My foals keep coming out short/small?

[EquinoxMoon]

Hello,

I have been playing this game for a while now, but recently I have noticed my foals appear to be coming out small, or short, for their breed. I've been mostly breeding NAB's and even when breeding two appropriately tall parents for the breed, the foals are still coming out shorter than ever. I didn't notice this happening so often before as it seems to be happening now, at least half of them this is happening to. It used to be one here and one there, which was understandable, but does anyone have any idea as to how to fix this from happening all the time?

Any advice is greatly appreciated, and thank you in advance!

[BlackOak2]

Hello,

I have been playing this game for a while now, but recently I have noticed my foals appear to be coming out small, or short, for their breed. I've been mostly breeding NAB's and even when breeding two appropriately tall parents for the breed, the foals are still coming out shorter than ever. I didn't notice this happening so often before as it seems to be happening now, at least half of them this is happening to. It used to be one here and one there, which was understandable, but does anyone have any idea as to how to fix this from happening all the time?

Any advice is greatly appreciated, and thank you in advance!

Somehow you managed to breed shorter genes into your herd. There are a few different ways you can begin to fix this. First, if you don't mind breeding to public studs, find a bloodline that doesn't show shorter horses (this will take a bit of research into the pedigree of the horse). Second, by breeding to AC horses, you can partially fix this, if you're looking for only 5 star stock, you'll have the occasional AC that's outside of 5, but for the most part their genes will be more uniform toward the breed. Third, you can use your own stock and just cull all the shorties and maybe even cull the parents that are throwing the shorties... if you don't want to cull the parents, then limit the foals of those you keep to just one, thus helping to define and work the short genes out of your herd. Fourth, you could find a tall stud and combat the short genes with taller genes, but you risk throwing shorties and then also giants instead of just weeding out the short genes.
There are other options but these are generally the most direct way to tackle the issue.

Does that help?

[EquinoxMoon]

Hello,

I have been playing this game for a while now, but recently I have noticed my foals appear to be coming out small, or short, for their breed. I've been mostly breeding NAB's and even when breeding two appropriately tall parents for the breed, the foals are still coming out shorter than ever. I didn't notice this happening so often before as it seems to be happening now, at least half of them this is happening to. It used to be one here and one there, which was understandable, but does anyone have any idea as to how to fix this from happening all the time?

Any advice is greatly appreciated, and thank you in advance!

Somehow you managed to breed shorter genes into your herd. There are a few different ways you can begin to fix this. First, if you don't mind breeding to public studs, find a bloodline that doesn't show shorter horses (this will take a bit of research into the pedigree of the horse). Second, by breeding to AC horses, you can partially fix this, if you're looking for only 5 star stock, you'll have the occasional AC that's outside of 5, but for the most part their genes will be more uniform toward the breed. Third, you can use your own stock and just cull all the shorties and maybe even cull the parents that are throwing the shorties... if you don't want to cull the parents, then limit the foals of those you keep to just one, thus helping to define and work the short genes out of your herd. Fourth, you could find a tall stud and combat the short genes with taller genes, but you risk throwing shorties and then also giants instead of just weeding out the short genes.
There are other options but these are generally the most direct way to tackle the issue.

Does that help?

Yes that's a great insight, thank you.

The thing is though, a lot of these medium pony sized NAB's are coming out of AC horses or a mix of a first or second gen and an AC horse. Is it sometimes just a fluke or based on certain AC horses' hidden genes?

[BlackOak2]

Somehow you managed to breed shorter genes into your herd. There are a few different ways you can begin to fix this. First, if you don't mind breeding to public studs, find a bloodline that doesn't show shorter horses (this will take a bit of research into the pedigree of the horse). Second, by breeding to AC horses, you can partially fix this, if you're looking for only 5 star stock, you'll have the occasional AC that's outside of 5, but for the most part their genes will be more uniform toward the breed. Third, you can use your own stock and just cull all the shorties and maybe even cull the parents that are throwing the shorties... if you don't want to cull the parents, then limit the foals of those you keep to just one, thus helping to define and work the short genes out of your herd. Fourth, you could find a tall stud and combat the short genes with taller genes, but you risk throwing shorties and then also giants instead of just weeding out the short genes.
There are other options but these are generally the most direct way to tackle the issue.

Does that help?

Yes that's a great insight, thank you.

The thing is though, a lot of these medium pony sized NAB's are coming out of AC horses or a mix of a first or second gen and an AC horse. Is it sometimes just a fluke or based on certain AC horses' hidden genes?

Hidden genes.
As you might've already figured out, some of the AC horses have a tendency to do certain things. For instance, the Belgian likes to grow in size but if crossed to a light style horse, the offspring will easily shift lighter. The arabian, it takes a couple generations, no matter what you cross to, to get them away from throwing super lights. And the Turkmene prefers to throw tall hips.
In the NAB case, they do have a tendency, though not too strong of one, to hover right on either side of the horse and pony line.

