Re: Stained Glass Stud - watch the evolution of painted Irish Draughts!

[-Koji]

Hey, everyone! I've been a HWO player since 2015, and was on the old game around 2005, but have pretty much just been lurking ever since. I started a new project last year and thought it would be neat to document my horses as they evolve into my vision. I'm quickly coming up on Year 100, so I thought it would be a great time to start. If nothing else, just enjoy some pretty pictures!

Stained Glass Stud is my latest and most ambitious long-term project; technically, it's a sub-project of my Irish Draught/Sport Horse line. While I'm proud of what I've achieved with them, I just wasn't quite...in love with them. It's been a very long and difficult project with all of the breeds and requirements needed just to get a starter herd of Irish Draughts. I had just started consistently getting 1st generation Draughts, but they were lacking in a lot of ways. Thus, I decided to take a break and start breeding flashy Grades (from scratch) that are my ideal version of them, with the intent to breed my Irish Draughts back to them until they become one line.

My ideal version of them is a bit of a far cry from what they look like IRL; instead, I've decided to go for more of a drum horse/Gypsy Vanner type. I'm looking for medium light to medium heavy build, lots of facial markings and tobiano, huge feathers, ~60% pony type, with high HGP and stats/conformation to make them good all-around English horses. I'm primarily focused on Hunter/Jumper and Eventing, since I still can't decide what direction to go in after all of these years. I originally intended to not care much about COI since it doesn't impact the game much at this point, but ended up caring about preserving genetic diversity pretty early in the project just to keep things interesting. I aim to keep it under 50% right now, but that may or may not change later.

The beginning was a bit of a challenge. I started out with AC horses (mainly NABs and Shetlands for color, and a few Forest Horses to keep them bulky) and mostly bred them to each other, since I had trouble finding cheap, good quality public studs with tobiano of any breed. I did get a little bit of a leg up through using some tobiano Mustang studs early on, as well as my NAB stallion Black Flame from my side project.


- MCh.++ ✵ Black Flame

Here's a quick overview of some of my favorite horses that got this project to where it is now:




































































- My first foal to break 65 movement!






























































- This guy maturing was the moment I said, "I can see the finish line!"


- ...and his son, the first colt to truly dazzle me with his looks.

[-Koji]

February 2022 - Year 85+

To start off, here are some of my favorites from my current breeding stock:




























Lately, my biggest accomplishments have been getting some heavier build into my stock, and 60+ movement is becoming super common, too! I had to sacrifice some facial markings to get there, so that will be a big focus for now. I also got addicted to seal browns (and seal brown roans) which ended up leading to way more dilute foals than I'd like, as it's harder to cull them at birth when I can't see their markings clearly. I'm trying to focus more on other colors in the meantime, so I have a lot of variety right now!

[Cypress Creek Elites]

These guys are stunning! I love how you've been able to accomplish a size/type probably well suited for movement disciplines that doesn't just look like a sausage

[-Koji]

These guys are stunning! I love how you've been able to accomplish a size/type probably well suited for movement disciplines that doesn't just look like a sausage

Thank you! That is definitely a goal of mine, lol. Now I'm going to call those "sausage horses" forever.

[-Koji]

April 2022 - Year 90+

I'm back after another short hiatus! You'll notice that trend as I tend to binge-play the game and then not touch it for a couple of months. I'd probably never get anything done IRL if that wasn't the case, lol.

I'm proud to announce the arrival of 65 Movement foal #3! This filly is even more of an accomplishment than the last 2, because she actually has face markings and a medium build. I definitely didn't expect that out of her parents, but I am not complaining.




I also got to say hello to 65 Movement foal #4 today...she was just as unexpected, and now I'm excited that things are progressing so quickly! I guess that's the beauty of breeding Grades. In a few generations, I'll probably be able to focus more on the next step: adding HGP and strength.





