HGG Community Forums

RamshornRanch · May 18, 2023 10:17 AM

I'm curious to see what other folks think about what they like and dislike about breeding futurity foals and locking the foals? It's been a few seasons now, so I feel like the initial jump on the wagon interest has died down.

If you are willing to breed futurity eligible foals and lock the foals what do you want to see in a stallion that makes you willing to do that? Are you looking for paybacks/freebies? Just looking for a stallion you like and locking on a whim if you're keeping the foal anyways? Are you hunting specifically for stallions to breed with the intention to lock the foals? Do you like swapping straws with other players?

If you're promoting stallions hoping for futurity foals, how are you selecting them?

I've tried a variety of methods over the last few months, both in promoting stallions and also breeding locked foals for other players and feeling relatively uninspired about my efforts so far.

For breeding foals:
I did a little swapping, which I'm on the fence about. I felt locked into using a stallion I didn't love in exchange for helping my own stallion get his 10 locked foals. It's tough to find two folks who's "goals" match up perfectly for a perfect swap.
After that, I've just gone to hunting for stallions that I like, matching them to an appropriate era mare, and locking the foal to help out the stallion owner. Paybacks, incentives and freebies haven't really influenced me in making my stallion choices via this method.
Next month I've decided I'm just going to shoot to fill all my slots with bootstrapped show foals, and see if I'm more satisfied with at least getting a whole barn full of moneymakers and no effort to go for foals that pass breeding advice.

Promoting stallions:
At first I really wanted to have at least one stallion offered for all of Eras 0-4 so that everyone had a stallion to choose from. After this month, I've decided it's just too labor/cash intensive to try to get interest in that many stallions all in one month. I'm thinking about going down to picking one stallion as the "flavor of the month", dropping his fee, and calling it a day.
I guess I'm just feeling like if I have to make an extra special effort to beg people to breed to a stallion, then maybe he doesn't really deserve to be in futurity contention anyways.

lingonberry121391 · May 18, 2023 10:31 AM

I’m fine with locking a foal because I keep just about everything. My issue is finding studs that align with my goals and then matching eras. I don’t care much about incentives, more about helping others.

As far as choosing a stallions, that overwhelmed me. I feel too new to figure it out. I’m still figuring out my own goals and the mechanics of the game.

LadyhawkeStables · May 18, 2023 10:50 AM

I may come back to this for a longer response later, but I'm a bit short on time so here are my initial thoughts.

Breeding:
The most labor intensive part for me is finding mares that are equal to or greater than the era. I ignored era breeding so long that a large majority of my horses are era 0 which makes this super tough for me. I also don't breed any yellow papered foundations so I have no era 4 horses unless I happened to have a random yellow papered foundation. Lately I've been randomly creating some yellows and breeding to futurities and locking just as a favor to the player, but they just become show ponies. I have taken advantage of a few B papered foundations and my only criteria there is matching my breeding goals, the incentives didn't generally matter. My favorite swaps were with @Bluemesa for high gen era 0 horses because I could actually use those on my matching higher gens and get quality foals.

Promoting:
With the knowledge the finding mares sucks, I have gone the route of offering embryos which has worked the best for me and is little effort to the player although it is more costly. I have a lot of pride in my lines and don't like just giving straws away just to get qualified. I am very particular in the horses I choose to offer with the hope that people will love their foals truly want to keep them.

The interest in my foundation embryos was super low though this season which is disappointing so I'm not sure how to handle that moving forward. I think for a futurity stud to be consistently successful you really need to continue to have outside breedings each season, but when you keep offering the same studs month over month it gets old.

Still an interesting experiment and forces one to be creative with their breeding ads and trying different avenues. Again the biggest headache for me has been era matching. There's a lot of studs I would love to use but just don't have suitable mares, I really wish that the mares era didn't matter in order to lock the foal.

(Lol okay my initial thoughts were longer than expected :)) )

Foxbrookfarm · May 18, 2023 11:20 AM

I’ve been locking all my keepers from studs that are in the running for futurities. In the initial excitement, I did trade for many many straws lol and I did honor all agreements to lock the babies. Some of them were not necessarily keeper babies, but I kept them, since I agreed to. I’ve been doing more breeding to standing studs I like (matching eras) and locking the ones I want to keep for breeding or showing. I will also buy straws from particular studs. But basically I’m looking for genes I want, and using studs I want to see in my pedigrees and lines.

