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Community Reminder - August 2023 - Part 2
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BlackOak2
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Community Reminder - August 2023 - Part 2
Included In This Release:
*Find these in Part 1*
The Unpleasant Side Of Boarding Accounts
Unlucky Fates - When A Service Player Disappears
Interesting New Developments on HWO
Breeders' Special - Competitors' Gleam
A Look at Specialist and Generalist Horses and
What They Could Mean About Game Mechanics
-open for discussions-
Interesting New Developments on HWO
Breeders' Special - Competitors' Gleam
A Look at Specialist and Generalist Horses and
What They Could Mean About Game Mechanics
-open for discussions-
Forward
This article... may be a little harder to explain and get through.
And it'll probably be really long. Maybe even long in my book! -_-
That is one of the reasons I decided to extract it and give it a separate release, as Part 2. Plus some investigations and pulling certain horses together; this'll just take some time.
To keep things a bit straightforward, I'll only be using horses that I bred. Training and testing may not have been performed by me. However, the horses were not force pointed... to the best of planning. So, they might've been entered into a handful of large-field competitions, but it was not my intention (nor my desire, if I did not test them) to enter them into such fields. Other than the fact that my horse would mess up the force-pointing of intentional horses, such competitions give false results and waste precious time testing in disciplines they might not be otherwise suited for.
So, I do try to avoid them when I see them and I forward such information onward when appropriate.
And, unless otherwise stated, record holders aside, I did not try to hone any of my horses to improve their performances. Most of them were tested at moderate weight and even (bombproof aside). The light-weight ones may have been tested at moderately thin and spirited.
Also, Thank You, for all the record holder horse owners for their gallery image uses.
Breeders' Special - Competitors' Gleam
Possibly the one biggest goal for either a breeding account or a competition account, is to produce or compete a horse that just dominates a discipline.
To have a farm just Packed Full of titled horses is, indeed, a prideful moment and daunting to look at, if you're not the owner. 
A player around here, that was in fact, their goal. It's been quite some time since I spoke to them or, yes, thought of them (my apologies), but even I was looking bleakly at their account when they began filling it up. And yet, I felt this sort of satisfaction looking through their horses. It was an odd feeling, but one I'm far from alien to. I feel good when I see others succeed... maybe it's the mentor in me.
So, yes, it's great to see a bunch of titled [assumed successful] horses filling up an account.
But, that's just an introduction. What I'm here to really discuss is the differences between successes.
To be clear, I'm not going to be discussing the horses like this one. These have been titled for specific reasons and identify an ongoing... we'll call it 'issue' with the competition system. To touch on it briefly, I'll simply say that the following statement is true: 'Any horse on HWO, can become titled to the highest titles, regardless of training, BR, scores... the entirety of on-paper.'
Eh... yeah.
So, what I am going to delve into, isn't 'what makes a horse a success' (because, face it, success is on the tongue of the judge), it is the differences between successful horses in competitions.
So I'm going to define (to keep things easy) success as: A horse in the competition barn, that maintains 70% WPS in one or more disciplines, maintaining such a percentage with a minimum of 20 starts and in mixed levels that include no more than 40% (estimated) at or below level 5.
To offer some insight on people that want to know or hear my personal testing methods. I test a horse in 4, usually level 10 competitions. If 4 level 10's are not available, I'll use level 9, then level 8 and finally level 7. I very rarely use a level 6 or below to start. If the horse maintains 75% WPS (which is at least 3 starts that the horse placed in either first, second or third) or better, I will stuff them into another 16 competitions varying from levels 5 to levels 10, this I often called 'trial'. Often times, a horse will point-out of any competition below level 4. I've had a couple horses point-out after their first 4 competitions to anything below level 6.
That's my testing method.
If one of my horses earn 85% or better (after all 20 competitions)... I may continue their career for quite some time. But that's generally for fun and falls outside of my testing needs. I don't aim for titles, although almost every one of my competition line have at least champion status, I'm generally a breeder and I'm tracking heart as well as talent. Which...
Brings us...
To this topic.
Facing Duality
As I created and bred-through my competition line (former grinder line, but still used as such), I found that some of my stock performed far different than others. I began to see significant changes in their overall discipline careers and found myself separating them into two basic categories. They become: Specialists and Generalists.
Specialists proved very strong competitors in a small handful (maybe even one alone) of disciplines, usually closely related in stats and body types (for instance, racing and harness or marathon driving and obstacle driving) but the others, the Generalists, proved successful across a far wider margin of disciplines and stretched further outside these groupings of similar discipline stats and body types.
Could it be the other competitors? Well, maybe, yeah, it could be. Although when I pitted these two separate types against each other, they fought back and forth, one side pulling better positions and scores and then the other side doing as much. And against other player's 'current' top horses, they would perform the same with them (the Generalists). And their horses would as often lose when facing my Specialists (not always, mind you, but often enough to impact my thought process). I don't know, maybe, just maybe, my bias pushed me to see something more than what actually exists.
I suppose it's a possibility!
One thing I did see that separated the two types, is that the Specialists appeared to win and maintain a higher WPS (not percentage, but the actual placements, firsts over seconds and seconds over thirds) than the Generalists. This was something I didn't imagine. Overall, however, the Generalists pulled in far more than the Specialists ever did (overall collection of wins, all disciplines combined).
That said, two of my Specialists pulled records. *shrugs*
So are Specialists better over Generalists? I don't know. I think it comes down to preference. I can say that my Generalists gave birth to my Specialist that broke the first record and technically gave birth to my second record (in actuality, it was second record and third, for me). You'll meet them later.
First, I want to remind everybody on HWO. A Record Holder can come from Anywhere! Even now. And like most of our record holders, their on-paper may not look like much.
Indeed, our best looking on-paper horses don't often amount to anything but grinder-fodder (don't laugh at grinder-fodder, they have a viable and extremely useful existence on HWO, in fact, grinder-fodder lines can earn a person far more than many other options and is the quickest to get to).
Birth Of A Powerhouse Line
I had a project, quite some time ago, of grinding through all of the recipe-quests. Every Last One. It took well over a year, when I started on the project itself, and at that time I had somewhere between 10% and 25% already completed. So, tackling such a project is an undertaking.
During this project, I came to the late realization, that I needed good grinder stock to keep me moving through turns and breeding cycles. Before, I was just using whatever. I had a number of rather poor grinding stock, but this was also long before I was ever upgraded. So the slow days and the breeding-toward-req's kept my progress slow. Which may have been a boon to the project overall. Limiting irritation did help me get through. And CREEPERS! was their irritation! in that project... -_-
I don't remember who was the first to become my official grinder line. But I do have one that I did use, or at least tested. And she did start something.
Summer Luck
Although, I'm fairly certain she was renamed after I sold her. I had a habit of naming all of the recipe-quest horses human-like names.
She's still alive, stuck on an account that hasn't been active since 2018, mere days after they first signed up. I'm sure she was a gift to a newbie. Sad to see her there, but she lives on, in a fashion. She wasn't the foundation of my grinder line, but she was one of the first I trained and tested (I may not have trained or tested her, I no longer remember).
But, she certainly wasn't a competitor.
Her on-paper leaves nothing to suggest that she has anything hidden at all. Her best, [close-to] fully tested discipline was Dressage and she pulled her best score of 38.13% and a first in a level 1 comp. Current records have Dressage at 51%. Back then, the records had already been set in the 51% range. So... she was FAR from anything.
To note, she also had fair recordings of both Cutting and Endurance, as far as WPS % was concerned. I don't know why I didn't trial her in both of these. It could be that, like Dressage, she was still quite a long way off.
