January 2020- The HEE Newspaper
This month we would like to welcome;
Summer!- Summer is joining us in writing articles about real life horse care!
Moonglade Manor and Star Catcher Estate! -These lovely folks will be keeping an eye out for any new members, each month we will compile a list of the new members and they will all receive a welcoming gift!
Arrowhead Valley!- You know this name! Arrow is one of our amazing editors, but starting next month, Arrow will write a column on real life riding tips and tricks!
Keep an eye out for these in our next issue!
Hello and welcome to the 3rd Issue of the HEE Newspaper! Want to play a game? Read below!
Whoo! This is going to be so much fun, I have a little surprise for the HEE Community... See little Sexy Sven up there on the head banner? Yeah, we're going to put him on one of Thunda's (White_thundacat, 151030) horses in one of her multiple barns. There will be one winner, and they will receive their choice of a 3 month upgrade or 150k! {This has just been matched by Thunda, she has offered to donate ONE MILLION Ebs to the winner as well!!} This starts February 10th, and ends February 29th at 11 pm GT. There will only be ONE winner, first person to find Sexy Sven wins! (Cassa will be making a forum and will be posted here once made! - found here- https://horseeden.com/forums.php?f=21&t=35403 ) Happy Hunting!!
This month we had some great features added to the game! Which include;
Tye Dye Tack!
The New Stable Raid party!
Purple Swirl Tack!
Updates to our TOS, Privacy Policy and Game Rules!
Report Buttons!
New Stable Activities Art! (get used to using Stable<Stable Activities because the drop down menu on your stable page will be removed :) )
Thanks Eve!
Training your horses is very important for AD/SD lines, and yet I still see tons of breeders ignoring it. I get it if you’re breeding for something like color or bravery, subjects which don’t require matching through the training bar — I don’t waste ebs on riders for accounts that don’t do AD or SD either. What makes little sense is leaving AD/SD horses riderless and/or untrained, as it makes correctly matching impossible and stunts your breeding program, and making you unable to show well. Here, I’d like to explain how to track training and match, two paired things which will boost your breeding outcomes by a long shot.
To track training, your horse needs a paid rider. To give your horse a rider, go to your horse’s page, Manage Your Horse>Assign Rider. Once a rider is assigned, go to Stable>Riders Lounge and make sure that your rider/s are paid. If you are a premium account, there will be a “Pay All Riders” button. If you are a free account, go through each rider’s page and pay them individually.
Now that you’re sure your riders are paid, go to Stable>Training Center. If you have horses that are still available to train, they will pop up on the list. Hit the “Train” button to train the horses on the list. Horses can be trained once a week, resetting every Monday. Be sure to train your horse every week to keep up on the tracking of training.
FOR SD
Depending on the discipline chosen, only three stats will go up on the training bar. For dressage this is Mv, Int, Str. Cross Country is Hrt, Spd, Str, and show jumping is Hrt, Scp, Spd. Different breeders have different requirements, but this is typically what I expect from my SD lines. Weeks one and two — nothing will go up. Week three— nothing has to go up, but if it does, that is a plus. It shows strength. Week four— all three bars up. On weaker lines I sometimes let mares slide if they have one down, but anything down with a colt is an automatic geld. Week five— nothing goes up. Week six and seven— nothing has to go up, but if something does that is good. Once again, it shows strength. Week eight— for fillies/mares, I want at least two up. Colts/stallions are preferably all up. Week nine— if you let a down bar slide on week eight, now is the time for it to be all up. If it’s not, cull the horse. Remaining weeks— I haven’t made a baseline for the remaining weeks, but it should follow the same pattern.
FOR AD
All discipline horses should level in all bars. If it’s been a while and they still aren’t, the horse is too weak to stay in the breeding program and should be culled. The bars that go up on “strength weeks” will change depending on what that horse is strong/weak in, so it sets only a number as a baseline. Here’s what to look for. Weeks one, two, and three — nothing will go up. I’ve only ever seen one AD horse go up week three. Week four — at least three bars up. Weaker horses go up one or two, or possibly none. Those are horses I’d geld/cull. Week five — all bars must be up. If a horse is down a bar or more, they are weak and should be gelded/culled. Week six— nothing will go up. Week seven— very strong horses can have a few bars up this week. I don’t set a requirement for upward movement here, though. Week eight— at least three up. The amount of bars going up should be the same as or better than week four. Week nine— all bars should be up. Anything down shows weakness. Like SD, I don’t have any requirements for the weeks after, but they should follow a similar pattern.
Now, how do you track the training?
Let’s say we’re on week four and our AD horse has gone up a bar in Mv, Int, Scp, and Spd in the training gauge. Go to Manage Your Horse>Edit Remarks and write “WK4~” in the box that pops up. Now look at the order of the bars in the gauge. It goes Mv, Int, Hrt, Scp, Spd, Str. At this week, our imaginary horse has two bars in Mv, Int, Scp, and Spd, and one bar in Hrt and Str. So write that in your remarks. This example would be “WK4~ 2-2-1-2-2-1”. For SD, you would do the same thing, but use three numbers instead of six. On weeks that your horse doesn’t raise up any bars, just put “//” to say that it made no changes to the gauge. To give you a better understanding of all that I’ve described, here is what the remarks of my young SD stallion look like.
