Breeding for Western Pleasure Florida Crackers

[Phalaenopsis]

So as the title says, I am wanting to breed FCs, with an aim for western pleasure comps. I have looked at their breed wiki to see what breeds I need to breed for and have it in a spreadsheet for easier understanding and how to get to the next step. I do have PT I can use to adopt more ACs if necessary, but am hoping to save for other uses. I do hope to use my own horses for as long as possible for this bloodline/project, but if push comes to shove, I will go to outside studs to further it along. As such, these are the horses I currently have to work with:

Mares:
https://www.horseworldonline.net/horse/profile/3810867
#1. She is my first adopted, and currently working on training her.

https://www.horseworldonline.net/horse/profile/3811046
#2. To help with breeding.

Stallions:
https://www.horseworldonline.net/farm/pasture/191843
#1. First adopted stallion, and working on training.

https://www.horseworldonline.net/horse/profile/3810958
#2. To help with breeding.

https://www.horseworldonline.net/horse/profile/3811864
#3. To help with breeding.

Foal:
https://www.horseworldonline.net/horse/profile/3812738
Foal by stallion #3 & mare #1

As the FC needs quite a few breeds to get to the final, will I need to buy breed evaluation books for every breed required for the FC?

BlackOak also answered a question I had in another post and said that for the FCs, I'll need to breed more stocky types with a medium build. I did look at the body type guide, but don't really understand it (maybe 'cause I don't know all the parts to a horse? )

Thank you for any and all input!

[Mini Horse Breeder]

What are FC's?

All I know is I have champed a lot of Ariegois in Western Pleasure, and other Western events. Let me know if I can help in any way!

[Phalaenopsis]

FCs are Florida Crackers. Sorry, used to calling them that from another horse game xD

[Mini Horse Breeder]

FCs are Florida Crackers. Sorry, used to calling them that from another horse game xD

Ok, lol. I call Friesians Fri's and Andalusians Andy's so its all good!

[BlackOak2]

BlackOak also answered a question I had in another post and said that for the FCs, I'll need to breed more stocky types with a medium build. I did look at the body type guide, but don't really understand it (maybe 'cause I don't know all the parts to a horse? )

Thank you for any and all input!

https://i.imgur.com/L9QxNDw.png
https://i.imgur.com/usT9yxU.png

I recommend saving these to a page in your spreadsheet. The links can be found in this guide: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=2367

Our community member who made that guide has been gone for... awhile. And yet, they swung in last year. So I suspect they're waiting for a new update.

Anyway, the visual look and the conformation (body form) are two slightly different things. I gave the overall, visual, look. There is one body form missing from those links, the in-hand horse body. We generally use the show jumping body as a close design for it.

As far as conformation (body form), this is accessed using premium. You don't need it to excel in competitions, but it does make getting to your goals, perhaps, a little faster.

You may find it easier to get through the breeds required IF you purchase each of the breed books... but if you know basically what their requirements are in real life, you may be able to get through them without purchasing. I would recommend it, to evaluate each parent, especially to see what type of foals they're throwing and to see what continues to lack.

But it's not absolutely necessary.

Some other helpful hints.
Don't be afraid of inbreeding. Currently there is nothing negative that adds into your herd. There are techniques that inbreeding can be used for, including to help correct body issues.
Grade horses are a great way to fix purebred horse issues, to move them toward or away from body forms and overall on-paper (HGP, BR, BR color, conformation scores... etc).
Recipes that require exact mixes (example: thoroughbred x arabian), the foals of these (colt and filly) can be bred together to produce the recipe horse.
Recipe horses don't always come out 5 star for their new breed. You can have 4 star's born (usually a miss in height) and even 3 star, although this last one is extremely rare.
Even a 5 star foal born may miss the recipe horse. It does come down to a coin flip. So don't give up.

[Phalaenopsis]

Ping

I bought a few of the books, mainly the ancient breeds I'll need and the WAB. Since I have that colt, would I evaluate him based on the WAB as he's one of the crosses needed for it, or evaluate it on Forest horse & NAB? Or even all 3?

