Advice on how to set up breeding pairs

How does everyone go about setting up breeding pairs within your herd?

I dont even know where to start 0.o

spreadsheets easiest?

Breeding for low nss first, confo, then color

I use a spreadsheet personally if it's more than a few horses. 
This is my gdoc that I use to track them, that way I can paair based on whatever I feel like as it tracks everything from stats to color to confo (though the ns stats are added together technically). personally for most of my herds I've been trying to focus on evening out confo and keeping generations relatively equal while breeding down the ns stats. My confo scores have conditional formattting to show where the low spots are and high spots to make it easier to see, and the lines are greyed out to make simpler sorting when you've already sed a horse in a pair. 
If anyone wants to use it feel free to make a copy and play to your hearts content! 

I wish you good luck in pairing though! I have a bunch of dutchies and some TBs I need to get through... my herds are too big these days!

I give each horse i want to breed, a number in their name and add their conformation as well if there is room. (Example pair names: 001| sunflower (60.00) + 001| Dandilion (61.92).)

If there is not enough room to add their conformation and pair number, i shorten the name and make a note of the full name in their public notes with their current and base non specialty stat totals.
I try to pair horses that improve on each other’s poor areas and make sure one has lower non specialty stats than the other. I always hope for a conformation that is better than both parents, but i’m happy if there is improvement on at least 1 of them.
I also hope for a lower non specialty stat total and a different color, but this is random.
I set a lofty goal on myself by breeding for stats, conformation, and color, but i love the challenge.

Last edited on 2019-03-25 at 22:04:40 by Sapphire Hills

ooo Sabriel I love the spreadsheet! Seems like it makes pairing so much more simple. Thanks so much for sharing :)

Sapphire- I love the idea of adding some type of number/marker in their name to make it easier to find/sort the herd with what I am breeding for.  I too love the challenge of breeding for multiple things, I am currently trying to figure out the best way to breed for low nss. Not sure if i want to breed the lowest ns mare to lowest ns stallion, or try and balance the herd out by breeding the highest ns mare to lowest ns stallion and vice versa 0.o 

RIVERWIND This is a really interesting thread about breeding for low NSS and how to pair up the horses. 
https://www.equiverse.com/topic.php?id=198918&page=1

Last edited on 2019-03-26 at 08:40:39 by 🍁 Golden Leaf Stable 🍁

Thanks Golden! I was looking for that thread and couldn’t find it, thanks so much! It is extremely helpful 

You're welcome! Goldleaf gives a great link there for the ns stats if that's something you want to focus on and the numbers really does help. I've been to lazy lately but it's very useful for getting the right pair on the breeding screen.