Hello! I've seen a TON of people asking all the time about either how to properly train or to match, or both. Training and matching horses go hand in hand for ratings breeding. I created the guide awhile back in my blog: https://horseeden.com/blog.php?id=224862&b=9 So, I figured that it was time to post this comprehensive guide in the forums, so that it's more readibly acessible and visible to newer stables. Please feel free to post below with any questions, or if there's something that you see needs correcting. I hope this helps! :)

So the weeks that a horse goes up (and how much they go up) are important, because they can indicate how strong the horse is. How they go up helps determine what match you should do. For matches you want both horses to balance out the others weaknesses with their own strengths.
---------------
For instance, horse 1 is weak in Scp (scope) and Mvt (movement), which would look like: 122122
.
and horse 2 is weak in Int (intelligence) and Str (strength): 212221
.
If you matched these two together, you'd want horse 1 to be strong in Int & Str and horse 2 strong in Scp and Mvt. In the examples above I only showed weakness (and kept the other training a steady 2), but you'd want their strengths to counter-act the others weakness. So, for the best match, horse 1 should go up in Int/Str before the rest of the traits do. You may find out that the horse has two (or more) weaknesses of the same level, or that one weakness is more weak than the other(s) and you'd want to match accordingly and use items as necassary for extreme weaknesses, or a weakness not covered by the match.
---------------
Now that that establishes the base info, here's why certain weeks are important. (some really strong AD [all discipline training] horses will go up wk. 3, but that is rare. Geldings train faster and I'm not sure about SD [single discipline training, ex. D, CC a.k.a XC, J {dressage, cross-country, and jumping}]. So they may be up wk.3 as a normal thing.)

Note: I don't track my geldings' training, since you really only need it for breeding horses (determining whether they are worth keeping through their strengths/weaknesses and matching using their strengths/weaknesses).

.

Single discipline training will train in the following (and these are what the medallions [+2 in the corresponding traits] affect when used to boost foal traits):
D: Mvt, Int, Str.
CC: Hrt, Spd, Str.
J: Hrt, Scp, Spd.

.

For AD horses-
~Wks. 1&2: nothing here
~Wk. 3: common with geldings but not common at all with stallions or mares. Whatever goes up here is extremely strong.
~Wk.4: the horse should go up. The ones that it does go up in are their strengths, the ones that don't can be considered slightly weak. (a decent horse should be up at least 3 on wk.4. If it's not I typically get rid of it. I consider up 4 pretty good and up 5 really good/strong, all up is not common- typically only happens in strong LB [leaderboard] horses.)
~Wk.5: the horse should be all up in training, anything that isn't is a weakness. I typically boot ones that are down any wk.5 (because they are typically not as strong, but this is not always true) or I will wait for more training.
~Wk. 6: usually remains the same as wk.5 (if it's not it's usually because the horse is "catching" up because they are pretty weak). Whatever isn't up by here is really weak in said traits (and should prob. be booted, especially if previous weeks were not on-par).
~Wk. 7: If a horse goes up here, it's likely a strong horse and strongest in the traits that it went up.
~Wk. 8: Same as wk. 4
~Wk. 9: whatever stays down/ doesn't go up by here is considered weak in those traits.
~Wk.10: should be all up. If not it's likely a weak horse and/or really weak in those traits.

.

here's a short guide for that-
Training :
Wk3: common with geldings but not common at all with stallions or mares. Whatever goes up here is extremely strong.
Wk4: whatever goes up here is strong. Anything that doesn’t go up can be seen as just slightly weak.
Wk5: whatever stays down here is weak
Wk6: whatever isn’t up here is extremely weak.
Wk7: if anything goes up here it’s pretty strong
Wk8: Same principle as week4
Wk9: whatever stays down here is considered weak
Wk10: all should be up. Whatever stays down is very weak.

.

Example tracking: (Bolded is just to keep things standing out, in some weeks, only weak traning is bolded and in others, only strong traits)
Wk.4: 212212
Wk.5&6: 2~All
Wk.7: 223223
Wk.8: 323323
Wk.9: 333323
Wk.10: 3~All

OR
Example strengths: Hrt. (heart) and Str.
Neutral/Moderate/Slight strength: Mvt, Scp.
Weakness: Int & Spd. (speed)
Big weakness: Spd (see wk. 9)
~~Strongest to weakest: Hrt/Str, Mvt/Scp, Int, Spd

.

Pretty much everyone tracks a horse's training in the remarks. That way it's right on the horse's page and everyone can see it.

.

For W/WW or pretty good/promising horses, I track to wk.20, good to wk. 15 or 18, and lesser ones either boot or to wk. 10-15.

But everyone has their own system, I typically see anywhere from up to wk.12, wk.15, wk.18.

.

.

Please let me know if I made any errors/ left anything out or if you have any further questions! :)

P.S. I don't breed SD, so if anyone has any tips for that, please feel free to post below!