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RamshornRanch · May 1, 2024 12:46 PM

I really love the futurity, and would hate to see certain Eras die out and unable to give out prizes at the end of the season because of a lack of participation and qualified stallions. Last month I ran a giveaway/raffle for Era 3. After looking at the boards for this month it looks like Era 1 and Era 2 will be needing extra help in the qualified stud department this season.
Last month's giveaway forum post: https://mesa.huntandjump.com/forum/index.php?p=/discussion/7969/era-3-futurity-foal-raffleincentives-200000-hb-payout-opportunity-closing-on-420#Item_29

I'm interested in running another raffle/giveaway for Eras 1 and 2 this month. However, I felt like the participation in last month's giveaway was lower than I had hoped. Give me your thoughts on what would increase participation? Better/more prizes? A different structure? Is the futurity just not that popular except amongst a small group of us?

I can only afford so much out of my own pocket, so if you think better prizes is the ticket and would be willing to donate to a prize pool let me know!

TripleGFarm · May 1, 2024 1:02 PM

I just need the time of day to get organized and get futurity foals on the ground. :)) if a few barns worked together could have an era filled in no time.

I'm willing to donate if it's money that drives the train. Haha. Or anything that's is needed. (Can offer custom headers/signatures? Straws/Eggs? )

DarkPhoenix · May 1, 2024 2:06 PM

I would definitely participate in this one! I was busy and I didn't do much breeding last season lol. I think one problem might just be lack of mares. You can use any mares above that era, but just plain foundies don't produce good foals. I tend to stay away from futurities of eras that I'm not currently breeding in. Maybe it's just me lol. I do era 1 and 2 though, so this one is good! :D Era 2 has been dying out for a while now, and the Era 2 futurity swap chat room brought it back for a while, but it has been dying away again. I've been going harder on my era 2 horses, but I think I have 2 fancy **stars and 1*star that aren't on the board yet. Have 4 **star era 1 studs not yet on the board as well. Anyone who needs studs qualified, feel free to send me straws or embryos!

I'd be happy to donate some money as well!

RamshornRanch · May 1, 2024 2:15 PM

Open mares are for sure an issue for me. I am becoming more and more selective in my futurity breeding because I only have so many open mares and I want to dedicate some to my own stallions, but also have competitive futurity foals with the mares that I do breed out.

I've been gravitating to using eggs more and more so that I can get more foals each season out of the same batch of mares. It's expensive though!

Ammit · May 1, 2024 2:17 PM

Just so you know realistically it probably does not need prizes. The month only just started and they have always filled in time. I am all about community events though so love to see people coming together. It's great to see people taking initiative on these things. :)

RamshornRanch · May 1, 2024 2:24 PM

Good point. I know there are lots of folks who just step up and help get studs qualified to make it happen each season.

However, I would love to see the boards be a little more healthy and not need so much effort to fill each season. So that's my driving thought in trying to encourage more participation somehow.

LookingGood · May 1, 2024 2:37 PM

I'm all for helping Era 1. I've really needed to cut back projects. I can't afford, have time or space for 10 different projects!

I have plenty of studs (and mares) and as soon as I get to it I'll have *** Star studs to promote.

I'm willing to breed 10 fut foals for every stud I promote. Meaning if I'm promoting three studs, I'll breed 30 foals from outside studs.

Foxbrookfarm · May 2, 2024 5:41 AM

I still actively breed my era 1 line so I’m happy to be involved and help out however I can when it comes to it!

LadyhawkeStables · May 2, 2024 5:48 AM

I haven't been super active these last few months, but I'm trying to get back into it, happy to help where I can!

I second what @DarkPhoenix and @RamshornSporthorses said about struggling to finding good matching mares and not just random foundations is my biggest struggle with futurities. I am still just so heavy in era 0 it's hard to phase that out, especially when boosting 1 drops them down to 0 as well.

What works best for me and what @SummerMonarch used to do a lot of is just send me embryos, I have the space and surrogate mares to implant if you have a good match picked out already. Open offer to anyone looking to get their studs qualified! :) #557

Walywoohoo · May 2, 2024 6:44 AM

I'll have a stud for both eras, and will gladly trade. And I agree with what LadyHawke said; receiving embryos makes it easy ;)

ThatLeatherSmell · May 2, 2024 8:35 AM

I'm planning on participating much more with futurity on this server. I do a lot of fut breeding on forest, but I dont see as much organisation on here. Where should I be looking for stallions to be qualified?
Most of my stock is kitchen sink fantasy so without pairing up with some bigger barns, I cant really see my stock getting consistantly qualified

SummerMonarch · May 2, 2024 9:01 AM

Make a post here with your stallions. I’d be willing to get some cobs in my mix.

Put your straws up for public sale. I bred most of my era 0 last night (ugh 1am I’m so tired today) and I had to go stud hunting to find some straws. Out of the *** 14.5 stallions, only like 1/4 of them had straws publicly available.

