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I use tattoos to identify generations in my breeding horses (from 2nd gen to 5+ gen). That way I can use the search to find, for example, 2nd gen mares of breeding age, or all my fully lined stallions (5+). I try to incorporate the parents' names into their offspring, but not always. Like Tawny Eclipse I put WV in front of all my horse names, but I also have two lines where I use an additional letter, so those starting WV H (name) are part of my original heavy horse line, and those that are WV C (name) are part of my Challenge Herd, which is a long term project. I also rely heavily on spread sheets to keep track of breeding stock by generation, and also use colour coding and columns of figures to see how they are doing.

I don't know if that helps or confuses you more!

Thanks everyone! I also use my farm prefix PF followed by key despcriptions and generation. Example, PF Bay W8 3G, but I find it gets confusing when I have a few sires with the same genes.

I use the prefixes JL for mares and JS for stallions and Z for show horses.

For generations I use the alphabet starting with a for 2nd generation, b - 3rd, c - 4th etc...

Nexus gets added next if applicable using NX, or IC for ice genes on the other server.

Then the horses ID# or name if I’ve given it one. I often use tv episode names, songs, names or name while watching TV and any name, word or saying that pops out lol

Bringing up the rear are any additional special genes mainly KP or Sa for satin.

Next I have a 210 stall barn for each generation named with the mare prefix (JL, JLa, JLb, etc) and 1000 stall barns for showhorses. I only breed Grullos and spay/geld any that are not grullo so I don’t need colour indicators other than to indicate if they are nexus, ice, satin or KP. I normally cull quite heavily and only tend to keep superior colts and only up to 3 brothers per stallion but often only have 3-6 stallions per generation. I go through phases where I put all of a generation in a pasture and pick 3 studs to cover them or using a spread sheet and colour coding to pick breeding pairs.

I do the same things as everyone else, mostly putting information in the names. I used to do tattoo's but I find that too much work. I only use tattoo's now for inhouse lines and horses I love to look at (beautiful pictures).

I try to think of names that come forth of mom and dad or are related to them. I had a 2nd gen stud Valhalla (norse mythology), whose offspring all got norse mythology names. I have a 2gen boy East Bound, so I did names with east, bound, asia etc.
MS(number) is for the generation. MS Name L are my lined horses. I use KP, GP, SF, DP, NEX and SAT in their names as well to make the special genes they have easy to see. I also put an 'h' in front when they are homo (so MS2 Name hKP is homo KP). I use het or ht when possible to let me know they are hetero for the genes and I use p in front for when they possibly carry them (pKP, pGP etc). I must say I don't really put DP in the names if they have many other genes, since that doesn't fit.
I also name horses MS Name PAS so I know I want to put them in the pasture at some point.
I also have special names for horses that I use for embryo implants, they get named zMS so they pop up on top of the list. xMS horses I don't want to breed anymore, either quality wise or because I have too many foals.

When breeding I always use the search. I search for generation by name (MS3 for example), and if I want to breed my KP's I search MS3 KP in the name. If I want to breed my satins I just put in generation, and then go to the color tab and select 'must have satin'. I also do the same for my stallions. Mostly I have two tabs open, one for a search of my mares (for example 2gen KP's), and one for my stallions (2gen KP's too). And then I just go to the mares page and breed there, after determining which stallion to pair her up with when looking at the other tab.

At the beginning when I was a small stable I used to plan out my breedings in a word document, and also calculated the costs, but I nowadays don't have time for that anymore (also because nowadays the breeding season lasts the whole haji Year, instead of 1 month when I started) .

I must say I think this isn't really the best way to do it, because I still have so many horses each season that I don't get to breed because lack of time xD

So the best way to keep organized is to cull as much as you can, thus keeping the number of horses breedable down as much as you can. I try to go through all my foals at the end of the season and critically look if they fit my goals and quality standards or not.

Herzeloyde, that’s impressive! Wanna do mine ;)

How do you guys make sure later on in ge third and fourth generations you don’t inbreed? Say I breed for w8, and I have multiple different lines, how do you keep them organized 3+ generations down?

Example this colt, who I love for the fact that he involves two outside studs who are not my own. His sire side the name made sense given the two parents, but the damside I felt short in the name department and ended up linebreeding more than I prefer. I know in the game it doesn’t matter, but it is just a personal preference and now I’m considering gelding him because of it. I need to be more careful and I think it starts with naming.


PF snowboundddd A 3G

I always use the prefix HF with the generation, then the last part of the sires name and the last part of the dams name. For example -

HF5 Dreamers Rusted

HF5 Dreamers Rusted is by HF4 Sand For Dreamers and out of HF4 Secret Rusted
This usually prevents inbreeding in the close pedigree.


That usually gives me a bit of an idea about the sire/dam lines. If they have a special gene such as kp, I usually add it to either the prefix (HF2kp) or the end of the name (HF5 Duo Lost KP)

The example you just gave - PF snowboundddd A 3G, I would name PF3 Echo Twice Bound or something similar. For the Dam, I would probably change her name to PF2 Quartze Bound to keep track.

By putting the generation in with your prefix (PF3 snowboundddd) instead of (PF snowboundddd A 3G) you are saving a bit of space for the name and it makes it really easy to find them in a list, a barn, a pasture, etc. When you hit the sort by name option, it should list all the foals by a certain sire together if they share the same prefix and first part of the name.

Once I started following this system, it made sorting and breeding SO much easier. I'm sure there are better ways to do it, but that is the way I found that works for me.

Good luck!

I wonder if that's where I'm going wrong I interbreed all the time. Mostly random pasture

Thank you everyone for your responses.
I know I could have named the colt better, but I guess my biggest issue is getting frustrated and naming them something stupid just to give them a name and thinking “I’ll get back to him and re name him”. Nope!

High Five, you got me thinking. This past breeding season I just finished naming by BS names and was switching from a number I front of my prefix (ex 3PF and 3G at the end). But I see it can save a ton of room by not adding the 3G at the end.

I love snowflake, probably my favorite gene, but I search for snow in my lines and it becomes a Show because I’m so careless in naming. I try not to be careless, but I really need to get into a solid groove of naming because I do have some nice foundations I don’t want to mess up because I’m not being consistent in naming.

MS - that makes a lot of sense. So many ideas now :)

Forestshadow, I think that’s where I am right now.