HGG Community Forums

They got neutered because they were not good enough to remain intact. Remember that they are now tested against both sire and dam for breeding ability.

Here are some questions to ask yourself--how long had the mares been in the pasture? It takes 30 days for the full pasture bonus to take effect.

Did you use Breeding Advice or Strict Breeding Advice? I have seen Ammit recommend that if you feel that SBA is neutering too many foals, don't use it. Stick to Breeding Advice.

Have you used the Comparison Test to sort out the colts which are the very best? That would neuter a few more of them, probably.

Ammit would probably say that 12 intact foals out of 40 is normal.

You can always pull straws from your stallion so that you can use them later.

Horses can still pass SBA and turn out to be inconsistent. I spay/geld all my inconsistents.

Mystic what generation was this pasture? If your girls were all Red and all had the full pasture bonus and you still got this many alters just with BA, I would wonder if your stallion is much better or much worse than your girls... links to the foals could be helpful (a link to the stallion so we can look at his offspring from this year would be easiest).

That's a nice looking crop of babies!

Only a few of the mares I looked at were papered, so that does make it hard to tell where your mare quality is. If you aren't using strict breeding advice and Papering on your lower generations, you have to assume their offspring may not cut the mustard and as a result you will have more trouble getting intact foals from your later generations.

I know Crusader wasn't a really high B stallion, so any average Red mare should do ok with him. I would store some straws for the future but I would also encourage you to test strictly and see about buying in from outside lines if you need to augment your stock if you want to breed high quality Nexus.

Alternatively, I would encourage you to make your Nexus your show line...buy some high quality high gen mares and breed them to your flashiest Nexus colt (as well as all of your other nexus fillies) and just keep the line going that way. You'll still get gorgeous babies but you won't be as stressed about getting intacfs--as long as you have a few intact fillies most seasons and you keep getting a decent colt in each generation, you can keep breeding starry show ponies forever!