The Cave Ranch & Seaside Meadows

[Tjigra]

Hi all!
I decided to start this log because I sometimes feed the need to explain what I am doing to better understand it myself, and as I don't have anyone on this side of the screen to talk to about this game (people around me are not into horses, and especially not into virtual ones), I decided to vent here

My first account was The Cave ranch, created years ago. I played a bit, then went into a year long hiatus, but now I've been back I don't exactly remember how long ago. The Seaside Meadows was also created before the hiatus. At first I played mostly on The Cave, now that is more or less a storage and I play on Seaside, so I can't really say which is my main account and which is side.

All the horses born on either Cave or Seaside have the big letter C at the end of their names. Firstly it was meant to mean "Cave", but I figured it works for "Sea" as well As people keep changing the names of the horses I sell, it's hard keeping track on them, so I am one of the people waiting eagerly for some sort of branding getting added to the game.

All my stallions are for stud (if there would be any that are not, I'd specify than in their comments), but of course due to the limits not all are advertised as such. If you are interested in using any of them, just ping me. Most stud fees are in the range of 500-1000.

I should add that I am a slow player (sometimes a week passes when I don't take a single turn), but I do log in most of days. Also take note that I am from Europe, and as such active during the hours when most people in here seem to be asleep, just in case you want to contact me.

I have several breeding projects going on, and I'll explain them in detail in the following posts.

[Tjigra]

The one and foremost breeding project I've had since joining the game years ago.
I decided I want to breed Holstein horses (love them a lot in real life), and since there weren't any for sale when I joined, I went back to the point of their creating where I needed to breed a Cleveland Bay. I successfully did that, and then the quest system was created, so I backed up and decided to get my Holsteiners from scratch. I am not trying to build a whole pedigree up to Holsteins only from my own horses, I use other people's horses extensively, but I want to create every single breed there is in the Holstein creation tree. So I picked up a Tarpan stallion and a Przewalski mare from AC, bought a Forest stallion from the market, already had a bunch of Arabians and NABs, and went about creating a WAB and a Mongol. As I ended up with accidentally creating other breeds like Baladis, Exmoors and Tekes on my way, I decided I'd do that on purpose as well, as they earned me some PTs.
Current status:
I've created two WABs (one on each ranch), and two Mongols (same). Working toward Sorraia actively, with little to no success so far. Closest I've got is 3 good evaluations.
With the stock I've got that I can't actively use for Sorraias, I have successfully created Hucul, Dulmen, Bosnian Pony Pindos Pony and a Deli. Working towards repeating all those (except Hucul), and add Riwoche, Nigerian, Pinia and Konik to the list.

[Tjigra]

The Arabian project
I realised early on that only creating the breeds I wanted will get me nowhere in terms of economy, so I got myself some good Arabian stock. They were meant to be mostly show horses to get me afloat money wise, but soon turned into their own specific project.
I noticed early on in the game that Arabians seem to gotten seriously out of hand - over 20hh, looking like anything BUT Arabians, high HGP, great breeder's reports and not much else. As I was late to jump into that particular train (and never really wanted to anyway), I went with my own ideas what I wanted my Arabians to look like. I want to deviate from their original looks to a more athletic, more substantial body, warmblood-ish you might say, with strong legs and slightly downhill build for speed, and keep the distinctive Arabian features like small, dished (but not overly so!) heads, high set exquisite tails and graceful necks. I want them to be big enough, but not too big (15-16hh is my ideal), and have gold speed, stamina, balance, agility and intelligence, as well as at least average everything else). I also want them to have some spirit, not the endless string of bombproof horses. I try to get them to be all solid colours with occasional dilute thrown in to make life more colourful, but try to stay away from multiple dilutes. I also try to gently steer away from the Lp genes (without much success), and to get in occasional socks and face marks, but stay clear of full blown patterns.
I am not very set on them being purebred, so I also use part and even mixed breds to add the features I want.

Current status:
I haven't created distinct lines so far, as I am extensively using outside stallions. Instead I have what might be called " families" based on the female lines more than male. Although all the mares I've based my families around I've considered good for what I wanted, their offspring has rather distinct differences. I have two "performance families" that tend to produce offspring with good stats and show results, but lack the looks, I have a family that has the stats and somewhat has the looks, but are much too big, and I have those that have the looks but not the stats At this point I've started to mix the families together in hopes to mix all the things I have into a horse that have them all.
For illustration, this filly is probably the closest I've got to the looks and evaluations I want, even though she's a bit too big. Now to add the needed stats to that...
Glitterfest C


A side project 1:
I've decided to try to create a Persian Arabian breed for the quest. I've gotten a few Arabian x Caspian crosses that are closer to what I want from my Arabians than my Arabians themselves All the tries for a Persian have ended up with either a too big or too small foal. Second generation of fillies are nearing maturity age, then I'll try again.

A side project 2:
As plain good Arabians is not something you can really sell these days (all those big high HGP ones outshine them), I've decided to add something unique to them. I've decided to breed in some sooty dapples, a thing I haven't seen in HWO Arabians yet. I've gotten as far as located two dappled grade stallions at stud, bred three mares to them and bough a filly by one of them. Well, I've got a clear buckskin colt (still hoping for the sooty to show up later, the colt is 2 years old by now), a black colt (to say that was a surprise from a sooty buckskin and a sooty flaxen chestnut would be an underestimation) and a bay filly too young to make any guess about the sooty (not even a weanling yet). The filly I've bought is an early onset sooty buckskin but no sign of dapples, at least not yet (just over a year old). Both stallions I used are now retired, so this project is on hiatus until my foals grow up or until I find another dappled stallion at stud. I have also decided to occasionally cross my sooty mares out to some clear Turkmene stallions to try and catch the elusive dapples

