Splitting disciplines vs. sticking to just one.

I've recently been having a debate with myself over what to do with my Trakehners. When I first started them, I couldn't decide if I wanted to put them in dressage or show jumping, so I ended up splitting my herd and having some in each discipline.

But I'm starting to wonder if this is the best way to go. I'm afraid that having the herd split will limit my breeding in the future. Also, having some in show jumping means that the Trakes are competing with my Chincos for spots in shows, and I've been having to create a ton of them just to get them all into shows without having more than 3 per class. So I was thinking about just switching them all into Dressage, except that the majority of Trakes on the site are in SJ so if I wanted compatible breeding partners down the line, shopping show jumpers would be easier. I was also thinking about switching them into Endurance just for the length of their show careers, then switching them back to SJ/Dressage toward the end of their lives when it comes to breeding, but that'd be expensive and if my new Mustangs (who will be in Endurance) catch up with them I'd have the same problems as now with competition over show spots.

I probably shouldn't have started two new breeds on top of all this, too. xD But with the Andalusians and Mustangs I might just lock them once they turn 3 until the others get a little more ahead.

So I'm kind of just looking for advice/feedback from people who have been playing the game longer. Have you tried splitting herds between two disciplines? How did it work out? How do you deal with having a lot of horses needing the same disciplines/divisions in showing? Do you lock some of them to give the others a head start and then unlock when the competition disappears?

What I do to attempt to combat the showing issues, is hand show my horses. Depending on the amount of time you have on Eq, simply only show horses sitting at the top of their grade (I do mine by hand to make sure I get into the shows that are staying at the lowest entries, and to make sure they have at least 5 horses before they run).

I'm sure you don't need an example of this, but I like giving them anyway! My paints and qhs are both western, so they conflict quite a bit on the show circuit, and this helps so that they all have a chance at stats. I don't worry too much about the 'only 3 of my horses per show' and rather aim just to have horses that are in shows with only 5-6 competitors, even if they're all my own. So, in the R1 division, I have probably 15 horses between the qhs and paints. But the only ones that are at the upper end of that group is Schnapps (qh - 706s (he's higher cause he was trained today)), Kodachrome (qh - 689s), Tasty Range (paint - 683s) and Biblical (qh - 678). So even from the 15+ horses I would have, really only 4 are suitable, the rest go to the riding school.

I aim to show my horses in the more expensive shows, as most people auto-show with the cheapest option, and it helps from the shows I'm in getting overfilled. If there are only cheap shows, I'll make my own, and make 10 or 15 at a higher price ($75) and 10 or 15 at a slightly lower price ($60). If I'm using other people's high priced shows I just fill them until they're at 5 entries, unless they have a ton of time left. If it's my shows I'll fill them to 4-5, just to limit the possibility for them to go off with under 5 entries. If I have a ton of horses in one level (say, L5) I'll enter them across 15-20 shows to keep the entry numbers down. I'll even try to randomize the horses that get entered in each show so that one horse isn't paired up with another with lower stats and cut him out.

Hopefully that answers one of your questions. For the other question, I always say going with one specialty for a couple reasons.

1. Two specialties has the potential to confuse a bit, and you may be upset in the end if you find that you can't find a stud or broodmare for a horse in one specialization, but you have really nice ones from the other specialization. Of course, it's easy to transfer them all if needed, but depending on how often you do it it'll be expensive.

2. Normally, it's just simpler overall. Even with multiple breeds in a specialization, all of mine are gaining at a pretty consistent rate using the method above, so they aren't competing with one another too much to gain stats.

3. Breeding opportunities outside of the popular spec can be difficult to find. I have a herd of trakes atm (just babies, so I don't know if I'm going sj or dressage - probably sj) and they're set for endurance and getting fed hay cubes. So they're out of the showing circuit right now, and probably will be until they hit 15y and I swap them all to their final spec.

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Also, I started a lot of breeds at the same time, so I had to lock a couple divisions to kinda stagger their ages to help me out a bit (it also helps if you have a ton in the same spec, as you don't need to flood shows completely when they're lower level). But all my foals start in the wrong spec, and are fed hay cubes, and I decide to switch and show at some point in their lives (I'm thinking 3y and 15y, as it seems to work for other people).

You can see the slight differences in proper spec/treats/and showing vs. hay cubes and riding school in my two teke groups. They'll both be racing in the end, I just wanted to see if either was a better method.

