Crummy foal quest. Anyone else working on it?

[BlackOak2]

Alright, alright!
Here's hoping that the new blood offers us both exactly what we were both missing from our low GP stock. It can be such a grind trying to get over some hurdles.

Yes it can really be hard to get past some obstacles when the genetic material is running out of options.

I started with purebred NABs and got them to around 20k before it stopped going lower and I had to breed a line of forest horses to reach near 20k and then cross them together to pass that 20k threshold.

I started with quite a bit more genetic diversity. One of my other projects kept giving me weaker foals, from one particular stallion and mare combination. So one of those foals (and not the lowest HGP born, I hadn't yet made the decision to start on the low GP project then), became my foundation sire. Then I bought some lower HGP from market and I took off from there. So maybe that made a difference, all three of those horses had many generations behind them, rather than being purely empty.
Which most likely means you should catch up to my HGP pretty quickly. Well... hopefully.

[Totina]

Yes it can really be hard to get past some obstacles when the genetic material is running out of options.

I started with purebred NABs and got them to around 20k before it stopped going lower and I had to breed a line of forest horses to reach near 20k and then cross them together to pass that 20k threshold.

I started with quite a bit more genetic diversity. One of my other projects kept giving me weaker foals, from one particular stallion and mare combination. So one of those foals (and not the lowest HGP born, I hadn't yet made the decision to start on the low GP project then), became my foundation sire. Then I bought some lower HGP from market and I took off from there. So maybe that made a difference, all three of those horses had many generations behind them, rather than being purely empty.
Which most likely means you should catch up to my HGP pretty quickly. Well... hopefully.

I guess there are many ways to go in order to get to the lowest possible GP. Even if I successfully reach the 10k limit without any more additions to my breeding lines I might still just try and find which AC breed has the "best" (read worse) potential in balance and agility in order to see what it really takes to get red in those stats.

[BlackOak2]

I agree. Sometimes it's just so satisfying figuring some of these things out. Right now I have a height side project and a silver side project, just to see what turns out from what.
It's a 'Just Because' project.
I suppose those types of projects are so satisfying because there isn't any real need for them, or time limits, or really care whether they ever get finished or not.

[Totina]

I agree. Sometimes it's just so satisfying figuring some of these things out. Right now I have a height side project and a silver side project, just to see what turns out from what.
It's a 'Just Because' project.
I suppose those types of projects are so satisfying because there isn't any real need for them, or time limits, or really care whether they ever get finished or not.

Same here. My other side project is the leopard one, where I am trying to figure out if it is possible to get a fully leopard spotted horse in the game and how the genes that code for different white areas on the horse's body interact with each other.
This is also something where different AC breeds could be hiding different genes for how much white you could get. There are still a few areas (especially on the front side of the horse's neck) where it seems like the white areas just doesn't cover up completely in my lines.

[BlackOak2]

I agree. Sometimes it's just so satisfying figuring some of these things out. Right now I have a height side project and a silver side project, just to see what turns out from what.
It's a 'Just Because' project.
I suppose those types of projects are so satisfying because there isn't any real need for them, or time limits, or really care whether they ever get finished or not.

Same here. My other side project is the leopard one, where I am trying to figure out if it is possible to get a fully leopard spotted horse in the game and how the genes that code for different white areas on the horse's body interact with each other.
This is also something where different AC breeds could be hiding different genes for how much white you could get. There are still a few areas (especially on the front side of the horse's neck) where it seems like the white areas just doesn't cover up completely in my lines.

You could be right about that. I work with the smaller breeds on my own spotted tarpan project and I find that the flank, stomach and the girth strap are hard to keep spots on. Sometimes I get weird cape-like blankets over their withers, ribs and butt, then it jumps to the back legs, and recently, I'm getting spotted skullcaps with little to no (or just mane colored) neck coverage.
I think tarpan is responsible for the negative coverage over flank and girth strap... but the stomach... that's something I'm not too sure about. Could be shetland... or caspian. I don't know about the others.
I had a heck of a time just getting the spread beyond the rump and back-line for a long while, that trouble is done now, just as long as I keep aware of it (rehome the rump blankets, which still pop up occasionally).

