Thoughts on different breeding styles

Everyone is so different with their breeding practices that it is hard to say what is "good" or "bad" because it may be different to each person. For instance, I only breed for conformation. I do not care about NSS, stats, color, etc. So, low stats would not bother me as long as they had the conformation I was seeking. I say, do what YOU want :)

Last edited on 2022-01-04 at 12:36:24 by Havok

What makes EV different from other games is the choice that players can have over their horses, and how everyone can have a different style. Therefore it is hard to actually pinpoint what is "good" or "bad" as everyone will have different views on what makes a horse valuable which can vary considerably. 

I try to eliminate in-breeding anywhere in the bloodline, meaning no repeats in the pedigree and no deleted horses as I believe having either of those things devalues the horse significantly. This makes it incredibly hard for me however as I never started off with a huge number of foundations in the beginning instead I decided on smaller herds between 5 to 10 individuals. I realize now that was a huge mistake, as I'm currently in the 3rd and 4th generation of racing Shetlands with a limited number of pairs, meaning I have to continuously crossbreed lined horses with foundations in order to keep moving forward. This is resulting in my shetland ponies (and other breeds) to stagnant in terms of how low their NSS will go, I struggle to get to below 30 NSS. I don't mind too much, but it does stop the NSS from dropping a significant amount. Also choosing a breed with a different specialty is hard to maintain, ie. racing shetlands, due to the limited market and the inability to find studs/broods that are are either unrelated to mine (I doubt there are any, to be honest) or have NSS that is below 60. 

For the reasons mentioned above, I have decided to keep the majority of my horses to myself. It's too hard to try and pick a reasonable amount to sell my horses as they have had over a year and a half of real-time put into them and is also an uncommon specialty for the breed -which makes it difficult to sell. The economic problems at the moment also make things even more difficult, as no one seems to be buying horses, and the value of horses depends largely based on the individual. I also don't want to see the hard work I have put into my horses, being ruined by cubing and bad breeding. Hence why they are strictly private. 

In terms of the number of foals, I only breed once at age 18. I do this because as I said before I have a limited number of lined horses, and therefore I struggle to match pairs. So by breeding only once I can then match the foal with the appropriate foundation. It would be WAY too expensive if I had to match 2 or 3 foals from every breeding with a foundation. I also breed at age 18 so if the resulting foal is shockingly bad or something is wrong with it I can still breed the mare again without fear of her retiring. I do have one stallion that was bred 4 times (I keep him permanently locked - I love him to pieces), but that was only because he was a custom and I wanted to ensure his color genetics were passed on.  

For these reasons I have stopped doing what is "popular" and have just decided to breed and train my horses, in my own way, ie. racing Trakehners. Even if there is no market for it. I started going in my direction, once I was familiar with the game and I haven't looked back. I have made some stupid mistakes, but if everyone played the same way the game would be so boring. It's good to have options and just stick to what feels right and what you think is best for yourself. :)

I wish Shifty Jim was still around sometimes, he wasn't always perfect at getting "the right price" (in my mind, hence quotations lol) for my horses, but it was nice having something to bounce off of, since also terrible at pricing :'D

And its so much fun to see how others breed/do their breeding. Like with Laureal, adding more EC foundies into the line to keep it moving whereas I'll lock a foal and make another line, breeding down to the end of that line to get it a mate then unlock it and moving on from there. I breed once for a personal horse at age 20 with aging the next day, but cross my fingers I get something pretty from the breeding :'D I'll also breed at least one foal from each generation at age 19 with aging the next day because one, the timer on the mare serves as a reminder to me to make sure I breed my mares on time (I may have had to use time twister one too many times :'D ) and two I can offer an outside foal for anyone who may want one. This foal is usually from the two highest stat parents in the current line.

Also for those who were wondering about my comment about 0 NSS not being possible, I can't find (I went looking cause my brain wouldn't let it rest :'D ) the exact spot where it was mentioned before and it could be it was never said or if this was the case it may have been fixed, because the only thing I found that hinted at it was on discord during one of the talking meetings (my brain is blanking on what these things are called XD) a few years back:

River — 10/30/2019
so here's another point I'd like to get to . . . the non-specialty stat question . . . people want to breed them down, but the current formula only allows that to happen to a certain degree

I couldn't find if this was changed or if this was saying that 0 NSS weren't able to be reached them, my brain reads it as such, but take it with a grain of salt along with the notion that it might have been made so that it is possible to do so now and my brain just never got the memo. I don't have any knowledge or info on it going either way.

Personally I'm trying to breed for conformation in my lines,at least in the first three generations. Once that's done I'll pretty much swap to nss for a few generations to try and lower that, without hopefully losing too much of the hard work that I put in with the conformation.

I breed 3 foals a pair personally, and try to sell two. If a colt reaches 3 years old who is for sale, I'll geld him and keep him for the rest of his life. Fillies however get early retired, so that I can keep my lines fairly limited where possible. It's not a matter of space, its a matter of not wanting to accidentally breed the wrong horse.