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I agree, a definite snip. With a Red/B combo i usually only keep exceptional Bs or As. Thats something his parents should be able to produce no problem, looks like he got the short end of the stick though

My answer to the age old question “to snip or not” is always snip.

If the horse made you pause long enough to think do I snip it obviously wasn’t checking all the check boxes of your version of a perfect horse.

I always run all my testing from the barn page and then when I need to go to the horses page to finish I click over the the control panel so that if it’s pretty I won’t be tempted to keep it.

I only keep a few AGA studs but they usually get shipped the next time I go through and sort and cull my studs. They definitely get snipped as soon as a superior brother comes along (although the lines I keep AGA’s from are typically foals from boosted studs that are higher quality than my unboosted mares so it’s not so much that the colt is bad quality it’s just not good enough to beat dad but plenty good enough to cross on my other mares of that generation from other lines

Lol @Maribo I geld most of my superior sons too. I usually go through each stud and pick my top 3 choices to keep intact and then I go through each generation and fill my slots in the pastures and snip whatever is left that’s old enough to breed. Every few months I empty my pastures and resort them and snip the ones left out that time

@Bandit1119 I usually try to only keep one son from each, but if they have different shinies I will keep one or two more :P All 2G boys (except if they are from outside stock, or have something I am very short of) have to be superior to an expro.

In my case I get so many intact colts every year that I only keep A-papered colts with B-papered sires. That's hard when you have yellow quality dams, but not impossible. (Full disclosure I have also started only really keeping blue-papered 2nd gen fillies too, but again, it's a pure numbers game. I have so many every year that it's the first, fastest line of defense.)

@amber If you get any lined mares you dont want or have any black/blue roan/grullo from those lines let me know. Im starting a herd focusing on those colors ^.^

If I get an A papered son, and he has enough of the color criteria to fit in with my program, then I keep him and geld any B brothers he has. I only keep sup to sire sons, so it's just a matter of papering at 2nd gen.

if a 3rd gen A sires a 4th gen Star (very rare, but it does happen) then it's the standard for that particular bloodline at that particular generation and I geld all colts from that sire line that don't paper Star. It does make for a brutal gelding rate, but why lower my standards if that sire has shown the ability to sire a Star. I have a 18yo 3rd gen A that sired a 4th gen Star in his first foal crop, and that son, now 16, has not been replaced simply because I haven't gotten another Star papered colt. That particular sire line went C B A Star, so I regard that line as one of my best normal lines to measure against. I am going to have to resort to doing a sex change operation on the Gold papered filly I did get, so the sire line can continue.

So for me, at 4th gen, there's another papering check. I will accept sup to son As for 4th gen as long as the 3rd gen A does not sire Star papered boys. I do expect my stallions to paper Star at 5th gen.

Speaking of the girls, I no longer accept red papers for 3rd gen. I've gotten enough blues in recent years that I don't need to retain reds anymore, and I don't accept blues for 5th gen either anymore. I'm getting enough gold quality mares now.

True in real life too! I'll never forget this Arabian breeder (forgot the name, but he preservation-bred horses based on this one stallion Raffles) who said that the marginal stud prospects make the best geldings.

Granted, in real life, you have to make sure there are enough intact males to avoid the popular sire effect-- but that doesn't bother pixel ponies.