WikiBreeding & genetics
Breeding basics
Covering a mare, seasons, fees, foaling and standing a stallion.
Breeding is how a stable gets better than the horses it started with. You pair a stallion with a mare, the foal arrives a day later, and its genes are a fresh roll of both parents. Good lines compound over generations; bad luck is part of it too.
Who can breed
- Horses must have reached racing age (all 19 care sessions as a youngster done).
- A racing horse can breed once it has run 25 starts. Any horse sent to stud (stallion) or made a broodmare (mare) can breed straight away. See Stud & broodmares.
- Geldings never breed. Horses retired for good to the The Legacy Farm never breed again.
- Every horse has 4 breedings in its lifetime. When they are used up it no longer stands at stud (a racing horse keeps racing), and a horse at stud retires for good.
- A stallion rests 12 hours after each covering, half as long as a pregnancy, before he can cover again, whoever’s mare it is. He stays in the stud book meanwhile, marked “Resting · available again in … h”. A mare’s rest is her pregnancy: one foal at a time, 24 hours.
- Close relatives can’t be paired (parent and child, full siblings), and related pairings carry an inbreeding cost: Inbreeding & kinship.
By the numbers live from the rules
- Mare: coverings per season
- 1
- Stallion: coverings per season
- 4
- Breedings per lifetime
- 4
- Racing starts before a racing horse can breed
- 25
- Pregnancy (the mare's rest)
- 24 hours
- Stallion's rest after a covering
- 12 hours
- A season lasts
- 28 days
How to breed a foal
- Open Breeding under Stable and pick a mare.
- Choose a stallion: one of your own (no stud fee), another stable’s stallion at stud, or a Club stud.
- Read the preview: a few possible looks (sample foals drawn for this pairing), an outlook in one sentence (for example “Usually close to your mare, with a real chance to beat both parents”), the nick, and warnings in words (close relatives, fragile legs in the family). It shows no odds and no genes: it is worked out only from what is already public about the two horses, so the real foal is still a surprise. See Genetics & inheritance.
- Pay the fees and cover the mare. The foal’s genes are sealed at this moment and can be verified later.
- 24 hours later the foal is due. Name it and it moves into a free stall, or the nursery if your stalls are full.
- Raise it with daily care until racing age: Growing up.
Fees
Every covering costs a platform fee of 1,500 credits, which leaves the game. Using another stable’s stallion adds its stud fee; that owner receives the fee less a 10% cut.
| Covering | You pay | Stallion owner gets | Leaves the game |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your own stallion | 1,500 | – | 1,500 |
| Another stable's stallion, fee 2,000 | 3,500 | 1,800 | 1,700 |
Standing a stallion at stud
A stallion of yours can stand at stud for other stables at a fee you choose (or free), up to his appraisal (never less than 500 credits). Each visiting mare uses one of his coverings for the season and one of his lifetime breedings, and you earn the fee. Stallions with a strong race record and good genes get the bookings, and a better record raises the most he can stand for. Accounts the game has linked to each other can’t pay each other stud fees. See Stud & broodmares.
Where foals go
Foals need a stall. If every stall is taken they wait in the nursery and move in as soon as one frees up. More stalls come from Facilities.