How Many Breeds?

[flrancho]

I'm in the middle of trying to decide what I want to do on here in terms of a breed/breeds to focus on.

I have two accounts, both that right now just have a single ancient breed mare. I don't really have the extra money to upgrade, so I'm likely to be staying basic. For other players that are farther along in the game, how easy is it to build a sustainable population of a new breed by yourself more or less, starting from the bottom with the ancient breeds?

What I'm wondering is, should I use both my accounts for the creation and eventual keeping of just one breed? Will I be able to get enough pastures, stalls, etc to undertake that venture with just one account, or should I use both together to work towards the same breed? Or, should I be fine with using my second account to create and eventually raise an entirely different breed?

[SeinaMacabre]

I'm in the middle of trying to decide what I want to do on here in terms of a breed/breeds to focus on.

I have two accounts, both that right now just have a single ancient breed mare. I don't really have the extra money to upgrade, so I'm likely to be staying basic. For other players that are farther along in the game, how easy is it to build a sustainable population of a new breed by yourself more or less, starting from the bottom with the ancient breeds?

What I'm wondering is, should I use both my accounts for the creation and eventual keeping of just one breed? Will I be able to get enough pastures, stalls, etc to undertake that venture with just one account, or should I use both together to work towards the same breed? Or, should I be fine with using my second account to create and eventually raise an entirely different breed?

• • I think its pretty hard and un-efficient to be working on more than two breeds at same time. Even as a premium I always worked only on one breed. My other account is for freezing horses though so I dont use it for advancing days.
    
    Once you achieve one of your desired breeds you should be able to go for another one.
    
    It also depends on what breed we are talking about and on your preferences. There is a lot of people that are feeling bad for inbreeding so if you will want 10 generation breed without inbreeding it will be pretty hard.

[kidhedera]

I think that its probably more fun to breed horses that other people are breeding too even if you don't work directly with them. I'm breeding Abyssinians, and although I love them, there aren't really many others breeding them, so my options for using other peoples studs for genetic diversity is extremely limited, and its hard to sell off my excess stock etc. Its such a problem that I'm seriously considering giving up my breeding program in favour of a more popular breed.

I do agree with SeinaMacabre tho, its probably best to focus on one breed even if you are using two accounts. I use one account as a place to hold horses that are for sale, and try to advance it at least 6 turns every day so my horses will eventually age out and die, giving me new room for more horses. The other account is my main where most of my breeding and such goes on.

[tussock]

If I had space for it I personally would try to breed a greying shetland. Since it's the foundation in many pony breeds and I imagine it could be useful to have studs with that color for profiting.

[Argent]

It depends on how many horses of each breed you would like to keep. Maximum capacity on one account is 211 horses. I have seen many players on various games who play happily and effectively with a few dozen horses. If you only kept 50 horses per breed, you could definitely manage 4-8 breeds between two accounts, assuming you were organized. I know of at least one person who is going to have three breeds on one account, as I remember. It helps that they're somewhat related breeds.

Personally, I like to play with a large number of horses in one breed. And 400 spaces isn't enough for my one breed

[Syn]

I'm going for two, possibly three breeds. Two breeds are immediately directly descended from Hackneys (Hackney x Fell = Hackney Pony, Hackney x (Gelderlander x Groningen) = Dutch Harness) and the third breed that I'm considering but not sold on is up the same alley.

For me I have enough of a project ahead getting the breeds I want and then getting them to look how I want. Both Dutch Harness Horses and Hackney Ponies are extremely light boned, refined breeds IRL but the standards on this game kind of requires them both to be created from pretty chunky horses. I will need to get a line established and then refine them so they look how they need to.

If I had space for it I personally would try to breed a greying shetland. Since it's the foundation in many pony breeds and I imagine it could be useful to have studs with that color for profiting.

Funny, I've been casually trying to avoid gray horses because they are a freaking plague to me. :/

[tussock]

Funny, I've been casually trying to avoid gray horses because they are a freaking plague to me. :/

Not that weird at all, as they are made with arabians. Try finding a foundation breed other than arabians in grey. That's way harder to come across!

[Argent]

Only Arabs carry grey.

[Bumble_Bee]

I think that its probably more fun to breed horses that other people are breeding too even if you don't work directly with them. I'm breeding Abyssinians, and although I love them, there aren't really many others breeding them, so my options for using other peoples studs for genetic diversity is extremely limited, and its hard to sell off my excess stock etc. Its such a problem that I'm seriously considering giving up my breeding program in favour of a more popular breed.

This right here is why I stopped working towards Italian Heavy Drafts and decided to focus on Belgians instead. My heritage is Italian so I thought it'd be a fun way to combine that with my love of draft horses. But I thought about what I'd do once I reached my goal, probably as the only person breeding them and nobody needing them for the single crossbreed they go into making, and it didn't sound like much fun. Besides, I didn't know how I was going to maintain my bloodlines by constantly needing three non-foundation breeds (Breton, Percheron, and Boulonnais) to go into them.

I decided to stop at Percherons at first, but even that I found to be tough because I had to breed Norman Cobs to go into them and I didn't have any interest in those. Both Norman Cobs and Percherons had me keeping Belgians, and I realized how much I wished there were more quality, colorful Belgians for me to choose from. So I decided to breed those instead. I still get to play with a draft breed and they're in-demand for other peoples' crossbreeding. It works out better for me than my original plan would've.

[Millwood]

I enjoy creating the new breeds, so have quite a few on the go, it helps that most of them are related in some way. Although not all!