So, once I get my stud farm up and running properly (I've been putting it off for way too long, time to fix that) I'd like to start colour breeding!

Now, this is going to happen far from now, I plan to make at least 500k with just my stallions and broods before I invest in colour horses. Now I need some questions answered before I can even think about that...

First off - if you are a colour breeder, which breed would you say is a favourite? I have seen a lot of quarters as colour breeders but also a ton of ISH's too. My issue is I really dislike the ISH's and the RID's so I don't plan on investing in either of the two, so besides them, which are the favourites so I know a good breed to invest in.

Next - how should I start? Should I breed my own studs to colour mares and go from there or should I buy a whole bunch of colour mares and breed them to colour studs? I don't have fantastic colour horses - my only real rare colour horse is a 1 of 2 and I guess I decided to geld him because of his ratings so RIP me.

And lastly - does anyone really care about ratings? Like - if I have a SubSubSub 1 of 1 stallion would I still be able to breed and sell him for a decent amount? I've heard various things - some do care, some don't, but I'd more or less like to know the majority vote ^.^

Thanks! I've always wanted to get more into breeding rare coats but have been working on my sport horses instead

I started by buying a color mare (under 1/50 rarity) and I bred her to a high rarity stud that had genes she didn't have so the foal could possibly be a higher rarity.

And people do care about ratings. SSS+ color horses are the ones people are going to buy and breed to the most, so I would try and avoid Average and Sub-par ratings, regardless of how rare the horse is (yes, I know this is hard I FR a 1/2 AAA)

Also, people tend to like Apricots, Buttermilk (a shade of buckskin), and Pearl. Then again, there are people who also like the prettier horses :)

Hope this helps!

First, yes it's nice to have those horses with the low color rating (I usually got rid of anything above 1/45), but what is going to make those horses more valuable is the genes. You want these horses to be homozygous (Will pass on that gene 100% of the time) in as many of the patterns as you can.

I usually used ISH, because they can have all the patterns, and are easy to find. Seeing that you don't like them, however, I would go towards PONs.

To start I would go to the trading post and get a few mares who are gene tested and homozygous in around 2-3 patterns. Then breed them to studs who are homozygous in 5-7 patterns. Then gene tests the foals and get rid of any that aren't homozygous in at least 2 patterns.

Yes, ratings do matter. I always kept my ratings SSS+. You will get more buys the higher rated and more colorful your horses are. If you have an AAA 1/1 horse you are going to have a hard time selling it as the market is pretty bad right now.

This actually caters to my needs nicely because I hate having low rated horses, so the one time I got a brindle it was a SubSubSub and a 1 of 4, of course I free ranged it even though it hurt my poor soul a little.

I have always loved genetics since I first learned genetics in biology, it's fun to try and figure out what types of offspring your horses can throw and the possibility of getting one foal over another. I didn't realise homo horses would be better, I would think het horses would be a little more valuable in the aspect of being able to throw various coat colours and patterns rather than just one (I get quite frustrated every time I breed one of my studs, I will always get a blue roan from him. always)

It makes sense when applying to coat patterns though! I'll look into it soon enough