Why don't you buy horses?

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I feel like I buy and sell a lot, just because I'm constantly checking the horses for sale for each of my breeds - even though I've told myself I need to slow my roll.

I guess it's more the fact that my horses are slow to sell that this line of questioning came along. I'm really enjoying everyone's reasons though, and maybe it can help us all get to thinking on how to make it work.

I'm with most of the people that have posted above though, horses that just aren't up to my standards don't get bought.

For my main herd I don't want other people's lines in my own, I like the accomplishment of every horse I own is great because of me. That's a bit selfish of me but oh well. I also like knowing all the horses' lineage and that it doesn't go anywhere outside of my account. Lastly, it's the easiest way for me to be sure my horses are roughly on track.

However very occasionally I take up another breed or two just for project ponies for a little while. Usually the good gorses are bid only (I love instant gratification so I can't do bidding) and the rest are either just not good or overpriced. I don't want to pay $50k for a 500 stat horse if it's already 18+ (I can just about guarantee it's been bred and is no longer needed by the owner), I'm looking for something I can raise up and breed myself otherwise I would just pay $50k for a breeding and be done with it lol I also tend to like unique colors for the breed though that could be overlooked with the right stats.

Lastly, a lot of the horses are inbred (this shouldn't be an issue in a few generations I'm sure) and I don't like that nor do I want to release it into EV when I'm tired of the pons and sell them.

I'm the same with pedigrees, in fact..(gets ready to watch everyone cringe)...i love my appys for that reason, extended pedigrees...They tell a story.. for eg. one of my best old studs, way back when I first started playing- Windspun Creme Brulle... Windspun Creme Brulle
His pedigree is short and he goes right back to the very beginning.. to a stud I still consider to be one of THE foundation Appaloosa stallions of the game "Shaygetz"
Shaygetz {.Ws.G4.}. We look back and snicker at the stats now, but back then, they were something... I like being able to go alllllll the way back to the beginning of a horse's story... \9in this case, Shagetz) YOu literally cant go back any further...that is the very start of my old boy's story... I love my extended lines and will never change them.
I appreciated and respect every single player's way of playing the game. AFter all there is no right way to play. We each have our own likes and dislikes...and hey...whatever works for ya! lol
Even with the breeding and 'number of foals' a horse has had...I crop breed..which means, I breed multiple mares to a stud and keep the best of the bunch.. Sometimes, if a stud has many foals, its for a reason...good stats, clean lines...etc etc...it could be a positive thing..
Valzed- there's absolutely nothing wrong with starting off buying horses from other players..It gives you a chance to maybe get rarer colours or coat patterns that you'd have a hard time finding in the EC... and it also gives you a bit of a stat boost to start off with...I bought horses from other players when I first started... and I still buy horses from others...to add diversity to my lines..
(ohhhhh I talk waaay toooo much... gonna go sit in my corner now lolz)

Well, I used to when I was over zealous wiht my herd. Now, not so much because I'm trying to focus on "rebranding" my lines as it were, and bringing in outside blood into those lines would kind of jumble my plans right now. I probably will in the future, but for now, it's because of starting up the lines again. I just really one have a good starting point, a starting point created by myself so I can feel some sense of accomplishment before I start introducing new blood again :)


(Pluuus, I am kind of trying to start a stud/brood service, so there is that, and I feel llike introducing and buying new blood would only confuse things atm)

Last edited on 2016-05-28 at 17:10:50 by -❆-Buck

I bought a lot of horses when the game first restarted but now I have a lot of horses and my own band going so I need outside stock less and less at the moment.

Part of it is also that the money I do make with my horses - usually goes towards expanding my barn or an occasional stud fee or something. Quality horses are expensive and I am very hesitant to drop 40k+ on a nice horse when it takes a while to recoup that.

@Nittrous

I used to use the equine center way to much, until I realized I was wasting money on horses I won't keep. But the RC, I stalk that place waaay to much, snagged some minis that way.

I have bred young, now that I know better, I try to wait until at least 18, but sometimes I just can't help it.