WK1/2/3~ //
WK4~ 2-2-2
WK5/6~ //
WK7~ 3-3-3
Now for a talk on matching.
White Hills runs a matchmaker off of HEEN, which you can find in the game’s forums here. Check that out for all of your matching needs. But, just to give a small grasp on why tracking training (like shown above) is important, I will give a quick rundown of the basics.
Matching means pairing together horses to breed based on a few factors, primarily both of the horse’s strengths and weaknesses. These strengths/weaknesses are seen through the training you’ve tracked. To pair based on this, look at the important training weeks (4 through 9) and see what bars go up on strength weeks (4 and 8, possibly but rarely 7). Any bars that don’t go up on a strength week or stay down on an “even week” (5 and 9) is a weakness.
Let’s make up a couple training week records to use as an example.
Mare: WK4~ 1-2-1-1-2-2
Stallion: WK4~ 2-2-1-1-1-2
If you were to only look at this week, then you’d say that the horses do not fully match. For detail: the mare’s strengths are Int, Spd, and Str, which leaves Mv, Hrt, and Scp down. The stallion’s strengths are Mv, Int, and Str, leaving Hrt, Scp, and Spd down. So, compare the training records side by side, one by one. For Mv: mare is down, the stallion is up — this makes a good match for this skill because the stallion makes up for the mare’s weakness. For Int: both are up, meaning there is no worry and, more or less, they match in this skill too. For Hrt: they are both down, meaning they don’t match because neither horses make up for the weakness. For Scp: both are down — they don’t match. For Spd: the mare is up, the stallion is down — the mare makes up for the weakness, so they match here. For Str: they are both up, so they match.
When matching, you don’t want any weaknesses to pair up. This means that the pairing above does not match. Anyhow, there are other things to matching, but this is the main factor in if your match is all right.
By; Amhain Dull Liath
Q: Where can I find the new rules/Where are all the rules compiled?
A: -HEE Click- or under the chat box
Q: What are the different tiers of artists and how can I decide which one to put my art in?
A: There are three tiers, Tier 1 (100k+ for the average piece), Tier 2 (50k-100k per piece) and Tier 3 (50k or less per piece). To decide, you could always post a couple pieces in an auction, see what they sell for and decide from there, you could also post in the forums (art help is the recommended place for this).
Q: How often do capture parties happen?
A: Capture parties happen every 3 months!
Q: Can I get a horse back from the FR?
A: Yes, you can for 10k as long as you bred or captured the horse and retrieve it before the game clears it out at night.
Q: Can we submit questions to the Q&A section?
A: Yes! Please do, I will answer them as soon as I can and they will post it in the paper (if you’d like).
Thanks for reading and see you next month!
- Hallucination manor (243688)
HEE Interview with Charmed Estates (196256)
Done by Tanglewood (283617)
Topic: Single Discipline Cross-Country Breeding
Q: Do you need to match for a single discipline XC?
A: While I do not believe it is as crucial to success in SD horses as AD, it is beneficial to match strengths and weaknesses in any breeding. I mainly focus on matching when I have a mare or stud with an obvious weakness.
Q: Is training important?
A: Training is SO important. I use training to cull the colts before they are of breeding age, and to discern whether I should test a mare or just brood her for profit. I like to see 1-2 up week 3, all up weeks 4 and 8 are a must, and I only test a horse if I see those weeks 3 and 7s coming in strong. I am at the point now where I don’t test a colt myself unless they are all up week 7. Not that sometimes production and training do not match, but most times, training indicates how well a horse will produce.
Q: Should you ideally record the training?
A: Absolutely. It helps you to know if they gain bars on weeks 3/7 or repeat past weeks, gain/lose bars, etc. It is crucial to record training.
Q: What is your favourite part of it?
A: My favorite part of it is being able to add new blood to the SD LBs and add new colors/genes/etc! SD was something I had not planned to stick with, but it is fantastic for someone like me who has a capture bug, since it is easier to capture a horse with one strong trait than all three being knockout ratings.
Q: Which breeds are the strongest and weakest?
A: I see some strong Thoroughbreds and RID, but I know that the KNNs are strong, especially in dressage I believe. If we’re looking at specifically XC strength, definitely RID and TB. X are fairly weak, and I don’t think many people breed SD SH or RID, either. My program is PON, TB, SH, and will hopefully expand to strengthen all the breeds as the fiscal ability comes :)
Q: How do you choose which horses to keep and which to cull?
