NSS

Does anyone have any views on what the highest NSS could be to still be show competitive.  I know foundies should be under 60 but was wondering about the higher level as have seen some nice horses in the RC at regional/national/international level though have refrained from adopting them as unsure if would make good showers. 

Even at higher levels, the NSS should always stay below 60. I have horses (mainly Andalusians) that have stats above 3000+ and never do I let their NSS go above 50. 
Captain Major Top Hat
Having too high of NSS makes them bad showers even if they are in the top grade, and makes showing difficult. 

It's a good question. Although I agree with Laureal about keeping NSS as low as possible, I also continuously follow the rankings in the Hall of Fame, and there are some successful showing horses from the higher end which have quite high NSS (for example: 120+ NSS, Western Int4 level, 4500+ overall stats). 

I think it depends on the discipline (how many high-statted horses are there in different levels and with how high NSS) but theoretically it's possible to have a successful showing horse with higher NSS. If you like to experiment (after careful consideration), I think it's worth to try, but when it comes to breeding in the end, try to stick to lower NSS foals as they have higher value and hopefully will be more successful at shows.

Honestly, I think how NSS works is that it doesn’t actually count the NSS, just the specialty stats. Let me explain. 
If I have two horses with 149 stats total, one with 40 NSS and one with 60 NSS, the one with 40 NSS will win. But why?
My theory is that the game only counts specialty stats now and NOT total stats. So, if I have two horses with the SAME total stats, but one base more specialty stats (because it has lower non-specialty stats, so for example my 149 TS with 40 NSS will have 109 SS, and my 149 TS with 60 NSS will only have 89 SS). The one with higher Specialty Stats will do better. If the grade is high enough to where stat differences between grades are high enough, NSS doesn’t really matter once you reach the upper limits of that grade level.

(This is just a theory)

Thanks for the input - going to try experimenting