Competition question

[Ricardo Ardo(2)]

Are your horses weights and stays used at the time you enter the competition or when the competition runs?

[BlackOak2]

Are your horses weights and stays used at the time you enter the competition or when the competition runs?

Horses are judged at the moment they enter the competition, but not placed until enough horses have entered or until the run date (for minimum five entries). So whatever your horse is at, weight, temperament, training (but not energy, last time I checked, this function hasn't been added, I don't know if it will), at the moment you enter into player made competitions, is what their score will be based upon.

[Mirabitur]

that's good, since sometimes I enter a young horse into one of the 1-3 year competitions, and then i feel a little awkward because by the time the competition has run, that horse is over 10 years old....

[Ricardo Ardo]

Thanks for that I thought that was the case because I've had retired horses winning. What had me wondering was that I entered a few races and my horses didn't do as well as I might have expected.

Must be just crummy horses.

[BlackOak2]

Thanks for that I thought that was the case because I've had retired horses winning. What had me wondering was that I entered a few races and my horses didn't do as well as I might have expected.

Must be just crummy horses.

Remember, there is more to how they perform in competitions than just the what we can visually see (perhaps you're just realizing this). A horse has hidden genes and some of them may be directly linked to showing.
... I can't locate where it was posted, but I pretty sure larissar had it somewhere... I just can't find it. Since I can't find the original, I'll offer you what I wrote up to answer such a question:

What else should I keep in mind when entering my horse in competitions?
First and foremost, if you horse does poorly or worse in a competition, it doesn't mean your horse may not have a talent for it. Some talented horses don't have a strong competition heart. What this means is, they'll perform really well and pull a couple firsts then all of a sudden, they'll fail and loose a bunch of competitions in a row. Depending on how weak of a competition heart they have, will affect how poorly they perform. Some horses may win, loose, win, loose in a sequence. It goes without saying that horses with a strong competition heart will earn you more than those with weaker ones. There is a debate whether this too, is genetic, much like color, height and breeder's report (genes).
Second, just because your horse always places second or third, doesn't mean that your horse is failing or has a weak competition heart. It may be that your horse is simply being outperformed by another that is just so much better or has a stronger heart (this within reason, we really don't quite understand what a strong or weak competition heart may affect). Until those competitions run and scores are earned, the levels we can enter our horses into doesn't change (not that I've seen so far), so what does this mean? It means that a fully trained, 5 year old horse with multiple champions, may have been entered into 50 level 1 competitions and is beating everybody's butt and Only because those competitions just haven't finished running at the time you happened to enter yours. Don't worry, as soon as they run, that horse will earn score points and level up to a much higher level much more quickly.
Lastly (and arguably the one that might affect scores the most), training will change how horses perform in competitions.

So what it comes down to is: yes, perhaps your horses aren't performing well because they 'hate' competing. Or perhaps they're in the wrong type of competition. Don't forget, sometimes there is just a really strong competitor that just kills all others in those comps. The way the original post stated it was (paraphrase): if you breed a horse who always wins their competitions, to another horse who does the same, their foal is more likely to always win their competitions.

All that being said... You might also be right... they might have just been crummy horses!

[Ricardo Ardo]

Thanks for the detailed reply. All's good he seems to have picked up a bit now.