Coloring Questions

Coloring
So I have been breeding Andalusians for forever, and I've always bred them specifically to be black (I don't really know why). But I was wondering what you guys thought about colors and markings. I'm also thinking about getting into another breed so if you guys want to recommend colors for another breed that would be great too. Any advice on how to achieve colors and/or markings you mentioned would be appreciated as well.

Which breed?:
Which colors do you like the most?:
Which colors are in general are the most desired?:
Which marking do you like the most?:
Which markings are generally the most desired?:
Is there a specific color/marking combination you like and/or is popular?:
Other:

Last edited on 2016-12-20 at 12:21:00 by Floofy

I've never had shetlands and i only have two andalusians, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt since they might not match the majority of andie breeders. I do however had the same goals in my arabians as i would if i had andies (elimination of plain bay)

Coloring: For Andalusians, I like anything except plain bay and double cream dilutes (though the former is my very least favorite). I love the dun and silver modifiers, as well as rabicano.

Breeding: Note that this method works with both foundation and pedigreed horses. My first priority is twofold: (1)make sure that I didn't pair any horses with poors in the same conformation trait and (2)try my best to avoid breeding an EE/AA foal. If I'm trying to increase the presence of a modifier/pattern in my herd, I'll try to avoid breeding two horses with the same modifier/pattern to each other.

Once I've found a stallion/mare that fit those criteria, I "pair" them together by (1) making a note of their mate's name in their notes and (2)adding an identifying number/letter to the beginning of their name. Check out my Foundation divisions to see what I mean by that. If one horse reaches breeding age before the other, I'll lock it until they match. I'll then breed the pairs in my project as they all reach the appropriate age (assuming they aren't all already the same age like a foundie herd would be) and lock the foals in a division of their own and leave them as 0 years old until all breeding pairs have produced the ideal foal. I then age the breeding pairs till they die. Last step is pairing off the next generation!

On avoiding inbreeding: I honestly have very little experience working with horses with extensive lines so I'm just able to remember who is and isn't related. further down the line I'll have to come up with a method for keeping track since I won't be able to remember it all :P

Last edited on 2016-11-27 at 18:41:43 by ᴋᴀʜᴢɪᴇ ɪ

General Coloring Breeding:
For color breeding, which is primarily what I do (with Quarter Horses), I breed heterzygous horses together (i.e. Zz to Zz) and homozygous dominant to homozygous recessive (ZZ to zz) this is the way to maintain genetic diversity as long as possible. With heterozygous to heterozygous I breed 2-3 times per pair as getting the desired genes can be more difficult. For homozygous dominate to recessive you'll only need one breeding as there is only one genetic outcome possible.

Breeding
How do you all pair mares and stallions? I pair based on color (as described above) and on conformation I try to avoid pairing poor to poor, but other than that I ignore conformation.
How do you guys keep track of which horse goes with which other horse? I put numbers in their names to denote pairs i.e. α.01 will be bred to the other horse with α.01 in its name.
And how do you all keep track of lineage, without inbreeding (because it's not allowed in the game) with less than 60 horses? Keeping track of lineages is very difficult with my "Reboot Project" but with the others it is easy because I pair them as foals right after they are born which makes knowing their lineages much easier. For my reboot project I'm breeding them to outside lines/foundations for now so that I know they aren't being inbred, but soon I'll have to work out a better method for keeping track of lineages.

Which breed? I do a bit of both but I have more experience with Andies.

Most Desired Colours?: Chestnut/Black based colours, Smoky Cream used to be a popular one. I imagine it's shifted towards Duns, Rabicanos and Silvers being the most desired/rare colours. Personally I love double cream dilutes and duns with lots of white markings.

How do you all pair mares and stallions? If it's a foundation herd I usually pair by colour or conformation since they all start with 100 stats anyway. I try to avoid creating AA foals so I aim for Aa if the foal is going to be bay regardless, purely because AA limits future colour variation. If the horse is pedigree then I pair by pedigree/likely retirement stats.

How do you guys keep track of which horse goes with which other horse? I put a number or letter in their name. All of my divisions are split by breed so I don't have to worry about getting mixed up. I've been switching to numbers instead of letters (unless they're a different line entirely) because I have more range with it. My horses all have the 000 system, 00 keeps track of what pair they are and the last 0 denotes their generation. So 1 for foundation, 2 for second gen. etc, if it's a long pedigree and I didn't breed the horse myself the last number will be 0. I try to keep similar generations together to make it easier. However I will swap pairs around to get the best statted foals if one or two in different pairs are falling behind their partners. My ultimate aim at the end of the day is to reduce non-speciality stats.

Keeping track of lineage With my own herd it's pretty easy, my breeding system of crossing pairs for the 19 yr breeding to sell off then pairing with their actual pairs for the last breeding works well. I just breed the pairs down until I have one remaining foal. For horses with longer pedigrees, I don't tend to look past the first page, but (if you've looked at millions of horse pedigrees over the years) you tend to recognise names and common pedigrees and can generally tell if the horses have a shared relative just off the page. I normally avoid common pedigrees in the first place.

Thanks everyone! This was super helpful.

keeping it simple with TBs because I'm too lazy to do a very colorful one...

Which breed?: Thoroughbreds

Which colors do you like the most?: smoky cream, palomino, smoky black, cremello, perlino, buckskin

Which colors are in general are the most desired?: Probably just the ones I've listed as my favorites. There aren't many colors in this breed.

Which marking do you like the most?: frame overo, rabicano, splash

Which markings are generally the most desired?: Probably the ones I listed. All markings are kinda desirable, though.

Is there a specific color/marking combination you like and/or is popular?: I really like smoky cream with frame overo, smoky black with frame overo, buckskin with splash, buckskin with rabicano, smoky black with rabicano, palomino with rabicano, buckskin with splash and rabicano

Other:

Last edited on 2016-12-20 at 12:47:02 by Merry Raptorfang Ω

I'll do arabians since they're my faves and also the simpliest

Which breed?: Arabians
Which colors do you like the most?: black and flaxen chestnut
Which colors are in general are the most desired?: flaxen chestnut, black, and chestnut
Which marking do you like the most?: flaxen, heterozygous sabino and homozygous rabicano
Which markings are generally the most desired?: flaxen and anything sabino and rabicano
Is there a specific color/marking combination you like and/or is popular?: flaxen rabicano sabino
Other: i included flaxen as if it were a marking, but its really a modifier. however, considering how limited the colors are for arabians and that the only modifiers we have are sabino, rabicano, and flaxen, i included it :P

Thanks guys! I'm trying to find a new breed to invest in so this is super helpful.

I'm going to do mustangs too since I've got a few minutes :)

Which breed?: Mustangs!
Which colors do you like the most?: i love browns and flaxen red duns
Which colors are in general are the most desired?: anything brown, dun, cream, silver, flaxen
Which marking do you like the most?: probably roan, splash, and rabicano
Which markings are generally the most desired?: roan, splash, rabicano probably
Is there a specific color/marking combination you like and/or is popular?: really as many markings and color modifiers you can get on a horse, the more desirable it it.
Other: the two no-no markings of mustangs seem to be tobiano and overo. they are both very ugly on the new mustang art. I personally dislike sabino as well, but it's not QUITE as unattractive as the first two.