Breeding

So I have my group of TBs, and I'm wondering if

Can half siblings breed to each other?

(If you don't know, a half sibling is a sibling that only shares 1 parent.)

Also, If half siblings can't breed to each other, how do I stop my herd from becoming smaller and smaller each breeding season?

Thanks!

Half siblings cannot breed to each other. I believe it's 3 generations out, Grandparents, Parents, Siblings.

To stop your herd from becoming smaller you have to add to it eventually. Either by adding in foundations from the store, or by adding in horses from other breeders.

Half siblings most likely will not be able to breed because they do have that shared parent which I'm sure the game will recognize.

I add foundation pairs to all of my babies to keep the same amount of pairs without risking inbreeding. If that doesn't sound appealing, another option is breeding two foals instead of one and carefully breeding the babies. That's a very strategic plan so I would see if you could plan it out before you implement it. Eventually you will have to look outside of your lines, or raise up another herd to go with them.

Thank you guys for answering my questions! So I may end up adding on to my babies with a new line, but I think breeding two would be a better and would keep my total number of horses around 10. I'm planning on keeping this line for around a year, then I'm switching to a new breed & specialty. I see where with breeding two babies you would have to be extremely careful. Just out of curiosity, how do you guys do it? I notice the more protonate breeders on EV start with around 100 foundations. Also, wouldn't breeding the same pair twice (at different times) result in twins (or at least on old EV)?

Last edited on 2016-05-10 at 19:55:09 by Annabeth

I actually don't start with that many Foundations myself, I have a variety of breeds and disciplines so it looks like I have a lot at once. The most I think I've started foundation wise is the 14 Trakes I have now, and the 16 Arabs I started to breed my RL Horse's Pedigree, I just buy a lot of outside stock now.

But I actually came up with a "method" of sorts I'm trying to use with some of my lines, specifically the 5 disciplines of Shetlands on my spare. Basically it involves Starting with an even number of horses, and adding half that number in stores each generation. It's all written up pretty, but it's from old EV and has not been updated to the new information on costs and the like. If you're interested HERE is the link to the page.

Breeding the same pair twice will not result in twins, same as any breedings, it's all probabilities and chance as to how the foal will turn out.

Thank you Sabriel, I'll look at your method and think about it. How long (in months) do you keep your lines going?

Uhm forever?
My oldest line on EV I started in 2008, its' been locked on and off a few years here and there, but They're still around today, though now as Dutch Warmbloods instead of Swedish Warmbloods. My Shetlands and Arabs are form 2010. And all the other lines I have have been added since then. I basically keep them going by adding new blood every time my herd pool gets too small. Unless I get tired of them and sell them off, I've only sold of Mustangs so far and I only had a pair of them, lol. I'm trying to sell my Morgan pair though.
But yeah I keep them all going, it ranges from mass influx of foundation or outside blood (TBs of Sin), to a simple addition of One store pony each generation (Coastal Drifters, former Brumbies now Chincos) I was trying to whittle my herds all into some portion of the method, but I think that might not work now that I've gotten so many xD

Breeding two foals per pair would probably keep you for the year or so you want these lines, but I don't know how much longer they would last. I would do the same parents for both foals to keep more options open. For a while you can breed whoever, besides the siblings obviously, but eventually they may become too related to do so. If you don't mind inbreeding (as far as EV allows, which would be several generations in) you could keep breeding them to each other.

For stats, I think you want to breed around the same amount? What's your opinions on that?

Popping in here late with my answers to some of your other questions, buy I can't sleep so forgive my bored ramblings XD Anyways, longest line I have had I think started a few months after I joined in 2011 and was purely accidental. I got a Halfie mare for my rl friend who didn't want it and that is now my most amazing line, in my opinion, which I dubbed the Hadass line since the mare was called that.

The most foundation horses I have ever started with was 64 and that was once again purely accidental. I was trying to find Hawaiian god and goddess names for 16 mares and 16 stallys. Somehow my brain made that 32 and 32 and since the first generation was all scatter gathered I didn't notice until the next generation when I was like shouldn't I have only 16 and then realized my error XD

As for stats, what I do is pair everyone at day one and to make the next generation hopefully a bit more even, I put the highest stat horse with the lowest.

My goal for each line, minus the Hadass line really, is to get down to one well rounded foal.

When I breed my horses I do most stats x lowest stats (not exactly but roughly) to keep the foals near the same. With foundations obviously they're going to be a little lower than a lined horse, but not much (if that's what you're talking about).

I have some third generation horses that have both parents and grandparents, and some that have parents and only one set of grandparents (others are foundies). They have around the same stats, ex Albany with 468 and two sets of grandparents and Sanders with 437 and one set of grandparents, just two randomly picked horses.

If that's not it I'm going to need you to rephrase the question because I don't understand lol

Thanks wiki, I've tried doing highest and highest, and I've come out with reasonable stats for the foal, how do some people have foundation horses at age 20 at almost 300 stats?

As Far as stats go I usually pair at birth or somewhere down the line if I have na odd number of foals. But it really depends on how you want to progress.
If you're alright with having one side of your lines be higher statted than another go ahead and pair the highest stated horses together, however if you wnat to spread the love and continue a longer better overall line you should breed high to low and try to balance your herd. It's a herd wide standard mentality or an individual based mentality, depending on if you want a better foal NOW or better foals as you continue your lines.
I also take a lot of leway with my pairs in that I don't pair Foundations with my multi generational horses (because I like more even pedigrees when I can), so the high low method doesn't always work best, you should mix it up for you and decide where you want your focus.

Did you mean a higher number then 300? Cause this mare is a foundation one I started right after the recode and at 13 and some odd days she is already well past 500. All I do is treat, cheapest shows and train (using my stat boost as it becomes available). These guys have only had apples and turnips, so I'm not even using special treat on them :)

Yeah spreading the love is something I'll probably do. I've always wonder how you guys name your horses?