Racing/Showing Tekes vs Hay Cubes/Schooling Tekes

You can see that they're more or less at the same stats on the high end, but that showing makes them have a lower low end. Pretty much just proving to me that horses that don't perform well in shows fall behind, and I need to take more care with the showing on the poor low end ponies. XD

Sorry for writing you a novel, I'm extremely long winded.

Yeah, I've done this a bit. It really depends on whether or not you want to put your time and effort into it. My Arabians are a combination of Racing and Endurance, but I'm getting close to switching them all over to one or the other, because I just don't have the time. Similarly, I am thinking of switching my Mustangs over either to Western or to Endurance, because at this point, I am just using hay cubes to build stats so I don't have to hand-pick who gets what treat, and that isn't helping my specialty points very much.

Personally, I say if you have the gumption, go for it! Otherwise, I do not recommend it... :P

One problem you may find if you show your Trakes in Endurance and then switch them to Show Jumping to breed - that will work for only your first generation. Your second generation will be born with Show Jumping stats that cannot be switched by a specialty change. They will only be competitive in Show Jumping, and will show horribly as Endurance.

@Confessor - I think she means that if she switches her Trakes to show jumping, she'd take that as the only specialization continuing through the generations. What I've been doing is raising my horses with hay cubes and the riding school, switching in the right spec right before breeding age, and then starting the next generation out on hay cubes and the wrong spec again (I normally put my paints in show jumping, for example). Once they hit age three, or sometimes slightly higher, I switch them to their correct spec and start showing them. Then I just repeat it over and over through the generations.

@Nittrous
It takes forever, but I hand-show mine also. I tried using autoshow for like two days before deciding I strongly disliked it. xD So I typically go through every breed one at a time and enter all horses who are at least a few stat points into their grade into shows, and then typically do riding school for any horses with 10 or less points into their grade. So by handshowing I've always tried to stick as close as possible to having a max of 3 per show, at least to start with. I tend to enter shows late at night and with the 24 hour run time for classes, that generally means throughout the next day some of them get filled up and whatnot, and then I go through the next night to make sure they have at least 5 entries. My horses place well enough generally that I'm not as bothered by fuller classes, but I still try to stick to lesser entries. But it gets hard having 20-30+ horses in each grade/discipline so I end up creating a ton of shows.

I like your idea of making some of the shows more expensive. I'd definitely have to enter more than three of each horse to get to the 5 then though, so it's a trade off. Definitely something I might start doing though for some of them (but not all, since I know some people do need some of those classes for their own horses).

I've been doing the hay cube thing too. It's awesome. My foundies are already N2 by the time they hit showing age. xD

I think I'm going to end up switching all the Trakes into one discipline. It's just a matter of deciding which one. SJ would give more access to outside lines later, but Dressage is better for showing right now -- and I guess if people don't take the plunge, Dressage will always have less population in Trakeland. xD And worst case scenario I can switch them all to SJ later in life, which would be expensive but it was what I would have to do with that Endurance idea anyway. xD

@Nittrous
It takes forever, but I hand-show mine also. I tried using autoshow for like two days before deciding I strongly disliked it. xD So I typically go through every breed one at a time and enter all horses who are at least a few stat points into their grade into shows, and then typically do riding school for any horses with 10 or less points into their grade. So by handshowing I've always tried to stick as close as possible to having a max of 3 per show, at least to start with. I tend to enter shows late at night and with the 24 hour run time for classes, that generally means throughout the next day some of them get filled up and whatnot, and then I go through the next night to make sure they have at least 5 entries. My horses place well enough generally that I'm not as bothered by fuller classes, but I still try to stick to lesser entries. But it gets hard having 20-30+ horses in each grade/discipline so I end up creating a ton of shows.

I like your idea of making some of the shows more expensive. I'd definitely have to enter more than three of each horse to get to the 5 then though, so it's a trade off. Definitely something I might start doing though for some of them (but not all, since I know some people do need some of those classes for their own horses).

I've been doing the hay cube thing too. It's awesome. My foundies are already N2 by the time they hit showing age. xD

I think I'm going to end up switching all the Trakes into one discipline. It's just a matter of deciding which one. SJ would give more access to outside lines later, but Dressage is better for showing right now -- and I guess if people don't take the plunge, Dressage will always have less population in Trakeland. xD And worst case scenario I can switch them all to SJ later in life, which would be expensive but it was what I would have to do with that Endurance idea anyway. xD