Genetic Potential and training

[Charlibarlie]

Hi all! I joined this game a few days ago and I really like it so far but am a bit confused about the Genetic Potential of horses and the base training.
1. What affects genetic potential? Is it the combination of the parents plus a randomised number?
2. Are there ways to substantially increase genetic potential or is it quite a slow process through breeding?
3. Without being able to see conformation stuff, should I just be aiming to increase GP each generation?
4. Does training level of the parents matter for the base level inherited by foals? I have had two foals and both of them had 1% in all training categories, does this increase as the parents are more trained or something?

For context, I am trying to breed my horses to be good at Working Ranch if that helps

[BlackOak2]

Hi all! I joined this game a few days ago and I really like it so far but am a bit confused about the Genetic Potential of horses and the base training.
1. What affects genetic potential? Is it the combination of the parents plus a randomised number?
2. Are there ways to substantially increase genetic potential or is it quite a slow process through breeding?
3. Without being able to see conformation stuff, should I just be aiming to increase GP each generation?
4. Does training level of the parents matter for the base level inherited by foals? I have had two foals and both of them had 1% in all training categories, does this increase as the parents are more trained or something?

For context, I am trying to breed my horses to be good at Working Ranch if that helps

1. Yes, basically. But by favoring the foals that appear to have what we want and culling all others, we can improve the genetic potential upward. It will take about three generations until you start to really see improvement. We can't see what these parents actually have, but their offspring can give us a little insight. A pair of parents that always throw poorly can indicate that one or both of them have rather poor hidden numbers.
2. Yes, if you use a parent that already has a higher number. However, you can expect the foal to be somewhere right in the middle. If you use AC stock, it'll take you between three and five generations to break the 40,000 barrier. And so forth. So not slow but also not fast. It all depends on the stock you select and the stock you cull out (get rid of).
3. Basically, yes. However, at some point you will see greater success if you aim for a discipline and choose the better offspring for that. You can start that process at any time, however you should aim to be in that process in the late 40k to 55k area (HGP).
4. No, not at all. The horse will have everything it will ever have to pass onward to foals, from birth. Only training the horse will increase training levels. And finally, training is used only for competitions. Competitions (both locals and player-made, sometimes called hosted) can tell you where your horse is for competency in competitions. A horse does not need to be trained in order to get a general idea of where they are with disciplines, however, it does help to narrow the range of data extracted from it. It's up to you to determine if your horses are good in any particular discipline. If you follow some of my links (in particular my farm page that has the discipline records and also the baby trials links), you can get an idea of where your horses should be for discipline competency.

Anything else?

[Charlibarlie]

Hi all! I joined this game a few days ago and I really like it so far but am a bit confused about the Genetic Potential of horses and the base training.
1. What affects genetic potential? Is it the combination of the parents plus a randomised number?
2. Are there ways to substantially increase genetic potential or is it quite a slow process through breeding?
3. Without being able to see conformation stuff, should I just be aiming to increase GP each generation?
4. Does training level of the parents matter for the base level inherited by foals? I have had two foals and both of them had 1% in all training categories, does this increase as the parents are more trained or something?

For context, I am trying to breed my horses to be good at Working Ranch if that helps

1. Yes, basically. But by favoring the foals that appear to have what we want and culling all others, we can improve the genetic potential upward. It will take about three generations until you start to really see improvement. We can't see what these parents actually have, but their offspring can give us a little insight. A pair of parents that always throw poorly can indicate that one or both of them have rather poor hidden numbers.
2. Yes, if you use a parent that already has a higher number. However, you can expect the foal to be somewhere right in the middle. If you use AC stock, it'll take you between three and five generations to break the 40,000 barrier. And so forth. So not slow but also not fast. It all depends on the stock you select and the stock you cull out (get rid of).
3. Basically, yes. However, at some point you will see greater success if you aim for a discipline and choose the better offspring for that. You can start that process at any time, however you should aim to be in that process in the late 40k to 55k area (HGP).
4. No, not at all. The horse will have everything it will ever have to pass onward to foals, from birth. Only training the horse will increase training levels. And finally, training is used only for competitions. Competitions (both locals and player-made, sometimes called hosted) can tell you where your horse is for competency in competitions. A horse does not need to be trained in order to get a general idea of where they are with disciplines, however, it does help to narrow the range of data extracted from it. It's up to you to determine if your horses are good in any particular discipline. If you follow some of my links (in particular my farm page that has the discipline records and also the baby trials links), you can get an idea of where your horses should be for discipline competency.

