Here's my two-cents worth as a SH ratings breeder with multiple horses on the All Breed Leaderboard (ABLB). Also rubs hands gleefully because I LOVE the technical aspects of ratings breeding
Is there a specific age that is the best time to breed horses. Like should I wait for my horses to be older and fully trained or see how they perform in shows? Curious on the general consensus.
As Gem stated above, a higher training level does not equate to a stronger horse or foals. All foals are born as strong as they are ever going to be due to Random Factor(RF). RF is the roulette wheel computer algorithm that is spun every time a foal is bred. The number the algorithm lands on determines how strong the horse is and what ratings it has. Nobody but Eve (game owner), knows how the algorithm works - hence the name, Random Factor. There is a wide range to RF, so not all horses with the same ratings are equally strong. Ex: You might have two EEE horses, but one is a weak EEE that barely avoided being a PPP and the other a strong EEE that almost made WWW.
Possible ratings, from weakest to strongest, are: Sub-Par, Average, Superb, Premium, Elite, and World Class.
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Show performance does not influence foal production. It's just a money maker for your stable.
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Horses can breed from 3-17 years old. They have a gradually increasing chance of dying from the age of 19. Horses age 1 year per real-life month, as that is equal to 1 game year.
Showing up on the ratings leaderboards is a combination of the parent's innate strength and the strength of their foals. A mare has to have 3 foals to show up on a ratings LB. These foals are generally bred between 3-5 years (now possible at 4yo due to 2 embryos per game year) so breeders know ASAP if a horse is going to make the LB.
Stallions can debut on a LB at 3yo. They have to have at least 10 foals, at least one of which has to be live cover bred instead of straws.
When matching breedings, I see people mark down training progress. Since some ppl track 7 or 12 weeks, what info am I trying to look at here. Like why do you need to look at multiple weeks that have passed when you can see which bars are weaker currently?
Tracking training is essential for ratings breeding. Training tells you what traits are stronger and weaker. The six traits are Movement, Intelligence, Heart, Scope, Speed, & Strength. Mv, Int, & Str are the traits associated with the dressage rating. Hrt, Spd, & Str are the traits associated with the Cross-country rating. Hrt, Scp, & Spd are the traits associated with the Jumping rating.
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You can usually see which traits are weak/strong on the current bars, but tracking training gives you a exact record of strengths/weaknesses as bars change with training and strengths/weaknesses may not be evident on Roll Over (RO) week.
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Wks 4, 7, 8, 10, 11, & 12 are the most significant as these weeks usualy give a good indication of strengths and weaknesses.
Wks 4, 8, & 12: All bars up is ideal. Most likely to happen with strong EEE or higher rated horses. Weaker/Lower rated horses usually don't train as well.
Wks 7, 10, & 11: Bars up these weeks are where your horses is really strong, esp. wks 10 & 11. Usually, only horses with at least 1 W in their rating will go up any on these weeks.
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I've used "ideally" and "usually" as this is typically how training goes, but there are exceptions.
This Girl went up only 4/6 wks 4 & 8, then when up 4/6 wks 7 & 11 and spent her entire breeding career on the ABLB.
This Girl has very similar training and didn't make it on to any LB.
This Girl is currently #38 on the SHLB with very odd training. She didn't show a strength till wk 11 & weakness till wk 15. It took 23 weeks to get an accurate picture that she was weakest in dressage & cross country.
This Girl is a 2yo who just had her wk 7 and has very ideal & strong looking training.
How does breeding for ratings work. Like do you want to pair high rating to low or high to high. Is it an average? Is it mostly random? Can ExE ever throw a W combo?
Breeding is not quite as random as RF might imply. Breeding strong horses and matching well is also important. Breeding strong horses and matching well makes it more likely that you will get a strong foal than if you didn't match or bred poor quality horses. However, RF is can skew the result anywhere from poor to average to exceptional. I liken it to breeding in real-life. You are more likely to get a champion foal from breeding two champions than if you bred horses that have never been successful, but you never truly know what the genetic lottery is going to spit out.
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You definitely want to breed to the highest ratings you can get. The quickest way to breed-up ratings is to invest in a few nice mares or broods and send them to the highest ABLB (or breed leaderboard for the weaker breeds) stud that matches them you can afford.
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It's not impossible to get a W combo from a EEExEEE, but it's much more likely to happen from a EEExW+ cross.
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Here's a super quick intro to matching.
You want to send your mare to a stallion that is strong in her weaker traits and you want your mare to be strong in the stallion's weaker traits.
This Match is an embryo that I will be using in 195.
Looking at Wilder's remarks, he went up 4/6 wk 7, so Int and Scp are his weakest traits. Bontia's wk 7 was Int and Scp, so her strongest traits are his weaknesses.
Bontia's weaknesses are Str followed by Hrt. Wilder's strongest trait is Str - and if I remember right from one of his not recorded training wks - he's also stronger in Hrt.
Is it possible to be successful/on the leaderboards without inbreeding? Like I dont mind some inbreeding if its further off the front page of pedigree or like great great grandparents but I really prefer to stay away from inbreeding.
It's certainly not impossible to be successful/on the LB without too much inbreeding. Some breeds are less inbred than others. SH are probably the least inbred as they can cross with any breed and still produce a SH, which allows for more genetic diversity. Most of the other breeds can only cross with a couple of breeds and/or aren't as strong so the top of the boards have less genetic diversity. It's likely going to be more difficult and a longer-term project depending on which breed(s) you choose. If you look at the pedigrees/COI of the top LBs, the COIs are fairly high for most breeds except the SHs, though some of those are more inbred. It took me 4 real-life years of dedicated showing and building up my gelding army to fund breeding before I got my first ABLB horse. HEE is an escape from RL for me, so I don't care how inbred the pixel ponies are, but the great thing about HEE is that you can make your stable whatever you want to. :) So if making things as close to real-life as possible is what keeps you coming back, go for it! :)
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