You can also ask on the studs chat. I give you permission. :)

SummerMonarch · May 2, 2024 9:05 AM

Also, if you look at the studs who win on the leaderboards, almost none of them are homegrown. LadyHawk, BlueMesa, Ash with their amazing protected mushroom line, and others I’m sure. But everyone else has gotten straws or embryos and are using those foals to complete. A brand new player with a premium account could get some embroys from any of the big barns and come right in with us. Knowledge is the challenge.

I’ve considered doing this with a second account on here, just to see if I could get up to speed in three months, but I already spend too much time in this account.

SummerMonarch · May 2, 2024 9:07 AM

LadyHawke, I will add you to my distribution list. I’ve gone to only sending to people in my studs chat because I worried I was overwhelming people. The line between gifting and spamming can get small and I want to stay on the gifting side of it.

But yeah, join chat get embryos. Except for last month, in which I didn’t get all my breeding done, so nothing else got done either.

RamshornRanch · May 2, 2024 9:29 AM

Embryos is an interesting idea.

Would some of the bigger barns be interested in offering a few embryos each to go into a contest or prize drawing?

I am thinking that it would be setup something like you enter the prize drawing by committing to keep the resulting foals as futurity foals. Then maybe run it like a draft where the entrants are randomly assigned a picking order and then everyone gets to pick an embryo out of the pot.

AbidingPeace · May 2, 2024 9:30 AM

I would not use the embryos as prizes. Instead I think foaling out and locking the embryos should be the entries.

SummerMonarch · May 2, 2024 9:32 AM

We can’t sell embryos like straws, can we? That’d be a cool solution.

AbidingPeace · May 2, 2024 9:35 AM

I am not interested in participating in era 1 or 2 futurity but I have a ton of very high quality mares I am not using that I am happy to sell eggs from this season. I will be putting them up a few at a time as the season goes on. They are era 4 so would make lovely era 1 and 2 foals.

magesvalley · May 2, 2024 9:38 AM

My big thing is reciprocation. I am more than happy to qualify people's horses - I don't really have "lines" on this server, just breeding show horses - but it's frustrating trying to get people to qualify my horses. I don't need raffle prizes - unless the prize is reciprocating breedings.

(Yes, I realize as I say this that I have two very highly ranked stallions in futurity. Yes, that probably makes me a bit of whiner.)

AbidingPeace · May 2, 2024 10:02 AM

On other servers there is more of an organized futurity community and fully expected reciprocity systems (if you list a stud you are expected to breed 10 foals from others.) Organization of eras here has faced some challenges.

RamshornRanch · May 2, 2024 10:36 AM

Overall, I have decided prizes don't really incentivize people. Prizes are great for new and young accounts, but they are not very likely to have the resources to fully participate in the futurity.

Older established accounts don't need the prizes, so most often they will do what they want whether a prize is offered or not.

Maybe this discussion is enough to encourage folks to get into the game.

I like the idea of organization and reciprocity. Doesn't always work in practice though. I have had trades promised and then folks forgot or never got around to using my straws by the end of the season. So that has cooled my enthusiasm for straight up trades. That might be just me.

I have been gravitating more towards choosing a stallion in a particular era and then making sure I get 10 foals from him myself so that even if no one else breeds to him I have put him up on the board and my foals have a chance at a top foal prize.

magesvalley · May 2, 2024 11:51 AM

Oh, I win much more often from having ten foals to a stallion than having a stallion. In general, my stallions are lucky to make it top ten, but the foals keep popping up months later to surprise me.

TripleGFarm · May 2, 2024 1:28 PM

@RamshornSportHorses I'll take the heat for sliding on straws. Your guys were the first embryos I did today tho?! Brain goes haywire all the time, I don't do it on purpose. I'm very sorry and felt real crappy about it.

Like @magesvalley, I think I win more from foals than my own guys when I actually get the foals on the ground/showing.

Extra money always entices me. (gotta collect those IVs for barns still)

RamshornRanch · May 2, 2024 1:56 PM

@TripleGFarm,

I am not as chapped about it as my post potentially sounded. There has been more than one instance of it happening to me, so not all the heat is directed at you or at anyone in particular. Also, I know at the end of the day this is a GAME. Real life happens, people forget things, etc. I know that 99.99% of the people in this community do their best to keep their promises and follow through on things, so I never assumed any malicious intent when it happened. No worries!

RamshornRanch · May 2, 2024 1:57 PM

I am still pondering on something that could be put together for funsies and to encourage participation.