But she was a recipe-quest project mare and not something to toss into competitions. I'm sure I knew she wouldn't do anything in comps and just tossed her in there to see if my assumption was correct.
*I must also note, at the time, that I never looked at conformation scores. Since I was without upgrade, I simply did without it.*
Looking back at her on-paper, I see now, that my assumption was MORE than correct. For those that can't see her scores, here they are:
Speed 18 - 'average running speed'
Strength 40 - 'pretty strong, looks nice'
Stamina 25 - 'can't be sure on stamina'
Balance 42 - 'balance is average'
Movement 49 - 'very average, even in the way she moves'
Agility 23 - 'seems fairly agile'
Tempo 38 - 'pace needs a lot of work'
Intelligence - 'seems fairly intelligent'
I've also included a short note about her BR as well. I didn't include colors, all of the BR was non-colored.
I bred her to this gorgeous fellow for the recipe breed that results in Murgese (Arabian x Avelignese ] x [ North African Barb x Italian Heavy Draft). I chose him because he would significantly increase the mare's height and also significantly lighten her frame, toward the Murgese' lightweight and light size. But, I certainly didn't overlook the fact that he wasn't a giant of an arabian (thereby NOT imparting too much height) and that he was stacked in his on-paper. In fact, he is one of the few horses in his caliber that was also able to maintain a super-strong WPS.
He was only ever comp'ed in two disciplines, but he dominated both. Although, if he were reactivated today, he might lose that gorgeous WPS he has.
Suffice to say, my choice in the mare's potential mate covered not only what I needed for the recipe quest I was on, but also would cover the development of a grinder line. One that would continue my breeding quests but also run dual-purpose as grinders with some better ability than I had been (likely up to that point) lacking.
And she gave birth to what became the Matriarch of my Grinder/Competition line.
The Unassuming Dame
Adeline
She was purposefully bred. Purpose for dual work. And although I never really expected her to do too much (mainly because her dam was so unfortunate overall), I did decide to throw her against hosted competitions. And when I did, I certainly was surprised at what she accomplished. She was a Driven Dressage Specialist. And although she was far below the records at the time (56% compared to her best at 49.7%), she maintained a WPS of 83.8% and kept that rate fairly evenly in all firsts, seconds and thirds.
I suspect very highly that her sire had some good heart and maybe... just maybe her dam had something that was passed on as well. Though she never really showed much at all.
Adeline didn't give me my Murgese. But her son did. But after seeing her pull the type of competitions she did (at the time, she was the very best I had every produced), I did keep her around for awhile, eventually sending her into board, because what she did produce was not just a grinder line, but a first son by a very carefully selected stallion that broke my first record.
As a short aside. I chose the sire by matching Adeline's body form with his.
Tygrus Hero Shock
At the time of matching, he had produced only one other competitive foal. I'm sure he already had a record, but I don't recall it impressing me at the time, but it could've. He could've already been titled out to a high level. I just don't recall. And to finish this aside, I have had very, very few breed-outs cross as successfully as the Tygrus stock has. And although I have had other crossovers into their stock, and they have been successful, this particular cross still stands as the take-all of any of mine and any of many other's I've seen. Cross-outs, first foal, not a generation or two in.
So, yes, to say I'm biased about the history of my competition herd... it's a fact. My line certainly isn't the best one out there, but it holds it's own story with the best stories of beginnings among all of HWO.
And maybe would make a good 'historical record' story for HWO.
She had heart, Adeline did, heart to strive. If my memory serves me well enough, I think she had an HGP in the mid 50's. Nothing great, nothing bad, but right there in that sweet spot where horses start to move from not being able to compete and into that area of starting to show something. It's a great spot to be too. It's an area where heart starts to become blatantly obvious. Where you start seeing your horse challenge proven competition stock and push the comp scores further upward. Where the proven horses need to win the comps, not by sheer on-paper alone, but by putting forth more effort that's still mostly hidden within them.
It's a nice sweet spot to be in. If you can pick up on it, you know in that moment, that you have a line worth developing into a Powerhouse Bloodline!
And although it didn't settle into my head what I had until later, as I look back now at those moments, I see the signs clearly. And can see them now, in other people's projects. Good learning experience, certainly.
As I said, I had the thought to develop a grinder line. I wanted to use her as my foundation dame. And I thought it was best to marry her body form (the actual look) to one that looked as clearly the same as I could. That's why I settled on Tygrus Hero Shock.
It was her first foal. I hadn't even used her in the recipe-quest project yet. I wanted to start a line of grinders and have them awaiting use whenever my 'current' one knocked off.
A Son Of Questions
Dominic
When he was born, I decided to use the same type of naming system I had already adopted with the recipe-quest project. After all, I probably had another Belgian breed I'd be needing somewhere else.
He looked almost like a duplicate of his mother, which was what I was hoping for... right down to his coat color. It could've been a number of different options, bay, chestnut, black, brown... depending on the genetics of both parents. But I have to say, basic brown has a type of classic elegance that's hard to match in the other base colors.
Overall, he had similar on-paper to his mother as well. Higher than her, as memory offers, but I'm pretty certain he didn't break 60k. 59k, I think, but I don't remember specifically. And, if you take a look at his owner's notes, you'll see 'Grinder Only' written in. My first assumptions.
Eventually I did enter him into comps, for those muffs & giggles. And I was surprised when shortly after his competition career began (December 9th, his first Show Jumping comp ran), he broke the Show Jumping record that had been held for more than a year previously (December 11th he broke the record).
His final score of 03:10.47 was broken only a couple days later by the same horse he beat out, one ∰ Mandus de Whyle (Final Score: 03:10.36). If you don't know the de Whyle stock, they're juggernauts, even today. But it would be another year before another horse took the record from that stallion.
I did try to get him to break another record, but this was still in my early times of learning how to compete a horse. If I had a horse like him today, things would've come out a bit differently, I think.
Suffice to say, it was a surprise when I logged in that day and found 'your horse broke a record' notification. Can you guess what my face looked like? I think, my first thought was 'Which horse?' and then 'Did I have somebody entered?'
^Likely thoughts, for me. -_-
His primary best disciplines (Show Jumping, Reining, Cross Country and Saddleseat) all have fairly close overall eye-look for body form. As far as stats are concerned, they run almost through all eight of them. Agility and Balance take three of the four disciplines main stats with these two found as the third and fourth in Cross Country. Strength and Stamina are the first and second pair of Cross Country and Strength falls as second in two of the other three disciplines.
So... although he's gone now and his BR and on-paper are also gone, he had a fairly even overall to pull in what he did. I'd consider him a Specialist, like his dame and his sire. Although, he carried over only one of his parent's specialties (and that would be Cross Country, from his sire).
He gave me six foals. One, a bay mare I named Spawning Light did almost nothing in competitions. Which was unfortunate, because her dame came from a line of record breakers, too. That dame didn't inherit the heart of her own parents, I suppose. That said, she gave me a foal that did excellently in light-weight disciplines, who gave me two foals (one medium-weight and the other another light-weight), that one, of which, gave me my second record holder (I'll get to my second record holder soon enough).
Of the other five foals that Dominic gave me, one was a powerhouse specialist, spanning seven disciplines (although I only counted six of them, those with WPS above 75%, one fell below 75% shortly after my final evaluation). This horse was a medium-weight style and thus took command over almost every one of the disciplines that fell into that area.
Another barely took anything at all, but did hold tight to Saddleseat, tight enough. This horse fell outside of the Saddleseat's lighter body frame. She had a medium-look to her. How she held on to the Saddleseat specialty? Maybe a lack of really strong competition.
