A few questions...

I have a couple of questions, but I think the second question kind of depends on the answer to this first one... If I have a horse whose discipline is Dressage, do ONLY the INT and AGI stats determine how well it does in shows? Like if my horse has... 20 in each stat, when I enter it in shows, do only the 40 in Int+Agi count?

And the next question is a bit of a weird one, is it possible to breed horses down until they have less than 100 stats? Like could I breed a bunch of horses until I eventually get a horse with 0 total stats?

for your first question: Yes. The goal is to get mostly the two specialty stats (in this case, agility and intelligence), and very few of the others. A horse with many stats in all areas will show poorly, no matter how many total stats it has.

Last edited on 2017-03-06 at 17:06:14 by Raptorfang Ω

Okay, so then I'm still wondering about the second question, is it possible to breed horses down to 0 total stats to have a group of horses that are essentially "clean slates" and train them, treat them and everything else and build up a line of horses with "perfect" specialty stats? For example, still using Dressage, would it be possible to breed a large-ish group of horses until eventually many generations of horses later, they result in horses with 0 total stats, and then pick dressage, and give these horses treats to boost Int/Agi, do the training center thing for dressage, enter them in dressage shows, and build up a line of, say, Akhal-Tekes with ONLY points in the Agility and Intellect stats and 0 points in all other stats?

As far as I can tell, it might be possible, if you breed a 100 stat horse to another 100 stat horse, it could get a under 100 stat horse, and so on, but you would have to not treat them or anything, so that they wouldn't gain extra stats and slow down the process. It sounds like a really interesting experiment, if you decide to try it, can I have updates? :)

I haven't tested it after the recode but before the recode I was able to breed horses down to 0 stats (was hoping negative statted horses were possible but it stops at 0). I would assume that it is still possible.

But what would you do with the horse? You can't train or treat because that would gain stats....you'd basically just do nothing and wait for it to retire.

I have horses that have barely any non–specialty stats and they do fine in shows, you don't necessarily need zero non-specialty stats for a horse to show well. Just be sure to breed two horses who have the same discipline and each generation will usually have less of the deadweight stats.

Hello!
For your first question, the Specialty stats, in this case Agility and Intelligence, matter more than the non-specialty stats, however the amount of non-specialty stats affects how your horse shows relative to it's peers. So if your horses has 300 stats but only 150 of those stats are related to your chosen specialty it will do worse than a horse of also 300 stats with 250 stats related the the specialty. If that makes any sense. So while technically only the specialty stats count, the non-specialty stats detract from your horse's stat values overall as it competes with other horses of a similar ranking that are more specialized. But it's also important to rememebr that stats are only one factor in showing! there's also Training level and tack and possibly care as well as the random luck factor that affects showing.

As to a 0 stat horse, it is much harder to achieve in the recode, as people have said before as there's literally nothing you can do with the horse except keep it alive because many of the game functions exist to give stats. Also there is a random factor in determining foal stats that does more than just average out the parents, for example this test foal that was born from two 100 stat parents has 99 base stats: (#584707)
I think it was mentioned at some point that generations also come into play in giving boosts to horses, possibly age also, maybe care, but I'm not positive on any of that being implemented for sure. It would definitely require some experimentation!

All your stats totaled together determine what showing grade your horse is in - Novice 3, Regional 5, etc.

Only the stats in your specialty's two traits count towards how well your horse will do in that show. The rest of the stats are useless.

High stats outside of your specialty's traits will bump your horse up into a higher showing grade, with stiffer competition, but will not help it win.

If you have fully upgraded tack for your horse's specialty, you will gain 202 extra stats in your specialty traits that will help your horse show better, but will not bump it up into a higher showing grade. A horse equipped with the all the right tack, fully-upgraded, has a huge advantage over a horse with inferior tack, incomplete tack, or no tack at all.

It was possible to breed a horse down to extremely low total stats before the recode, but I have not seen any horses below 98 since. There are a couple in the Rescue Center. They appear to be the result of breeding two foundations that were both at 100 total stats. There are also a few 99 stat foals that appear to be due to the same thing. I am going to buy a breeding pair of them to test it out, but there seems to be a limitation on low stats.

@PoniesStars, I'm going to do this experiment as soon as I sell all of my other horses, and I will certainly give you updates or make a topic about it c:

I am well aware that all I would be able to do with these horses would be keeping them alive, and I am perfectly alright with that. I also realize that after I reach 0 total stats, I will have to work very hard to train/treat the horses to get them up to a level that is capable of competing with other horses, and that's alright with me too c:

Thank you guys for all your replies! I really didn't think so many people would have an answer about this ._.

I'm going to go ahead with my experiment, and if anyone would like updates, feel free to message me and ask or I can make a topic at some point in the future.