**Don't mean to derail the convo, just responding ^_^**

Last edited on 2016-05-28 at 17:42:35 by Nienor

I used to stalk the RC a ton on the old game - but the new game.. it's primarily just crappy foundations for the most part.

Last edited on 2016-05-28 at 17:50:39 by Ruki

[size=0.8] The RC does seem a lot more of a dumping ground for unwanted foundations - good for new members - back for the game in general. Not gonna lie, when I start foundation lines I contribute exponentially.

@ Nienor - definitely hard to hold off sometimes, especially as they creep closer and closer to that breeding window, but so worth it!

i do buy horses, but if i don't it's for a handful of reasons. they differ by breed though, since my "strings" have different purposes.

for my arabians and appaloosas:

1. no space/time. i like hand-picking shows, and once the number of horses i have gets close to 100 it takes more time than i really want to spend.

2. stat/age imbalance (note: i'm willing to overlook some imbalance for pretty colors)

3. long lines. it's hard to avoid inbreeding with multiple generations, and my preference is for shorter pedigrees

4. too expensive. i've seen some second gens going for far more than the 10k per hundred and i pass those right by. why spend that much on them when i can breed my own for far less?

5. not the color i'm looking for. for arabians i don't want bays. i'm more flexible for the appies.

for mustangs

1. same space/time issue

2. shared ansestors on the first page

3. low stats/age

4. too expensive!

I actually have bought a lot of horses, most of which are lower end horses to just make money and take training space. I've been slowly trying to get away from that though, and sold a lot of hroses recently for 10-15k, I probably could have and should have raised the prices on some of them, but it thinnned out my herd rather steadily and gave some peopel a shot at decent horses for cheap xD

I've gotten very loose with my horse buying requirements for most of my herd. My lines are very long and have gotten a bit convoluted over the years (8-4 years for almost all of them!). However there's still some things that turn me off of buying.

1. Horses in the wrong specialty. with the new training and showing systems it's much harder to bring crossdiciplines across easily by simply treating for those stats. coverting a specialty doesn't change the birth stats, so this practice only works on foundations or lower starting statted animals. I'll happily pay the 10k to convert those, but it's much harder if it's a generationed horse ingrained in two stats.

2. Horses with my lines. I sold them for a reason, I don't want to bring them back if my horses are still on the first page of their pedigree. I do not however bother checking beyond the first page. Since most of mine are many generations it's too much of a pain to check beyond the direct inbreeding block area. (besides by the time I breed them back in together it will be off pedigree because of the sheer amount of horses I have)

3. Horses with low potential, aka low stat old ones. I buy these at RC worthy prices only as Riding school fodder. Why on earth would I pay more money for a foundation that's been treated twice and not even a good color.

4. I could care less about overbreeding, it;'s so arbitrary and ridiculous, I do prioritize lower bred animals if given an option, but with the instabreeding on stallions theyc ould have 100 foals and it'd be game okay so I don't see why I should worry about it, just means being a bit more careful with my lines in the next two generations.

5. Private auctions I HATE. I'd much prefer a straight buyout at a higher number with the option to bid. I'm happy to spend on horses I want, but having to remember hold out that amount overnight and checking for new bids on the horses and no communication from the buyer as to if they'd accept the price or not is just too much work.



Special Considerations:
- I have a Black only TB Line, I'm SUPER loose with requirements for this, they simply ahve ot be racing(or stores) and be black. I will have an empire!

-Some of my lines are special, the arabians that I'm breeding down specifically for certain foals, the Chincos which i just add one single store to every generation. the shetlands from my spare which are bred in a 3 by 3 method that doesn't require buying outside. I don't buy otside for them simply because I don't want to(also do you know how hard it is to keep track of horses in all these markets, I'm barely keeping up with the TBs, Dutchies and Trakes I'm trying to grow lines for!)

-I'm not at my limit account wise, but I am at my limit patience wise for caring for horses, so I'm less likely to buy at the moment.