And of the final three... they have their own stories to tell.
Master Blue was another that came from records on both sides of his line. And although he never took or produced any foals that took any records, he was a very solid competitor, keeping a hold of seven disciplines and reaching a Master Champion title in Barrels in only 70 starts. Of all of these seven disciplines, six of them have a medium-weight style. One fell outside of that, Saddleseat, which he maintained an 88.5% WPS. Although of the 26 starts, he pulled thirds in 13 of them, that still has an impressive feel to it. I'd still consider him a Specialist.
Then there was Radiant Striker. Now this stallion was produced some time after I had already gotten my bloodline going. I line-bred his dame back to her grandfather, Dominic, to see if I could build-up, or build-back-upon, those nice Show Jumping genes that Dominic had. What was produced, was Radiant Striker, which I had higher hopes for then he ended up giving me. Although he was his own powerhouse in (finally) seven disciplines, and showed great WPS overall, in Show Jumping (82.2%) and of the 45 starts, with 22 of them being firsts, he only pulled a final score of 3:10 twice in those 45 starts. Perhaps, I had simply not honed him in his weight and temperament enough. And although my hopes were dashed for him breaking another record... or besting his father's Show Jumping scores... he was his own powerhouse in his own right. Another Specialist with body-form falling close-to or within his best disciplines, with a slight deviance with Sprints (not enough hip angling visually, in my opinion).
And finally, there is Attempting Nobility, which was another of Dominic's children to adopt his overall body style. And although this horse was born bombproof, he was Dominic's best foal overall. Holding seven disciplines, three, of which, fall outside of his visual body-form and pulling two Master Champions in somewhere short of 65 starts, he was a mini-juggernaut in his own right. And he was the first of my herd that could be considered a Generalist.
But Attempting Nobility never produced any foal that was another Generalist like he was. He produced one that fell outside of the basic Cross Country eye-values and the other two were western specialists.
Although, Attempting Nobility's line was responsible for producing Resurrection Queen who was a Generalist, favoring seven competitions, where three were outside of those eye-values. And also Ashwraith who didn't do very much, but two of her three favored disciplines fell outside of her eye-values as well. Actually, Ashwraith was another powerhouse in her own right, maintaining >90% in two of those three favored disciplines.
Generalists' Favorite Spawns
Attempting Nobility (who, in my book, was a Generalist), along with Ocean Drifter (another Generalist with five, favored disciplines, three of them outside of eye-values), grandson of Spawning Light, gave me:
Eternal Rain
My second record breaker. Up to this point, Pole Bending had been a favored discipline for a couple generations, but one that fell within the eye-values of my bloodline. I hadn't been taking much notice to the discipline, not because it kept popping up in my bloodline over and over again (like I should have), but because, at the time, I was still staring at medium-weight, slightly bulky stock and had become blind to the actual separate scores of the disciplines themselves. When Eternal Rain was born, I had a whole herd of Generalists that I was working with and I had been attempting to produce a strong field of Generalists that covered a much wider arc of the disciplines.
She... was a surprise. Not only was her body-form lighter than even her sire, she still maintained some of the Generalist blood from both of her parents. Other than the Pole Bending record she took, she maintained strong WPS in Steeples, Cutting and Harness, these latter two falling outside of her eye-value, with Cutting being a fair-cry from it.
*An image of our current Cutting record holder, level 10, for comparison.
At one point, in this competition, she cut 13 cows, with a final score of 13.05. At the time, the records sat at 14 cows with a score in the 14.20 to 14.40 range. Our current, level 10, record holder's best score sits at 14 cows with a final score of 14.70.
Alongside Eternal Rain, I was working with Defiant Wrath who was more of a Specialist then a Generalist, favoring five disciplines with only one outside of the eye-value. Her daughter, Defiant March who was an outcross to a March of Mephisto son (a serious stallion but also one with a ton of offspring). Defiant March was another Specialist with an eye-value outside of Cutting, one of only three favored disciplines.
Then there was Electrifying, another horse I got from Tygrus Hero Shock, but through a line-breed, a descendant of Dominic. I got a total of four offspring from Tygrus Hero Shock, three that I bred directly to him and one I purchased from another player who bred to him.
And finally, another that was born around the same time as Eternal Rain, was Harmonic Storm. Now, this mare, she was a little all over the place. Although most of my stock stayed fairly uniform in the way they inherited favored disciplines from their parents, this mare appeared to just mash-together all of her parents favored disciplines (well, all save two). Her sire, Autumn Blues was a Master Blue foal. A horse that was a little more like a black sheep of the rest of the bloodline. He favored Harness Racing and had very limited abilities overall. Autumn Notes, his dame, was a foal of a purchase-for-color mare. That color mare was bred to another color stud. So, Autumn Notes and her son, Autumn Blues, was meant to give my bloodline some Tobiano coloration. I have the genes, but sadly, the color didn't stick as well as I had hoped... yet.
But, after seeing Autumn Blues' competition record, I knew I had to recover him from such a weak crossing. It seemed that breeding his dame, Autumn Notes, to perhaps my best stallion (at least at that time), didn't quite complete the transformation I was hoping for. So that foal, Autumn Blues, I crossed to my best mare I had and it wasn't Eternal Rain. Although I can't recall exactly where, in her training and testing she was, I think... think she was still a baby. So I bred her to Resurrection Queen, the same mare that gave me Eternal Rain.
To say that mare, Resurrection Queen, had something in her... And she certainly kept her name true. Harmonic Storm, half sister to Eternal Rain, took after her mother's Generalist abilities, while still favoring her father's specialist areas. And this is where her story takes an even odder turn. Her favored disciplines were Sprint, Cross Country, Harness Racing, Pole Bending, Saddleseat, and Show Jumping. To give you a side-by-side, she's the one right in the middle and the others are current record holders.
*All level 10 record holders used as well as their level 10 record score (final score for Show Jumping). Harmonic Storm's best scores are used for reference as well as WPS %.
Why did I use current record holders? Well... nominally ease of pulling their information. Although records can move better from time to time, the records between when she was alive until now, really haven't moved all that much. Maybe as much as a point or a second, but likely not even that much. However, if somebody takes offense to this, I suppose I can do a little more work and pull up the record holders at that time and use them instead.
Why not use some horses that were top-of-the-class at that time, but weren't record holders? Because at any one point in time, the competition can be rather dominant or weak. If you base all of your horses performances on the competition at that time you will only ever have a horse that's great at that time. Which... ehem... at that time is great! Until the competition comes exploding back. Besides that... going through all that data, to choose just one horse to compare to your own, first, it's daunting and takes a lot of them. Second and more importantly, using the best-of-the-best to compare is far closer to how your horse measures up overall.
Harness Racing, Saddleseat and Sprint disciplines fell short of the 20 minimum entries I liked with testing. Likely the competitions were deleted before filling up to run... maybe.
Harmonic Storm, her body form itself was likely her biggest failure. The disciplines she should've probably excelled in, such disciplines like Hunter, Dressage, Working Ranch, Western Pleasure and Western Trail, all of these, have a medium-style body with a flat croup, she flunked out incredibly.
But it likely impacted her favored disciplines to the point that she couldn't pull better scores and times. And, of course, her bombproof temperament was a problem as well.
She was my first All-Rounder. Considering all of her failures and the successes she pulled. She fell right in there with the powerhouses I had produced. And another Generalist.
And, So Very Different from her half-sister!
Harmonic Storm gave me a mix of stock. Some good and solid, others rather meek and lacking. But she did give me a couple important foals that gave me my own, personal juggernauts as well as a overwhelming powerhouse, all of them, Generalists. I'll introduce that chapter shortly.
