HGG Community Forums

Just as in real life, not many pretty horses are fit to be bred, for one reason or another, so it is in the game. Foals need to be at least as good as their parents if not superior to them to pass all the tests available. Ammit has given us these tools because most players are expecting to breed better horses with each generation.

Every stallion and mare has the potential to contribute to the breeding and showing abilities of their foals from a fairly wide range of possibilities. One experiment done quite a few years ago estimated that for perfect foundations, the potential contribution from each parent ranged from 8.9 to 10.4 for PT scores. A foal might get a contribution from the high end of the sire's range and the low end of the dam's, ending up somewhere in the middle. Or the contribution from both parents might be from the middle of their ranges, or both from the bottom or both from the top, and so forth. The result is that we can't predict exactly what the foal's abilities will be, and the breeding ability ranges are probably about the same as they are for showing ability.

Many players establish high benchmarks for any foal to remain intact and neuter or cull anything that falls below that benchmark. Others are more lenient and not as strict in their culling. (I'm in the latter group, I must confess.) The most important things to remember are that you should set your own goals and work toward them and that neutered horses will become the showing foundation of your stable and generate a lot of your daily showing bonus. They are NOT useless at all. They are your stable's friends, even if you have to purchase more barns as often as you can to hold them.