HGG Community Forums

Heartwood · Aug 1, 2022 2:26 PM

After returning to the game, I've been trying to get some new lines off the ground, mostly recessives. In the past I primarily bred with dominant genes, so it's been an interesting challenge trying to get hom foals.

My question is this... if for foundations it's much easier to find straws than eggs available from outside lines, and I'm trying to stick to one GMTed foundation per gene (for now), would it be better to have mares or studs?

The mares could get homozygous foals at 2g with help from outside lines, whereas studs could spread the genes further at a lesser cost, but would take an extra generation to see results.

What are your thoughts? I hope this makes sense, I'm low on sleep today :))

Cavalynn · Aug 1, 2022 2:37 PM

Maybe it depends on whether or not you have a premium upgrade and can do egg flushes. Myself, I have just a basic upgrade and I don't mind waiting for 3G to see hom babies. I just make sure my mares have some basics that are pretty easy to find in regular creates, like DP and ND1. I also prefer pasture breeding to AI breeding, and it's easy to save lots of superior papered 2Gs and throw them in pasture for a full boost, so I usually get about 10% of my 3Gs papering better than their parents which is my current standard for keepers. With the new max ability boost, I was considering cutting way down on my foundation numbers and just making a point of maxing my favorite ten or so 2Gs and go from there.

I guess it depends on what upgrade you have and whether you prefer AI breeding, where you can have fewer horses and invest more into them, or pasture breeding, where you might only want to GMT the stud and then count on the numbers to be able to cull for what you want.

Heartwood · Aug 1, 2022 3:11 PM

Thank you for the thoughtful response :) I have a premium upgrade and will hopefully for the forseeable future, so getting enough eggs is less of a problem.

I used to strongly prefer pasture breeding, but I had a lot of success last season with AI breeding, so it's making me question my strategies. It's expensive but as you said, the fewer foals make it easier to spend on maximizing their potential. This time I'm being a lot more strict with them and hoping to limit 2nd gen to all superior A/Blue (with a few exceptions).

It's helpful to hear your successes with pasture breeding in later generations, I'm debating the same about the lined ones with max ability.

SharayahStables · Aug 1, 2022 5:41 PM

I’ll usually do 1 stud and 3-4 mares per new line. :) I primarily breed mushroom now and have a ton of foundations, plus many eggs/straws from past horses. Hoping to do more AI breeding this season, that’s for sure!

Heartwood · Aug 1, 2022 6:41 PM

Oh interesting @Sharayah it sounds like having more mares and using AI is a pretty good strategy for you. Hearing everyone's different strategies is definitely a learning experience :)

SharayahStables · Aug 1, 2022 7:29 PM

Honestly I have 70-90+ eggs from EACH of most of my foundation ladies at this point! I don’t always get to AI breeding some seasons so I have a stockpile! Hoping to focus on it more this season lol :)

Cavalynn · Aug 1, 2022 9:41 PM

Another thought, it might depend on whether you know for sure what you want the line to be or if you want to try a few color crosses to see what you consistently like best. When I first started my DP mushroom line, I wasn't sure what base coat I was going to like best. So I put my foundation stud over a variety of DP mares, browns, bays, buckskins, livers, and chocolate palominos. Eventually I found I liked chocolate palominos and buckskin duns best, but if I hadn't experimented I might have put him only over liver chestnuts. If you're already certain of the direction you want to go with the line and you don't need a lot of variety, then it might be worth GMTing a few mares to suit your stud and maybe you can get it to breed true without a lot of selecting.

Heartwood · Aug 1, 2022 11:17 PM

Hmm, that's a very good point. I've learned over time that I actually prefer a wide variety of base colours, as long as they are all homozygous with whatever recessive genes they have & DP, so I give my GMT foundations a lot of genes het (eE aA Dnd1) so that they can throw offspring of as many colours possible :))

I really just want them dark and dappled, so I have a pasture full of expro mares with DP currently.

Thinking about it, at any generation, foals will only need two foundations with whatever recessive gene in their lineage. As long as it gets passed all of the way down it doesn't need to be hom, so I think I'm just being impatient because I'm excited to see results soon, haha!

SharayahStables · Aug 2, 2022 7:36 AM

If you make them het, you can always GMT the missing gene onto the foal, too! :)

Heartwood · Aug 2, 2022 9:52 AM

@Sharayah that's a very good point, considering doing this to add satin to a few :-? I just want to GMT everything, it's a problem lol :))

Humboldt · Aug 2, 2022 11:33 AM

I use outside stallions on my GMTd foundation mares. It gives me homozygous colts that I ca then cross onto my homebred fillies from my own studs. I know inbreeding doesnt matter in the game but I like to look at pretty pedigrees.

Members log in here:
Username:
Password:
By hitting the above you signify that you agree with our rules and conditions.
Forgot your password?

HGG Community Forums

Join our discord server!

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories

In this Discussion

Who's Online (4)

Join our discord server!

Enlarge Your Pastures

Reminders!