A: I keep all of mine, because there is plenty of money in SD broods and geldings. How I decide which will be personal stock and which are public usually starts in the training process. If they are not strong in their training weeks 3 and 4, they get moved to a brood barn, and then I track 6, 7, 8 which repeat. After I have bred ALL mares three times (5yo year) I look at progeny. If they haven’t produced one World Class rating in that time, they get moved over to broods. As for stallions, I am very picky and therefore cull if I don’t see an all up w4 and w7. From there, I’m looking to see 15/20 keeper foals, E or WC ratings. If a stallion does not meet these requirements or have no significant advantage for my program, they get gelded or sold to a newer stable if strong but just not needed.
Q: Are other breeds more likely to do well than others?
A: You have your best bet with RID, TB, and probably PON are third strongest, said without a /ton/ of experience in the X/RID/SH/AA world. While these can be more expensive, getting the right stock and using top studs will get your program up and running in no time.
Q: Can SD XC be profitable?
A: SD can maintain its own fiscal wellness, but it isn’t really going to afford you a top ABLB AD match unless you do a large scale, 20 top studs, tons of broods, etc. I suggest that it is better for new stables because it will be less of an investment and offers better shots at quick success if done correctly.
Q: Any tips for new breeders?
A: Use top LB studs and do not just settle for any mares. Choosing your investments wisely produces a better outcome. Cull effectively, and good things will continue to flourish.
Q: Anything else you’d like to say?
A: SD is a very rewarding and fun area of breeding to go into, and can produce fruitful results. I suggest that it is better for new stables than jumping right into AD because quality matches can be very pricey. SD gives a brilliant taste of what HEE breeding is like without having to.
Column 003: Visualization & Stock
One of my favorite ways to get inspired is to host Post Your Pony. Each month, all members are welcome to enter a horse into the contest for a chance to win a free horse avatar. I love seeing their creative ideas and fancy ponies. January’s winner was Rocky Mtn Paints with her mare, The Morrigan. In this column, I will explain how her piece was created.
Google is a valuable tool in researching ideas for a work of art. However, images and ideas can’t be used straight from the search. Instead, collect key information and jot it down on paper, scribble it into your editing software (like PhotoShop or Gimp), or sketch out your idea.
The Morrigan is a Celtic goddess of a darker nature, representing both life and death, a shape-shifter who features wings and has crows for companions. She also keeps watch over areas of water such as lakes or rivers. Keeping this in mind, I looked for stock that went well with this vision. Free sites like DeviantArt or Unsplash have plenty of stock to choose from. Also available are sites like AdobeStock or Shutterstock which are pay-to-use sites. In order to see whether or not pay-to-use stock works for you, you can download the previews first so you don’t waste money.
Here, you can see how I laid out this piece using the watermarked preview images. To represent The Morrigan, I wanted to portray her as darker, more stoic character so I chose a pose with minimal movement where her face is pointed more towards the viewer. It’s also possible that she sees you, the viewer, as an intruder in her hidden oasis. Keeping her position in mind, I found a set a crow wings that were in a similar pose to represent her shape-shifting abilities. When using wings, making sure the position matches the subject helps to pull the piece together better than a mismatched set. The finished background is made up of 3 images: foreground (grass), background (waterfall, river, and rocks), and the sky. Because I was headed for a darker character, the background setting should also be of a darker nature. Lighter elements such as small flowers and light rays also represent The Morrigan since she is also associated with life. To see the completed version of The Morrigan, please catch her here.
Each site or stock provider can operate differently in the way they want to be credited. For some, you may only need to credit the actual site, like Shutterstock or Adobe Stock. For others, like DeviantArt or Unsplash, you will need to credit the stock provider (or username) and the site. Also, each stock provider may have their own rules about how and where to use their stock.
Several stock photos went into creating this piece and they must be credited appropriately. In the planning stage, if I find myself using quite a few stock photos, I will generally try to use the same providers. This decreases the amount of credit text on the finished image. For The Morrigan, most of the stock came from Shutterstock and Adobe Stock. The only exception is the horse, who came from ElaineSeleneStock on DeviantArt.
Below are some helpful forum threads regarding crediting:
How to Credit Art on Horse Eden
Stock Providers and Stock Usage Tips
If you have any special requests you would like to see included in The Art Corner, please contact me through Horse Eden (#28845).
Until next time,
Coldwater Meadows
Purple Pegasus Farm- For all your Bravery and Eventing needs!
Home of;
https://horseeden.com/horse.php?id=20580083 - PPF Solius- World Class Bravery
https://horseeden.com/horse.php?id=20959475 - PPF Brisingr - World Class Bravery
And many other studs and mares up for breeding and brood, take a look here!- https://horseeden.com/stable.php?id=188657
Cassa Belle- Specializing in eventers, colour and breeding new lines!
Home of-
https://horseeden.com/horse.php?id=21258791 - Jinx! - Wild EEE TB stud
https://horseeden.com/horse.php?id=21014426 - Lavinia Wild EEE Appendix QH mare
Check out their broods here!- https://horseeden.com/stable.php?id=196668
Want an ad in the newspaper? Pm Cassa @ 196668 in game; https://horseeden.com/stable.php?id=196668
Want to donate to the HEE Newspaper? Pm Cassa at the above link.