Breeding Question

[Deena]

I was just wondering what is more important to breed good foals (Arabian foals to be precise), the HGP or the conformation. I do know that the conformation is quite important but I don't really know how to get better foals while paying attention to the conforation. It would be nice if someone could help me understand this xD

[BlackOak2]

I was just wondering what is more important to breed good foals (Arabian foals to be precise), the HGP or the conformation. I do know that the conformation is quite important but I don't really know how to get better foals while paying attention to the conforation. It would be nice if someone could help me understand this xD

It really comes down to what your goal is. Conformation plays a stronger role (in my opinion) if you're focusing on a specific discipline. If you lean toward making a 'stronger' horse overall, than HGP might be the way you'd want to lean.

Breeding 'good foals' is ineffective for describing what your version of a 'good foal' describes. First, define what your goal is, then the path to achieving your goal may very well be quite obvious.

What's your goal? We can offer ideas and information about how we handled our goals and how we may go about working with yours.

Conformation is specifically about how the horse is built. A horse with a weaker genetic disposition for racing (as an example) may do much better than expected because it's build is 'exactly' what is best suited for racing. And the opposite can also be true: a horse with a very strong genetic ability for racing may do much worse than expected because it's build (conformation) is very poor for racing.

[Deena]

I was just wondering what is more important to breed good foals (Arabian foals to be precise), the HGP or the conformation. I do know that the conformation is quite important but I don't really know how to get better foals while paying attention to the conforation. It would be nice if someone could help me understand this xD

It really comes down to what your goal is. Conformation plays a stronger role (in my opinion) if you're focusing on a specific discipline. If you lean toward making a 'stronger' horse overall, than HGP might be the way you'd want to lean.

Breeding 'good foals' is ineffective for describing what your version of a 'good foal' describes. First, define what your goal is, then the path to achieving your goal may very well be quite obvious.

What's your goal? We can offer ideas and information about how we handled our goals and how we may go about working with yours.

Conformation is specifically about how the horse is built. A horse with a weaker genetic disposition for racing (as an example) may do much better than expected because it's build is 'exactly' what is best suited for racing. And the opposite can also be true: a horse with a very strong genetic ability for racing may do much worse than expected because it's build (conformation) is very poor for racing.

I guess my conforation of a good foal is when they are suited best for endurace. From my experiences they do quite well in endurance. So if I want to go with the conformation is there maybe any way that I can see what body length ect. would work best for endurace?
Btw thank you for the info you already gave me

[BlackOak2]

I guess my conforation of a good foal is when they are suited best for endurace. From my experiences they do quite well in endurance. So if I want to go with the conformation is there maybe any way that I can see what body length ect. would work best for endurace?
Btw thank you for the info you already gave me

Your welcome.

Okay, so endurance traits are:
Stamina
Speed
Agility
Tempo

In that order. So Stamina would be the most important then down to speed, agility less than that and finally tempo as the least important. If you focus solely on endurance, this will mean that all of the other traits are negligible (strength, movement, balance, intelligence).

The areas of conformation that strengthen these important traits are:

Longer face length enhances stamina
Thick jowl with a heavier head gives an advantage to agility
Neck lengths: Median is ideal for agility while long enhances speed
A sloping shoulder offers a little advantage to tempo
A lower point of shoulder increases slope and also ideal for stamina and tempo
Well sprung ribs are ideal for stamina
Depth of flank: Shallow is better for speed, while deep is ideal for stamina
A sloping hip angle enhances strength
A long hip is ideal for speed
Forward stifles are ideal for agility
Back length: Shorter is better for tempo, while longer is better for agility
Croup height: Downhill is better for speed, while level is best for agility and tempo

The areas of conformation that should be avoided are:
A heavy face inhibits speed, agility & tempo (I'm not sure the difference between a heavy face versus a heavy head, they may be the same)
Thick legs hinder speed

The trick is finding just the right balance. You'll have to sacrifice some of the areas to enhance others, but focus on your for traits in order of most importance to least and it should steer you toward the most 'conformationally' correct body type for endurance disciplines.

[Deena]

I guess my conforation of a good foal is when they are suited best for endurace. From my experiences they do quite well in endurance. So if I want to go with the conformation is there maybe any way that I can see what body length ect. would work best for endurace?
Btw thank you for the info you already gave me

Your welcome.

Okay, so endurance traits are:
Stamina
Speed
Agility
Tempo

In that order. So Stamina would be the most important then down to speed, agility less than that and finally tempo as the least important. If you focus solely on endurance, this will mean that all of the other traits are negligible (strength, movement, balance, intelligence).

The areas of conformation that strengthen these important traits are:

Longer face length enhances stamina
Thick jowl with a heavier head gives an advantage to agility
Neck lengths: Median is ideal for agility while long enhances speed
A sloping shoulder offers a little advantage to tempo
A lower point of shoulder increases slope and also ideal for stamina and tempo
Well sprung ribs are ideal for stamina
Depth of flank: Shallow is better for speed, while deep is ideal for stamina
A sloping hip angle enhances strength
A long hip is ideal for speed
Forward stifles are ideal for agility
Back length: Shorter is better for tempo, while longer is better for agility
Croup height: Downhill is better for speed, while level is best for agility and tempo

The areas of conformation that should be avoided are:
A heavy face inhibits speed, agility & tempo (I'm not sure the difference between a heavy face versus a heavy head, they may be the same)
Thick legs hinder speed

The trick is finding just the right balance. You'll have to sacrifice some of the areas to enhance others, but focus on your for traits in order of most importance to least and it should steer you toward the most 'conformationally' correct body type for endurance disciplines.

Oh thanks so much! Is there maybe any way that you can find out what the traits are for every competition? Or can you find it somewhere in the game? Btw I think this is my last question xD

[BlackOak2]

Oh thanks so much! Is there maybe any way that you can find out what the traits are for every competition? Or can you find it somewhere in the game? Btw I think this is my last question xD

Generally speaking, most of the immediate questions of 'where is' something, can be found in the help articles in the knowledge database found here, it's under the drop down menu on the left labeled help. You can also do a quick search in the forum and see if your question was already answered (this question you asked is a bit more involved than a quick search would have pulled up).

If you look in the guides section and scroll down (actually, it's most often in the second spot), you'll find one labeled Discipline Summary.

Also, there is a post called Extensive User Guide that if you scroll down to the part headed: Breeding Report, there is an example of a conformation report that offers everything I gave to you.

Let us know if you have any other questions!

Enjoy the game!

[Deena]

Oh thanks so much! Is there maybe any way that you can find out what the traits are for every competition? Or can you find it somewhere in the game? Btw I think this is my last question xD

Generally speaking, most of the immediate questions of 'where is' something, can be found in the help articles in the knowledge database found here, it's under the drop down menu on the left labeled help. You can also do a quick search in the forum and see if your question was already answered (this question you asked is a bit more involved than a quick search would have pulled up).

If you look in the guides section and scroll down (actually, it's most often in the second spot), you'll find one labeled Discipline Summary.

Also, there is a post called Extensive User Guide that if you scroll down to the part headed: Breeding Report, there is an example of a conformation report that offers everything I gave to you.

Let us know if you have any other questions!

Enjoy the game!

Thanks so much!