HGG Community Forums

Can you GMT him consistent? That may raise his PT...and remember, if he's passed SBA, even with the lower PT, he could still be a good breeder. Is he papered properly for his gen?? If he is, I would GMT him consistent and try him out..
I will often ( when I can afford it, lol) do a comparison test with the colts Im not sure about snipping or culling. If they test as good as sire, or worse ...I snip them..Im trying to keep foals that are only superior to sire..
If youre attached to him, doesnt hurt to see what happens with him down the road..

Uggh..I feel your pain...its so hard..Im almost full again aswell, Ive spent fortunes on creating hundreds of horses for the millionth n one horse contest..that Im broke all the time ( unless my candy horses are sold..ugg) Ive had to buy 2 new barns to hold the over flow..
I spend yesterday comparison testing colts and snipped a bunch of the ones i liked the best cuz they were only as good as sire..sigh... and a few of them were my macchiato colts uggg...
Its a tough decision for sure..

Have you pulled straws from his sire? That way you can still try to get some foals from him even if he passes away at rollover.

His PT is irrelevant. His inconsistency will make him a less successful sire as far as AFPT goes because he will throw more inconsistent foals, who will have lower PTs because of their inconsistency. I would hold him for now. You have another full month to decide whether you can afford to GMT him or not.

That said, if he hasn't papered B or A and compared superior to sire, he's not improving your line and in my opinion you should cull him. But I'm super super strict about that part with my boys. If you aren't superior, you don't need your testicles.

I would in my herd, Starfire. That doesn't mean you should.

I think for me this game is about a constant striving to get better results, not just as you climb up the generations but also in established generations.

If you are just starting to breed a generation and you get only one colt that papers superior to the previous generation and he's AGA sire..well, he's the best colt you have in that generation and he gets to stay. But the next season, when you get 3 colts that Paper up a level and one of them tests superior to sire....well, in my book then I either actually do cull everything inferior to that colt or I plan to as soon as I get something better for that line.

Remember that if you are breeding with a stallion you know is inferior to others in that generation in your herd, you're just hurting your mare crop for the next generation. This is why I prefer the benchmark method to the superior to sire method of keeping colts. I don't mind taking a colt who colorwise doesn't fit the line he was bred in and moving him to a different line where he fits better if hes an awesome breeder.

But, there is no right or wrong way. Using stallions that are only a little superior to their dads means your climb up the paper rankings will be slower, but you will also probably have more intact foals. And if you don't have room to pasture breed it could be a big advantage. Breed for your circumstances. Don't stress yourself out trying to hit someone else's goals!

I like all of the guessing game with the testing. It's closer to real life and I enjoy the challenge.

I wasn't playing when the new testing came in, so I don't know exactly how Ammit set it up. I know it used to be that regular mare advice only culled mares that were MUCH worse than their moms. I assume regular Breeding Advice now is the same. Strict Mare Advice was stricter, but mares that were slightly worse than their moms still would pass--a bit like colts that are slightly worse than their dads passed Gelding Advice. Strict Breeding Advice now is stricter still since the horse has to compare well with both parents, but I think horses that are slightly worse than their parents still can pass.

With the comparison testing it has always been that horses that are slightly worse than, the same as, and slightly better than their sire all Test AGA. I suspect that if you used 1% boosts, you would find that AGA covers 1 or 2% on either side of the sire. Superior means they are better than that. Yes, a B is always always always better than a C, but it may not be much better.

@ Cheers--the main difference in the new Breeding Advice and Strict Breeding Advice is that a foal's breeding ability is compared to that of BOTH parents, not just to the one of the same gender.

I thought the regular breeding advice still compared horses to both parents, it's just less strict about altering horses. If it only compared fillies to their dams, when people breed foundation mares to Star stallions most of the fillies they get would be intact but that's not what happens. Most of the time regular breeding advice will snip fillies (and colts) from Star X foundation pairings even though most of those fillies are better breeders then their dams. But they are no where near as good as their sires so regular breeding advice snips them.