns up instead, which has worked beautifully for me and I've had so much fun. I'm so happy to have met some new people and to have been able to spread some cheer through my horses.

So here is my question to you all because I am getting really frustrated with this. I am so overwhelmed by my mares and don't know how to organize/cull my mares. I've already gone through once or twice and eliminated some that don't fit based on my basic breeding goals but, because I have some broad goals, a lot of mares I end up going 'oh I like that one, I want to keep that because it has DP, ect...' I think that mostly my foundation mares are ones that I want to keep but I'm not sure I need that many. I need more barn space but that's not exactly something I can fix right this minute soooo.....

How do you organize? Do you pick 50 mares per stud and that's it unless you rotate one out? Do you put a notation in the notes or the name itself for where the mare fits in your program/which stud it goes with? Are they kept forever in certain barns/pastures? I tend to like to rotate my mares through with different studs that are in the same breeding program (ie my DP/large spotted appys). I don't want to say I have OCD but my organizational type A person that I am demands that I know why/where the mare fits. I've organized my studs already by writing them all down and denoting what breeding goal they are part of and I really like that but I have so many mares that I'm not sure this is a smart way to do it.

My second gen gets even muddier but first I'm going to figure out my foundations and then use that method to go through and organize the others.

Halp?

RoseFlute · Dec 22, 2018 5:35 PM

One quick answer:

There's always AFPT in mares to go by too, so if you want to cull mares you could set a quality of production number and take out the ones that don't live up to it, like maybe you say for regular foundations mares should have an AFPT of 9.8 or higher after three foals, and then for 2nd gens and ExPros they need to have 10.5 or higher.
I also never select more than 50 mares per stallion. I think where you're heading is pretty good, it'll just take some time. :)
One more thing I found helpful when I upgraded to Premium was to run SBA on everyone and then cull their offspring and line too. I'm on mobile so I can't quickly see what level you are, but that might help?

Ren · Dec 22, 2018 5:43 PM

@RoseFlute - I tend to not always look at AFPT because I don't always keep all their foals so it's usually falsely elevated.
I think getting 50 per stud will help to get some numbers down...I hope. Do you usually have a way to denote where the mares fit or do you just keep them in a specific pasture?
I do have SBA and everything is run through that (minus bootstrap obviously) so that does help a little but I still find I have more than I need. haha

MF2 · Dec 22, 2018 5:56 PM

1806196kp dp G3 Bp
So I went through my other barn this month and labeled all mares not in pasture first they have their generation G2, G3... and then their paper level by the stallion levels so Ap, Bp, Cp and then any genetic that I like so sab, kp, dp, B (brown) S (S+)

FallenShadows714 · Dec 22, 2018 6:03 PM

All of my second gen keepers and beyond (mares and studs) get a portion, or acronym, of which foundation stud they came from. I try to keep those guys together, selecting only one keeper stud at a time and culling the rest for show. I then allow 30 mares per generation after foundation. As I have fillies age up, I go through my corresponding generation pasture and cull by genes, height and weight, consistency, etc. I also look at how many intact vs altered foals each mare has produced. I rarely breed without a full bonus unless it’s a lab foal, so I can pretty much compare everyone to each other without worry. I have one overflow pasture, just in case I have a couple mares I just can’t alter or part with but won’t fit in the main pasture, and I will move around accordingly to get those mares bred. I find this helps me keep my numbers relatively manageable, and my organization fairly easy. I have one 90 stall foundation barn, for mares to rotate in and out and for embryo transfers. I then have a 120 stall barn for generation 2, 3, and 4, a 120 stall public brood barn (again, for mares too nice to alter but ones that I am not actively breeding at the moment), and 12 120 stall show barns. If I ever hit the point my generation barns are full, I go through and snip snip for show. Everything is run through SBA except lab babies. That really helps with my mare numbers.

