I've been playing ever since I joined up in Year 18. I've shown mostly mares and stallions, and some geldings here and there. I've been showing geldings mostly the past few game years.

However I'm thinking of switching things up a bit in my show string. Keep a horse until 3 or 4 years old see how well it shows, and then decide to keep or cull it.

In all honesty I don't always keep track of training so I don't always know if the horse is worth keeping. I usually just look at points and earnings for the game year. Any advice I can get for my geldings I'd appreciate it

I know any horse can be a show horse. But it doesn't exactly mean it will be a good show horse. I'm trying to determine which of my geldings are truly great show horses and which ones are mediocre at best. And as I stated I don't always keep up with the training I usually go by earnings and points they have won.

As to looking at the horse itself and it's training bars some of the geldings have them all over the place in the stats, and others are steady and within one or two bars of each stat.

TenaciTea said:

Any horse can be a show horse, training only impacts the amount of time you have to wait after leveling up before showing again

This is what I do, but I know it's probably not perfect. I'm still fairly new to the whole showing thing.

When they are foals I want them to level up my week 7, 8 for my mares and stallions. If they haven't levelled up yet I cull them. Or another thing I look for is at week 4 how many bars have they gone up. If by week 4 they haven't gone up in 2 traits I cull them. This helps narrow down who actually gets to stay and who doesn't.

If they are older I just try to find the average of what other horses their level/show experience is making in profit. If they appear lower on the average I toss them. But I breed all my stock so I can usually get rid of the duds before they turn 3

Ranch Lands Training said:

This is what I do, but I know it's probably not perfect. I'm still fairly new to the whole showing thing.

When they are foals I want them to level up my week 7, 8 for my mares and stallions. If they haven't levelled up yet I cull them. Or another thing I look for is at week 4 how many bars have they gone up. If by week 4 they haven't gone up in 2 traits I cull them. This helps narrow down who actually gets to stay and who doesn't.

If they are older I just try to find the average of what other horses their level/show experience is making in profit. If they appear lower on the average I toss them. But I breed all my stock so I can usually get rid of the duds before they turn 3

As far as culling my mares, everything that isn't flashy or uniquely coloured I just toss right away, I don't wait to see their training.

Hawkeye Farms said:

That's what I was thinking with my current show string, just find the averages in earnings or keep the horses that have earned over the average for their age, and keep the ones that have won awards as well on the older horses. The younger horses shouldn't be that much of a challenge.

For mare I only show my EEE's and up. And for me to keep a PPP, PEP or PEEE (any combo for the elites) They have to produce PPP+foals. I've started keeping mares until they are 5 to see what they produce ages 3 and 4 are tester foals, and at age 5 is the tie breaking foal if one foal is PPP or higher and the other foal is a PPS or under

Ranch Lands Training said:

This is what I do, but I know it's probably not perfect. I'm still fairly new to the whole showing thing.

When they are foals I want them to level up my week 7, 8 for my mares and stallions. If they haven't levelled up yet I cull them. Or another thing I look for is at week 4 how many bars have they gone up. If by week 4 they haven't gone up in 2 traits I cull them. This helps narrow down who actually gets to stay and who doesn't.

If they are older I just try to find the average of what other horses their level/show experience is making in profit. If they appear lower on the average I toss them. But I breed all my stock so I can usually get rid of the duds before they turn 3

As far as culling my mares, everything that isn't flashy or uniquely coloured I just toss right away, I don't wait to see their training.