[Tjigra]

And then there are.. the NABs.
At first, NABs where around to create new breeds. Then I kept them around, because they'll be still needed to create more new breeds. Then I got frustrated with them because they are a big foundation for many breeds, and there was trouble to find a NAB that didn't have negative strength report. As I want my eventual Holsteiners to be showjumpers, it wouldn't do to found them upon horses that could barely carry their own weight, would it? So I made a project of breeding myself some stronger NABs.
This project however was always just a side project. I got as far as a handful of average strength part NABs (I didn't want to add some actually strong but also heavy breeds for this, as I still needed to keep the NABs in the evaluation range where they'd fit the breed standards I needed). Then the tobiano patterns were added, and I added those to my NAB project too.
This project is currently on hiatus as I am trying to focus back on going up the breed tree. Most foals bred for this are matured and horsing around in the Cave Ranch for holding. Meanwhile other people have bred stronger NABs and they are freely available in the market, so I am thinking about dropping this project altogether. I haven't done that yet because I am sentimental and can't let my beauties go. And I do have some pretty ones
Graffiti C

Graffiti was the first I bred for this project. He is too big and too heavy to be of any use for creating breeds, but his children have contributed much more.

[Tjigra]

A little update for all the projects
Build the Holsteiners from scratch project:
Since previous farm log entry I have successfully bred 4 Sorraia foals (3 on Seaside, 1 on Cave ranch), so that's another major hurdle out of the way. All my Sorraias are still little (the eldest just over 1 year old at the time of this writing), but I am already working towards Carthusians with my WAB mares and outside Sorraia studs. The first foal is due any day now.
On the side quest breeding, I've bred Bosnian and Pindos Ponies on both ranches, and Riwoche, Pinia and Deli on one.

The Arabian project:
I have a bunch of very nice foals being born recently, the nicest being from my competition family stallion Wild Memory C. Mem himself is a 7-stat SCh++ of correct size and wrong type, but his foals from correct type mares tend to inherit Mem's stats and dam's type. My favourite is probably this filly from a failed Persian Arabian mare SCh+ Tempesta (she is too big and it is early to clearly judge her type, but she is just gorgeous):
Wild Times C

On the side project 1, I've successfully created a Persian Arabian, and waiting impatiently for it's full sibling to be born for the other ranch. Persian is also sired by wild Memory C.
On the side project 2, I've located another dappled stallion at stud and bred a few more mixed foals with my simple sooty Arabian mares, and the first homebred filly of this project is nearing 4 years old.

NABs are sitting on the back burner.

And I've revived one previously forgotten project - breeding heavier, bulkier Tarpans. Process began ages ago with a big, heavy grade mare; now I have 3rd gen colt born from that line, using a failed Sorraia mare - unlike many more, Delta C failed for being too heavy. The resulting colt is medium heavy, 46.5% body size, and won't exceed 14 hh - he comes too late to assist me with creating Sorraias, but will probably be useful for other breeds.
Sider C

[Tjigra]

Long time no update.

Main goal
I've climbed up the Holsteiner breed two breeds already - I've created Carthusians (turned out to be very easy, too easy even, so that when my own Sorraias grew up, I've already had a Carthusian colt near breeding age). Andalusians were more complicated, as they require cross x cross, and in the early stages all the crossbreds I made turned out way too small. But with some patience and some help from public studs I've had already 3 Andalusians born on Seaside (two fillies and a colt, excellent proportion), and have their dams bred for another bunch for Cave Ranch. So now it is onto Friesians, and I've located the heaviest, bulkiest, pony-est Arabian mares I have to start this one. Two of them are now bred to the Andalusian stallion I bought a while ago, Realtor, due to foal soon, and fingers crossed for foals heavy, bulky and pony enough to be reasonably considered half-of-a-Friesian.

Side projects
I'm now done with Riwoche, Deli, Pinia, Persian Arabian and Konik on both ranches, and Garrano, Plateau Persian, Albanian and Aenos on one. Working on the second of these, as well as Batak, Gothland, Nigerian, Ardennais, Norman Cob, Spanish Jennet and Lusitano. If you want one of these, drop me a line and I'll let you know if and when I have one born (I'll keep the Jennet, they are needed for lots of breeds).

Sooty dapple Arabians project comes along nicely, unlike the dapples themselves. I now have a bunch of homebred youngsters that are part Arabians and look at least somewhat like Arabians should. This line's stats are improving too. The only thing that misses is dapples, but I still have my fingers crossed that the younger ones will show them.
There is even a potentially show quality colt in this line (still in training, but looks promising):
Frosted Charm C

And a stallion with a type so beautiful I've decided to use him for breeding despite the lack of dapples:
Dark Mag C


To make life more interesting, I've also added a goal of getting some face markings in my sooty Arabians.

From the regular beautiful endurance Arabians, the filly I mentioned in my previous post, Wild Times C, has grown into a beautiful and talanted mare, recently got her SMGCh title and has shown some of the best scores I've had. Unfortunately, Times herself is way too big and very uphill build, and her 3 foals tend to inherit at least the size, however are too nice to give up on them. Hopefully, next generation would get closer to where I want.

There is a new noteworthy stallion on the block. Rusty Treasure C is by our own (but not bred by me) SMGCh++ Tungusk, out of the very important mare VHF Rusty Mudhahal (also owned by me, but not bred by me). Rusty Mudhahal left a big mark on C-Arabians, before passing away at the ripe old age of near 30 years old, from 11 foals she had for us, 6 are titled, 2 still in training and looking solid on their way to shows, and from this lot Treasure is best without doubt. At the moment he is SCh+ and scoring, and his best scores are new Cave Ranch records in endurance. He is also only just a bit too big for my liking, and very handsomely build.
Rusty Treasure C