What Do You Look For When Buying

Title pretty much says it. What do you look for when buying horses from other players? Do you focus most on stats, conformation, colour or markings?

List what you look for most to least.

I'll start. I am still new to this game, so I am not focusing too much on stats....

1. Conformation
2. Colour
3. Markings
4. Stats

As soon as I get what I want in colour and conformation, I will move on to better stats in my breeding horses.

I don't think you should completely ignore stats. If you think about a foal being born with around 120, then hope to increase that by 10 a year a 3 year old should be around 150 AT LEAST.
Let's see what other calculations other breeders use.

Of those four things...

1. Stats
2. Colour
3. Markings
4. Conformation

I assume by markings you mean white markings like tobiano/sabino/rabicano/appy patterns etc, rather than things like socks or blazes. If you meant socks and blazes and the like, then that would be #4. :P

A longer list of all the things I look at when deciding whether to purchase a horse:

1. Stats
(High stats are most important to me, and I won't buy someone else's horse if it's going to lower the stats of my herd/if a foal out of it will have dramatically lower stats than average for my herd.)
2. Genetics
(Both coat color and genotyped markings; if a horse is a rare enough color/pattern, or something I'm trying to bring into my herd, I give a little more leeway in terms of stats.)
3. Pedigree
(If I'm buying a horse from someone else, chances are I'd like it to not be related to any of mine, as I'm probably trying to bring in new blood; if a horse is a foundation horse or a second generation horse I'll also be more lenient in terms of how many stats I expect it to have. With the new version of the game, I'm also starting more new lines, so nice stores are always wanted!)
4. Conformation
(I've never bred for conformation, though with the new system I'll probably start paying a bit more attention to it.)
5. Age of the horse
(I prefer to buy horses when they're young, because then I have time to improve them and integrate them into my herd. If it's an older horse, I'm definitely going to want it to be very high-statted or desirable in some other way.)
6. Number of foals the horse has
(I tend to be mildly protective of my lines, and prefer not to have a ton of horses related to mine that I have no control over. I'm not a player who thinks every horse should only have one or two foals ever, but if the number is very high, I might pass.)

I only pay attention to stats, everything else is an unintentional bonus :0

I focus on different things for different lines in my horses. But mostly if I'm looking to buy to add to my lines I'm looking for horses of the same discipline or one with a crpssover stat(i.e. Racing and Western sharing Speed). I prefer horses with high stats in their discipline first and foremost, then overall stats and conformation can bump one horse over another.
I also do look at pedigrees, cleaner ones with less deceased horses are more desirable but I personally won't turn away a horse with deceased in it's lines if I feel that it's right for my program (especially now that mine have a few due to players not importing yet).

Color and Markings are low on my list of things to look at, except in specific circumstances. The most prominent example being my Thoroughbreds of Sin who must all be Black, or at least Black based. I will take Smokey Creams, but I greatly prefer pure blacks. And on the Grey note, I won't discount a Grey horse, but if a similar standing horse is available that is not Grey I'm more likely to choose the non-Grey. If Grey is the best though, it's allll mine. The Same goes for markings, I'll prioritize horses white White Markings over Base colors if they have the same value.

Age is one more thing to consider, I prefer to buy young, because usually I'm pairing my horses before they hit 3, but I'll buy older horses if they have a good stat value for their age and lineage and can earn back what I spent on them via Shows, Studding or Foals produced.


Probably the most important thing to me though is actually what I think of as a Fair Price and A Good Deal. I'm willing to pay what I think is a fair price for the animal in question, but I'm also looking for a good deal that can make me money in the future. If there's a horse up for sale with 400 stats at 6 years old for 80k, but there's a similar horse on the market same discipline, conformation and similar color at 350 stats at 6 years old that's at 35k, I'm more likely to buy the 35k horse and save myself 45k of inflation for a couple extra stats. I'm getting a better deal at $100 per stat than $200 per stat for the same base horse.

After all that, I've just been buying random RC or Public Sale horses less than $500 lately, I'm a horrible horse buyer.

Stats are important unless you don't intend to show, or breed anything to sell. If I'm buying a lined foal, I usually won't even look at anything under 250 stats, and that's an absolute minimum. There is some leeway depending upon breed, but my primary breeds are well-established, so unless I'm searching for fresh bloodlines, I usually don't look at anything born with less than 300 stats. Older horses need to have higher stats, or else be highly desirable in some other way to offset lower stats. But, I show and breed to sell, so stats are priority.

Everything else is just icing. Conformation in future generations improves with stat build and making the right crosses. Since it's now affecting show performance, it's probably a good secondary goal. My established lines already have pretty decent confo though, so it's mostly the foundations/younger lines that need work.

I *did* buy up some dirt cheap, poorly bred second gen foals, since they were cheaper than making new stores and on par with them stat-wise. To use as foundations, I'm okay with that for now - but all of them had something more to them though, like an interesting color or somewhat better confo. I think I came across a couple of neglected customs as well, so, even though they'll never be great stat-wise, they're worth having anyway.

It might be best for you to rethink and focus more on stats than confo first, seeing as I, and others, won't buy lined horses if they aren't high started.

I personally:

1.Stats.
2.Color
3.Markings
4. Conformation

I'm really new to the game, but here's what I've been focusing on:

1. Conformation
2. Stats
3. Color
4. Markings

Markings would be above color, but I've fallen in love with certain colors (Creams, Champagnes). so yeah.

Also stats and conformation are kinda on the same tier for me.

1.Stats.
2.Markings
3.Conformation
4.Color
! Ive always prioritized stats...first and foremost , a horse must have stats comparable to age. Most of my foals are born with minimum 400 stats...

2 i put Markings 2nd because Im now working on breeding rare patterned appys.

3 With the new version of ev...Its alot easier to monitor and breed in better conformation. Im building my herd's overall conformation stats as I breed them

4 Color- as much as I love the cream dilutes...colour is not as important to me as stats and markings.

As a sidenote...pedigree is important to me in that..I dont like to see alot of 'deceased' in the lines Yes, I know Abbey is planning on importing all the accounts in about a year but how do I know those horses are NOT actually deceased?
My prominant appy line,(Genesis), contains a 'deceased' horse. However, I know the name of the missing horse, and the breeder/account of said horse and i know this missing horse will eventually be added into the lines.

1. Stats - I want to manage my first 500 born foal this month.
2. Conformation - breeding up my existing stock, but trying to purchase nothing new under 69%
3. Colour - In particular Double Dilutes
4. Markings - Love 'em, but they are an afterthought to the above

Two other points that will make or break a purchase for me are Pedigree and times bred. I use caution buying a horse with a pedigree close to my own lines, and I really don't want to see dozens of foals on a horse.

Stats and lineage are both important to me. As a personal goal/challenge, I try to keep clean lines which to me is no deceased and no repeats of ancestors. I don't get genetics so color is nice but I don't know how to put them together to get what I want lol. People will explain and I'll get it for the day but don't ask me about the next XD Hence why I like the line challenge since I can't really do a color challenge XD

I like my stats, but I also don't mind buying a horse to work on, my Hadass line having several, including Hadass herself, that had terrible stats that's line has come to be something awesome! (The latest Hadass foal being born with over 500 stats)