HGG Community Forums

Between the age of 4-20, the ones you cannot probably have already had a foal this year.

When a mare that is up for public brood says "Not for ET" - what does that mean?

Oh, okay... I understand. So what is the point of embryo transfer, as opposed to just letting the mare have the foal?

It is also very addicting! I use it mostly for mares I don't own, and are not for sale or brood, but would like to breed to.

ET is ridiculously expensive when you don't make a whole lot each week -- 3k to pull an egg, 2k to create an embryo with that egg, and another 4k to implant the embryo. When you can breed mares in pasture for 500 hb each, that's a huge investment for a mare that isn't very special. I limit myself to pulling eggs from horses that have a tattoo marking a special color (which limits me to 15 eggs a season). At 9k per horse bred this way, I could spend 135k in a season on ET alone just by using one egg from each of them (and that's assuming I remember to do it before I throw all my random creates in a pasture -- otherwise there are breeding fees of at least 500 on any mare up for public brood, or create fees for a new horse to use). Then if the foal is a stallion he has to be papered (1500 hb), and if it's from certain lines I color test (2000 hb), and if you end up with a geld/spay after that you have a very costly show pony.

However, as I have a few special mares that are getting up there in years I may pull a few eggs from each of them this season and next, so that I have them in reserve for a few years to come. :)

You only want to keep and breed horses that are either as good as or better than the horses you already have. If they're not up to quality for breeding, it's perfectly fine to geld/spay and keep them as show horses -- they're the real money makers of your stable :)

Make sure you're using ALL free testing (which you already did now that I'm rereading your post) - GA (gelding advice), MA or SMA (mare advice or strict mare advice), and SAT (showing aptitude test).

If you're upgraded, stallion papering is a huge help in making those decisions and well worth the cost. So is comparison testing, but that's way more expensive (4k or 8k per pair of horses, depending on your upgrade level). Any horse that papers worse than his sire is altered in my stable, and quite often any horse that papers the same as his sire also gets the snip once I have a superior son since I'm looking to improve my lines. None of my horses are consistency tested, since you can still get a great breeding or showing horse out of inconsistent parents.

Pasture breeding is a HUGE help in getting quality foals. Your mares get a small bonus for each day they're in the pasture, up to 30 days. The downside is that they can't show while they're there, but they give you better foals.

Is a pasture something you have to buy with real money?

I found it. Thanks!