HGG Community Forums

Welcome to the fascinating world of Hunt and Jump.

This is an incredibly complex game, about as complex as real-life in my opinion; so don't feel badly if you are confused. Also, never hesitate to ask questions. "The only stupid question is the one you don't ask." Originally said by ConfluenceStable, the moderator.

First point: There are two kinds of horses, broadly speaking, in the game.

1. Foundation Horses. These have no ancestors listed in their pedigree, only "Foundation Horse". These are the ones that are created using a Daily Herd Helper whether it's one of your own, or one posted in each day's list of Herd helpers here in the forum.
Here's the link for Daily Herd Helpers posted on January 22: https://www.huntandjump.com/forum/discussion/53303/daily-herd-helpers-for-22nd-of-january-2022

Here's an example of a Foundation Horse from my stable. If you check out his Family Tab, you will see what that means.

1722 ChCh 4

2. Lined Horses. These will have other horses listed in their pedigree. These may or may not have been given "real" names, but their ancestors can be seen when you check their Family Tab.

Here's a lined horse from my stable to help you see the difference in the pedigrees.

14698396

Second point: Breeding Ability and Showing Ability represent two entirely separate numbers. However, generally speaking, higher Breeding Ability will usually predict a higher showing ability in the foals of a cross. However, these ranges are broad and luck plays an important part in anything that happens in the game.

Breeding Ability is indicated by letters or words. From lowest to highest ability: Stallions--Showable Only, C, B, A, *Star; Mares: Failed, Yellow, Red, Blue, *Gold.

Showing Ability is indicated by numbers ranging from 0 or less to at least 15.1.

So--Your Exceptionally Perfect mare was a Foundation Horse with a PT score of 10.4 and a breeding paper level of Red. The stud up for public use, with a PT score of 13 would have been a Lined Horse that doubtless had ancestors for at least 3 or 4 previous generations listed on his Family tab. His breeding ability level was probably A or *Star.

The best way to get intact foals is for sire and dam to have approximately the same breeding ability. However, each Paper level covers a considerably broad range, so it is not at all unusual to have neutered foals from any breeding.

However, some of the tests are only available to players who have purchased an upgrade, so as a very new player, luck will play a major role in your breeding results. Ordinary create horses, made from ordinary Daily Herd Helpers, will always be ordinary foundations. Their PT scores will range up to 9.9 and their paper levels will be the two lowest rankings of breeding ability. Perfect Foundations will have PT scores of 9.9 and will paper C or Yellow. Exceptional Producers will have PT scores with a broad range of results, but will paper B or Red. Exceptionally Perfect horses will have a PT score of 10.4 and will paper B or Red.

If you are using stallions up for Public Stud, check their Paper level and take a look at their Family Tab to see how many generations are behind them. If your mares are all horses you yourself have created, they will be foundation horses, so I'd recommend breeding them to Foundation Stallions up for public stud.

If a stallion you want to use has a number of generations behind him, you are more likely to get a neutered foal. But don't despair--showing horses is the best way to make money in this game. You can also check to see their Average Foal PT (AFPT) score, which will also give you an estimate of their breeding ability.

Moving on to my dissertation on the Showing System. :D

If you look at the left hand menu here in the Forum, you will see a section with a large gold cup titled "Showing." (At least that's where I see it, playing on a desktop computer. If you're using a mobile device to play, you may need to look around to find that menu se ction.)

If you click on "Showing" you'll reach a page that is titled: Manage Your Entries. It will have a list of the horses you have currently entered in shows and below that a pair of charts. Each chart lists 8 showing Levels--Inhand, Green Under Saddle, Green Over Fences, Training, C Level, B Level, A Level, Grand Prix. Each of these levels represents an increasingly difficult show course, ranging from Inhand, where horses are shown on a lead line to Grand Prix which is the equivalent of horse event you could find in the Olympics.

For each Level of show, there are 4 Grades, which represent the approximate area from which the horses being shown come: Local would be equivalent to a county 4-H show. Regional contains horses from a broader area, perhaps a U.S. State. National represents a show that attracts entries from a whole country. World draws international competitors.

Each Level/Grade has its own entry fee and a maximum number of horses that can be entered. All Levels and Grades are echoes of horse shows in real life. In the game, of course, it all takes place in the memory of the server and has no reference to where a player may be living and playing.

Each horse in the game is created with a relatively "random" potential show score. Most Level 1 horses will score somewhere between 0 and 10 in their Inhand classes. When the horse is trained each real-life week, it will add a certain amount to its base score. Once the base score goes over 10, the horse enters Level 2 Local. At this point, each Level/Grade covers about 10 points. A horse stays in Level 2 Local until its base score reaches 20 or 21. At that point it "levels up" into Level 2 Regional. There are about 10 points covered in each level grade until the horse reaches Level 6--B Level. After that the number of points covered by a Level/Grade begins to increase. A horse that reaches Level 8 World is at the top of Hunt and Jump chart.

To answer your final question--a horse gets out of Inhand shows by being trained once each week and shown two times each real life week.

Congratulations on reaching the end of my "dissertation." :D

If you have gotten this far, please post any further questions you may have. Someone will have answers for you, depending on who gets back here first. We're a friendly and helpful community. The complexity of the game is part of what keeps most of us playing. The game was started in 2006 (to the best of my knowledge). I've been playing since January 2011 after watching over my daughter's shoulder while she played it for 8 months before starting my own account. We both continue to be as fascinated by it as we were when we started.

So first off. Yellow = C, red = B, blue = A, gold = star. You have the most likely chance of getting an intact foal when crossing parents at equal breeding levels (or at least close say yellow mares to B stallions)

You also want to make sure your breeding even generations as they’re much more likely to produce an intact foal. So foundations to foundations or 2nd gens to 2nd gens so on and so forth. However the further you get from foundation the harder it is to get superior foals

There is an aspect to that game called bootstrapping where people use a phenomenal stud (usually lined) and breed to average mares (usually foundations) to quickly increase showing quality (not so much breeding quality since uneven horses don’t tend to produce intact foals) this is used to quickly build a successful show string to help fund your breeding lines

(I’m exhausted so apologizes if this didn’t make any sense :) )

I love bootstrapping, it’s a convenient way to breed fun colors without having to worry so much about what’s gonna pass breeding advice (I don’t test my fillies so I have more mares to breed later, and I keep a couple colts intact to breed back to the mares)

My favorite part about hunt and jump is that anyone can play however they’d like!