Eternal Rain, after having surprised me with everything she was (and after trying to hone her toward breaking more records, which she never did), I moved her over to the breeding shed and started looking for appropriate studs. I wanted... well, something with speed. And something that could pull her hips away from that flat croup she (as well as the rest of my stock) seemed to suffer from. They were getting way too flat and it was messing up my herd's performance ability (as evidenced by Harmonic Storm) and Eternal Rain's croup could be argued as even flatter than her sister's.
I also wanted a stud that was a powerhouse in his own right, so he had to have a stacked WPS. The higher the better. And I found him. He had been put up to stud for a limited time.
₰ℓ's Warlock Crown
And, not only was he stacked! He was another record holder himself.
****I got a LOT of record holder blood in this line! ****
I had considered pulling Eternal Rain's lightweight frame back toward the medium areas. For awhile I had tossed it around. But then I realized again, how many different branches my humble grinder line had evolved into, and in such a short number of generations as well. So, with Eternal Rain, I decided that I should keep the lightweight branch of my line and separate them out from the main, medium-weight section.
And I bred to that stallion... Twice! And was not disappointed either time!
Before the stallion was finally pulled from public studding service, he covered quite a few mares. Mine weren't the only successes to come from him, but this isn't a story about ₰ℓ's Warlock Crown, so that's where I'll stop with him.
The two foals I got from my mare and that stud, remained Generalists, just like their dam, plus partially corrected her flat croup. And although I flutter back and forth with her one son's records being not-quite-generalist-but-not-quite-specialist status, I can't help but remember that he broke the same record his dame broke only a short time before.
Eh... so I have one record holder and one former record holder, rather than two record holders.
That colt is Cobalt Basilisk, her second foal and I bred back to that stallion because I liked her first foal so much.
And almost exact replicas of each other. Still, very different individuals.
Both of these stallions are still alive, so their tales aren't yet finished. So I'll button their side of this story with this.
Between the two of them, they both have given me rather mediocre Saddleseat Specialists. But they go on to give me (and other players) successful, mixed discipline offspring.
Of the other foals that Eternal Rain gave me, is another Tygrus Hero Shock foal, Shatter Storm that proved another specialist in the western disciplines, mostly. A Saddleseat specialist (suppose I know where her son's Saddleseat genes came from! ). A Show Jumping specialist that was bred to help infuse better competition genes into a purchased color line. And two, rather disappointing out-crosses that just don't appear to have much of the dominating genes the rest of my line seems to carry.
Breeder's Special
Harmonic Storm
Harmonic Storm.
Down through Resurrection Queen, who's sire is a foal of Attempting Nobility, son of Dominic. Resurrection Queen, who's dame is down from Resurrection Seal who, himself is a powerhouse with a handful of disciplines and is a son of Spawning Light. And finally, Resurrection Queen, who's granddame through her dame, is a also a Dominic foal.
She could easily be said to be the fruition of a bloodline developed into a Generalist Powerhouse. And yet, she had so many flaws.
And this is just what a breeder should always be on the lookout for. A horse with flaws, that appears to fail in competitions and although holds good WPS and showing good heart, but has a laundry list of fatalities.
It's these horses that 'surprise' us with their get.
Of her four offspring, two of them were 'fixer' foals (one was also a color breeding). One of her foals was a total failure. And the last was another breed-back to Tygrus Hero Shock (did I tell you yet, that I liked this stallion? ). And he proved to be just what most of his other foals with me were, a Western specialist with out-reaching in Cross Country and Show Jumping.
But, those other three foals weren't total failures, just in the show shed, did they fail exceptionally. The total failure's line was eventually bred back to Eternal Rain to change that fate, producing Eternal Throne. Of the other two, the non-color foal's line, gave me two promising foals, a colt and a filly, not yet fully tested.
And of the color line? Yup, here is where it gets interesting again.
That line gave me a Saddleseat Specialist, a Cross Country and Show Jumping Specialist and one gorgeous color horse that was a Powerhouse Generalist. His name was Shepard's Serenity and I will get back around to him in a moment.
Electrifying
Harmonic Storm's best foal, Electrifying, wasn't anything to underestimate in the show shed. With five favored disciplines and with a worst WPS in these five at 84.3%, he quickly became a mini juggernaut in the Western competition circuit. But he wasn't a Generalist that I had been so diligently at work with producing. Not really a surprise, when I bred back to the same stud that created my line. They started as Western Specialists, with a slight leaning toward Cross Country and Show Jumping. So, his record wasn't a surprise, just another delight, after all, all of the foals I got from Tygrus Hero Shock were exceptional... or rather, exceptionally hidden with certain genes. After all, Tygrus, himself, came down from a line of almost wholly untested stock.
But Electrifying's story goes another step further. He had ONE foal. Why only one? Not sure, I simply don't remember at the time, why I had chosen only one foal. But that foal became one of two ultimate Juggernauts and was certainly a sight to watch him accumulate his disciplines.
Competitor's Gleam
Shepard's Serenity
This stallion had it all! Color, color and competition record! His body form fell outside of his favored disciplines. All of them, the closest being Show Jumping. If I put him up, like I did his grandmother, Harmonic Storm...
It's fairly easy to see how different he is from the body forms that succeed. I considered him the success in my quest to breed a horse that was a Generalist. And actually, he came after both of my Juggernauts.
As I said just before, Electrifying only gave me one foal. Bred to Toxic Starlet, a grandson of Resurrection Queen [and another Juggernaut Generalist in his own right]. I was trying to expand on the the Queen's genes, but she ended up giving me Tempest Dominion, who wasn't much of a competitor, but did favor four disciplines, three, of which, did fall outside of her eye-value. But, once again, the genes that hide are the genes that give new prominence to the forthcoming foals. Lucky, Lucky me, that I didn't accidentally breed them out, although I did have a number of not-successes.
Toxic Starlet favored a whopping ten disciplines, of which, five were outside of his eye-values. So, I was certainly hoping to create a mini Toxic Starlet. And I certainly wasn't disappointed.
Venomous Prince
Perhaps the crowning glory of my project, even if I had the crowning success of my later foal, in Shepard's Serenity.
This stallion conquered a herculean nine disciplines. But, I do have to include here, that his temperament was stuck at bombproof. As was his sire.
Is A Pair Of Juggernaut Generalists The End?
So... where do such genes come from? Certainly Heart can account for a number of performance abilities. But what of the differences in eye-values and why can a horse perform so spectacularly in disciplines that they're no eye-fit for and fail just as spectacularly in disciplines that they appear to be much better suited in?
Could it be everything to do with the competition? Just always weak competition about?
Well, maybe it's wholly conformation scores instead? Although I don't have those values, those values are developed by the actual conformation of the horse itself, so, the eye-value with a measuring stick put to it.
Or is there something more in what Shepard's Serenity's body form and his genes themselves that what poor competition, conformation scores and heart can ultimately make up for?
My line proved itself as Western Specialists with a reach into the other medium-body disciplines, especially Cross Country and Show Jumping, but also claimed continuing dominance in Saddleseat, Poles and even Harness Racing. And it was very often just parent and offspring that separated such supremacy.
I had never been aiming for a record breaker, hadn't even gotten into my head to aim for such lofty areas.
But it started me down a long line of performance-favoring bloodstock.
And, in the end, it left me with more questions.
