Hello,

I would love some help with breeding, it's a major issue, maybe I'm just having bad breeding years. But I feel stagnant with my herd of horses. I don't get better but I'm not exactly getting worse, just staying in the same place.

I want to breed better, definitely break into AD World-Class horses. I breed both RID and PON and maybe it's my inexperience with matching, but I could spend 100-200k on stud fees and get worse foals than paying under 50k. This year is the worst ever with most foals under PEP, resting around PPP and SPP. It's a real downfall honestly.

So, onto what I would love help with. Firstly, who should I cull? Obviously, someone in there sucks and needs to go, but I'm not 100% who, and how to keep on top of these standards. Another thing, how does one match their horses? How many times would one test that match or that horse's potential? I would love WEE+, so what ratings should I keep and ones to cull right away? How much would someone spend on studs?

SD is a new side project so I don't need much help with that as of now, but my AD program I would love some advice on.

Thanks in advance, sorry for the long rant.

If you're OK with facing harsh truths and prepared to cull without mercy and put effort in etc, feel free to shoot me a pm

Welcome to AD breeding!

In general, I only keep mares because you can get a nice stud for reasonable prices from the ABLB (All Breed Leaderboard) or ELB (Eventing Leaderboard).

Anything that has less than 3 up weeks 4 & 8 gets booted. 3 up is barely decent and the more up, the better. Having any up wk 7 is even better.

Production is also important. For EEEs & E/P combos, anything that doesn't produce equal or better ratings gets booted. For E/W combos, no less than EEE. It can be kind of hard to judge between a bad horse and the quirks of RF (Random Factor), but these are the general guidelines I use.

Tracking training is imperative for AD breeding. I do at least 15 weeks to get a good idea of strengths/weeknesses.

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DS9 Miriel Serinde Here is my best mare. You can see in her remarks how I've tracked her training and when she leveled up from 1 to 2.

She was svenned, but I did not pick the best stud, so her heart is super low. I was torn between two studs and ended up going with the stud higher on the ABLB. It wasn't as good a match and RF (Random Factor) did not help.

For both of her foals I used a heart glass (Heart skill +3) and both were WEE.

My fingers are crossed she will hit at least the lower SHELB (Sport Horse Eventing Leaderboard).

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I don't know if you're aware, but you picked two of the three hardest breeds to breed for AD. Only recently have a couple of RID/PON mares & stallions made it onto the mid/lower ABLB. (RID- 1 stallion mid-ABLB & 2 mares mid-lower ABLB) (PON- 1 stallion upper- ABLB & 2 mares mid-lower ABLB).

However, if you want the challenge and you enjoy it, than by all means. :)

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I took a quick look a couple of your AD girls. My favorite PONs are River Bastet and River Bandita. Basted was up 3 wk 4 and she produced an EEE with a stud that isn't the greatest match for her. With a good match and the cooperation of RF, I think she could produce another EEE or at least an E/P combo.

Bandita is up 3 wk 4 and the stud of her SEE foal was a poor match. His weakest traits (dressage traits) are also Bandita's weakest traits, so that's where the S comes from.

My favorite RID girl is River Layali. She's produced two better than her EEP/PEE combos. For the SPP combo, Lalyali's two weakest traits are two of the stud's weakest traits, so that's probably where the S comes from.

A final thing I want to mention is that AD breeding is a huge money sink, especially if you want to pursue the ABLB. At this point, it is almost exclusively made up of svenned, WWW horses.

The best way to make money is showing geldings. I currently have 800 geldings and will be expanding as soon as I have the time (hopefully in the next couple of months). I'm seriously chasing the top ABLB, so the more money the better. :)

Even if you're not serious about pursuing top ABLB horses, I highly reccomend at least a couple hundred geldings. The geldings will get you the money to be able to affort better breedings and better horses.

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I hope this info wasn't too overwhelming. :) The great thing about HEE is you can do pretty much do whatever you want with your breeding program.

I would be happy to take a closer look at your horses and talk/give advice/give a shoulder to cry on when RF rears its ugly head about whatever your breeding/showing/matching questions are. :)

Feel free to send me a PM!

May RF be ever in your favor!:)

Firstly, thank you so much for the in-depth explanation. It helps a lot to understand what I'm doing wrong and how to improve.

*And yes, I know RID and PON are difficult breeds. Have for a long time but I feel like I shouldn't give up on them just yet*

I will go through and do a massive cull, though will keep a few of the best mares to basically play around with a practice with matching. I will also start on that gelding army. I have a barn I can fit them in so that will get me started, I need the money and if I'm gonna have to improve my stock then that will help.

Thanks again for the advice, it was really very helpful!