Anything else?

Ok great thank you for answering all my questions! I think i was confused about the training because it was a feature on Howrse or something haha

So when aiming for a specific discipline, do you test untrained horses at lvl10 and see what their results are (like write down their scores)? Or do you go through all the levels of local competitions? Just trying to get an idea of how best to test horses to decide who to cull
Also, you say that training narrows the range of scores, so do they perform more consistently when trained? In which case should I be aiming to fully train horses to see their potential as breeding stock?

[BlackOak2]

Ok great thank you for answering all my questions! I think i was confused about the training because it was a feature on Howrse or something haha

So when aiming for a specific discipline, do you test untrained horses at lvl10 and see what their results are (like write down their scores)? Or do you go through all the levels of local competitions? Just trying to get an idea of how best to test horses to decide who to cull
Also, you say that training narrows the range of scores, so do they perform more consistently when trained? In which case should I be aiming to fully train horses to see their potential as breeding stock?

That's up to you, how you think you can best handle your stock for breeding.

That said, yes, training does make them more consistent. Putting them in any local level will give you similar outcomes, because what you're looking for is not their placement, but their scores. However, you might find them placing in unexpected outcomes if you put them in higher levels, like, for instance, having an untrained horse placing thirds in a certain discipline at level 10. In that case, that particular horse might be an excellent candidate for hosted shows as well as a decent prospect for breeding.

Personally, I don't find local shows too helpful for me. When I test my horses for breeding potential, I fully train and then enter them in hosted. When I get the scores and placements, I evaluate them on those hosted shows. Then I determine based on that, how many foals (if any) they should have.

There are a number of ways that people on HWO use to evaluate breeding stock. Some appear to be quite successful at using locals. Some will age up their horses to a particular age (three or five years), set up all of their horses to a certain set (for instance, starving them to the lowest body score and setting their temperament to bombproof or high strung and with absolutely no training) and then making them show in locals to pick out the best ones. So there's numerous ways to test. What it comes down to, is how it's easiest and most doable for you. There are many ways to get to where you want to go.

If you want to hear more about it, there are a couple links in my quicklinks, but if you want to hear about how others evaluate their foals and their methods, you should ask. Fair warning, it may get quite confusing for a newbie. But you seem to have a decent handle on the game so far. Maybe you won't get too lost.

[Charlibarlie]

Ok great thank you for answering all my questions! I think i was confused about the training because it was a feature on Howrse or something haha

So when aiming for a specific discipline, do you test untrained horses at lvl10 and see what their results are (like write down their scores)? Or do you go through all the levels of local competitions? Just trying to get an idea of how best to test horses to decide who to cull
Also, you say that training narrows the range of scores, so do they perform more consistently when trained? In which case should I be aiming to fully train horses to see their potential as breeding stock?

That's up to you, how you think you can best handle your stock for breeding.

That said, yes, training does make them more consistent. Putting them in any local level will give you similar outcomes, because what you're looking for is not their placement, but their scores. However, you might find them placing in unexpected outcomes if you put them in higher levels, like, for instance, having an untrained horse placing thirds in a certain discipline at level 10. In that case, that particular horse might be an excellent candidate for hosted shows as well as a decent prospect for breeding.

Personally, I don't find local shows too helpful for me. When I test my horses for breeding potential, I fully train and then enter them in hosted. When I get the scores and placements, I evaluate them on those hosted shows. Then I determine based on that, how many foals (if any) they should have.

There are a number of ways that people on HWO use to evaluate breeding stock. Some appear to be quite successful at using locals. Some will age up their horses to a particular age (three or five years), set up all of their horses to a certain set (for instance, starving them to the lowest body score and setting their temperament to bombproof or high strung and with absolutely no training) and then making them show in locals to pick out the best ones. So there's numerous ways to test. What it comes down to, is how it's easiest and most doable for you. There are many ways to get to where you want to go.

If you want to hear more about it, there are a couple links in my quicklinks, but if you want to hear about how others evaluate their foals and their methods, you should ask. Fair warning, it may get quite confusing for a newbie. But you seem to have a decent handle on the game so far. Maybe you won't get too lost.

Thank you!! I'm going to have a play around with my current stock and see then! Hopefully I don't get too lost or waste too many days
Thanks for all the advice and info!

[BlackOak2]

[spooderman2]

hi