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Growing Your Show Herd

An in-depth guide to building your show herd.

Evaluating Show Horses

Your barn space is valuable, so you might not want show horses that aren't earning you as much to be taking up stall space. But how do you tell which horses are worth keeping and which you should cull? Factors to look at: age, lifetime payout, consistency, placing well or not in shows, still training? Grade/level currently at, or leveled off at, etc.

Evaluating Show Horses

Reading Show Results

How to read show results and figure out if the horse is gaining points and (roughly) how many. Remember to link to other articles/subsections as needed.

Evaluating Show Horses

How and When to Cull

Your barn space is valuable, so you might not want to keep show horses that aren't earning you much. But how do you tell which horses are worth keeping and which you should cull? Factors to look at: age, lifetime payout, consistency, placing well or not in shows, training level, showing level, etc. Remember to link to other articles/subsections as needed.

Breeder Clubs & Leaderboards (Reuse Content from Category 5)

Discuss what the Breeders Clubs are, and what qualifications are required to be eligible for the leaderboard categories. Remember that this content is in the Show Herd article, so focus on the show-related aspects of the leaderboards (breeding-related leaderboard content should in the Breeding Your Horses article). Touch on how to search for horses that belong to a given club. Remember to link to other articles/subsections as needed.

8/22/2022 - I have moved this to its own article in Category 5: Beyond the Basics. This article should be an exact duplicate (reused content) or should link to it. 

Breeding Just For Shows: Bootstrapping

Posted To Bluegrass Server by Ammit 1-23-19

A working example of uneven breeding and pasture bonuses.

I decided it would help people a lot to see some real concrete examples of what sort of intact rates you should expect from breeding your horses. I created 50 perfect foundation mares and bred them each 8 times too different studs at different pasture bonus levels. Here are the results.

**All horses used in this test and all foals had all testing done on them including strict breeding advice. You can expect a much larger number of intact foals (near double) for regular breeding advice**

Test 1: Perfect foundation stallion (100% breeding ability) bred to 50 perfect foundation mares (100% breeding ability), zero days in pasture. 
Results: 12 intact foals, 38 altered foals. Avg breeding ability 99%, Avg PT 9.65

Test 2: Perfect foundation stallion (100% breeding ability) bred to 50 perfect foundation mares (100% breeding ability), 30+ days in pasture. 
Results: 34 intact foals, 16 altered foals. Avg breeding ability 102%, Avg PT 9.91

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Test 3: Exceptionally perfect foundation stallion (105% breeding ability) bred to 50 perfect foundation mares (100% breeding ability), zero days in pasture. 
Results: 3 intact foals, 47 altered foals. Avg breeding ability 103%, Avg PT 9.99

Test 4: Exceptionally perfect foundation stallion (105% breeding ability) bred to 50 perfect foundation mares (100% breeding ability), 30+ days in pasture. 
Results: 20 intact foals, 30 altered foals. Avg breeding ability 105%, Avg PT 10.21


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Test 5: 5% Boosted Exceptionally perfect foundation stallion (110% breeding ability) bred to 50 perfect foundation mares (100% breeding ability), zero days in pasture. 
Results: 5 intact foals, 45 altered foals. Avg breeding ability 104%, Avg PT 10.11

Test 6: 5% Boosted Exceptionally perfect foundation stallion (110% breeding ability) bred to 50 perfect foundation mares (100% breeding ability), 30+ days in pasture. 
Results: 11 intact foals, 39 altered foals. Avg breeding ability 108%, Avg PT 10.39

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Test 7: 5% boosted clone of 5% Boosted Exceptionally perfect foundation stallion (115% breeding ability) bred to 50 perfect foundation mares (100% breeding ability), zero days in pasture. 
Results: 0 intact foals, 50 altered foals. Avg breeding ability 108%, Avg PT 10.48


Test 8: 5% boosted clone of 5% Boosted Exceptionally perfect foundation stallion (115% breeding ability) bred to 50 perfect foundation mares (100% breeding ability), 30+ days in pasture. 
Results: 1 intact foals, 50 altered foals. Avg breeding ability 110%, Avg PT 10.68

 This test gives a great look at what sort of intact rates you can expect given different amounts of uneven ability breeding. All these horses are foundations so are certainly even generation numbers but ever 5% increase in breeding ability is roughly a generations increase in quality. 

The perfect foundation stud is even ability with the perfect foundation mares, but the 105% stud is like crossing second gens and foundations, the 110% is like crossing third gens and foundations and the 115% stud is like crossing a 4th gen and foundations. 

Mares with a full 30 day pasture bonus produced foals about as good as those sired by a stallion 5% higher, but with a much higher intact rate. 

These ratios hold true regardless of how good the horses are. A sire who is 5% better then the mares will always produce a similar ratio of intact foals regardless if the cross is 105% to 100% or 125% to 120%.

 

Why Do I Need a Show Herd?

To make money (HBs), you have to show your horses regularly, including showing the ones in your primary barn. You might check out the auction, looking for horses in their mid-teens, especially neuters, and try bidding on them. 

The showing bonus is based on the total number of points all your horses have gained from showing, and those points go with a horse when it's sold. I believe that in this game, the showing bonus is 75% of your total points, divided by seven, since it's paid out daily. So it will increase a bit during the week as your horses are shown. If you want to know the potential of a horse you're interested in buying, take its total points times .75. This will give you its weekly bonus.