~~END?~~
*Find these in Part 1*
The Unpleasant Side Of Boarding Accounts
Unlucky Fates - When A Service Player Disappears
Interesting New Developments on HWO
Breeders' Special - Competitors' Gleam
A Look at Specialist and Generalist Horses and
What They Could Mean About Game Mechanics
-open for discussions-
Interesting New Developments on HWO
Breeders' Special - Competitors' Gleam
A Look at Specialist and Generalist Horses and
What They Could Mean About Game Mechanics
-open for discussions-
Forward
This article... may be a little harder to explain and get through.
And it'll probably be really long. Maybe even long in my book! -_-
That is one of the reasons I decided to extract it and give it a separate release, as Part 2. Plus some investigations and pulling certain horses together; this'll just take some time.
To keep things a bit straightforward, I'll only be using horses that I bred. Training and testing may not have been performed by me. However, the horses were not force pointed... to the best of planning. So, they might've been entered into a handful of large-field competitions, but it was not my intention (nor my desire, if I did not test them) to enter them into such fields. Other than the fact that my horse would mess up the force-pointing of intentional horses, such competitions give false results and waste precious time testing in disciplines they might not be otherwise suited for.
So, I do try to avoid them when I see them and I forward such information onward when appropriate.
And, unless otherwise stated, record holders aside, I did not try to hone any of my horses to improve their performances. Most of them were tested at moderate weight and even (bombproof aside). The light-weight ones may have been tested at moderately thin and spirited.
Also, Thank You, for all the record holder horse owners for their gallery image uses.
Breeders' Special - Competitors' Gleam
Possibly the one biggest goal for either a breeding account or a competition account, is to produce or compete a horse that just dominates a discipline.
To have a farm just Packed Full of titled horses is, indeed, a prideful moment and daunting to look at, if you're not the owner.
A player around here, that was in fact, their goal. It's been quite some time since I spoke to them or, yes, thought of them (my apologies), but even I was looking bleakly at their account when they began filling it up. And yet, I felt this sort of satisfaction looking through their horses. It was an odd feeling, but one I'm far from alien to. I feel good when I see others succeed... maybe it's the mentor in me.
So, yes, it's great to see a bunch of titled [assumed successful] horses filling up an account.
But, that's just an introduction. What I'm here to really discuss is the differences between successes.
To be clear, I'm not going to be discussing the horses like this one. These have been titled for specific reasons and identify an ongoing... we'll call it 'issue' with the competition system. To touch on it briefly, I'll simply say that the following statement is true: 'Any horse on HWO, can become titled to the highest titles, regardless of training, BR, scores... the entirety of on-paper.'
Eh... yeah.
So, what I am going to delve into, isn't 'what makes a horse a success' (because, face it, success is on the tongue of the judge), it is the differences between successful horses in competitions.
So I'm going to define (to keep things easy) success as: A horse in the competition barn, that maintains 70% WPS in one or more disciplines, maintaining such a percentage with a minimum of 20 starts and in mixed levels that include no more than 40% (estimated) at or below level 5.
To offer some insight on people that want to know or hear my personal testing methods. I test a horse in 4, usually level 10 competitions. If 4 level 10's are not available, I'll use level 9, then level 8 and finally level 7. I very rarely use a level 6 or below to start. If the horse maintains 75% WPS (which is at least 3 starts that the horse placed in either first, second or third) or better, I will stuff them into another 16 competitions varying from levels 5 to levels 10, this I often called 'trial'. Often times, a horse will point-out of any competition below level 4. I've had a couple horses point-out after their first 4 competitions to anything below level 6.
That's my testing method.
If one of my horses earn 85% or better (after all 20 competitions)... I may continue their career for quite some time. But that's generally for fun and falls outside of my testing needs. I don't aim for titles, although almost every one of my competition line have at least champion status, I'm generally a breeder and I'm tracking heart as well as talent. Which...
Brings us...
To this topic.
Facing Duality
As I created and bred-through my competition line (former grinder line, but still used as such), I found that some of my stock performed far different than others. I began to see significant changes in their overall discipline careers and found myself separating them into two basic categories. They become: Specialists and Generalists.
Specialists proved very strong competitors in a small handful (maybe even one alone) of disciplines, usually closely related in stats and body types (for instance, racing and harness or marathon driving and obstacle driving) but the others, the Generalists, proved successful across a far wider margin of disciplines and stretched further outside these groupings of similar discipline stats and body types.
Could it be the other competitors? Well, maybe, yeah, it could be. Although when I pitted these two separate types against each other, they fought back and forth, one side pulling better positions and scores and then the other side doing as much. And against other player's 'current' top horses, they would perform the same with them (the Generalists). And their horses would as often lose when facing my Specialists (not always, mind you, but often enough to impact my thought process). I don't know, maybe, just maybe, my bias pushed me to see something more than what actually exists.
I suppose it's a possibility! One thing I did see that separated the two types, is that the Specialists appeared to win and maintain a higher WPS (not percentage, but the actual placements, firsts over seconds and seconds over thirds) than the Generalists. This was something I didn't imagine. Overall, however, the Generalists pulled in far more than the Specialists ever did (overall collection of wins, all disciplines combined).
That said, two of my Specialists pulled records. *shrugs*
So are Specialists better over Generalists? I don't know. I think it comes down to preference. I can say that my Generalists gave birth to my Specialist that broke the first record and technically gave birth to my second record (in actuality, it was second record and third, for me). You'll meet them later.
First, I want to remind everybody on HWO. A Record Holder can come from Anywhere! Even now. And like most of our record holders, their on-paper may not look like much.
Indeed, our best looking on-paper horses don't often amount to anything but grinder-fodder (don't laugh at grinder-fodder, they have a viable and extremely useful existence on HWO, in fact, grinder-fodder lines can earn a person far more than many other options and is the quickest to get to).
Birth Of A Powerhouse Line
I had a project, quite some time ago, of grinding through all of the recipe-quests. Every Last One. It took well over a year, when I started on the project itself, and at that time I had somewhere between 10% and 25% already completed. So, tackling such a project is an undertaking.
During this project, I came to the late realization, that I needed good grinder stock to keep me moving through turns and breeding cycles. Before, I was just using whatever. I had a number of rather poor grinding stock, but this was also long before I was ever upgraded. So the slow days and the breeding-toward-req's kept my progress slow. Which may have been a boon to the project overall. Limiting irritation did help me get through. And CREEPERS! was their irritation! in that project... -_-
I don't remember who was the first to become my official grinder line. But I do have one that I did use, or at least tested. And she did start something.
Summer Luck
Although, I'm fairly certain she was renamed after I sold her. I had a habit of naming all of the recipe-quest horses human-like names.
She's still alive, stuck on an account that hasn't been active since 2018, mere days after they first signed up. I'm sure she was a gift to a newbie. Sad to see her there, but she lives on, in a fashion. She wasn't the foundation of my grinder line, but she was one of the first I trained and tested (I may not have trained or tested her, I no longer remember).
But, she certainly wasn't a competitor.
Her on-paper leaves nothing to suggest that she has anything hidden at all. Her best, [close-to] fully tested discipline was Dressage and she pulled her best score of 38.13% and a first in a level 1 comp. Current records have Dressage at 51%. Back then, the records had already been set in the 51% range. So... she was FAR from anything.
To note, she also had fair recordings of both Cutting and Endurance, as far as WPS % was concerned. I don't know why I didn't trial her in both of these. It could be that, like Dressage, she was still quite a long way off.
But she was a recipe-quest project mare and not something to toss into competitions. I'm sure I knew she wouldn't do anything in comps and just tossed her in there to see if my assumption was correct.
