Breeding Programs

I thought this might be an interesting, helpful topic. What is everyone's breeding programs? 
What do you raise and breed for? When and how often do you breed each generation? Do you solely use your lines, or do you breed to outside horses?

I think a more useful question might be, "What would incentivize you to breed outside your own stock?" Perhaps if enough people answer this question people can breed horses that are more desirable to other players; i.e. horses that help them reach their own goals.

I raise several breeds, but i have 6 that i consider main focuses.

Morgans: Dressage
TWHs: Endurance
Chincoteagues: Racing
Shetlands: Western
Gypsy Vanners: Driving
Trakehners: Show Jumping

I will breed to outside horses, but purchased horses are bred to foundation horses.
I try to only breed at ages 10, 15, and 20. I have made exceptions though, and bred younger horses.
Color doesn’t really matter, as long as they are not gray. I do love and try to breed for cream and rare color variants though.
I prefer splash, roan, or no pattern. I do reject splash and roan if it is in combination with another pattern, like sabino.
I breed for lowered non specialty stats, increased specialty stats, and good conformation.

Last edited on 2019-05-23 at 15:16:28 by Sapphire Acres

I'm currently working with three breeds.
Gypsy Vanners: Driving
Quarter Horses: Western
Chincoteague Ponies: Jumping

I tend to buy new horses every new generation to breed with the foals of the previous generation. I breed my horses at ages 18, 19, and 20. 
I breed my GVs for solid colors and aim for decent stats and conformation. I don't have a lot of them right now lol but I plan on adding more at some point. I started just trying to breed solid color seal brown but found it difficult to find outside horses to add to my program that fit what I needed, so I've been open to other colors as well more recently.
I breed my quarter horses for solid colors as well, but try to stick to various kinds of dun. I also try to get decent stats and conformation and plan on adding more horses in the future.
Currently, my Chincoteagues I'm doing the no cull project on but once that's done I'll be breeding to outside horses and have actually already purchased some and locked them for the future.
To be honest, I play relatively casually right now xD I just auto-care for my horses and show some of them. 

I focus on several breeds, and am trying to stick to just one discipline per breed.

Racing: Thoroughbred
Racing: Shetland Pony
Western: Quarter Horse
Western: Appaloosa
Showjumping: Chincoteague
Showjumping Trakheners
Dressage: Andalusian (I haven't started this line yet, but plan to in the future)
Dressage: Dutch Warmblood
Driving: Morgan
Driving: Gypsy Vanners
Endurance: Arabians (see note for Andy and Andalusian)
Endurance: Welsh Pony

I try to only keep foundations I find that have 55 or less nss stats for their discipline, as well as 55.00+ conformation. While my horses are all offered to the public for breeding between 10-16, I will be trying to get three foals from each after that, with the best two being kept. The third will be for sale until it turns three and if not sold, culled. 

I breed for any colour that comes out. I'm also breeding if possible for better conformation and nss stats as the generations go by! 

I also want no gaps in lineages, so if a foal ends up being the wrong gender for the slot planned, i have those other two backup foals to pick from too!

Last edited on 2019-05-29 at 00:39:37 by Hermes Racing Stud

i have horses of most breeds in many disciplines but my Arabians and Mustangs are the ones that are always progressing, Most of my others are locked due to lack of time/disinterest. 

Arabians
I have a low-nss racing line i recently started and would love to add outside lines to
I have a dressage line built on outside lines that i'm always happy to add outside, unrelated lines to
I have another dressage line of solely home-bred horses, and i frequently sell extras or add them to my other dressage line

Mustangs
I have an endurance line that i'm happy to add outside lines to so long as they are low-nss and/or colorful :)

*edit is because my phone gliched and posted for me.*

I used to play way back during V1 days. I had raised Perches back then, but obviously couldn't when I came back. So I am trying my hand at TBs to start off with, but I am doing my breeding program similar as I see the game hasn't changed too much... I could be wrong...

Starting off with 2 Foundation Herds. One stallion with 4 mares. Breeding them at 10yr, 15yr, and 20yr. To produce 4 foals from each stallion, I will pick the best of each four (stats, confirmation, and points(if that is still a thing)). So that has me at 2 new foals(if not male, will gender switch), I will also "switch" the second best for the next two herds, which gives me 2 each from my herd from breeding. To find 2 more for each I always start by looking at horses for sale, if there are no horses that are similar in quality, I will get foundation stock again. I will not purchase foundation stock from another player though. 

This also has me putting up 4 foals up for sale each breeding season. I will keep training, and caring for them until they are sold, if they reach breeding and showing age prior to being sold I will put them up for stud/brood and show them as well, (in racing as that is more popular for TBs). 

