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I basically use Red / B papered foundations , so my 2g's have to be blue / A everything must test SUP to parent, and 6g must be gold / star , am actually getting gold/star in my lines in 4g so am probably going to drop it to 5g gold soon.

Thank you both!

How many 2G foals do you have that meet your requirements per season? What's your ratio of pass to fail? I lost my old foundation studs while I was on a hiatus, so I picked the best 2G studs from them that had all the necessary genes and wasn't really able to be that strict with it, so my 3rd generation might not be as strong as it could have been, but I feel comfortable giving that a little leeway to save my lines. I did just make a new stud though, so I could be that picky with him. I have my 2G horses in my big pasture though, and have my foundations in two 10 horse pastures, so I'm only pairing him to ~20 mares next season and I'm concerned I could only have one or two passing foals from that. Is that normal? Or should I be breeding him to higher quantities to raise my chances?

I get at least 6 A/Blues from each stud my foundations in pasture, who see approx 33 mares a season. Some get culled for color. I have been keeping 2nd gen Red mares if they are superior but I get so many every season. I am actually doing a major overhaul where I will now only start to keep Blue 2nd gen mares. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with numbers so time for me to cut back.

My breeding horses are all in pastures, I only hand breed my 8th gen since I have one mare currently. I only keep superior offspring and I have all star/golds by 5th gen.

2nd gen foals are my good show horses - most plateau in 7W level, which earns great points. I have 12 foundations studs, split into 4 100slot pastures - so they see about 30 to 36 mares each season. I get plenty of superior offpsring with this method and often cull to keep numbers down. I am going to let this number get back down to 9 foundations, maybe 6, to keep me sane. I struggle to get everything sorted lately.

When I am first setting a benchmark I tested all my 2g boys that met my 2g paper requirements against their sire. Immediately snipping aga colts. Then I named every colt 1-? Number then started testing colt 1 against colt 2,3,4 exc. If I found a worse than colt he was instantly gelded. If I found a superior colt I started using him as my main comparison stallion. I kept comparison testing until all the boys had been comp tested against each other and anything inferior had been gelded. Depending on how many colts I had started with, and just the luck that year I could have anywhere from 1-5 colts who tesed aga each other. Then I would pick my favorite and use him as my benchmark. I would test him against the next 3-4 years worth of colts, usually within that time frame you can find a true benchmark. Once you have a benchmark you can forget testing against the sire and just teat the foals against the benchmark.

About 2-3 game years ago I started gender swapping a benchmark quality stallion for each generation and requiring all my mares to teat aga to the new mare benchmark. I think over time it will prove very beneficial.

The first year of doing all that cross comparison testing can get very expensive but it's worth it in the long run. When I first started finding my benchmark like you I didn't have a ton of extra $$, so I didn't find a benchmark for every generation in one month I spred it out.

@forestshadow, by Superior, you mean passed SBA?

ok, you only save the colts superior to sire. now what do you do with all the brood mares who are no longer of a caliber to match up to the superior colts?

@sharayah, yeah i get that. but say, you have 20 mares and one colt is SBA, comparison tested, etc.. What do you do with those 20 mare of that generation?
Neuter them all and use as show horses?
So now you have a small handful of SBA colts and fillies. THey will grow up, and when you breed them, you will find even less of their get can pass SBA... it sounds like you have to have millions of horses to achieve the kinds of horses we're talking here..?

@Fiddler, I only keep superior sons and mares. I breed everything evenly and always use SBA. I keep some AGA mares if their genes are perfect. I’ve gotten some even 10g horses at this point and plenty intact 4/5 Gen horses. I do have thousands and thousands though. It takes time to build up a quality barn. Like, many RL years.

I comp test the fillies to their dams and keep only the superiors. The AGAs get spayed and depending on their PT score, are either kept as show horses or auctioned off.