*I must also note, at the time, that I never looked at conformation scores. Since I was without upgrade, I simply did without it.*
Looking back at her on-paper, I see now, that my assumption was MORE than correct. For those that can't see her scores, here they are:
Speed 18 - 'average running speed'
Strength 40 - 'pretty strong, looks nice'
Stamina 25 - 'can't be sure on stamina'
Balance 42 - 'balance is average'
Movement 49 - 'very average, even in the way she moves'
Agility 23 - 'seems fairly agile'
Tempo 38 - 'pace needs a lot of work'
Intelligence - 'seems fairly intelligent'
I've also included a short note about her BR as well. I didn't include colors, all of the BR was non-colored.
I bred her to this gorgeous fellow for the recipe breed that results in Murgese (Arabian x Avelignese ] x [ North African Barb x Italian Heavy Draft). I chose him because he would significantly increase the mare's height and also significantly lighten her frame, toward the Murgese' lightweight and light size. But, I certainly didn't overlook the fact that he wasn't a giant of an arabian (thereby NOT imparting too much height) and that he was stacked in his on-paper. In fact, he is one of the few horses in his caliber that was also able to maintain a super-strong WPS.
He was only ever comp'ed in two disciplines, but he dominated both. Although, if he were reactivated today, he might lose that gorgeous WPS he has.
Suffice to say, my choice in the mare's potential mate covered not only what I needed for the recipe quest I was on, but also would cover the development of a grinder line. One that would continue my breeding quests but also run dual-purpose as grinders with some better ability than I had been (likely up to that point) lacking.
And she gave birth to what became the Matriarch of my Grinder/Competition line.
The Unassuming Dame
Adeline
She was purposefully bred. Purpose for dual work. And although I never really expected her to do too much (mainly because her dam was so unfortunate overall), I did decide to throw her against hosted competitions. And when I did, I certainly was surprised at what she accomplished. She was a Driven Dressage Specialist. And although she was far below the records at the time (56% compared to her best at 49.7%), she maintained a WPS of 83.8% and kept that rate fairly evenly in all firsts, seconds and thirds.
I suspect very highly that her sire had some good heart and maybe... just maybe her dam had something that was passed on as well. Though she never really showed much at all.
Adeline didn't give me my Murgese. But her son did. But after seeing her pull the type of competitions she did (at the time, she was the very best I had every produced), I did keep her around for awhile, eventually sending her into board, because what she did produce was not just a grinder line, but a first son by a very carefully selected stallion that broke my first record.
As a short aside. I chose the sire by matching Adeline's body form with his.
Tygrus Hero Shock
At the time of matching, he had produced only one other competitive foal. I'm sure he already had a record, but I don't recall it impressing me at the time, but it could've. He could've already been titled out to a high level. I just don't recall. And to finish this aside, I have had very, very few breed-outs cross as successfully as the Tygrus stock has. And although I have had other crossovers into their stock, and they have been successful, this particular cross still stands as the take-all of any of mine and any of many other's I've seen. Cross-outs, first foal, not a generation or two in.
So, yes, to say I'm biased about the history of my competition herd... it's a fact. My line certainly isn't the best one out there, but it holds it's own story with the best stories of beginnings among all of HWO.
And maybe would make a good 'historical record' story for HWO. She had heart, Adeline did, heart to strive. If my memory serves me well enough, I think she had an HGP in the mid 50's. Nothing great, nothing bad, but right there in that sweet spot where horses start to move from not being able to compete and into that area of starting to show something. It's a great spot to be too. It's an area where heart starts to become blatantly obvious. Where you start seeing your horse challenge proven competition stock and push the comp scores further upward. Where the proven horses need to win the comps, not by sheer on-paper alone, but by putting forth more effort that's still mostly hidden within them.
It's a nice sweet spot to be in. If you can pick up on it, you know in that moment, that you have a line worth developing into a Powerhouse Bloodline!
And although it didn't settle into my head what I had until later, as I look back now at those moments, I see the signs clearly. And can see them now, in other people's projects. Good learning experience, certainly.
As I said, I had the thought to develop a grinder line. I wanted to use her as my foundation dame. And I thought it was best to marry her body form (the actual look) to one that looked as clearly the same as I could. That's why I settled on Tygrus Hero Shock.
It was her first foal. I hadn't even used her in the recipe-quest project yet. I wanted to start a line of grinders and have them awaiting use whenever my 'current' one knocked off.
A Son Of Questions
Dominic
When he was born, I decided to use the same type of naming system I had already adopted with the recipe-quest project. After all, I probably had another Belgian breed I'd be needing somewhere else.
He looked almost like a duplicate of his mother, which was what I was hoping for... right down to his coat color. It could've been a number of different options, bay, chestnut, black, brown... depending on the genetics of both parents. But I have to say, basic brown has a type of classic elegance that's hard to match in the other base colors.
Overall, he had similar on-paper to his mother as well. Higher than her, as memory offers, but I'm pretty certain he didn't break 60k. 59k, I think, but I don't remember specifically. And, if you take a look at his owner's notes, you'll see 'Grinder Only' written in. My first assumptions.
Eventually I did enter him into comps, for those muffs & giggles. And I was surprised when shortly after his competition career began (December 9th, his first Show Jumping comp ran), he broke the Show Jumping record that had been held for more than a year previously (December 11th he broke the record).
His final score of 03:10.47 was broken only a couple days later by the same horse he beat out, one ∰ Mandus de Whyle (Final Score: 03:10.36). If you don't know the de Whyle stock, they're juggernauts, even today. But it would be another year before another horse took the record from that stallion.
I did try to get him to break another record, but this was still in my early times of learning how to compete a horse. If I had a horse like him today, things would've come out a bit differently, I think.
Suffice to say, it was a surprise when I logged in that day and found 'your horse broke a record' notification. Can you guess what my face looked like?
I think, my first thought was 'Which horse?' and then 'Did I have somebody entered?'^Likely thoughts, for me. -_-
His primary best disciplines (Show Jumping, Reining, Cross Country and Saddleseat) all have fairly close overall eye-look for body form. As far as stats are concerned, they run almost through all eight of them. Agility and Balance take three of the four disciplines main stats with these two found as the third and fourth in Cross Country. Strength and Stamina are the first and second pair of Cross Country and Strength falls as second in two of the other three disciplines.
So... although he's gone now and his BR and on-paper are also gone, he had a fairly even overall to pull in what he did. I'd consider him a Specialist, like his dame and his sire. Although, he carried over only one of his parent's specialties (and that would be Cross Country, from his sire).
He gave me six foals. One, a bay mare I named Spawning Light did almost nothing in competitions. Which was unfortunate, because her dame came from a line of record breakers, too. That dame didn't inherit the heart of her own parents, I suppose. That said, she gave me a foal that did excellently in light-weight disciplines, who gave me two foals (one medium-weight and the other another light-weight), that one, of which, gave me my second record holder (I'll get to my second record holder soon enough).
Of the other five foals that Dominic gave me, one was a powerhouse specialist, spanning seven disciplines (although I only counted six of them, those with WPS above 75%, one fell below 75% shortly after my final evaluation). This horse was a medium-weight style and thus took command over almost every one of the disciplines that fell into that area.
Another barely took anything at all, but did hold tight to Saddleseat, tight enough. This horse fell outside of the Saddleseat's lighter body frame. She had a medium-look to her. How she held on to the Saddleseat specialty? Maybe a lack of really strong competition.
And of the final three... they have their own stories to tell.
Master Blue was another that came from records on both sides of his line. And although he never took or produced any foals that took any records, he was a very solid competitor, keeping a hold of seven disciplines and reaching a Master Champion title in Barrels in only 70 starts. Of all of these seven disciplines, six of them have a medium-weight style. One fell outside of that, Saddleseat, which he maintained an 88.5% WPS. Although of the 26 starts, he pulled thirds in 13 of them, that still has an impressive feel to it. I'd still consider him a Specialist.