RoseFlute · Dec 22, 2018 6:20 PM

@Ren actually Ammit added something last year? this year? so that any foal PT is kept in the AFPT even after it's deleted. As long as the foal was PT'd it should be taken into account. :)
As for mare allotment, when I ran out of pastures for individual studs I started putting stud codes at the beginning of mares' names so they'd be grouped together alphabetically. I always put the generation number first, and then a letter tailored to the stud, and then the mare's name (which might give me a clue on pedigree), and then important genes. :)

Ren · Dec 22, 2018 6:27 PM

@FallenShadows714 - I try to keep only 1-2 stud colts from each of my studs and they must be superior to sire (unless I don't have any kept then they can be AGA but are culled once I get a STS). I wish I had a comparison for mares as they would really help cut down on numbers if I could compare fillys to their moms. hahah I like what you are doing though and I may need to figure out a finite number on how many mares I keep per generation/stud. I need more barns for show horses, that's one of my main problems right now too. :P

@RoseFlute - Oh, I didn't realize that! That is great information to know, thanks for that. I assumed that if the foal was deleted it was taken out of the AFPT score. Most of my foals go through PT so that should help me I think....might need to start looking at AFPT a little more closely with that in mind now. Thanks!

ColorGoodStables · Dec 22, 2018 6:30 PM

Following for ideas this is my biggest problem. I have way to many horse and not a a strict enough standards

HTRanch · Dec 22, 2018 7:55 PM

As far as culling mares goes, my other account is bootstrapping-only. My account is not premium, so my mares are named with their AFPT at the front of their names. When I go through and cull every season, I just search mares older than 3 and sort by name and then cull from the bottom up.

1152 DeathintheAfternoon

On this account, my breeding goals range a bit more so I keep a wider range of mares. In order to stay as a foundation, a mare has to be RS or Expro quality. In order to stay as a 2G, they have to have at least 2 desirable genes (A+ with DP or sooty, ice9, satin, or sooty+). I name them by gen, paper level (Y, R, B, G) and then by an abbreviation of the founding sire's name just so I can tell at a glance what line they go in. It makes culling a bit harder but I find that culling is much easier when you only keep a few intact foals from breeding.

3B Bav Deep Space

Windigo · Dec 22, 2018 8:00 PM

I bootstrap alot and my mares pull double duty in most cases having genes of this or that that I want going through all my herds. They are sorted by paper level in barns, gold barn, blue barn, etc., although with me adding snf and KP recently I will probably have to find a better way to organize. I just went through all of my red mares and ran BA on them and snipped about half so that helps. If they are from one of my red/b or blue/a crosses they have to pass BA now whereas I was just keeping them all because my lines are uneven. I still have a ton of reorganizing to do but it helped that I cut numbers down in this way.

HUSgal · Dec 22, 2018 8:20 PM

I organize by name because all the horses are sorted alphabetically in pasture. 1G 2G etc. after that is a single space. Then an acronym for the most important gene or quality they have. Sometime I add more acronyms if needed. So all my horses look something like

1G SCH
2G BBB
3G SI4
4G Bi5

Etc.

lostcause · Dec 22, 2018 8:34 PM

I have an excel sheet and I come code my mares by background as to what line they go in

Cheers · Dec 22, 2018 9:35 PM

As far as organization, I mostly use my color and generation coded suffix for the main part of that. Similar to Rose and others’ stallion codes, this tells me what color, pattern and special genes as well as what gen a horse is and I can quite easily sort mares into pasture from the barn page with that. So, for instance, all of my KP horses have a K in their suffix, and all my mushrooms have a u. I can tell at a glance what horses go where/with what stud. I also use tattoos, which means I double up on my identifiers, but you can search by tattoo which makes both methods helpful to me.

I also house horses in barns according to generation—so all my gen 2 stallions and all my gen 2 fillies growing up waiting to go in pasture live in the same barn.