LadyhawkeStables · May 2, 2024 2:18 PM

Hmm what if we did some ongoing thread in the style of the "careful what you wish for" game (https://mesa.huntandjump.com/forum/index.php?p=/discussion/696/careful-what-you-wish-for-game#Item_135)

Start the thread with one stud (with public listed straws). The next person must purchase, use and futurity lock 5(?) straws from your stud before posting their own stud and so on. You could repost your stud as many times as you want as long as you are buying and using straws from the person above you.

Would be happy to help incentive this with hbs for each participant (and double checking that folks are actually using straws before getting rewards) for a while to get it off the ground?

Thoughts?

RamshornRanch · May 2, 2024 3:42 PM

I actually like that idea Ladyhawke. If a few more folks think it would work or have any input on the idea I'm happy to help put it together.

Would folks want the thread limited to certain Eras or just wide open?

DarkPhoenix · May 2, 2024 4:31 PM

I really like that idea Ladyhawke! I think the thread could be open to any era, as long as the futurity is filled by the end of the season.

LadyhawkeStables · May 2, 2024 5:32 PM

Yay! Maybe we start with just 1 & 2 seeing those are the problem children right now? Once those are filled and we have the kinks worked we could open it up?

Do we think 5 is a fair number? I know 10 is futurity minimum, but that feels like a lot to do at once.

Also should their be any rules/incentive changes if posting a stud that is already qualified?

RamshornRanch · May 2, 2024 9:00 PM

I’m wondering about opening it to all eras for fun but those that post or breed to an era 1 or era 2 stallion will get an HB bonus. To help those eras out a little extra.

Then maybe a big jackpot prize pool at the end of the month that all participants are entered into.

For those interested in donating towards prize money please send me a private message with the HB amount you are willing to donate.

Since I want to get something going before folks get too far into their breeding I will ponder on rules and setup tonight and get something setup tomorrow. I do agree that 5 foals per “round” seems more participation friendly than 10.

RamshornRanch · May 2, 2024 9:13 PM

@ThatLeatherSmell

I just realized I don’t know if anyone answered your question about looking for Futurity studs.

Check the Era Breeders chat rooms, and breeding ads posted to the forum. That will be the best place to find stallions that other players are more actively promoting.

Although lately I just do a search to find a stud I like and breed 10 foals whether the owner is promoting them or not. Most the time I will message the owner to request straws. Then the stud is qualified no matter what and my foals are in the race.

Foxbrookfarm · May 3, 2024 3:52 AM

Oh I missed a lot.. but I am happy to trade and keep/lock foals. I’ve been doing that from the start. I’ve also been putting discounted straws up on random favorite studs as an incentive for people who barn hunt.

All my boys, all eras, foundation through 7th gen home bred and 12+ from outside are available to have straws pulled or have live cover arranged.

LookingGood · May 3, 2024 11:43 AM

My top two Era 1 boys each have 10 straws for sale. If you buy some and want me to breed equal fut foals for you please send me straws and a message. Please label the straws.
10534

RamshornRanch · May 3, 2024 12:50 PM

Futurity swap game is live. Check it out:
https://mesa.huntandjump.com/forum/index.php?p=/discussion/8071/it039s-the-futurity-swap-game#Item_1

SummerMonarch · May 3, 2024 6:13 PM

~~As a note, I’m looking for high pt era 1 straws. 5554~~
Quest complete!

Springs Monsoon FFE1

Foxbrookfarm · May 5, 2024 4:14 AM

Question regarding the futurity swap game. There has yet to be a stud that I have appropriate matches for. Would people be upset if I use a E6 3rd gen on era 6 foundation mares? I’d keep the show babies. I also don’t have super high generations yet to cross with the ***Star boys.

LadyhawkeStables · May 5, 2024 6:13 AM

Nah, you gotta do what you can! I don't have anything after era 2 really, but just have fun with it and enjoy the nice show ponies! :)

Ammit · May 5, 2024 6:33 AM

It's never a problem to use a newer era mare. The foals still turn out the right era.

LadyhawkeStables · May 5, 2024 6:39 AM

Oh for real?! I always thought it took the lower era of both parents!

Ammit · May 5, 2024 6:52 AM

Sorry, I meant the newer era.

DarkPhoenix · May 5, 2024 6:55 AM

@Foxbrookfarm Babies are babies, they earn points either way :D

RamshornRanch · May 5, 2024 8:31 AM

No rules in the game against it either. It’s just for fun to encourage swaps and participation.

SummerMonarch · May 5, 2024 1:21 PM

If it’s an era 5 or 6 I like, I reach out and ask for embryos. I also don’t have the mares.

Are you waiting for anything specific?

Foxbrookfarm · May 6, 2024 4:03 AM

Thanks everyone I just wanted to make sure!

I do not have any era 2 studs so send me some era 2 straws to qualify!

To get qualifying foals for Era 6, I have a bunch of RS mares and a handful of second gen that are of age. That’s the hardest era for me right now since I didn’t really focus on getting a breeding herd ready. I’ll be prepared for era 7!

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