Then there was Radiant Striker. Now this stallion was produced some time after I had already gotten my bloodline going. I line-bred his dame back to her grandfather, Dominic, to see if I could build-up, or build-back-upon, those nice Show Jumping genes that Dominic had. What was produced, was Radiant Striker, which I had higher hopes for then he ended up giving me. Although he was his own powerhouse in (finally) seven disciplines, and showed great WPS overall, in Show Jumping (82.2%) and of the 45 starts, with 22 of them being firsts, he only pulled a final score of 3:10 twice in those 45 starts. Perhaps, I had simply not honed him in his weight and temperament enough. And although my hopes were dashed for him breaking another record... or besting his father's Show Jumping scores... he was his own powerhouse in his own right. Another Specialist with body-form falling close-to or within his best disciplines, with a slight deviance with Sprints (not enough hip angling visually, in my opinion).
And finally, there is Attempting Nobility, which was another of Dominic's children to adopt his overall body style. And although this horse was born bombproof, he was Dominic's best foal overall. Holding seven disciplines, three, of which, fall outside of his visual body-form and pulling two Master Champions in somewhere short of 65 starts, he was a mini-juggernaut in his own right. And he was the first of my herd that could be considered a Generalist.
But Attempting Nobility never produced any foal that was another Generalist like he was. He produced one that fell outside of the basic Cross Country eye-values and the other two were western specialists.
Although, Attempting Nobility's line was responsible for producing Resurrection Queen who was a Generalist, favoring seven competitions, where three were outside of those eye-values. And also Ashwraith who didn't do very much, but two of her three favored disciplines fell outside of her eye-values as well. Actually, Ashwraith was another powerhouse in her own right, maintaining >90% in two of those three favored disciplines.
Generalists' Favorite Spawns
Attempting Nobility (who, in my book, was a Generalist), along with Ocean Drifter (another Generalist with five, favored disciplines, three of them outside of eye-values), grandson of Spawning Light, gave me:
Eternal Rain
My second record breaker. Up to this point, Pole Bending had been a favored discipline for a couple generations, but one that fell within the eye-values of my bloodline. I hadn't been taking much notice to the discipline, not because it kept popping up in my bloodline over and over again (like I should have), but because, at the time, I was still staring at medium-weight, slightly bulky stock and had become blind to the actual separate scores of the disciplines themselves. When Eternal Rain was born, I had a whole herd of Generalists that I was working with and I had been attempting to produce a strong field of Generalists that covered a much wider arc of the disciplines.
She... was a surprise. Not only was her body-form lighter than even her sire, she still maintained some of the Generalist blood from both of her parents. Other than the Pole Bending record she took, she maintained strong WPS in Steeples, Cutting and Harness, these latter two falling outside of her eye-value, with Cutting being a fair-cry from it.
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At one point, in this competition, she cut 13 cows, with a final score of 13.05. At the time, the records sat at 14 cows with a score in the 14.20 to 14.40 range. Our current, level 10, record holder's best score sits at 14 cows with a final score of 14.70.
Alongside Eternal Rain, I was working with Defiant Wrath who was more of a Specialist then a Generalist, favoring five disciplines with only one outside of the eye-value. Her daughter, Defiant March who was an outcross to a March of Mephisto son (a serious stallion but also one with a ton of offspring). Defiant March was another Specialist with an eye-value outside of Cutting, one of only three favored disciplines.
Then there was Electrifying, another horse I got from Tygrus Hero Shock, but through a line-breed, a descendant of Dominic. I got a total of four offspring from Tygrus Hero Shock, three that I bred directly to him and one I purchased from another player who bred to him.
And finally, another that was born around the same time as Eternal Rain, was Harmonic Storm. Now, this mare, she was a little all over the place. Although most of my stock stayed fairly uniform in the way they inherited favored disciplines from their parents, this mare appeared to just mash-together all of her parents favored disciplines (well, all save two). Her sire, Autumn Blues was a Master Blue foal. A horse that was a little more like a black sheep of the rest of the bloodline. He favored Harness Racing and had very limited abilities overall. Autumn Notes, his dame, was a foal of a purchase-for-color mare. That color mare was bred to another color stud. So, Autumn Notes and her son, Autumn Blues, was meant to give my bloodline some Tobiano coloration. I have the genes, but sadly, the color didn't stick as well as I had hoped... yet.
But, after seeing Autumn Blues' competition record, I knew I had to recover him from such a weak crossing. It seemed that breeding his dame, Autumn Notes, to perhaps my best stallion (at least at that time), didn't quite complete the transformation I was hoping for. So that foal, Autumn Blues, I crossed to my best mare I had and it wasn't Eternal Rain. Although I can't recall exactly where, in her training and testing she was, I think... think she was still a baby. So I bred her to Resurrection Queen, the same mare that gave me Eternal Rain.
To say that mare, Resurrection Queen, had something in her... And she certainly kept her name true. Harmonic Storm, half sister to Eternal Rain, took after her mother's Generalist abilities, while still favoring her father's specialist areas. And this is where her story takes an even odder turn. Her favored disciplines were Sprint, Cross Country, Harness Racing, Pole Bending, Saddleseat, and Show Jumping. To give you a side-by-side, she's the one right in the middle and the others are current record holders.
| Sprint - 00:39.74 | 00:41.84 - 94.4%~~~27.5 - 89.4% | Cross Country - 23 |
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| Harness Racing - 02:31.31 | 02:45.78 - 93.8%~~~29.58 - 73.1% | Pole Bending - 27.03 |
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| Saddleseat - 65.85 | 54.48 - 88.9%~~~03:15.12 - 78.4% | Show Jumping - 03:04.71 |
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Why did I use current record holders? Well... nominally ease of pulling their information. Although records can move better from time to time, the records between when she was alive until now, really haven't moved all that much. Maybe as much as a point or a second, but likely not even that much.
However, if somebody takes offense to this, I suppose I can do a little more work and pull up the record holders at that time and use them instead.Why not use some horses that were top-of-the-class at that time, but weren't record holders? Because at any one point in time, the competition can be rather dominant or weak. If you base all of your horses performances on the competition at that time you will only ever have a horse that's great at that time. Which... ehem... at that time is great! Until the competition comes exploding back. Besides that... going through all that data, to choose just one horse to compare to your own, first, it's daunting and takes a lot of them. Second and more importantly, using the best-of-the-best to compare is far closer to how your horse measures up overall.
Harness Racing, Saddleseat and Sprint disciplines fell short of the 20 minimum entries I liked with testing. Likely the competitions were deleted before filling up to run... maybe.
Harmonic Storm, her body form itself was likely her biggest failure. The disciplines she should've probably excelled in, such disciplines like Hunter, Dressage, Working Ranch, Western Pleasure and Western Trail, all of these, have a medium-style body with a flat croup, she flunked out incredibly.
But it likely impacted her favored disciplines to the point that she couldn't pull better scores and times. And, of course, her bombproof temperament was a problem as well.
She was my first All-Rounder. Considering all of her failures and the successes she pulled. She fell right in there with the powerhouses I had produced. And another Generalist.
And, So Very Different from her half-sister!
Harmonic Storm gave me a mix of stock. Some good and solid, others rather meek and lacking. But she did give me a couple important foals that gave me my own, personal juggernauts as well as a overwhelming powerhouse, all of them, Generalists. I'll introduce that chapter shortly.
