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BlueRiverRanch · Jan 19, 2024 11:53 AM

Hi! I’ve been playing for around a year and have been able to breed some pretty decent horses (color and rating wise) but now that I am getting more into the game I’m wanting to focus on breeding my own line from scratch and adding some specific closed genes in. I’m wondering:

1) is it better to start from ExPerf foundations and add the genes I want in by GMTing them onto those creates or should I outsource the genes and add them in later once I’ve established horses that pass BA from a group of foundation horses?

2) should I keep my uneven bred horses (I have mostly gold/star+) and try to breed them evenly from now on with other peoples stock? (I don’t care about eras that much) or should I sell them to get the funds to start from scratch?

I know everyone plays the game differently and there isn’t a right or wrong way I’m just looking for clarity because I want to try my hand at the leaderboards and building up a line others want to use as well. Any advice is appreciated :)

Thank you!

BRR <3

Bluemesa · Jan 19, 2024 12:14 PM

1. Outsourcing for the genes would probably be more economical, but could take longer depending on what’s available. If you’ve got a specific look in mind from the get-go, it may be “easier” to just spend the money/IVs/GMTs at the beginning. Pros to both, there’s definitely not a wrong way to do it!

2. Yeah, you can either sell them to fund your projects. Or, probably what I’d do is run them all through BA/SBA, the ones that pass- that’s your bootstrapping herd now. Hang on to spelds with high PTs, they’ll be excellent show horses, auction the rest.

Have fun, and good luck!

BlueRiverRanch · Jan 20, 2024 9:39 AM

Thank you Blue! That was really helpful :)

SummerMonarch · Jan 20, 2024 12:52 PM

What is your goal with building your own line from scratch?

I’d recommend using your existing for a show herd but that’s up to you. I know eras aren’t everyone’s jam but they are an “easier” place to hit the leaderboards, unless there is a “fight” in your era (like in 4.)

Does it matter if you go yellow or red? No, especially if you don’t care about eras . Yellow has the rarer genes but is a boost behind red. Basically, yellow will take you two months longer.

I just started testing against best in generation rather than against parent and, while brutal, it works well.

Got more specificity in questions?

RamshornRanch · Jan 20, 2024 4:22 PM

I would keep your uneven bred high paper stock to produce show foals for you. Keeping a strong show herd will help your income to fund your other projects.

If you have the funds I would gmt a few stallions to have the special genes you want, build a herd of mares that are close to what you want and go from there.

These last bits of advice are strictly for using a foundation from scratch herd to go for leaderboard rankings:
Eras 0-5 are quite a bit ahead of foundation level right now. Some of the eras are weaker than others, but in general you will be way behind if you are starting from scratch here. Eras 1-3 seem to be the weakest, but I suspect that will not last long.
Your best bet is to start with yellow papered era 6 breeding stock right now. Like, seriously hurry and get going this season in January. You are a month behind some competitive players that started in December. So you’ll be playing catchup a little bit, but it’s probably possible to catch the top in a few seasons if you’re diligent and some of the other players lose interest to focus on something else.

If I were you, I would play around with starting from scratch in era 6 and see if you can get the hang of how it works to build from the ground up. Watch what other players that are making the top spots in era 6 are doing. Then in June hit Era 7 hard and start an Era 7 bunch from scratch. Maybe wait to invest your fancy color gmts until that era 7 herd.

BlueRiverRanch · Jan 20, 2024 5:28 PM

Oooh thank you both! I really appreciate all the knowledge :)

Summer, my main goal is honestly to challenge myself and try to get better at the more statistical aspects of the game. I’ve been focusing on using PT, consistency, and paper as my main judge of horse quality and then trying to add color in when I can. Now that I’ve got a decent stock that’s passed BA and have started placing on the LBs I want to try my hand at going higher with evenly bred horses and my lines aren’t.

As far as questions, how do you decide who is the best in generation to compare everyone too?

Ram, I hadn’t thought about that for making show stock so thank you!!!

I’ve been having a hard time understanding how eras work in terms of placing on leaderboards so I appreciate the explanation that helped a bunch!

I’ll keep that in mind for when I start! I’ve bred a handful of foundation horses already so I might have a few foals to work with for Era 6. I think I’m going to try and wait for Era 7 to fully dive in though

RenBayish · Nov 19, 2024 4:05 PM

What is better? Just starting to get some decent mares that are passing advanced. Should I keep and breed lesser then A Stallions just to see if they produce well if I already have **Star Stallions. Is it worth breeding lesser stallions to my good open mares?

Thank you for any feedback!

BlueRiverRanch · Nov 20, 2024 2:06 PM

Hi Ren!

It depends on your goals with your stock but for me personally once I hit ** star and I had stud prospects that met my goals for PT/lineage/consistency/etc I didn’t breed my * or lower horses at all. If you are going for evenly bred though, or are starting a line from scratch, I would say keep breeding your A/star* studs and compare their production quality with what your needs are. For example, I usually only breed with *** star studs now but I have a ** brindle that produces as well as some of the triples I’ve bred to that I keep in case he decides to give me some really good quality goals I can max/boost if I want. Pm me if you have any questions or need to clarify anything and I’m happy to help with examples or anything else. Thanks! :)

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