HGG Community Forums

Well, since pasture mares can't show unless you take them out and level their bonuses, you needn't stick to good showers for those. You could pick your favourites, no matter how well they show, to just keep them in your pasture year-round. :)
I haven't looked into your barns, but if you don't already doing all the free testing, it will make it a lot easier to tell who is good quality. :)

The free testing does a decent job of pointing you in the right direction breeding vs showing wise. Still, there are a few tricks we old timers know.

First off, don't worry about making horses with herd helpers. Right now, if you want to get your hands on an inexpensive set of good solid foundation horses take a look at the horses in Stable 13. This it the foundation "rescue". It's a computer controlled barn that scoops up nice breeding/showing horses from the auction house and puts them up for sale. These horses are as good as you are going to find in a foundation, without being a rare "rank special". They may not be pretty colors, but they will give you a nice horse or two. You can narrow done horses by stable in the search menu.

Take 10 of those mares and place them in your pasture. Leave them there for 30 days and they will get a breeding boost. You can pick up a nice stud too.

I wouldn't worry about show horses too much at this point. You haven't got anywhere to keep them, and the game is no fun if you can't breed. I'd sell the gelds and sprays for now. Stick to just breeding the 10 mares in the pasture. Sell the altered offspring in the auction and save your pennies until you can afford a barn for show horses.

Once you have a barn for show horses, you can pick up some nice ones in the auction house. Lots of people dump high PT horses they don't have room for in there.

Basically, let someone else who has oodles of money go on horse creating sprees and toss them all in the auction, then you scoop them up from barn 13 after the game has filtered out the good ones. Save your money to buy a show barn, then scoop up other folks culls from the auction to create a show string. All while slowly working on your own in house lines.

@RubyJoFarm if you're new, try sending a private message to the Available To Adopt programme! It has just recently been given it's own account and already has some high pt horses donated. You can have up to 2 at this point, but they do give you a good boost to your showing bonus.