I enjoy swapping straws, even if it’s not always what I am breeding for, on the chance of getting a nice show pony. I do feel sometimes spelds end up in auction too quickly without being PT tested, but that’s my opinion as a smaller stable and only based on what I see from breedings to my open studs.

As far as promoting, I’m trying to limit the number of stallions I keep, so I offer the guys I have and a couple of those offspring I just can’t part with but may not use enough myself. I keep the stud fees low so they are accessible and just hope for some nice show babies to hit the ground! I don’t think that I have the best system by a long shot but I hope to keep in the running just by putting them out there and hoping for the best!

AbidingPeace · May 18, 2023 12:16 PM

I don't care about freebies or paybacks myself and am not looking for any. I am also offering them less and less because they don't seem to work. (Probably because like me most people don't really care about them.) What has worked for me is really limiting the studs I am promoting in a season, and offering embryos from my very very best mares from those studs. I don't bother to promote most of my studs other than to have them be regularly available in the Era 4 chat room. Many of my older boys get regular use by players. I think because they have been around long enough that people get an idea of what they might use them for, and they build a reputation.

"I guess I'm just feeling like if I have to make an extra special effort to beg people to breed to a stallion, then maybe he doesn't really deserve to be in futurity contention anyways."

I think this is the key. When I promote a stallion I pick the one that I think will have the broadest appeal and only focus on that one. The best seems to be 1 stallion per post because then your post title is very focused and it helps the few people who your stud is a fit for find him. This plays into my comment about my older boys above. Because people know those stallions they can picture how they want to use them in their programs. A big list of new stallions they have never seen just gets glossed over. Most already know what they want to breed before they even open those pages, and if the stud has the wrong whatever they won't use them no matter the incentives. People look for the right stud not the right prize for breeding.

I am at the point where I don't mind breeding futurity foals from other players if I am going to have the empty mares that season, but I am not actively hunting for trades because I am not needing trades to get my boys listed. I prefer live cover, and if a stallion has genes or paper level that works for my herd I will breed to him.

I don't tend to lock foals, but I also keep everything I breed so there kind of is no need.

I think maybe finding a buddy or a small group that breeds similar things might be a good way to go. You really only need one or two people to be interested in a stud a season.

Walywoohoo · May 18, 2023 1:15 PM

I absolutely look at incentives :)) but I've been busy lately, and when I have time to breed I'm trying to fulfill a few goals I made (including trying to use the straws I already have).
More thoughts later, after I let the dogs out, wash the dishes, and clean up 4197694 messes lol.

SummerMonarch · May 18, 2023 3:34 PM

Since we don’t have to lock foals for them to qualify, I don’t lock foals. There isn’t a really good reason for that other than I don’t like the forced commitment. That doesn’t mean I don’t KEEP them, just that locking isn’t my jam. I keep reconsidering this and it changes month by month. I disagree with both past and future me frequently.

I kept everything from the first month but rapidly realized I don’t enjoy keeping things I’d normally cull. Now I ask for straws with no restrictions I’m happy to bring new blood in my barns but it’s gotta come out right. I prefer straws to live cover because I want the 15 day pasture bonus. And, while I don’t discriminate in action, I do prefer premium players because those foals get shown no matter what. I’m supportive of all players but when counting to ten I tend to focus there.

I’m trying to focus on only one stud per era, but it doesn’t always work. I also make embryos and send them out. It’s expensive but it both gets my studs on the board and puts more players on the era 4 leaderboard.

I also think horses already on the leaderboard got a big boost when we started. I had given out a ton of straws in both gift exchanges so some of my horses started near the top of the list in January. Those stallions have done better than higher quality stallions, likely because they are easy to find.

I don’t charge for straws or live cover because I actively want my foals in the wild. But money gets less tight the longer you play (but you never ever have enough.)

(I also love swapping with bluemesa!)

TripleGFarm · May 18, 2023 4:04 PM

First thoughts for me, will circle back when I have more time. :))

I took a step back after the first month and have been just feeling it out lately. Just finding boys that fit my likes and goals and going from there, but have also helped out members asking for breeding to help get on the boards hopefully, on horses I normally would overlook. My Era 3 boy, Wildest Moments, seems to be doing well for the lack of promoting I have done since that initial month. (aside some ads posted with all my guys on it) Incentives are great, but didn't help me much to get my guys out there (that and my lack of effort, haha) Recieving them is always nice to help recoup, but the awards from the futurities are good enough to me the more I've thought it over.