Last edited on 2019-06-05 at 16:55:16 by Tumblyweed Stables

My breeding practices and pattern preferences are the same as on my my other account, but the 6 main breeds i work with are a little different.
For appaloosas, i breed only for varnish roan and/or splash patterns. I will accept any spotted pattern, as long as they have genetics for varnish roan.
I prefer splash, roan, no pattern, or a splash and roan combination on my other horses. Sabino, rabicano, tobiano, and frame overo are rejected, even if they are combined with my prefered patterns.
The only color i reject is gray. If i find a horse that fits my herds, but it is gray, i will lock it until i can get a DNA tweak to remove that gene. Unfortunately, if i find a better horse or one with the same color and quality that is not gray, the gray one will be sent to the rescue center.
I will breed to or buy horses from other players if i can find what i’m looking for at a reasonable price or fee. If i can’t find one, i’ll create a foundation horse in the equine center.

Mustangs: Endurance
Thoroughbreds: Dressage
Andalusians: Racing
Appaloosas: Show Jumping
Shetland Ponies: Driving
Quarter horses: western

Dutch Warmbloods
Discipline: Show Jumping
Focus: High conformation, lowering NSS
Color Preference: n/a
Other:  I breed to outside lines whenever I feel I need to, usually to help lower NSS and also to infuse some higher specialty stats. I don't have a specific breeding schedule. The ability to lock horses in a separate division if I need to wait for a pair to age negates any reason to really stick to something firm. I do prefer not to breed much more than 3-5 foals from a mare. Stallions I'm a little more lenient especially if I'm offering outside breedings. I try to buy from other players regularly to keep new blood in my lines.

Welsh Ponies
Discipline: Show Jumping
Focus: Low NSS, slowly working on raising confo
Color Preference: n/a
Other: Pretty similar to my DWBs. 

Thoroughbreds
Discipline: Show Jumping
Focus: Raising confo and lowering NSS
Color Preference: n/a
Other: I just started an entire foundation herd so I'm looking to organically raise conformation and lower NSS, at least for one or two generations. I have bought a few jumping TBs from other players and I will continue to look for more as my foundation herd progresses.

Other
I've also started a herd of dressage Mustangs for a No Cull Project. Overall breeding for color holds very little interest for me as credits are readily available and tweaking the color genetics is easy. I'm a huge proponent of conformation breeding and I've really started to focus on lowering NSS as well. I like to buy/breed to horses from other players as often as I can find something that fits my (admittedly) stringent criteria because I think it's important to bring in new lines to keep my horses from getting too linebred for the market. I don't sell as much as I should though, mostly because I've had to fish some really nice horses I've bred out of the RC recently and it's frustrating.

I mainly breed Quarter Horses, But I do have a small Clydesdale herd.
All my horses regardless of breed or discipline have low non specialty stats. I breed and raise show horses.


Western Quarter Horses:
Main focus: this herd has a large variety of color with most conformation over 60. I breed this herd to a lot of outside lines {if I find studs and broods with low nns} it was my first breed and discipline with my longest lines.

Racing Quarter Horses: {youngest herd}
Main Focus: this herds focus is low nns, right now I don't breed this heard to outside lines. no focus on color.

Endurance Quarter Horses:
Main focus: this herds focus is low nns, right now I don't breed this heard to outside lines. no focus on color.

Clydesdales:
Main focus: this herd is focused on solid colors. low nns and raising conformation and total stats for the breed. 

I breed mainly Western Morgans and Endurance TB - in both cases I buy horses from other players if they fit my breeding program. I breed most of the horses at 18, 19 and 20y.

As for Morgans my goal is to get horses with relatively low NSS and high confo and specialty stats. it's good if they have nice colors, but it isn't a must. I have both lines based on foundies and lines based on horses from other players.

I keep TBs are more of a "hobby" type of herd and it's mainly based on RC horses with fitting stats and high confo and as such, my TB lines are almost exclusively based on foundies. It's probably also because it isn't a popular breed-spec combination and it rather rarely appears at sales, so I rely on what I'm able to get.

What I breed
Driving Andalusians
Driving Friesians
Driving Morgans
Driving Shetlands
Racing Tekes
Endurance Chincoteague
Endurance Mustangs

I usually breed at just 20, though occasionally, if I feel like trying to sell a foal from the lines or if I get in the foal making mood, I will breed them at 19. I hardly ever add outside lines to my lines, mainly because most of my lines are themes (for instance one of my Shetland lines all have Star Wars related names) and so I don't want to mess with the themes. I just breed for stats and "clean" lines. I don't think horses with clean lines are bad, it's just that confo and genetics aren't my forte (I do know the grey gene, but that's it XD) and so for a little extra challenge that's what I do.

Does anybody care for size in their breeding programs ? I'm wondering about usefulness of the height search within horse search ?