HGG Community Forums

For me, it depends on the line. For my bootstraps, I’m trying to keep them limited to just the primary pasture space + one barn, so as it gets full I cull by paper level. I’ve only a few experf/expro foundations left and those will be gone by next season. For my shine line (ch + prl + sa) I cull by genes, so those are bootstrapped to high heaven and a mess of foundations and lines, lol. Eventually the foundations will be culled from that line too, I think.

My closed genes, however, especially my mushroom - I’ll have foundations as long as I have my closed gene foundies, so as to get maximum use from them. However, those lines (with the sole exception of my mushroom) are all run through SBA instead of BA, which helps to keep numbers down there. Even still, I’ve found myself not breeding every single foundie every year, as otherwise I’d be overrun by foals. I do also slowly improve the quality of my foundies - so my dp/snf line I originally had just dark chestnuts, but now it’s mostly liver chestnut foundie mares, and slowly getting rid of the worst of those to hopefully eventually have all experf liver chestnuts only.

Aside from those, I also keep pointed exshows/experfs that have passed SBA as surrogate mares, and as spare mares if I ever decide I want a larger crop of a particular gene one year. (Especially if I’m having a hard time getting intacts). There’s also RS, which I feel too bad snipping and instead put up for brood most years.

Thanks for starting this thread - I have been wondering the same thing. I started in late April, and have been breeding for four months. I am just starting to breed my own G2 horses- and I am still overrun with foundie foals! I think I will stash most of my better foundation mares in a barn, and use my pasture to house the G2 mares. I hope to eventually have only rank special, perfect foundation or extra perfect foundie mares in the colors I want.
In those barns, I can use those mares on straws from other people's stallions to bring in new genes. I hate taking mares out of pastures and ruining their pasture bonus. I am a pasture bonus junkie.

I think it depends on what horses you can get a hold of and how they match up with your breeding plans. I also like to breed evenly I find that it helps me keep track of how quality increases. Most of my lines start at foundation level but my white m and White 8 lines start at third generation since I can't get a hold of 2G or foundations with those genes. The same goes for my line started by my Milestone son. I see no problem with getting rid of most of your foundations if they don't suit your needs. It would probably do you better to spay/geld them to add to your show herd though.

NB. I wouldn't say I am an oldie yet though :)

I've been playing since Jan. this year. The only foundies I'm breeding are my closed genes. I breed mainly by bootstrap...so I'm running out of room because I just started BAing my foals so I have a ton of high paper/PT speldings. Soon I will have to cull back the mares because enough foals will pass to replace their dams. I have already gotten rid of my Yellow mares except for a few RS (mainly with closed genes) and Reds from my main herd but not my closed genes herds. I have 4 closed genes with only 1 (Macchiato) having its own breeding herd. I'm still building my Chinchilla, Mushroom and Wrong Warp herds.

I have a bunch of ExPer/ExPro mares that are partly for closed genes and partly because they have too many points to get rid of. They also double as embryo transfer hosts.

Wait for Ammit to do something to foil my designs (lol) but of my two remaining foundation stallions I use, my splash m is 17 years and Loki is 11. Will keep breeding till I loose the trickster of coarse, he is my most expensive gmt project and I love his foals, but 80% of my foundation mares are 12 or older, so it makes sense once I loose my studs to disperse whatever mares I still have and focus on my horses 2g and up, since me culling my lined horses to keep at wanted mare numbers is making the number of mares per gen way too low. For my bootstrapping herd I keep them in my pasture and cull after every breeding season my afpt to make room for new girls.

For the last few years my interest and extra time for the game has been like a wave with either logging in everyday or down to once a month/ every other month to breed and move foals from my pasture. So I wasn’t really creating foundations. Then last November I looked at my herd and realized that most of my foundations had passed on and because I hadn’t been refreshing it the rest of my gens were down to 25- 2nd Gen maybe 10- 3rd Gen and a handful or less for 4-6 Gen.

November, December and January I went on a create spree to rejuvenate my lines (they were becoming extremely inbred from lack of options) I also gmt’d an ice stud to have it come into play at basement level rather than higher Gen outside stock and on HJ1 I’ve got a new KP and 2 axiom studs to use on my new mares. (Each server has approx. 250 foundation mares)

I'm still breeding my foundations and always will, but I AM trying to cull down the numbers somewhat because I find I'm overwhelmed by how many mares I breed every month. So for instance, in my DP line I'm starting to cull out foundations that are double sooty red duns and palominos, keeping on the dark chestnuts. Eventually I plan to get rid of the chestnuts and just keep livers and chocolates even at the foundation level. But I don't ever see a time when I'll stop breeding foundations entirely.

I am only going to be breeding my foundies the remaining of the this RL year. then I probably wont be doing anymore breeding from them unless I do it for fun. I am hopefully gonna be able to breed mostly 2g and up after the new year.