Showing strategy

If I've understood correctly, one of the changes that was implemented on the recode was that horses no longer gain stats from shows if less than 4 (or x number if that is incorrect) horses are entered. As I've played around with showing a bit, I'm of two minds:

1) I should only enter one of my horses in any given show so that I'm not competing against myself
2) I should enter at least 4 (or x from above) of my horses in any given show if they're at the same level to ensure that one of them will gain stats

I'm curious what everyone else's strategy is. What I've seen so far is that if there are enough entrants in the shows, my horses do great and regularly gain 10+ stats a day. But if entries are low and there aren't stats to be gained, I end up feeling like I shorted myself because I could have put them in riding school to have a better chance at some improvement.

For clarity's sake, I don't have a problem with how shows are structured. I'm just trying to figure out what will be most worthwhile in terms of horse growth over time as points and "wins" don't mean much. It seems like we have a disproportionate number of shows to the amount of horses entered at times.

Last edited on 2016-07-19 at 08:31:21 by Sonoma

I'm on break on mobile, so bear with me.

Horses who have a training boost ready and will level once the boost button is pressed AND/OR horses that are 2 points away from levelling BEFORE treating get entered first. Most entries/most expensive with 4 ot more entries. I treat and boost them after they're entered into shows.

Next, horses within 10 points of levelling and no training boost up get entered in the shows with the most entries and the most expensive shows over 5 entries. If more than one horse within 5 points I'll try to enter them so that they don't overlap.

Then everyone else may get paired off, put in a group of 3, or shown by themselves. I try to group them by each group being within a point or two from each other. The singles get entered into shows usually between 4 and 10 entries with hopefully no overlap with the higher pointed/training boosted horses of mine. Pairs get entered into shows with 3 entries, triplets with 2 entries. If I have any stragglers and the rest of the shows are low on entries, i enter ~5 shows where there are other members of my herd and 5+ shows so the total will be 4 entries (hopefully setting up other people so they'll be more like to enter the 4entry show).

I've had some of the shows where there are 3 of my horses all place. Some where none place.

*edit* Looks like many of my foundation horses are on track to be over 700 stata by retirement using this method.

Last edited on 2016-07-19 at 08:32:11 by Ducky

I'm not nearly as detailed as Ducky, but I will enter mine in shows against each other, since I have noted a 3rd place getting +3 stats. But it's all sort of random. I'll really try to stick to shows that have 5-10 entries (after mine are entered). When entering shows, I started with highest Na and R levels and work my way down so that if I have, for example, three R1s in the same discipline, I will enter them in shows to equal 5 entries. If I can't make it work out evenly, I will divide remaining shows between 3 entries (to make 4 when I enter) hoping someone will fill out the show, and shows with >5 entries (less than 10 if possible). Occasionally my ponies do well in riding school, but it seems like they tend to gain more stats in shows, so I will go for shows first.

If I'm patient enough to wait til the afternoon or evening to enter shows, sometimes I will treat and do training after entering. But the past couple of days, my schedule has been funky, so I'm doing arenas and treats first and shows later, just to make sure I get everything done.

I have over 230 horses right now so mine is very condensed.

I hand enter any horse that is Novice level, because I need them to be in shows with at least 5 entries. Then I use the "highest entries" auto show tool for 5 L1 horses, then 5 L2 horses, then 5 L3 horses etc. in a given discipline to get them in shows with at least 5 entries. Then all my other horses are auto showed on Cheapest.

My horses seem to be doing decent, my DWBs are 18 and all have over 600 stats, most have 700+ stats. My clydes are the horses I messed up with but even they all have over 500 stats and most have over 600 stats. Most of my 13 QHs have over 500 stats already.

Last edited on 2016-07-19 at 09:23:39 by insomniaglet

Are those store or lined numbers?

I do the thing ducky mentioned with the boost points.
then all horses within 10 points (25 for Regional+) are entered in highest entries. all others are entered in shows with as close to 5 entries as possible, and I do my best to never put more than 3 horses in any show.

my 13 yo stores are mostly at 700 stats using this method :)

Store horses, I completely restarted my lines with the recode so I pretty much only have store horses.