How did you choose your breeding goals?

So I'm not actually breeding right now with any particular goals because I'm too poor for a real plan (kinda new). I pick a lot ofRC horses with decent NSS and train/show them for just making money. When I get a hoard of tack and my first gens die off, I'll probably start raising a single breed in all disciplines. 

How did you guys pick your breeding focus? Its really hard for me to choose, there are so many lovely breeds, but im guessing economy and art all play a factor? How did you choose your current goals!

Here's a tip on how to earn money fast:

1. Rescue a bunch of horses for under $500 (from a rescue or the market - bonus point if they are still equipped with tacks/bkg/decor since you can sell it for extra money)
2. Put them up for flat sale at $1,000.
3. Do not feed/care for them. Do not board them.
4. Ride School them daily under Private Lesson.
5. Once the horses died or get sold, replace them and repeat 1-5. 

I was able to reach my money and space goal within 2 months by doing this method. On a few occasions, I do happen to obtain decent show horses. Those, I will take care of to keep them alive, board them, and show them until they get sold or retired. Don't waste your treats on them, tho. I usually put the show horses up for flat sale at $3,000. You shouldn't have more show horses than riding school horses so make sure to not favor show horses too much since they can be unreliable with income. Once a show horse starts losing, I switch them to the riding school until they are closer to the level cut-off. If they still lose even if they are at top of their level, that's when I will switch them to riding school permanently and stop caring for them.

I was able to sell a decent amount of horses while doing this. It's a constant profit method. You won't lose money because you won't need to pay for boarding, vet/farrier, feed, and treats. $500 cut-off ensures that you will regain the money you lost within two days with private lesson riding school if the horse did not get sold. After the 2nd day, it's profit until the horse dies on the 9th day. If the horse gets sold before dying, it's even better. Stockpile the treats you gained from riding school and use them for your future herd. My treat stockpile lasted me months so I was able to save a lot of money on that too. Sell hay cubes and sugar cubes in the General Store Trade-In for extra money too.

I see that you already have over 100 horse slots, you're in a good place to do this. I usually earned $20k-50k daily with 100 horses (the range depends on how many horses you school and show).

While doing this method, I was able to own various breeds and narrowed down my top five breeds. Eventually, I decided on Clydesdales and Gypsy Vanners because I am hoping that EV will introduce Drum Horse someday since they introduced Grade Horse at that time. I am considering adding Trakehners to my herd eventually since I enjoyed owning them in the past.

I also experienced all disciplines and decided on Dressage because it seems to be the most stable discipline based on my experience. Show Jumping is a good discipline as well. Avoid Endurance and Racing if you want to show your horses. In my experience, it's a struggle to show Endurance and Racing horses (esp. at lower levels) due to a lack of entries.

 

Last edited on 2022-08-29 at 16:04:41 by 𝕷𝖚𝖈𝖎𝖆

To be honest, I'm just following my heart. I don't put much stress on economy and art - in this game I think most of the art are very lovely and good-looking. My favourite breed and discipline combo is racing thoroughbreds, so this is my main breed. I also have endurance arabians, dressage lipizzaners - I love the breeds themselves and chose a discipline for them which I think matches the breeds. 

I loved the TWH art and color possibilities, but I couldn't stick to the breed - they are not my favourite. The same with western. So I rather concentrate on what I love.

I have worked on a lot of different breeds since I've been here but my main focus has always been Gypsy Vanners. They are my favorite breed in real life and my favorite art in the game. I used to only have them in Driving but decided to also do dressage, show jumping, and western to showcase their real life versatility. 

I also have Chincoteagues, Miniature Horses, and Welsh Ponies; all breeds I like in real life and really like the art for here. 

I actually have a bunch of other breeds I also like on my spare account but don't work with them nearly as often. 

all of my breed focuses are ones i just personally like, though since western QH/paints are among the most popular breed/discipline combos here i'm always gonna have plenty of those. so in their case it's partly based off market trends, both because there's plenty to buy from and i can sell them quicker than other horses. i still love them a lot though and wouldn't breed them if i didn't ;)

as for the rest, i love dutch warmbloods, chincoteagues, shetlands, and morgans the most. when it comes to picking a discipline i either pick one in advance and base my herd around it or decide what's best after all my horses are gathered and go off the lowest overall NSS choice. the latter is why my morgans are driving instead of western, my original herd worked best in driving so my new herd is continuing the tradition! color and pattern focus just depends on what art i like best in a breed c:

I breed Gypsy Vanners exclusively trained in driving - makes it easier to handle future breeding plans when I know they'll all match up. I joined before the recode, back when the only colour goal for gypsy vanners was to make them chestnut and solid (i.e. no tobiano). That was it! Crazy to think that you can get a solid chestnut horse from the rc now when I used to salivate over getting a single Ee horse. I started playing before I'd ever been within 100m of a horse so it was really just deciding that I liked that art the most, and probably also that it was just the first I tried. 

