Breeding dilemma

[TheSpottedCat]

Any tips how one decide which horses to sell/rehome from ones breeding program? I have several full siblings (and horses in general) where one have great breeders report but worse conformation and other that have the other way around with great conformation but worse or even bad breeders report. I also try to think about sex, hight and colour in this, it makes it harder when your rare coloured horses always seem to get worse stats then the regular bay ones.

Thank you.

[stephanie111]

Any tips how one decide which horses to sell/rehome from ones breeding program? I have several full siblings (and horses in general) where one have great breeders report but worse conformation and other that have the other way around with great conformation but worse or even bad breeders report. I also try to think about sex, hight and colour in this, it makes it harder when your rare coloured horses always seem to get worse stats then the regular bay ones.

Thank you.

I would suggest you buy a book about that Breed. Books can be accessed through the market. They evaluate the horse for you.

[TheSpottedCat]

I already have books. They don't say much if you already have the breed. I'm not asking about that specific thing. What I want to know if I should prioritise the breeders report or the conformation stats when culling horses.

[stephanie111]

I already have books. They don't say much if you already have the breed. I'm not asking about that specific thing. What I want to know if I should prioritise the breeders report or the conformation stats when culling horses.

I would say, stats. That's what most people are going by these days.

[Farant]

I already have books. They don't say much if you already have the breed. I'm not asking about that specific thing. What I want to know if I should prioritise the breeders report or the conformation stats when culling horses.

I was looking on both. I would rehome even the most promising foal but with undesired conformation. Stats will come after some generations, but established look will be with you forever.

[BlackOak2]

Any tips how one decide which horses to sell/rehome from ones breeding program? I have several full siblings (and horses in general) where one have great breeders report but worse conformation and other that have the other way around with great conformation but worse or even bad breeders report. I also try to think about sex, hight and colour in this, it makes it harder when your rare coloured horses always seem to get worse stats then the regular bay ones.

Thank you.

I agree with Farant. Most often if the foal has a good report, but a horrible conformation (look, I'm not upgraded), I'll ditch it. That being said, if the conformation is acceptable and the report is great, I'll use those 'report genes' to instill better potential report genes into the foals that have better looks but perhaps weaker reports.

As for rare colors... I do my best to not let rare or neat colors convince me to keep a horse over conformation or report. In my opinion, colors are decently easy to breed into. Reports are difficult, but not impossible, but the most difficult I've found is the conformation.

[Nate]

I have bred my horses exclusively for conformation for quite awhile. They have wretched reports, but they look really great! So really it boils down to what you're after and what is more important to you. I decided what conformation I wanted, decided that I would focus on conformation over breeders reports or color, devised a system to rank horses based upon their conformation, and stuck to it.

When my conformation is set I am going to look toward showing ability and color a lot more. I'll loosen the restrictions on conformation and cross breed, then when the reports are up to a decent place I'll focus on conformation again and hopefully be ahead of where I was.

If I were to try to focus on all things at once, I think I would not get anything improved at all. I had to decide what I wanted and stick to it to make gains.

Also here is the result of my focus on conformation. He's a really lovely animal.

Monster Gold

[Argent]

And I did the exact opposite. I focused exclusively on breeders' report and ignored everything else. I have stellar BRs, but I've had MANY generations of hideous beasts, and I'm still crawling my way toward my conformation ideal.

[Eska]

I've started to breed almost exclusively for genetic potential (while keeping to the breed standard), which seems to have solved all the problems I used to have with breeder's report and conformation. As GP increased, so did the number of gold and green in the breeder's record, and their conformation is shaping up to my preferences seemingly without trying.
The price I pay is heavy inbreeding and a loss of variety in my herd over time.

[TheSpottedCat]

Thank you all. Yet, feels like I'm mostly still on square one again!