HGG Community Forums

Once my mares hit 4 they live in the pastures, until they hit 4 i show them every week ; they still train in pasture they just can't show so they while they wont increase their daily payout, they do still add to it, the 30day bonus for the foal is my aim. As a mare hits 19 or if they haven't had any "keeper" foals by age 10 I ll pull and auction them and replace with the oldest mares I have in that generation in the barns.

I do a weird rotation system - I think @annismyrph has it right in most cases and I would start out with that approach since the full 30 day bonus is a huge benefit to helping you keep improving quality. The foals that you geld/spay and keep will help build your show herd.

I don't 100% love my approach, but for comparison's sake I'll include it here.

I put all of my 1st gen and 3rd gen mares in my pastures at the end of the month and keep them there for the next two months. After those two months, I swap them out with all my 2nd gen (and eventually 4th gen) mares who I breed for the next two months. This way, I'm still getting two breeding seasons with a full 30 day bonus, but my mares show on the other two seasons. Also this approach helps me save pasture space, since I only need enough space for half my mares at a time.

The major negative for this approach is that my mares simply don't have all the offspring they could possibly have. They miss out on the seasons when they're showing instead of in the pasture. Plus, I have to spend time swapping the mares in and out every other month. I could do some in-house breeding during the seasons they aren't in pasture but I'm usually too busy and then they still don't get the breeding bonus from the pasture.

@lecobb88 I thought that they lost their bonus if they left the pasture?

@humboldt that is good to know! Thanks.