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kgstable · Mar 21, 2025 3:13 PM

Hello everyone!

I feel I am pretty strict on my breeding stock to 1) keep my numbers down 2) help my show herd But I'm wondering if I'm being TOO strict.
I require:
1G to be B/Red papered
2G to be A/Blue papered
3G to be A/Blue papered and Superior to sire/dam
4G To be *Star/Gold papered

Well, I cleared out my barns a while ago to just 1g/2g stock and now I'm having a hard time getting my 4G breeding stock back. I get maybe 1 to 2 star/gold papered foals a season. Is that good?

I'm not hugely upset as I like to keep my barn manageable, but I would like to see improvement on my 4Gs. Any advice?
Thanks!

Humboldt · Mar 21, 2025 3:21 PM

My Exceptional lines ( majority of my stock) follow the same culling requirements. I have up and down seasons.

GoldenHeartAcres · Mar 21, 2025 6:36 PM

If you’re not already breeding through AI, that may help. If you have mares in the pasture that you use for embryo implantation, their pasture bonus helps out the foal. Plus, you get another 15 day bonus for AI breeding on top of that. I’ve been breeding this way almost exclusively the past two seasons and it’s helped a lot.

kgstable · Mar 21, 2025 7:41 PM

@GoldenHeartAcres I will need to try that!

Ammit · Mar 21, 2025 9:27 PM

The discord group has a break down of the max ability you can gen per generation starting with perfect foundations.

Highest Possible PT scores by generation starting with perfect C/Yellow foundations

8th: 14
7th: 13.6
6th: 13.2
5th: 12.7
4th: 12.1
3rd: 11.4
2nd: 10.5

Highest Possible paper scores by generation starting with perfect C/Yellow foundations

7th cap
6th **
5th high *
4th low *
3rd A
2nd B
1st C

RedtailFoxFarm · Mar 22, 2025 11:17 AM

I’m probably a lot more strict with my lines than even what you’re talking about. I start with Yellow/C perfect foundations. I exclusively use embryo implantation into 30+ day pasture mares. For every generation, I max out 1 mare and 1 stallion. All other mares must comp test aga to the maxed out mare (the benchmark for that gen). Every stallion must be from exclusively all maxed out horses and then maxed out himself (I only keep/use 1 stallion for each gen). The same requirements go for the mare I max out for each gen as well. 4G breeding for my era 18 line starts next month, and I should be getting *Star/*Gold papered foals

Here’s my 3G stallion that I’ll start breeding next month:

B E18 3S Arctic Storm

And my 3G benchmark mare:

$ BM E18 3S North Star

kgstable · Mar 22, 2025 6:04 PM

@RedtailFoxFarm How many horses do you breed a season? (Per generation?) I feel like maybe I'm just not playing my numbers game right either, I have a fairly small breeding stock so maybe if I work on upping that more, I could get more horses getting closer to that max benchmark.
I will have to do more reading into maxing, I've done it a few times but not enough to really understand it

RedtailFoxFarm · Mar 22, 2025 6:46 PM

By only using embryo implantation with 30+ day pasture mares, all of the foals passed breeding advice. From there, I cull out for consistency and genetics. My current 3G stock is 41 mares and 1 stallion. Since I’m using embryos, I can get multiple foals out of each mare. It looks like I bred a total of just under 100 3rd gen foals during that season (all of my 3G stock is from the same breeding season). All of those were out of the same 8 2nd gen mares (I did mass egg flushes on all of them)

kgstable · Mar 22, 2025 9:27 PM

@RedtailFoxFarm Oh wow, ok I have some rearranging to do. I usually only use AI/Embryo for foundations, never for lined horses. Would it be beneficial to continue my breeding 1-2g then 3g start using embryo breeding?

GoldenSpur · Mar 22, 2025 10:41 PM

I have literally just gone through this myself. I make sure my foundation mares that I'm going to breed to my stallions are 30+ days in pasture. I have one 2nd gen colt that I have maxed that I use as a benchmark. All 2nd gen colts have to test as good as him to stay intact. I have done the same with a filly and all the fillies have to test as good as her. This season I have used AI for all my 2nd gens and higher to get the added bonus of the 45day bonus. 15 for AI and the 30+ on the surrogate mares. Doing that I can now get:

1G to be B/Red papered
2G to be A/Blue papered and As Good As Maxed 2nd gen
3G to be *Star/*Gold papered and As Good As Maxed 3rd gen
4G To be *Star/Gold papered and Superior to sire/dam

RedtailFoxFarm · Mar 23, 2025 10:29 AM

@kgstable You can, but it’s honestly personal preference. I’m doing era leaderboard breeding with my line, so I’m only breeding one season to get the next gen. Later, I might go back and breed more lower gens, but that’s just what I’m doing for right now. I have enough other breeding I’m doing that I’m getting plenty of show horses, so I’m strictly breeding my era 18 line for breeding stock.

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