Questions from a Newbie

What makes a horse valuable?
What are rare colors / markings?
More conformation the better the horse? Or do colors / something else matter more?

When training a foal does the different options (weaning, handling, etc) give better training or is it just for roleplaying?

What's the purpose of boarding a horse?


Thank you for any answers! I know Help Center exists but I haven't figured out these things.

- Depends on what you're breeding for.
I personally breed for stats.
but the three main things people look for:
Color
Conformation
Stats

- Depends on the breed you're working with.

- Depends on if you're breeding for Conformation.
I personally dont since I dont see the important or reason for it.

- I'm pretty sure they're just there to not do the same thing over again?
I forget since I haven't had a foal in ages, but it might do different things.

- You have to board a horse in order to do anything with it.
Gives it a home to live in.

Currently, I feel that stats are what people look for the most. More specifically a horse that has a bunch of stats for their discipline and very few that are non-discipline related stats. Example: A horse specialized in Show Jumping should have a higher number of stats in Agility and Speed rather than the other stat criteria. Other players do focus more on breeding for rare colors, but this totally depends on the breed and the variety of colors that there are for the breed that they specialize in.  Altogether people look at multiple things when it comes to buying, selling, or breeding a horse. They look at the stats, the lineage, confo, and color (if the breed has lots of variety in color). Horses with high stats, confo, a clean lineage (no inbreeding or over breeding), and a rare color are going to be seen more valuable than a horse with poor stats, confo, and a bad lineage that has lots of inbreeding or over breeding.

The purpose of boarding a horse allows for your horse to do certain things. If your horse is not boarded you will not be able to train it or show it.

As for foal training, I can not answer whether it affects the number of stats you get at the end because I'm lazy and just hit the button and move on because I have a multitude of foals to train at any given time.

Last edited on 2017-11-21 at 14:58:29 by Regime.Bird III

Everyone seemed to cover everything else rather well, but with foal training you want to vary it every day (I generally just pick a rotation and do one each day on all my foals - day 1 weaning for all, then go to the next on the list for the next day).  You get more stats at the end if you do something different each day.

As for my answer to the other question of what makes a horse valuable to me:
- I'm a stat breeder, so I aim for a good amount of stats based on what generation the horse is.  Foundations can easily hit 800s if they're treated, trained, showed/schooled every day throughout their lifetime.  These stats need to be in the correct areas (so, for me, it's mainly western, which are intelligence and speed stats) and the horse can't be fed hay cubes in the specialization I need. 
-- Example:  I will buy a paint horse that's hay cubed if it's in show jumping, driving, dressage, racing, or endurance spec. I can pay 10k to get the horse to western spec and the stats will move into int/spd. I won't buy a horse that's hay cubed in western spec, as I would have to spend the 10k to convert to a different spec, and then convert the horse back to western for 2evc.  Unless the horse is absolutely amazing, it's not worth it.
- Conformation - it can be worked on over time and bred to be raised higher.  It's not really a determining factor for me, though I do strive for it.  Horses with high confos in my chosen spec are inbred and overbred, so finding one with a high confo normally tells me that I don't want it.
- Color - color can be adjusted down the line as need be.  I don't need to have a nice colored horse if everything else is nice about it.  That being said, I breed my paints for brown (At gene) and I'm always keeping an eye out for them.

Other things I look at:
- pedigree length - I work in short pedigrees at the moment.  Most long pedigrees mean inbreeding/overbreeding to me.  I avoid them unless I look into them and find that they're free of either.
- number of foals at whatever age - if a horse is bred before 15, it's generally a no go, unless I can buy the foals as well.  I've recently bought a 5yo stallion with two young foals, but it was a second generation stallion that was AtAt (guaranteed to pass on brown) and I took the plunge with it.  The foals will be raised and sold off when they're older.  I also don't buy horses over five foals, and preferably at three foals.  I don't breed more than three, but I can make an allowance here and there for a nice horse.

Wow, thank you all! Certainly cleared a lot!

I've always boarded my horses the first thing I do and so I missed the point in that.

What comes to colors they still confuse me. All the different names for colors, for example 'bay', I still can't remember what the color actually is. But if it says 'black' or 'chestnut' or anything simple that I do know. I hope one day I start to learn all of this, right now it all seems very confusing! I've been browsing other members and their horses to find out more colors (oh and I found so many more colors, patterns and markings!) because the ones in Rescue Center seem to be the very basic ones.

Hello it's me again. I was wondering what's the different between 'green apple' and 'bag of green apples' or 'turnip' and 'crate of turnips'. They both say they give the same stat boost but because of a bag of something is definitely more to eat than just one item..  I might just be overthinking this. I haven't fed my horses those crates or bags because I remain suspicious. xD

Last edited on 2017-12-10 at 06:38:42 by bunnypaw

<sup>The foal training boost is affected by how you train, you'll get more for 'varied' training than just hitting the first option all the time. 

There's no difference between a Bag/Crate or single item, just the amount uses it has. The bulk items are only available from the General Store and single use items can only be picked up from the Riding School or Leisure Riding.</sup> 

Thank you, maplɛ!

Actually, there is a difference in the Bag/Crate vs. Single items, but it's not going to majorly affect your horses.

For example, a Green Apple is going to give your horse 5% happiness. Whereas if you use a Bag of Green Apples, then it will be given 10% happiness. This should not affect your game much though, unless your horse is low on happiness due to neglect, but if you're dedicated, it shouldn't be an issue. 

Hope this helped, and welcome to the game!