Help with cutting back

Alright, so it isn't really the number of horses I have that is overwhelming it is the diversity. I have so many different breeds showing so many different disciplines that I am having a hard time keeping up. I feel like I can't possibly keep track of them all and keep them all up to the quality I want to have. 

There are a few options I have considered

1. Selling a lot of my different breeds off and focusing on just 2 disciplines; driving and dressage. This is because the horses I have put the most time, effort, and money into are in dressage and driving. 

2. Keeping my other horses on a spare account and working with them once in awhile. Maybe 2-3 times a week. It would take a lot longer for them to age up and be ready for breeding. The only concern here is that I don't know that I really want to breed these horses, so I have a bit of a guilt feeling with them being worked on and then going to "waste" when perhaps someone else would make better use of them. One other option would be to not breed them but offer them for public breedings. 

3. Early retirements. I could retire horses that I don't have the intention to do a whole lot with  but as I said I would hate for them to be just wasted as some of these breeds have also had a lot of time and effort put into them as well as money(such as using credit items to change coat colors). 

So what have ya'll done when you felt like you had too much going on? Did you sell breeds off? Retire/cull them? Stick them on a side account and work them once in awhile? 

So far what I feel I will be for sure keeping on my main and working with regularly are dressage: dutch warmbloods and lipizzaners. driving; chincoteagues, gypsy vanners, miniature horses, trakehners. 

Which leaves the others
Dressage: Gypsy Vanners
Endurance: Chincoteagues
Racing: QHs, TBs
Show Jumping: Tekes, Chincos, DWBs, Minis
Western: Arabians, Paints, QHs, Minis

Last edited on 2019-11-06 at 07:36:35 by Olympea

I would just lock them in spare account and and maybe come back to them when you start missing them, maybe in a month or so...

^^^ I agree with Lenka, I like to swap around horses when I start getting bored with one group to keep things interesting, i.e, I’ve taken a break from SJ Dutchies for the past couple of weeks and pulled out my dressage Appaloosa project again. I’ll undoubtedly go back to breeding SJ Dutchcies, I just needed to switch things up for a little while to maintain interest

I completely forgot about your SJ chincos so if you are still interested in selling them or even looking to get rid of them completely let me know as I would for sure be interested.

Whenever I'm feeling overwhelmed by ponies I just lock a group or two or ten up until I'm ready for more horses. I have had some projects sort of fizzle out and found it's best to try sale as a group first since many people like a preset herd that's well matched. If that doesn't work selling individually sometimes can lessen the load a bit. For me if they don't sell by 15 they become studs or broods, if I like them or they have great show stats I try to find a stud/brood to get another baby out of them and continue the service. I whittled down my Appy project into a single horse and find it fun to find each new generation the perfect horse to breed to. 

I'm not a fan of retirements personally, but that's because I only pick up what I know I like which is good show stats. it is a good option if you really just want to get rid of some but not very beneficial from a game standpoint, especially if it will bother you to have put so much effort into them. You may have some bad luck getting rid of some of the breeds in non-standard disciplines, but I wish you the best in making your decisions!

If you want to get rid of the SJ DWBs for sure though do tell xD I'm getting ready to breed mine again now that I might have some time to do foal training and can always use fresh blood!

I did the same for a while but its too much like hard work lol. I chose one breed and  initially one discipline then a second but the focus is on breeding quality horses either from foundation stock or already established stock. I chose foundation and watched them improve over time, cull those that are not good enough breed from the best horses or whatever your breeding preferences are, maybe stats, conformation and or colour. Geld stallions that lack preferred influences and kept them in another account, they can earn their keep. 

I sell a lot of mine, and if they don sell after a while, i retire them. I only focus on my Andalusians so i understand. I went through about all the breeds. but finally picked one.  You can lock them up, but it does take up space for other horses. Good luck!

Thanks for all of the advice and ideas. I did move and lock around 500 horses on a spare. Thankfully I have over 2000 slots for horses combined over 3 accounts so I had plenty of space. I've decided to mainly focus on the following 

Dressage - Dutch Warmblood, Lipizzaner
Driving - Gypsy Vanner, Trakehner
Show Jumping - Chincoteague, Dutch Warmblood, Mini Horse

The rest of my horses will remained lock most of the time. I might get on that account once in awhile to show or riding school and care for them. This is much more manageable and I feel less stress coming on here already. 

Thats great! Good luck! Hope it works out well!