Eternal Rain, after having surprised me with everything she was (and after trying to hone her toward breaking more records, which she never did), I moved her over to the breeding shed and started looking for appropriate studs. I wanted... well, something with speed. And something that could pull her hips away from that flat croup she (as well as the rest of my stock) seemed to suffer from. They were getting way too flat and it was messing up my herd's performance ability (as evidenced by Harmonic Storm) and Eternal Rain's croup could be argued as even flatter than her sister's.
I also wanted a stud that was a powerhouse in his own right, so he had to have a stacked WPS. The higher the better. And I found him. He had been put up to stud for a limited time.
₰ℓ's Warlock Crown
And, not only was he stacked! He was another record holder himself.
****I got a LOT of record holder blood in this line!
****I had considered pulling Eternal Rain's lightweight frame back toward the medium areas. For awhile I had tossed it around. But then I realized again, how many different branches my humble grinder line had evolved into, and in such a short number of generations as well. So, with Eternal Rain, I decided that I should keep the lightweight branch of my line and separate them out from the main, medium-weight section.
And I bred to that stallion... Twice! And was not disappointed either time!
Before the stallion was finally pulled from public studding service, he covered quite a few mares. Mine weren't the only successes to come from him, but this isn't a story about ₰ℓ's Warlock Crown, so that's where I'll stop with him.
The two foals I got from my mare and that stud, remained Generalists, just like their dam, plus partially corrected her flat croup. And although I flutter back and forth with her one son's records being not-quite-generalist-but-not-quite-specialist status, I can't help but remember that he broke the same record his dame broke only a short time before.
Eh... so I have one record holder and one former record holder, rather than two record holders.
That colt is Cobalt Basilisk, her second foal and I bred back to that stallion because I liked her first foal so much.
| Snow Babe - First Foal | Cobalt Basilisk - Second Foal |
 |  |
Both of these stallions are still alive, so their tales aren't yet finished. So I'll button their side of this story with this.
Between the two of them, they both have given me rather mediocre Saddleseat Specialists. But they go on to give me (and other players) successful, mixed discipline offspring.
Of the other foals that Eternal Rain gave me, is another Tygrus Hero Shock foal, Shatter Storm that proved another specialist in the western disciplines, mostly. A Saddleseat specialist (suppose I know where her son's Saddleseat genes came from!
). A Show Jumping specialist that was bred to help infuse better competition genes into a purchased color line. And two, rather disappointing out-crosses that just don't appear to have much of the dominating genes the rest of my line seems to carry.Breeder's Special
Harmonic Storm
Harmonic Storm.
Down through Resurrection Queen, who's sire is a foal of Attempting Nobility, son of Dominic. Resurrection Queen, who's dame is down from Resurrection Seal who, himself is a powerhouse with a handful of disciplines and is a son of Spawning Light. And finally, Resurrection Queen, who's granddame through her dame, is a also a Dominic foal.
She could easily be said to be the fruition of a bloodline developed into a Generalist Powerhouse. And yet, she had so many flaws.
And this is just what a breeder should always be on the lookout for. A horse with flaws, that appears to fail in competitions and although holds good WPS and showing good heart, but has a laundry list of fatalities.
It's these horses that 'surprise' us with their get.
Of her four offspring, two of them were 'fixer' foals (one was also a color breeding). One of her foals was a total failure. And the last was another breed-back to Tygrus Hero Shock (did I tell you yet, that I liked this stallion?
). And he proved to be just what most of his other foals with me were, a Western specialist with out-reaching in Cross Country and Show Jumping.But, those other three foals weren't total failures, just in the show shed, did they fail exceptionally. The total failure's line was eventually bred back to Eternal Rain to change that fate, producing Eternal Throne. Of the other two, the non-color foal's line, gave me two promising foals, a colt and a filly, not yet fully tested.
And of the color line? Yup, here is where it gets interesting again.
That line gave me a Saddleseat Specialist, a Cross Country and Show Jumping Specialist and one gorgeous color horse that was a Powerhouse Generalist. His name was Shepard's Serenity and I will get back around to him in a moment.
Electrifying
Harmonic Storm's best foal, Electrifying, wasn't anything to underestimate in the show shed. With five favored disciplines and with a worst WPS in these five at 84.3%, he quickly became a mini juggernaut in the Western competition circuit. But he wasn't a Generalist that I had been so diligently at work with producing. Not really a surprise, when I bred back to the same stud that created my line. They started as Western Specialists, with a slight leaning toward Cross Country and Show Jumping. So, his record wasn't a surprise, just another delight, after all, all of the foals I got from Tygrus Hero Shock were exceptional... or rather, exceptionally hidden with certain genes. After all, Tygrus, himself, came down from a line of almost wholly untested stock.
But Electrifying's story goes another step further. He had ONE foal. Why only one? Not sure, I simply don't remember at the time, why I had chosen only one foal. But that foal became one of two ultimate Juggernauts and was certainly a sight to watch him accumulate his disciplines.
Competitor's Gleam
Shepard's Serenity
This stallion had it all! Color, color and competition record!
His body form fell outside of his favored disciplines. All of them, the closest being Show Jumping. If I put him up, like I did his grandmother, Harmonic Storm...| Sprint - 00:39.74 | 00:41.26 - 91.3%~~~22.02 - 80.4% | Barrels - 00:20.97 |
|  |  |
| Reining - 55.95 | 49.10 - 81.8%~~~28.48 - 74.1% | Pole Bending - 27.03 |
| | |
| Cutting - 14.7 | 12.98 - 80%~~~03:16.44 - 77.6% | Show Jumping - 03:04.71 |
| | |
As I said just before, Electrifying only gave me one foal. Bred to Toxic Starlet, a grandson of Resurrection Queen [and another Juggernaut Generalist in his own right]. I was trying to expand on the the Queen's genes, but she ended up giving me Tempest Dominion, who wasn't much of a competitor, but did favor four disciplines, three, of which, did fall outside of her eye-value. But, once again, the genes that hide are the genes that give new prominence to the forthcoming foals. Lucky, Lucky me, that I didn't accidentally breed them out, although I did have a number of not-successes.
Toxic Starlet favored a whopping ten disciplines, of which, five were outside of his eye-values. So, I was certainly hoping to create a mini Toxic Starlet. And I certainly wasn't disappointed.
Venomous Prince
Perhaps the crowning glory of my project, even if I had the crowning success of my later foal, in Shepard's Serenity.
This stallion conquered a herculean nine disciplines. But, I do have to include here, that his temperament was stuck at bombproof.
As was his sire.Is A Pair Of Juggernaut Generalists The End?
So... where do such genes come from? Certainly Heart can account for a number of performance abilities. But what of the differences in eye-values and why can a horse perform so spectacularly in disciplines that they're no eye-fit for and fail just as spectacularly in disciplines that they appear to be much better suited in?
Could it be everything to do with the competition? Just always weak competition about?
Well, maybe it's wholly conformation scores instead? Although I don't have those values, those values are developed by the actual conformation of the horse itself, so, the eye-value with a measuring stick put to it.
Or is there something more in what Shepard's Serenity's body form and his genes themselves that what poor competition, conformation scores and heart can ultimately make up for?
My line proved itself as Western Specialists with a reach into the other medium-body disciplines, especially Cross Country and Show Jumping, but also claimed continuing dominance in Saddleseat, Poles and even Harness Racing. And it was very often just parent and offspring that separated such supremacy.
I had never been aiming for a record breaker, hadn't even gotten into my head to aim for such lofty areas.
But it started me down a long line of performance-favoring bloodstock.
And, in the end, it left me with more questions.
~~END?~~
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