Managing Large Herds

Alright so I currently have 29 horses and honestly I put in a ton of time into making sure I'm optimizing their potential. Trakes were my main herd on my old account and are still my number one faves so I'm really dedicated to making my new foundies successful.
 
On the other hand, I'd love to get into a second breed...but I don't want it to jeopardize my trakes in terms of stat gain (basically I'm worried about not having time for all my horses).

I'm seeing players with hundreds of horses and are still very successful so I'm wondering if anyone can tell me how exactly they manage this because it seems incredibly overwhelming. 

Elementary my dear Aura; DIVISION LOCKING. With the addition of divisions that you can lock, it's super easy to manage a HUGE herd, or herds. I have 6 herds of various breeds I work with, which I have most of them locked at the moment, except for my babies, as I'm trying to age them up to 3 years old (and lock them again). :D

Basically, you can have as many horses as you want, and if you don't have time to work with them all; just lock a few divisions and work with a few horses. Then, when you have time, or you are tired of working with the breed you've been working with for a certain period of time, you can lock them, and unlock the another breed for a period of time.

It's what I do and it works for me. :)

-Feather

Last edited on 2017-07-17 at 17:25:35 by 💖 Feathered Gold 💖

Motivation wise
Lots of time and patience for me.
I may not have 100 yet, but I'm in the 60s without auto care or showing or any upgrade. Its really all about motivation for me. I think about where exactly I want my horses to be at in this game, and that really stops me from giving up. 
Once you find your own system, it becomes mindless work.

Stat Wise
Also, I really focus more on my Tekes than any of my other breeds, so I make sure to show as much of my Tekes as I can. If there isn't enough shows, then I either ask for more or just throw the rest of them into a riding school. Also, you have to keep track of how they are doing in shows. If they just moved up a show level, throw them into a riding school for a week or so, so their stats go up (after that, they do better in shows). Also, showing your horses right after they get a training boost can really bring in more stats/EVD.

I've got 200 something..because I don't even know anymore, locked on other divisions. Idk, horses happen. 
Divisions are nice nowadays if you get overwhelmed you can just locked them *cough* my appaloosas *cough* lol
and do something else...

First and second generation operating aren't that bad. I try to buy in pairs of 8 for breeding though to have an ultimate foal at the end. My newest line - Trakehners, there's 64 total horses so if all goes as planned that'd be 3rd or 4th generation before I would have to buy outside lines or bring in new blood to the lines (depending on how I'm feeling about them at that point); If I would want to continue or not, but hey they may have some new genes or something by then to keep me motivated

Having a good system that I can run through relatively quickly is key for me in having so MANY horses to take care of daily. (I have my own order that I always do things in, and have tried to pare down how long it takes me to do everything.)

Also, being extremely organized. Like people have mentioned, divisions are your absolute savior for having a bunch of horses or a bunch of breeds. You can separate them by age or breed or goal, lock them if you don't have time for all of them, and keep track of it all much more easily. My biggest worry is always forgetting to breed a horse and having it retire, so having mine grouped by age helps a lot to ensure I know which groups of horses are aging up soonest.
For me, planning ahead is also very key - I try to make sure I have mine paired up weeks before breeding, and write down those dates. That way I don't forget, or run out of time on that day to make sure everyone is paired up.

Now, not everyone finds my level of near-fanatical organization to be fun (though for me it's a calming thing), so obviously play the game in a way that you enjoy. If having more horses makes it feel like a chore, or makes you feel overwhelmed, you can always lock some of them away or scale back on your herds.

I think it mostly depends on how much free time you have. When I used to have hours each day to spend on here I could manage 50+ horses easily. Now that I'm only able to play for an hour or two max, I have everything locked except my current breeding project. It's around 15-20 active horses (it varies as some die off from old age and others are locked/unlocked as their partner catches up in age or stats) which is a manageable number for me to make sure they're entered in the correct number of shows based on their past show performance, trained and treated daily, and keep track of who gets bred when.

It also helps to have a system like others said, and a basic routine. When I log in every day I collect my bank interest, collect money from the fountain, train my horses, record the previous day's stat gains and show performance in my spreadsheet, feed & treat each horse, decide which ones are showing today and how many shows each should enter (based on the numbers in my spreadsheet, because I have a system for figuring this out), enter those horses in shows, and enter the rest in riding school. Then if I have time I create shows, and then if I have more time I do stuff like the games in town, the junk yard, check the forums, shop for horses.

Last edited on 2017-07-17 at 21:24:01 by SueHeck