This stunning young man finally hit 3 years old, and I'm already struggling to not overbreed him:




----------------------

A bunch of typey stunners have hit maturity lately, and I'm thrilled to be meeting so many goals already. It's all starting to come together now! I can almost start to consider putting Irish Draught blood into the herd at this point, but I want a little more consistency...mainly in build and facial markings, which have been a little elusive.






















----------------------

I'm proud to announce some fantastic new colts, too! I'm very picky with the boys that I keep, but lately, I haven't been able to say no to all the gorgeous and/or high quality colts that have been born at SGS. I'm taking that as a good sign!

This guy is on the light side for this project, but...just look at him.




This colt is still a baby, but I can already tell he's going to be typey and gorgeous. He probably has one of the best breeding reports I've bred in this project so far, too!




I even got yet another 65 movement colt! I didn't expect it from this pairing. Gotta love when a stud already produces his replacement at 4 years old, lol.




----------------------

Next up: I'll probably be focusing on getting my herd nice and typey like the painted drum horse look I'm going for, while adding a bit of outside blood here and there to keep things interesting (and COI down). Time to prepare to add some Irish Draught blood and start the whole process of breeding tobiano back into my herd again once I do (ugh)...and getting the consistency I talked about above is the next step to make that process a little easier.

[Gabby Woodlark]

Great horses! And- Don’t get me started on the cuteness of the colts!!!

I sure hope you reach your goal soon!

-Gabbs

[-Koji]

May 2022 - Year 95+

I'm a little late posting my May update, but I've made a lot of progress! As I talked about in my last post, it was time to add a little bit of outside blood to the herd to keep things interesting! I chose a couple of cheap mares from the market that fit the bill. Finding new stock that fits in is not an easy task when you're this far into a project...I may have to resort to AC stock in the near future just to avoid fighting to get strong tobiano genes back into solid-colored horses that have the look and stats I'm going for. That gets old pretty quick; those genes can be so stubborn!

I got this adorable little mare for a steal at the ripe old age of 20, and so far, she's surprised me with more nice foals than I expected to get out of her. It'll soon be obvious that I have a weakness for snips, both IRL and in the game, and I loved her unique little sliver of a snip. I had to get that into my herd. Being a 2nd gen NAB, her 0% COI will definitely help on that front, but that of course comes with a price: slowly working those stats back up over many generations.




I was blessed with a filly with her exact snip after breeding her with one of my lower-stat (but extremely typey) boys:




At the same time, I picked up a Paso Fino mare with 51 movement whose conformation should be a good influence. Crossing my fingers that she passes on some primitive markings as a bonus!




She immediately turned around and gave me a 60 movement filly with a cute stripe and what appears to be those same neck stripes (she's 9 months old at the time of writing this, so it's hard to tell). That movement was an awesome surprise; I can't wait to see what else she gives me!




------------------------------------

Speaking of snips, I forgot to mention my new line last month. It's not much, but it has me excited for new face markings. It all started with these 2 mares that I bred after finding a Cleveland Bay stud with the perfect snip:


and


Luckily, that snip has proven to be easy to pass on! I can't wait for it to be everywhere in my herd.






I even have gorgeous grandkids sporting the big snip already:




I got to welcome a bunch of gorgeous stock to the breeding program as they hit 3 or 4 years old:
















It's been a great month for Stained Glass Stud, and I couldn't be happier with how quickly I'm making progress with this project! I'm honestly considering moving back to my main account and doing some serious work on my actual Irish Draught herd, because they don't begin to compare to these guys. And if that's hard to believe, here's my best stud in that herd:




As you can see, I have a lot of work coming up! Things are getting interesting, and I'm loving it.

[-Koji]

June 2022 - Year 98+

Here's a quick (and very overdue) look at how my herd is progressing! I'm very happy with how quickly things are improving; I've basically gotten all of the traits I've been aiming for, I just need to...put them all together.





















I'm particularly happy about this guy, who practically embodies what I was going for with this project. Can't wait to overbreed him!



I'm also pleased to announce our first 66 movement homebred! I can't believe I've already hit this milestone.



I'm loving our first stud with a snip - at the time of writing this, he's already given me one gorgeous foal.