Once a pasture is full (remember I’ve been playing forever and have been buying pastures on sale for years now, so I have a ton! Most players don’t pasture like I do), I then start trying to improve the pasture with my replacement fillies. So, for instance, Im slowly converting to all Red papered foundation mares and all Blue papered gen 2 mares. Every season I go through at least some of my pastures and cull for AFPT and also for paper, allowing me to slowly rotate new mares into pasture and also to slowly improve my pastures.

cadieness · Dec 22, 2018 10:17 PM

When I started I was really lazy (or maybe efficient?) and decided all my foundation mares have to be expro appies and my studs are the ones with the genes. So that makes Gen1 really easy - they're either expro or they're RS and because I breed for fantasy, not specific genetics, I just toss 'em all in the pasture with 3 foundation studs and let them breed!

My second gens have to have appy and a fantasy gene to stay. Fantasy gene is easy because all my studs are Hom for their genes. Appy can sometimes be harder to get to stick so if they don't have it, they don't stay. I haven't figured out how I'm going to pair my 2+ gens yet because my 2nd gens are just coming of age. I only have one of age 2nd Gen stud and he's het nx so I'm using him for all the mares this season and we'll see what happens next!

For naming I do some variation of (pattern) (gene I breed for) # (generation) (extra notes)

So it would end up looking like "Wt App # 2 LP" - LP denoting they're Hom LP

kintara · Dec 22, 2018 10:46 PM

I have a lot of horses, so I don't usually bother trying to go through them to cull, or checking AFPT, way to time consuming! I just keep everything LOL! I use any foundations, but I like at least one parent to be B or red just to help my gen2 quality be a bit better, not a strict rule though. Especially if I am breeding within the newest era.

I breed even generations so I name them all initially with generation, part of the sire's name, and their era. Era isn't strictly necessary but helps me keep them in order and know how they are likely bred. I might add special genes at the end of the name too. As far as quality goes, their foals will be snipped anyway by SBA if they aren't at least as good as the stallion so I don't worry about it too much, and keep more checks on stallion quality. I will sometimes go through and find and snip gen3 reds for example though.

My breeders are kept in pastures, I usually breed in small batches. I'll pick a group of gen3 mares say and put in an empty pasture, and breed them to the gen3 stallion I feel like using on the day. I have a lot of mares that don't get bred but that's ok, I don't mind them hanging around eating their heads off LOL! Doing it that way, I tend to breed more of the ones I like, which gives me more foals I like! My pastures are organised by generation and era, but I don't necessarily breed them all like that, and have found I prefer to breed in smaller batches in an empty pasture. My barns are just Mares, Stallions and Show horses, oh and a few for foals. I find them on searches, not in the barns, too many there!

Ren · Dec 23, 2018 12:20 AM

Thanks everyone for the replies, it's definitely helping me get an idea of how I might be able to organize things a little better for myself. I do a lot of the suggestions already so I guess it's good to know that I'm on the right track. I think the biggest help to me will simply be slowing down, letting my show horses gather more points, letting the hbs roll in, and then buying more barns.

@Cheers - I think most of my pastures are for foundations so I think the only way to improve that would be to, like you said, switch in for red papered mares...I'm still a long ways off on getting all of them that way! Does that mean that you only use B papered studs as well? I'm not sure I'd ever switch to that completely as I love my freaky friday bases and some of the other C papered RS.

@cadieness - I also breed for appy but don't have it as an excluding factor because I prefer the look of one copy of LP and either het or hom PATN1. So I'll keep mares that didn't get a copy of LP, as long as they have other genes that I like, and then breed them to a hom LP stud instead. Same goes for hom LP mares - but they usually match with a het LP stud as I rarely keep studs unless they have at least one copy of LP.

I guess I should also say how I currently organize my mares which is as follows. Foundations do not have any prefix but all other gens are marked by g2, g3, ect. followed by genes that are of note (DP, Prl, M (macchiato), mu (mushroom), w2, olw (frame), ect) and then their name. If second gen their names are usually a mash of their parents or else follow a theme so I can better know who they are at a glance. I do use tattoos as well but pretty sparingly. I've started to use some backgrounds/tack to identify certain genes/other special things.

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