My current goals are colour, stats, and confo - I would recommend just picking 2 of these though. It's a pain to do all 3, particularly in to just make space for them all. 

I've been maxxing out the equine centre on all my accounts (my bank account says ouch) to get low NSS / pretty colours. I'm currently trying to intermix the low NSS foundies and the foundies with pretty colours since they usually don't come as a package deal. 

I've got a set of confo horses going (yet to be bred) that I'm planning on keeping separate from the rest of my herd. Confo is cool in theory but the good confo foundies (60+) unfortunately often have high NSS or genes that I'm actively trying to breed out of my herd, which means they'll probably be quite isolated for a few generations.

I've just started showing my horses 55 or under NSS, but before that I was making 50k+ per day from riding schools. 

For you, I'd recommend to not treat the horses you aren't planning on breeding in the future since it does cost a bit to treat them all (10k/day for me, youch). 1mil is plenty to get you started with a proper plan, so don't stress about money too much. 

If you want to give yourself an easier time I'd recommend going with the most popular discipline in a given breed - one day you'll probably want a stud/broodmare or to buy a horse and if you've chosen a quirky discipline you're not going to have many/any choices there. You can totally do an uncommon discipline for a certain breed, just prepare for it to be a bit more of a singleplayer experience.

To choose a breed/discipline I'd just think about what art you like most in the game, what breeds you like most irl, and what specific goals you have (i.e. stats, colour, confo). I can't think of a single horse with "bad" art but you could definitely use it to rule out ones whose art you personally dislike.

I'd also look at how many active horses of that breed exist, and who the main breeders of it are. Not all horses have all genes available so that could be something to consider. Then again, I wouldn't discount breeds without every gene option (i.e. Gypsy Vanners), there's still plenty to do :)

Last edited on 2022-08-30 at 20:23:45 by Ж wox

Mine has honestly changed as I have been in the game longer, and morphed with my interests as well.  I am at the point now where low NSS and no pedigree duplicates/no overbred horses is the most important to me, and working on improving conformation from there.  Color is an added bonus of course.  I seem to gravitate to/prefer the stock horses and Morgans, but I have a few pet projects in there to keep things interesting.

I think this question has been posted before, but I love seeing everyone's answers regardless. It's nice seeing the different projects people have. When I first joined the game I started exclusively with driving Gypsy Vanners with a focus on color, and completely ignoring stats as I just didn't understand them. I also had a few other common breeds and disciplines such as quarter horses trained in western as well as racing thoroughbreds. Some of the horses I have now are direct descendants of my first original horses from when I started the game; mostly my gypsy vanners and quarters. 

Once I learned more about NSS and as I got more involved in the game I soon realized I wanted to delve head first specializing in uncommon breeds with strange disciplines. My ultimate goal was to get into the hall of fame with these uncommon horses. My first was racing Trakehners, and soon followed were now my famous (not sure if that is the right word) racing shetlands. I decided to keep my driving vanners, western quarter horses, and racing shetlands as my three main focuses. With all three of those breeds, I try to focus on NSS and color they are the only breeds that I have no patterns (sabino, splash, etc) and I often use coat randomizers or applicators on them. 

The other projects on my account are mainly horses that I bought as a herd from other players or just random horses created in the EC that were too good to be thrown into the rescue. Of course, those random horses needed to be paired with a mate and have friends. 

With the introduction of Grade horses, I decided to also breed Pintaloosas (appaloosa cross paint), which are my only breed specializing in endurance. With the help of Hermes Stud, we decided to breed Australian Ponies (basically all the pony breeds crossed together) focusing on dressage. 

I love pony breeds and I often think they are neglected in the game as they don't seem to be as popular as the other breeds, ie. vanners, or quarters. Because of this, I know my racing shetlands would probably never sell, regardless of how good they are. But I wouldn't want to part with a single one and I just love the thought of seeing a stumpy shetland galloping in a race next to a thoroughbred. The idea is just too cute!!

I also seem to have a problem with hoarding horses, and projects and because of this I usually don't sell my horses (I'm kinda attached to my pixel ponies) nor do I think the disciplines some of them are trained in would be considered attractive to buyers. I don't think there is a right or wrong way when it comes to picking a project...just do what makes you happy :)