As you search for viable stock for your project, if you want to stay away from pony stock, rather than breeding it out; figure out the differences in body style by sight. Take a cruise of the market and look over what they have there, just random breeds and test yourself. This one looks like a 'horse'... this one looks like a 'pony'. Then open them up and see how close you are. It takes a little work to train the eye, but you can get quite close with about an 80% or better accuracy after a little practice. Then you can transfer it over to the AC and the horses you choose will at least be more 'horse' than 'pony'. That being said... what the NAB has under their look... it's all a roll of the dice.
I work with leopard tarpans, for instance, and I don't want to add any tobiano markings at all into my herd. Tobiano is fairly heavy in AC tarpans, in the form of stars and anklets. And they often throw long stockings. So there's been a couple that I wasn't able to utilize in my project because although they were blank when I picked them up, when I introduced them, they produced marked stock. It's a waste of PT at times, but such happens.

[EquinoxMoon]

Yes that's a great insight, thank you.

The thing is though, a lot of these medium pony sized NAB's are coming out of AC horses or a mix of a first or second gen and an AC horse. Is it sometimes just a fluke or based on certain AC horses' hidden genes?

Hidden genes.
As you might've already figured out, some of the AC horses have a tendency to do certain things. For instance, the Belgian likes to grow in size but if crossed to a light style horse, the offspring will easily shift lighter. The arabian, it takes a couple generations, no matter what you cross to, to get them away from throwing super lights. And the Turkmene prefers to throw tall hips.
In the NAB case, they do have a tendency, though not too strong of one, to hover right on either side of the horse and pony line.

As you search for viable stock for your project, if you want to stay away from pony stock, rather than breeding it out; figure out the differences in body style by sight. Take a cruise of the market and look over what they have there, just random breeds and test yourself. This one looks like a 'horse'... this one looks like a 'pony'. Then open them up and see how close you are. It takes a little work to train the eye, but you can get quite close with about an 80% or better accuracy after a little practice. Then you can transfer it over to the AC and the horses you choose will at least be more 'horse' than 'pony'. That being said... what the NAB has under their look... it's all a roll of the dice.
I work with leopard tarpans, for instance, and I don't want to add any tobiano markings at all into my herd. Tobiano is fairly heavy in AC tarpans, in the form of stars and anklets. And they often throw long stockings. So there's been a couple that I wasn't able to utilize in my project because although they were blank when I picked them up, when I introduced them, they produced marked stock. It's a waste of PT at times, but such happens.

You're so right, a lot of them look like they could be horse size and they end up being 14hh to 14.2hh. That's a great idea though, I'll go give it a try. Thank you.
I just bred a foal out of two generations of five star stock and this one came out only three stars, and it looks like they're going to be tiny. But I just don't want to rehome as I'm absolutely in love with the markings. I feel like the first generation out of two AC parents always has the best chance of being five star for the breed. It seems to get a little harder with each generation.

[BlackOak2]

Hidden genes.
As you might've already figured out, some of the AC horses have a tendency to do certain things. For instance, the Belgian likes to grow in size but if crossed to a light style horse, the offspring will easily shift lighter. The arabian, it takes a couple generations, no matter what you cross to, to get them away from throwing super lights. And the Turkmene prefers to throw tall hips.
In the NAB case, they do have a tendency, though not too strong of one, to hover right on either side of the horse and pony line.

As you search for viable stock for your project, if you want to stay away from pony stock, rather than breeding it out; figure out the differences in body style by sight. Take a cruise of the market and look over what they have there, just random breeds and test yourself. This one looks like a 'horse'... this one looks like a 'pony'. Then open them up and see how close you are. It takes a little work to train the eye, but you can get quite close with about an 80% or better accuracy after a little practice. Then you can transfer it over to the AC and the horses you choose will at least be more 'horse' than 'pony'. That being said... what the NAB has under their look... it's all a roll of the dice.
I work with leopard tarpans, for instance, and I don't want to add any tobiano markings at all into my herd. Tobiano is fairly heavy in AC tarpans, in the form of stars and anklets. And they often throw long stockings. So there's been a couple that I wasn't able to utilize in my project because although they were blank when I picked them up, when I introduced them, they produced marked stock. It's a waste of PT at times, but such happens.

You're so right, a lot of them look like they could be horse size and they end up being 14hh to 14.2hh. That's a great idea though, I'll go give it a try. Thank you.
I just bred a foal out of two generations of five star stock and this one came out only three stars, and it looks like they're going to be tiny. But I just don't want to rehome as I'm absolutely in love with the markings. I feel like the first generation out of two AC parents always has the best chance of being five star for the breed. It seems to get a little harder with each generation.

Yes, breeding for the right traits can be as notoriously hard as getting that record holding horse. Perhaps consider grabbing the tallest AC NAB horses you can, even if you consider them a bit ugly. Start a separate line and hard cull anything at all that's not at least as tall as one parent. This way, though the color genes and some of the other genes might be a little wacky, you could start to produce a solid secondary line with tall in it.

There is also a chance that your nice new foal will throw taller foals then she/he was born.

By the way, tiny NAB stock might be a nice niche market for you. In-hand NAB or driving NAB might work out perfectly for their body style as well.

Make sweet, sweet! lemonade with your lemons.