Community Forum

Extensive User Guide

User avatar
SeinaMacabre
Posts: 371
Joined: August 4th, 2015, 9:32 am
Location: Your Fridge
Visit My Farm

Re: Seina's Extensive User Guide

Post by SeinaMacabre »

Citrine.Corrupt wrote:Ok. Thank you!
    • No problem c:
Image[url=steam://friends/add/76561198052805042]Image[/url]
Need help starting at HWO? Check out my Guide!
Citrine.Corrupt
Posts: 11
Joined: November 2nd, 2015, 10:58 am
Visit My Farm

Re: Seina's Extensive User Guide

Post by Citrine.Corrupt »

SeinaMacabre wrote:
Citrine.Corrupt wrote:Ok. Thank you!
    • No problem c:

Image

This is the food I give every one but two foals(milk and grass)... Every one is STILL fat. I'm under the impression there's still something wrong. :?:

I might just have to wait until I get enough money for a barn...
User avatar
SeinaMacabre
Posts: 371
Joined: August 4th, 2015, 9:32 am
Location: Your Fridge
Visit My Farm

Re: Seina's Extensive User Guide

Post by SeinaMacabre »

Citrine.Corrupt wrote:-snip-

This is the food I give every one but two foals(milk and grass)... Every one is STILL fat. I'm under the impression there's still something wrong. :?:

I might just have to wait until I get enough money for a barn...
    • I said you have to add small amount of custom food.
      Top right corner - Add Feed and small percentage of hay for example, it will swap with the grass.
Image[url=steam://friends/add/76561198052805042]Image[/url]
Need help starting at HWO? Check out my Guide!
User avatar
Argent
Alpha Tester
Alpha Tester
Posts: 1479
Joined: March 23rd, 2014, 2:30 pm
Visit My Farm

Re: Seina's Extensive User Guide

Post by Argent »

Citrine.Corrupt wrote:
SeinaMacabre wrote:
    • No problem c:

Image

This is the food I give every one but two foals(milk and grass)... Every one is STILL fat. I'm under the impression there's still something wrong. :?:

I might just have to wait until I get enough money for a barn...
These horses are in pastures. They will always eat as much grass as they want, regardless of what other feed you give them. Adding a feed is just going to pile on more calories, not reduce how much grass they eat. You cannot keep a horse in good weight in the pasture unless you have a lot of horses grazing heavily.
Image
KigerBreeder
Posts: 18
Joined: December 11th, 2015, 10:14 pm
Visit My Farm

Re: Seina's Extensive User Guide

Post by KigerBreeder »

How many accounts can you have? Can you delete or restart an account?
User avatar
SeinaMacabre
Posts: 371
Joined: August 4th, 2015, 9:32 am
Location: Your Fridge
Visit My Farm

Re: Seina's Extensive User Guide

Post by SeinaMacabre »

    • Small update done. Will work on re-visting the guide and updating it as I see fit while I get back on horse C:
Image[url=steam://friends/add/76561198052805042]Image[/url]
Need help starting at HWO? Check out my Guide!
Little Red
Posts: 1
Joined: April 3rd, 2016, 11:47 pm
Visit My Farm

Re: Extensive User Guide

Post by Little Red »

what dose bcs stand for
Xant’hippe
Posts: 363
Joined: December 31st, 2015, 2:32 pm
Visit My Farm

Re: Extensive User Guide; bcs

Post by Xant’hippe »

:ugeek: BCS is short for Body Condiion Score. It ranges from 1, "Poor", to 9, "Extremely Fat".

It's hard to tell whether and how much training actually affects a horse's BCS; feeding certainly does.

Foals are always born at 1 and increase to 3 to 5 by the time they are weaned (at six months). The game mercifully provides them with enough milk even if their dams are not present on the farm -- or even alive!. Still, it's a good idea to keep them in a pasture; they start eating grass early, and it's important to their development. The amount of milk diminishes over the first 5.5 months and stops at 6 months. Still-growing adolescents may drop 1 or 2 BCS points during growth spurts; feeding a supplement can really help then. Adults are more consistent.
*****************Revisited
If you put a pregnant mare into a barn and don't assign her any food, or if she is in a very heavily grazed or mown pasture, she may lose her foal. This isn't supposed to happen. However, a friend, HorseLady72, told me she had put a mare in a barn, and forgotten to set up feeding for it (this was in 2015 or early 2016 when feeding was harder -- you had to go to a sub-menu; also, pasture quality wasn't visible at all). She said the mare lost the foal after a few turns.

This could have been a human memory glitch, but please remember that computers and transmission lines are not perfect either. I don't know whether corrupted data could have caused the foal/pregnancy to disappear.

Any horse totally deprived of food will eventually lose condition down to 1; how long it may survive in that state depends on factors including age. Horses over 18 are vulnerable. So far horses in this game only die when they reach a certain age, generally 20 or a little higher; this is regardless of BCS, level of training, etc.

There was a programming glitch which prevented mares from dying as long as they were pregnant OR if they gave birth and then were re-bred the same day. It has now been changed so that mares still carry the foal to full term and give birth. At that same turn, if they are 20 or older, they may die.
*****************Revisited
If you compete your horse, 5 is best in general. 6 is just a little plump, still good enough for most non-racing shows. 4 is "moderately thin"; it's considered good racing trim by the computer (beneficial for Endurance, Harness Racing, Racing, Sprint Racing, and Steeplechasing) and accepted for most other performance (maybe just a little skinny for Saddleseat, Dressage, or Western Pleasure).