[Totina]

You could be right about that. I work with the smaller breeds on my own spotted tarpan project and I find that the flank, stomach and the girth strap are hard to keep spots on. Sometimes I get weird cape-like blankets over their withers, ribs and butt, then it jumps to the back legs, and recently, I'm getting spotted skullcaps with little to no (or just mane colored) neck coverage.
I think tarpan is responsible for the negative coverage over flank and girth strap... but the stomach... that's something I'm not too sure about. Could be shetland... or caspian. I don't know about the others.
I had a heck of a time just getting the spread beyond the rump and back-line for a long while, that trouble is done now, just as long as I keep aware of it (rehome the rump blankets, which still pop up occasionally).

I think that belgian horses could be hiding a lot of white areas since my lines seem to have lingering traits of belgian horses (the extreme convex/roman nose head for example) from way back in the pedigree. I have been avoiding using more belgian blood since I would rather have more straight faces and less bulky horses for the project.

[BlackOak2]

...

I think that belgian horses could be hiding a lot of white areas since my lines seem to have lingering traits of belgian horses (the extreme convex/roman nose head for example) from way back in the pedigree. I have been avoiding using more belgian blood since I would rather have more straight faces and less bulky horses for the project.

Well, well... I may have to bite the bullet and take a plunge into that belgian blood. The do have a couple body traits I do want, but for obvious 'giant' reasons, I've been avoiding adding them into the tarpan blood. I know they give medium size spotting, and I do have it marked that they may carry a 'medium spread' which would rather plainly describe the 'hiding a lot of white areas' that you stated.

I'll have to decide on an appropriate AC belgian to purchase (that could take me days). But when I have some keep-able offspring, I'll link them here, so we both can take a closer look at what they may do.

[Totina]

Well, well... I may have to bite the bullet and take a plunge into that belgian blood. The do have a couple body traits I do want, but for obvious 'giant' reasons, I've been avoiding adding them into the tarpan blood. I know they give medium size spotting, and I do have it marked that they may carry a 'medium spread' which would rather plainly describe the 'hiding a lot of white areas' that you stated.

I'll have to decide on an appropriate AC belgian to purchase (that could take me days). But when I have some keep-able offspring, I'll link them here, so we both can take a closer look at what they may do.

That sounds good. I might even try to create a line of spotted belgians just to see if it would be easier to get to a fully spotted leopard pattern, but keep the belgian traits away from my other line as much as possible until the pattern is complete.

[Dawniscool]

[horse=] [/horse]

[BlackOak2]

Well, well... I may have to bite the bullet and take a plunge into that belgian blood. The do have a couple body traits I do want, but for obvious 'giant' reasons, I've been avoiding adding them into the tarpan blood. I know they give medium size spotting, and I do have it marked that they may carry a 'medium spread' which would rather plainly describe the 'hiding a lot of white areas' that you stated.

I'll have to decide on an appropriate AC belgian to purchase (that could take me days). But when I have some keep-able offspring, I'll link them here, so we both can take a closer look at what they may do.

That sounds good. I might even try to create a line of spotted belgians just to see if it would be easier to get to a fully spotted leopard pattern, but keep the belgian traits away from my other line as much as possible until the pattern is complete.

So I finally received an acceptable offspring from a belgian mare. Except I think she does not carry the gene for medium spots, so I don't yet know if she has any spread at all. I plan to pick up another and try again, but I'm maxed out with horses at the moment.
As for the foal, a decent enough looking filly that might do better in the low GP project than my spotted herd, but we'll see what she can do. She still carries some of those belgian traits that I do want, regardless of appaloosa patterning. I do not yet see any difference either addition or subtraction that could be attributed to her mother (although I must say that only one of her five siblings offered anything more than just a butt-blanket... that one was born at 13hh plus, too tall).

Golden Fields