Like LadyHawke, I never paid much attention to Eras, thus almost all my best stock is Era 0 too. I plan to try to start fresh in June with E5. Try to come up with a plan before then. My brains likes to go in a million different directions when I get a thought so.. It should be fun.. As always.

SummerMonarch · May 18, 2023 4:11 PM

Yeah I keep thinking we should write a “hi it’s a new era here is what to do if you want to play in the era leaderboards.”

LookingGood · May 18, 2023 10:16 PM

First thoughts, late at night...Ill probably come back to this....

I have mixed feelings. I want to promote my studs and hopefully one for each Era, however the studs I love aren't the studs others love lol.

I have mares from each Era so that's not an issue for me. I also am not focused on Era breeding.

I recently looked to see which of my studs are currently on the board and I was going to promote them again, however I feel a lot of players are tired of breeding fut foals just to help another player.

I'm completely comfortable swapping breedings so my boys are bred. I dont worry if they fit my goals or not. If they do, its a bonus.

I have 12 studs that are currently on the boards (just for now, they won't stay there) and that equals 120 foals a month, if I want to keep them all qualified.

Stalls are a big part of why I haven't done much since the first month. I have some pretty big goals already and swapping fut breedings means 10 stalls at a time are going to foals I'm breeding so my studs get bred. 10 less stalls towards my current goals.

I will definitely jump back on the fut breeding in a few months but I really need more barn space to feel I can swap breedings and I hope to have a stud by then that'll be more desirable.

I was locking foals, because it was there, but I'm keeping them all anyway. I also label my straw and embryo foals so I know where they came from and it's easy to know which horses are staying if I choose to let some go. I also have locked foals I offered for sale, to insure they would stay in game.

Ammit · May 19, 2023 1:58 AM

"I have 12 studs that are currently on the boards (just for now, they won't stay there) and that equals 120 foals a month, if I want to keep them all qualified."

That is not the case. It is 10 foals over 5 months to keep them on NOT per month.

RamshornRanch · May 19, 2023 8:31 AM

Really good thoughts from everyone. I appreciate sharing your different perspectives, but I definitely see some common themes amongst the group that align with how I am feeling.

One thing the futurity has done for me is that I have paid more attention to Eras, and I decided to shake up my lines a little to make sure that I retain mares from each Era instead of getting the inevitable down to Era 0 slide. I combined my two larger lines into one big group and sorted the stallions and mares by Era and going forward I will focus on matching Eras as I breed them.
I am going to keep two smaller color themed lines that I won't be era matching at all. So I'm hoping that will give me a good mix of playing styles and variety in how I am breeding and planning.

After having read through everyone's thoughts and putting down my own thoughts, I think I've realized that when I first started playing the game I didn't have any hope of doing well on the leaderboards. So I focused on my own barn and being happy with that. When futurities came out, I felt like I had a good chance of achieving something, since it was brand new to everyone, so then I started feeling competitive. Which isn't a bad thing, but can lead to some feelings of "failure" if I am not good about remembering to compete against myself first, and the rest is secondary.

Feel free to continue discussing.

LookingGood · May 19, 2023 2:52 PM

@Ammit I thought the winners would be based off the best 10 five year olds of each month, starting with June? Thats why everyone wants 10 foals on the ground, for the stud to qualify for that month.

Or am I missing something?

Ammit · May 20, 2023 2:46 AM

10 foals total gets you qualified. They can be any age at all. They do not need to be 5, they just have to be younger than 6. The younger stallions coming up will help fill the boards for the older stallions so they can get their placings. You do not have to keep getting 10 foals every season. That would be way to much work to expect of people.

Stallions with 10+ 5 year olds have the best shot at winning because 5-year-olds can make the most points, but they do not need to have 10 5-year-olds to win.

Ammit · May 20, 2023 2:49 AM

This horse is #4 and has zero 5 year old foals.
https://mesa.huntandjump.com/horse.php?horseid=1795090

SummerMonarch · May 22, 2023 2:43 PM

I’ve been searching through the qualified stallions for how things will look next month (search by sire id, under five years old, sort by total points) and I wanted to give a shout out to Lady Hawk. She’s not everywhere, but where she is, she’s cleaning up the highest point race with foals! Well done! ⭐️

LookingGood · May 22, 2023 4:26 PM

Thank you Ammit for clearing that up for me. :D

Members log in here:
Username:
Password:
By hitting the above you signify that you agree with our rules and conditions.
Forgot your password?

HGG Community Forums

Join our discord server!

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories

In this Discussion

Join our discord server!

Enlarge Your Pastures

Reminders!

Vacation GT Sale!