Any advice for starting new lines?

So even though I've been on EV for over a year, I've never started my own lines. I've always bought new horses from other players. I'm thinking of starting my own lines since a fair number of my horses are hitting retirement age. I got questions though.

How many EC horses should I get? Is it better to get them as foals or 3 year olds? Does it matter if I get them a day apart?

I want to do this right if I'm going to give it a go so any advice or suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I always buy them as foals because there is more time to get their stats up when you start with younger horses. Buying a bunch at once can be good, but continuing to buy more to add to your starting lines over time can be wise (at least to me) because their ages and when they will need to be bred will be slightly staggered. I'm more of a figure-it-out-as-it-goes type person, however. Some other breeders carefully plans their pairings and breeding times, so someone else may be able to offer thoughts on that approach.

Get as many horses as you think you can handle for a starter herd! I had made this super old guide thing about how I was organizing my lines, It's kinda outdated but you can read it if you like here. It gives you an idea on numbers though, just make sure you're even in mares and stallions and you'll be fine. If you're hoping to go down in generations until you reach a single horse you'll need to start with a multiple of two (2,4,8,16,32,64,128, etc.)

As to buying all at once or on multiple days, with the new horse locking features in this version it's SO much easier to get horses to the same age if that matters to you, so you don't have to feel pressured to buy them all on the same day. If you want to spread it out that;s just fine, I personally like my horses to be about the same age, within a week at least, but if they all age up at the same time it also means you'll clog shows if they;'re all the same discipline, spacing them out a bit makes for more separation.

And personally I too always do foals, the extra stats you get from their three years as foals really helps when they hit showing age, even if it is a bit tedious in the beginning while we don't have much to do with foals yet.

Thank you both so much for your advice! I think I may try starting my own lines for just one of my herds to start out and see how I do. I'm a bit nervous to be honest.

Sabriel, I've bookmarked your Comfy Herd guide to refer to. It's an amazing resource! Thank you!