How do I breed for low non-specialty stats?

Hello, everyone.  I was playing with the Foal Stat Calculator today, using the stats of my Andalusians, and I discovered something that worries me.  If I used the stats of the hypothetical foals, it looks like in a couple of generations their non-specialty stats will start staying the same from one generation to the next.  I want to breed Andalusians with low non-specialty stats (ideally, 0 in each non-specialty category), so this really bothers me.  Are there any ways to keep breeding for low non-specialty stats?

Someone will supply a much detailed response but just a quick one!

At the moment the only way to get lower non spec stats once they've levelled out as you've found, is to breed your horses with pre recode horses.

Unless the current breeding formula changes of course but I don't see that happening anytime soon.

currently, the formula for determining a foal's non-specialty stats, assuming that a parent has had no extra non-spec stats added during their lifetime, is (sire + dam) divided by 2. therefore, it's impossible to breed down non-speciality stats to anything lower than the average of the two parents. 

horses with only post-recode bloodlines will never have below ~15 non-spec stats in any one category. i think the lowest single category stat i've seen in a store horse is 9. Some pre-recode horses do have single digit non-spec stats, but its not possible to breed down to that level any more. 

At last discussion, it seems that changing the breeding formula to allow us to breed down stats is not a priority. 

Last edited on 2018-03-20 at 12:32:40 by kahzie

Question - I have two foundation store horses with 8 in a non spec category. If I breed them together would the foal also have 8 in that category? 

^{^ Yes or lower if you have generations on your side.} 

Olympea - the foals would have an 8 in that category, but unless you can find more horses with a similarly low stat, the next few generations will cause that number to rise.

Unfortunately, a low number like that means a high number in other traits.  If the high numbers happen to be in your specialty traits, you are a very lucky person!

So I can't breed for 0 non-specialty stats unless I can breed to a pre-recode horse?  That stinks.  :(  And @kahzie, thank you for linking that topic.  I've never hit the support button faster lol.

You still won't be able to breed to zero, even with pre-recode horses, because it works by averages.  You won't ever be able to breed below the lowest stat of the parents, and the stats will usually go up from there, unless both parents have the same stat in a trait, or one parent is only one stat above the other (when the average of the two stats is not a whole number, the game does round down.)

If you breed a really good pre-recode horse to one with non-specialty stats at foundation levels, you will end up splitting the difference - lower than foundation, but not nearly as impressive as the pre-recode, and every time you breed back to those foundation levels, the non-specialty stats will get higher, not lower.  So, to keep those stats low, you will have to use mostly pre-recode horses (or those with pure or nearly pure pre-recode ancestry.  Assuming that they have had their non-specialty stats bred low, which is not always the case.)

Well, at least now I know the only way my horses with really low non-specialty stats should leave my account: over my cold dead body XD.  

I think I have seen horses with 0 in a state category before. or was that imagined? 

It's real; but they are pre-recode horses or bred from horses that were pre-recode and had 0 in those areas. 

One way to drop your horses non spec stats really quickly is to use a method i call 'bootstrapping'.   You can breed foundations to lined horses with pre recode low non spec stats and the resulting foal will have much lower non spec stats right away.

Some people don't like the 'look' of uneven lines.. but if you're looking for a show quality horse or horses that will produce lower non spec stat foals sooner..this is the way to go. Im fortunate that most of my old lines are pre recode..However, I have used bootstrapping to boost my newer lines faster..  

Some people are totally against it.. but Im more 'real world' breeding.. and it works well for my horses.. 

Windspun, that is what my plan is. I have bought some really nice foals from folks and they have nice low non spec. I will breed them with either foundation horses or 2nd gens from my foundations.  I plan to breed more "realistically" as well.