Question about dead horses

So, I didn't play too intently or long after the re-code. I feel like the community is a tad different which is fine, but now I'm a little less certain about what is desirable in horses. I saw where it was mentioned in a thread that horses with a "deceased" parent in the lineage is undesirable, but I don't see why. 

So, why? As long as the the Name, Img and Stats are still visible it should be fine right? Was the ref. to dead horses ALL dead horses or just ones who's info is lost? Do I need to keep all of my breeding stock alive at age 21 in retirement on my acct?

Also, Admin says that they are working on eventually making confo matter. So it will be worth having worked hard on confo now right? 

Lastly, My herd is 2 stallions and 8 mares. I'm breeding the same set of 4 mares to 1 stallion, to get "blocks" of full sibling foals. 5 foals per mare, looking for the best confo first. Some of these foals will be Culled from the project. What do I do with them. Previously I would have sold them, as they are nice, just not matching their future mates confo from the other "foal block". Now I don't know if I should do that. Also do they apply to the "no dead horses in the line" rule?

I know I'm asking a lot of questions, but I would deeply appreciate the guidance. Thanks in advance!

It's not referring to any former horses you might have, it's referring to pedigrees that have 'deceased' where there is no link or horse id associated in the name. It's not very common now as deceased horses were horses of players who did not bring their account over to the recode in the first year and were subsequently removed from the server to free up space.

Where did you find that River said that? The only mention of conformation I can find is the discussion of conformation shows/search in the listening summaries/roadmap.

If you don't feel like you can sell your horses then putting them in the rescue or early retirement are also options. 

I personally send many horses to early retirement, but that's not the same as deceased, like Maple already mentioned. There's no need to let horses die a natural death if you'd rather get rid of them to save time/space/money. 

Conformation doesn't serve a current purpose, but there have been mentions of conformation shows in the future. Regardless, higher conformation is generally seen as "better" than lower conformation, as in stud/brood/sale prices are higher for horses with better conformation. I also think improving it can be a fun personal goal.

I either sell off my spare foals or send them to early retirement. if you sell them and the buyers breed them a lot that might make your lines less rare and therefore could potentially decrease the value. I think that might only be an issue with breeds that have smaller populations though. for example, i breed dressage arabians and there are a handful of very common studs that i try to avoid. that would probably be less of an issue in more popular breeds in more popular disciplines.

Personally, I think any new pedigree additions to breeds are a great benefit to diversify lines. As Kazhie said the more populated a line the more some people try to avoid them, so I always advocate adding new blood into the pedigree pool!

Thanks guys! Very helpful. Now I can plan. :))