Black Oak Farms

[BlackOak2]

Hah!

[BlackOak2]

Dauntless Project

After having worked on this project for this time, I've decided that recording the height, max feed and grazing capacity is much more effective to keep track of where these horses are, than keeping track of the grade (Big Eater/Easy Keeper) then I did before.

Here's a few other notes to keep in mind.
The taller heights will naturally be able to eat more and perhaps also have more innate capacity than the shorter heights, and this is as evident in the smallest height differences, a 19.3 horse will eat a visible smaller amount than a 20.0 horse. Although I cannot give exact amounts (due to the nature of the coding involved and the differences I'm working with for the project itself), there is still an obvious difference between especially mare and daughter.

Also, the body size itself has a difference in what the horse can naturally be able to eat. A heavy horse will eat a noticeable lesser amount than a very heavy horse.

To a lesser extent, I think the body evaluations are the direct cause of this, but I'm not sure. It could be the overall: Height and Build, but because I've been working with these horses for so long, it appears that it's more likely attached (at least in part) to the body evaluation, specifically the body size, type and height.

Although it might benefit the project to start recording the body size and type, the differences in the max feed and the grazing capacity are usually large enough that I don't have to try to split hairs between mare and daughter.

Why are not the stallions and sons spoken about here? Well, because I am culling any male horse that doesn't evaluate [at five years] with at least 500% grazing capacity on a 100% quality pasture. This is the project max area and since I have been producing a consistent (though minimal amount of) replacement studs, I don't need to keep track of them anymore.
As the project is concerned, the stallion line has been achieved.
But without the brood line, it's not yet strong enough to produce an acceptable effect for outbreeding. I have found that breeding to weak mares produce weak fillies and the occasional correctly strong colt.

It will take both strong mare genes and strong stallion genes for outcrossing to have an effect. This does lend heavier weight to the theory that some of our genetics on HWO are directly coded to gender.

Or not. It could be that the feeding coding on the mares somehow is different from the stallions and therefore much harder to manipulate. *shrugs* Maybe admin only knows!

[BlackOak2]

Dauntless Project

Though I have no proof, I have a suspicion that the build of a horse (light, medium, heavy, etc) is indirectly or in some fair control of how much kg feed they can eat.
It appears that a horse that is very heavy will eat more than a horse that is just heavy, kg feed weight. Although this is expected, it offers a different style of weight to the kg feed weight than what appears to be weighted toward the grazing.
The grazing ability appears to be more weighted toward the body weight itself (thin, moderate, very fat) than toward the build, but to a lesser degree than above, perhaps to a much lesser degree.
This is unexpected (but only just a little).

It might be a nice little study to track down two very similar (duplicates would be best) horses with the same height, build, size, type and take a look at their actual pound weight, body weight and see if their kg feed intake and grazing intake are vastly different (or can be). The assumption is that they'll be different (according the the Dauntless Project, they can be vastly different).
But then the next step is to find a set of horses that have the same build and size, but with different types, then the same build and type, but different size, and so on.
Height can play enough part to throw off the math. And since we have 'short' and 'tall' within each hand point (short 17.3 and tall 17.3, etc), some variable must be acceptable.
Carbon copy bloodlines might be the easiest to work with in this study, because the variables will be minimized (assumed).

This is not a study I would tackle. Open for anybody that wants to do so and feel free to contact me for ideas, thoughts, etc., on it.

Edited to add:

It appears that a horse that is very heavy will eat more than a horse that is just heavy, kg feed weight.

This would explain why there does appear to be a hard maximum for kg feed weight that these horses can ingest, if the calculation for it is defined by the build of a horse and that the build of a horse is just a variable in the calculation. It also appears that there does not seem to be a maximum at all, for the grass they can eat.

[BlackOak2]

Dauntless Project

Okay... I don't know how many generations I'm in now. Ten at least. And I was working toward, or at least HOPING that I'd be able to keep a handle on COI to prove that... I don't know. Looking back on it, I'm simply clueless on what I was trying to prove with the low COI.

Anyway. After so many generations and so little movement in the mares... it's working, but I've been working on the very edge of breeding-out of the project for a second time. So, I'm scrapping the COI and inbreeding to artificially force these genes to build up at a much heavier interval.

I really don't understand why the mares are so much harder to build toward these feeding and requirement genes, then the stallions are.

But for some reason, this project is beginning to feel really tedious. So if this inbreeding doesn't produce quicker results, I think by the end of this month (or so), I'll be closing the project as 'failed' and shelving it probably in more permanent fashion.
That won't be because I think it's not possible... It's just because there are much more interesting breeding projects I want to tackle.
And here I was thinking this second time around would be a much quicker tract... -_-

[BlackOak2]

Dauntless Project

It appears that, for the most part, the type will increase the kg amount intake x2 with each percent gained.

So a horse (mare) that is 87% that's eating 200% grazing, can produce a foal (filly) that has the same overall stats (height, weight, etc.) and with a type that's 88% and that'll eat 202% grazing.

It's a little inaccurate, there are other things that go into it, but it seems that 'if every other overall stat is [the same] and that the type is the only difference' then the gain or loss can be expected to be about 2 points per percentage gain or loss.
However... I have also seen horses (mares and their daughters) that have different body sizes that will still fall within the above statement and vice versa.

My aim is to get the increase while nominally ignoring the growth of the other stats (i.e. I don't want to gain the grazing by increasing the line from 'Heavy' to 'Very Heavy').

All that said, I don't know what to do with this information. I don't know if it can help me or hinder me and I feel that if I spend time trying to work it out, that I'll find just too many other variables that will eventually lead me down a false path. Or... that it will simply prove that too much data gathering can be as much a waste of time as it could [MAYBE] be a help to this project.

And yet, it's interesting to pin down (seemingly) one aspect of the variables that can be affected by one stat.

[BlackOak2]

Dauntless Project

I have come to an irritating conclusion.
I usually just shelve projects if I find myself miserably stuck somewhere, but this point, after a number of additional generations, I can't seem to get these mares up to where they should be.
Again.
There appears to be two things that come to mind. First, that there IS supposed to be a hard maximum these horses are supposed to be able to eat. This is kind of obvious, if one thinks about the progression of this game. After all, the other aspects work out similarly.
And two, that the bug I find popping up (the 10% energy one) is, in fact, the thing that appears to be also the reason that the stallions can be pushed to eat so much.
Maybe the mare's have since been fixed. But the stallion problem has not yet been found.

Anyway, to conclude.
I'm scrapping this project.
In the future, I may again revisit it, by using ONLY fully inbreeding means, to see if it's even possible anymore with the mares, while still culling out any bugged horses that pop up. But for now, this project is ended.

--END--

[vallers]

Just to remind you, one horse is 75k.

All good, it was on purpose

hi

[mora098]

All good, it was on purpose

hi

Hey val

[BlackOak2]

hi

Hey val

Looks like I missed the both of you!

I went berry-picking.

[mora098]

Hey val

Looks like I missed the both of you!

I went berry-picking.

Awe noo , I'm sure we'll link up again! Hope you don't mind us using your forum to talk (it's vallers fault)