Low weight (1-3) and high weight (7-9) will be penalized in certain events, like Endurance or Cross Country. A thin or fat horse can't work as effectively.

There are some older explanations, in the Guides and replies to questions, about horses getting fat in pastures because they will always eat as much as they want and can get. (IRL many of them will self-regulate. I've even known totally indoor cats to do that!) Now that pastures can be mowed, it's possible to keep horses at or close to ideal weight/BCS if you have several pastures and the time and patience to mow them to various levels and monitor the amount of nourishment that results. Examples: Racers (this means high-metabolizing breeds*) will need rich pastures and easy keeping ponies do best on rather lean ones -- 30% or less.

Sometimes a horse's weight and condition will change or resist change. I have known closely monitored horses to fail to gain weight even when given generous amounts of food in barn or pasture. The best guess I can make is that the computer is simulating RL "gone off her/his food" incidents. ***Edited to add: Larissar did admit there is a "random factor" in the individual's response to feeding.*** Horses over 10 seem to be more susceptible to this. I've brought thin or thinning horses back to 4, 5, or 6 by giving them good pasturage (at least 80%) and supplemental food like Performance Mix or Sweet Feed. ***Edited to add: even tiny equines, ponies or minis measured in inches, need 100% of recommended. They are easily satisfied in lean pastures, though. Light horses and draft breeds need 100-105% of recommended.

*Examples of these breeds: Arabian, North African Barb, Turkmene, Akhal-Teke, Baladi, Thoroughbred, Standardbred; sometimes Hackney. ***Added: and Tchenarani, Deliboz, Russian Don, Anglo-Arabian, Norfolk Trotter ... YMMV especially with Part, Half, or Mix.***

If you think *this* is complicated :o , be assured that taking care of real horses is far more so. :mrgreen:
Last edited by Xant’hippe on November 16th, 2016, 2:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Argent II
Posts: 628
Joined: September 1st, 2014, 12:41 pm
Location: on an island, hoarding my ponies
Visit My Farm

Re: Extensive User Guide; bcs

Post by Argent II »

Xant’hippe wrote:If you put a pregnant mare into a barn and don't assign her any food, or if she is in a very heavily grazed or mown pasture, she may lose her foal.

Any horse totally deprived of food will eventually lose condition down to 1; how long it may survive in that state depends on factors including age. Horses over 18 are vulnerable.

Sometimes a horse's weight and condition will change or resist change. I have known closely monitored horses to fail to gain weight even when given generous amounts of food in barn or pasture. The best guess I can make is that the computer is simulating RL "gone off her/his food" incidents. Horses over 10 seem to be more susceptible to this. I've brought thin or thinning horses back to 4, 5, or 6 by giving them good pasturage (at least 80%) and supplemental food like Performance Mix or Sweet Feed.
No, mares will not lose their foals if not fed. No, horses will not die if not fed. No, horses do not "go off their feed."
Image


(14:43:36) Nate: argie goes around the farm at foaling time with a tape measurer, an angle measurer, and a club
Xant’hippe
Posts: 363
Joined: December 31st, 2015, 2:32 pm
Visit My Farm

Re: Extensive User Guide

Post by Xant’hippe »

-- "Mares don't lose foals" ... Although I have yet to lose a foal, I am drawing upon the experience of HorseLady72, who did. (This was months ago. Has game programming changed with regard to broodmare nutrition?) HorseLady is an extremely honest person and careful observer. It is possible, however unlikely, that she may have been mistaken.

***Months after this was first posted, another player reported having inadvertently rehomed a pregnant mare. The mistake was doubly distressing, because the foal was very much wanted, and the player hadn't thought it was even possible. Rehome doesn't work if the horse, mare or stallion, has descendants active in the game, or descendants in the pedigrees of currently active horses. This most likely was the mare's first foal.***

I do think it is simple good practice to make sure a horse in a barn gets some food, even if the owner intends it to lose weight. Starving it down gets the weight off faster, but makes the animal weak. Giving not-quite-enough hay gives it enough energy for continued training.

-- "Horses don't die if they aren't fed" ... In this game, horses die at an arbitrary age, usually at 20+; health or BCS does not, as you say, have an effect on the age of death. Maybe the game should be changed so that horses do not linger for years at BCS 1. IRL they do eventually perish from such profound deprivation. While I wouldn't want game parameters to get really ugly (e.g. kill buyers), this could be something to consider ... of course, it isn't as if Larissar isn't busy.

-- "Horses do not go off their feed" ... In my own game experience as well as HorseLady's, adult horses given consistent levels of feed and activity sometimes have fluctuating BCS levels, including hard-to-understand weight loss. We have seen it with more than one animal and in more than one situation (e.g. different ages, pasture only, pasture plus supplements, careful feeding in barn).

Horses I have cared for have come from different sources: I have purchased from many breeders/owners, adopted, and bred. Horses who spend their entire lives with one owner, who has been intensively breeding them for many generations, could be far more consistent.
Last edited by Xant’hippe on November 16th, 2016, 3:00 am, edited 2 times in total.
Post Reply
Become a Patron!