[Phalaenopsis]

Also, I saw in the horses Eval tab that we can evaluate them on disciplines. Where would I find those books? Or are they not yet implemented?

[BlackOak2]

..

You will only ever need to evaluate your horse for the breed you're trying to get to. The further away from optimum the horse is, the harder (theoretically) it will be to produce the recipe breed you're aiming for.

Here's your next set of tips.

Try to balance out the parents to get the foal requirements you want. For instance, if the one parent is too tall, aim to breed it to another parent that's too short. This will have a greater chance of hitting closer to the average of both parents height.
The stallion will more often throw taller foals and the mare, shorter foals. So if your parents are different heights, aim for a shorter stallion pairing with a taller mare and not the other way around.
No foal will come out as an exact average of their parents (it's a rarity). The foals will earn a range of available outcomes and the roll-of-the-dice will determine what the foal actually displays. Here is the sampling: If the stallion is 17 hands and the mare is 15 hands, the actual genes for height that either of these parents have is not just 17 hands and 15 hands. They'll have a range. The stallion may have a range of 15.1 hands to 17.2 hands and the mare may have a range of 13.1 hands to 16.3 hands. Both of these parents will pass on a rather random range to the foal. So the foal may have a maximum range of 13.1 to 17.2 hands. However, the foal is more likely to have a much more restrictive range than that. And then, the roll of the dice will actually determine the actual height of that foal. Range genes will act in this fashion.
To continue upon the last tip. To help narrow your range genes, just cull out (rehome or otherwise get rid of) the foals that show what you don't want. For example, if the foal is too short at adult height (14 hands rather than 15.1 hands minimum), then if you get rid of these foals and only keep and breed the ones that fall closer to or within your requirements, you will slowly breed-out the ranges (and other genes) that you don't want.

Discipline books have not yet been released to us.
Discipline Potential Evaluation
This link can aid in that area, IF you can access google docs. You may need to read up a little more on stats and BR before you can understand the link... or maybe not. It's rather straightforward, however some people have not quite understood where the numbers come from and how to use it.

[Phalaenopsis]

Ping

Thank you so much! I'm starting to do some serious weeding/rehoming of foals that don't fit the WAB criteria, as that's the next breed I need.
Talking about recipe horses and the half-breeds, do they need to be 50% of each breed (ex., NAB x Forest Horse) or can it be more or less of one of the 2 to still count? 'Cause my trouble now is breeding that cross but it doesn't evaluate at all to the WAB. I had a NABxForest cross filly that I rehomed as she didn't fit the body size and type criteria; and now wondering if rehoming her was a mistake lol

[Sandalwood Project]

So as the title says, I am wanting to breed FCs, with an aim for western pleasure comps. I have looked at their breed wiki to see what breeds I need to breed for and have it in a spreadsheet for easier understanding and how to get to the next step. I do have PT I can use to adopt more ACs if necessary, but am hoping to save for other uses. I do hope to use my own horses for as long as possible for this bloodline/project, but if push comes to shove, I will go to outside studs to further it along. As such, these are the horses I currently have to work with:

Mares:
https://www.horseworldonline.net/horse/profile/3810867
#1. She is my first adopted, and currently working on training her.

https://www.horseworldonline.net/horse/profile/3811046
#2. To help with breeding.

Stallions:
https://www.horseworldonline.net/farm/pasture/191843
#1. First adopted stallion, and working on training.

https://www.horseworldonline.net/horse/profile/3810958
#2. To help with breeding.

https://www.horseworldonline.net/horse/profile/3811864
#3. To help with breeding.

Foal:
https://www.horseworldonline.net/horse/profile/3812738
Foal by stallion #3 & mare #1

As the FC needs quite a few breeds to get to the final, will I need to buy breed evaluation books for every breed required for the FC?

BlackOak also answered a question I had in another post and said that for the FCs, I'll need to breed more stocky types with a medium build. I did look at the body type guide, but don't really understand it (maybe 'cause I don't know all the parts to a horse? )

Thank you for any and all input!

If you need any help, let me know. I do have some Florida Crackers and it did take quite some time to accomplish (with admittedly limited time to play).