I personally have the money issue. I dont care about breeding young or long lines or anything like that. i am interested in colours for my mustangs anyway.. My goals are: *High stats and conf.
*Nice colours

If horses for sale arent of any use to me I wint buy, I will just rescue. I foud a white mustang with 300+ stats at age 2 but since his conformation was aroung 42 I wouldnt have bought him if he wasnt a colour I wanted.
So colours, stats and conformation are what I look for and usually around 5k/100 stats. (Its cheap but unless they're a nice colour or a colour I dont have I would rather rescue and build up stats etc myself)

Also I am not interested in geldings I believe they are ususally WAY overpriced

I do buy outside lines. I frequently look for rare colors, and I'll snap them up even if the stats aren't all that. You can breed to improve the stats pretty easily, but you can't breed to create genetics that don't exist in your herd. You either have to buy them, or spend EVC on items, which is a huge money sink. I'd rather buy the horse. I get a kick out of turning an "undesirable" horse with all the wrong stats into something gorgeous through strategic breeding and careful treating and showing.

I don't care at all about "overbreeding." I think the obsession with keeping that number low is actually causing overbreeding. When only a small handful of stallions are available for stud, they're going to get used more heavily, which means that a disproportionate number of horses are going to be descended from the same five studs, rather than spread out over a hundred of them.

I do find it annoying to have to bid on a horse. So often, I put a bid on a horse, and several days later, I still haven't been accepted or rejected. I don't know if my bid wasn't high enough, or if the owner just hasn't got around to checking their bids. I'll still bid if the horse is nice enough, but I do hesitate.

I'm pretty picky with who I sell horses too, so I blame myself for the fact I can't sell horses sometimes, lol. There's two reasons why I'll put a horse for private auction; 1. So I can vet homes beforehand, this is usually just for players I've never seen bid on my horses before, and 2. Not entirely sure what to price the horse at or if I want to sell it. Basically, if I've sold you a horse before through private bidding, then you're fine and I'm more likely to sell to you again in the future. Money isn't an issue to me, so I don't care how high you bid on a horse, if I don't like your breeding practices or I've never seen your horses unlocked then I'm not going to accept.

When buying horses I look at several things; pedigree, stats, foals, colour and conformation, and in that order.

1. Pedigree. I look at a lot of horses every day, either sales or studs, as a result I know exactly what pedigrees are common in the high statted horses and I avoid them. Purely because it tends to decrease the chance of selling a foal with a popular sire, or finding good stock down the line that's not related to my own foal. If I have to choose between a lower statted horse with an uncommon pedigree and a higher statted horse with a common pedigree then the lower one will win. Unfortunately this means I tend to avoid certain breeders because I know how they breed their horses/play the game, and I'm not bashing them for it, it just means their horses won't fit into my own programs.

2. Stats, I'm a stat breeder, hence I only look for horses hitting the average or are above average when looking at horses. The only time I might accept lower stats is for pedigree, a foundation/second/third gen or if the horse has a gene I'd like to add into my herd.

3. I limit myself to 3 foals maximum for stallions and mares, that gives me 3 breedings at the end of their lifespan when they're hitting maximum potential, and the foals will only have 20-50 stat difference between them depending on the stud. One foal will be a public breeding to an outside stud/broodmare, the second foal will be to the paired mare/stallion or to another outside stud and the third will be the pairing and kept. If a horse I'm buying has 1 foal already, that's no problem, a lot of horses have 1 foal on here and those aren't even on the game anymore, the only problem that creates is gender swapping problems. However if a horse has 3+ foals, then it's bothersome, especially if all those foals are still alive and the horse is under 10.

4. Colour, pretty obvious, I don't mind the bland/common colours on ponies. If there's a higher stat common colour vs a lower stat rare colour, I'm going to buy the common. There's also the randomisers you can use on them.

5. Conformation, I don't breed for conformation at all, so I don't care for it when I'm buying horses. However I do ensure that foals are at least 50%, because I know other breeders are getting into conformation and I still want to be able to sell foals.

As a side note, I buy rescues all the time, either they're a colour I can work with, or they're started foundations. Because I hate starting foundations off unless I'm super serious about the breed and want a couple of generations going, otherwise I just buy started foundations (10 years +) off other players, solves my pedigree conundrum.