Whats The Best Way To Keep Lines Going?

I've decided to start a line of my own starting from foundations :) And was wondering what would the best way to keep them going through the generations? I don't want to end up with the one remaining horse overall and so what would be the best way to keep it going rather than end up at one foal and end it if that makes sense?

If you are open to buying from other players you can always buy foals from other people and introduce them to your own lines and keep them going that way. Otherwise if you want them to be strictly private you can always buy foundations to breed with the 2nd generation and keep introducing foundation lines in there. 

I'm sort of following Sab's 3x3 method, there's a link to the google document explaining it at the end of this post.

I have two kinds of lines; ones that have been more or less private for 16 generations (yes that's right!) and for those I add in new lines not less than 4th generation old which takes patience in itself. I am actually about to start a new batch of foundies for the next injection of new blood in the next few days.

Then there are "public" ones that have other players bloodstock heavily in one half of their pedigrees but finding equal or close to in length generations are hard now because very few players have bred the same breed forever! And the ones I have used in the past are now becoming too closely related. Which is a headache for another day for that breed quite frankly :)

But I do like Sabs method.

However I usually start with say 1st batch of 20-30 foundation horses half male half female then lock the foals. Then do the same again with a 2nd batch of foundations. While these are training up I pair up the first batch of foals then breed those but lock the babies. 

Then I pair up the 2nd batch and train them up before breeding them. The foals from batches 1 & 2 are paired up to produce batch 3 (gen 3) while I start off another batch of foudations to eventually breed with the resulting gen 4 babies from the gen 3 adults. However I also use selected gen 4s from the gen 3 adults to run into my main long 16 gen lines if they have decent confo & nss.


EDIT - I should add that the only reason I don't just do a batch of 40-60 right off the bat is because I don't like so many same competition level (I.E. Novice 1) horses at the same time as they take potential show placing/earnings etc away from each other. By splitting the numbers over 2 generations the 2nd batch of foundries are Novice competitors while the 1st batch are in the Local tier. by the time they reach regional (gen 3) I find there is a good enough spread for them to be o 

Last edited on 2021-01-03 at 07:23:21 by Fabelhaft [DWBs & Trakes]

I have bought tons of horses before to keep things going.. like buying in pairs of 8 - because once you train, show and breed horses you’ll eventually have one 4th generation horses and so on. The last time I ‘invested’ in a breed, I had 32 pairs...heh. Not the best idea lol At times I unlock them but then get overwhelmed. :P I’ve also gone with the route of integrating other horses into my lines, but then at some point you have the worry about the owners are treating those horses and how it effects you...overbred, line bred, etc.

I have to admit I do sinilar to Fabelhaft. I have a whole bunch of locked horses, some mine, some foundies and some outside lines. I tend to pair them up and unlock in batches depending on how busy I am in life. 
I am not particularly fussed about keeping my lines super private though, because I am just starting out. 
In the past I played with a breeding partner to stop me having to keep so many horses on ice...

Okie dokie :) Thankyou everyone :) I quite like all your ideas and I shall test and see which works for me :) Thankyou ♥

I'll just throw my idea up just because :'D

So what I do is I buy 8 horses and then I wait until they are three and buy 8 more. I then breed down each of those until I of course get to the last foal in each line and breed them. I then repeat that process and breed the last foal the first two sets of 8 to the last foal of next two sets of 8. You'll start to have to wait longer and longer to unlock some of them to breed to last foals of whatever line you are on at that point or you can breed outside at that point if you want :D

That's a really interesting method Wiki, thanks for sharing

I have no particular method, it's very concept-based, but all I do is maintain each herd at a roughly consistent number (usually 20-some) and as horses die I bring in more new foundations. Those usually end up being bred to the lined horses, and it all kind of works itself out in the end. And it doesn't require too much thinking, other than always checking pedigrees before going ahead with breedings.