Getting Started On StockHorseCorp: Strategy Basics

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Getting Started On StockHorseCorp: Strategy Basics

This guide will help you figure out the michanics of the game and how to succeed and build your strong.

1. Figuring out Daily Gain
2. When to Enter Next
3. Weekly Pay
4. Breeding Basics
5. Summary

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1. Figuring out Daily Gain

• Figuring out Daily Gain: On your second day on Shoco; all your horses should have one show session under their belts. Start by completing your daily training. Then check on your horses. Take a look at how each mare did. They will likely have all have lost money in showing but that is ok, that is what start up money is for. A score near or above 1.00 is very promising, but do not be discouraged if they are lower, it is not too likely. Get a feel for how all your horses did then enter them again. Be sure you enter in the exact same class that you did before. Once training and showing are finished you are ready to hang out on the forum for a while.
  
  
• The next day you should have a set of two results for each horse in a single class. Take day two and subtract day one from it to give you the horse’s daily gain. D2 – D1 = Daily Gain. The closer the gain is too 1.00 the better. If your mares showed in Halter this is their Halter gain. If your mares showed in Trail this is their Trail gain.
  
  
• Now that you know the gain for one class try the second class. Show them again twice, back to back. Again, you want to show them in the same class two times in a row. (If you showed Halter last time do Trail this time, if you did Trail last time do Halter now.) Do not forget to train everyday.
  
  
  
  • If our example horse scored a 2.00 on day 1 in Halter, a 3.00 on day 2 in Halter, a 1.5 on day 3 in Trail and a 2.00 day 4, then the daily gains can be found as follows.
    
    
    
    • 3.00 (D2 Halter) – 2.00(D1 Halter) = 1.00 daily gain in Halter.
      
    • 2.00 (D2 Trail) – 1.50(D1 Trail) = .50 daily gain in Trail.
      
    
    
  • That means this example horse is better in Halter than in Trail.
    
  
  
  
• On your fourth day you should have two back to back Halter class scores and two back to back Trail class scores. Do your mares have good scores in either of these classes? A horse with good scores will show a gain of .85 or better in an class. All creates will be talented in at least one of the four classes but may not show well if they lack quality. Half of your horses should have talent in Halter/Trail. The rest will have talent in other classes but they are too young to show in them yet. You will not be able to tell if your mares is a dud or just needs a different class until she is a bit older. More detail on talent and quality will be covered in the showing section.
  
  
  
• Now you know the daily gain of each of your mares in Halter (Conformation) and Trail (Tractability) classes. You will want to use this data to figure out when to enter your mares in shows and what stallions to breed them too. More detail will be given in the showing and breeding guides. But for now you only need to know the basics.
  
  The other alternative to show testing your mares, is to purchase a Full Training Exam from the menu on the left of the page. This exam costs 4500sbs, and is not reccommended for new players on a budget. Most classes cost less than 300 sbs to enter, so it is definitely cheaper to enter 4 classes to test your mares than to spend all your money on the Full Training Exam!
  
  
  
• Advanced Tip: If you horse clearly has a very low score in an event, under .40 for example, you can skip showing them a second time in that event since you already know they are bad. However you may find it easier to follow the guide if you go ahead and show the full 4 times.
  
  

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2. When to Enter Next

• As you may have noticed, while you gained valuable information from show testing your mares they did not produce any money for you. That is because the other horses in their classes have already had more training and experience than yours. Take your horses who did not show talent in Halter or Trail and set them aside. You will not be able to show them more until they are older.
  
  
• To figure out when you need to enter next you will want to take a look at those first classes. You need a 4th place or better to break even or win money in a Novice level class. Take your 20 class results from the testing and find the average score for a 4th place finish. You can find your results by clicking on the class name that is underlined in your horses showing record, on its individual page. This will show you all the horses that showed in that class, and their placings and earnings.
  
  
  • Add up all the 4th place scores from all 20 classes.
    
  • Divide the total of all 20 4th place scores by 20 (the number of classes you entered).
    
  • The final result is the average score for a 4th place finish.
    
  
  
• Next you will need to figure out how many days your horse needs to train before it will be able to score a 4th, or better, in a local class. To find this take the average 4th place score and subtract the horses last score in that event, then divide by the daily gain to find the number of training days needed.
  
  
  
  • Take the average 4th place score which you found in the above steps.
    
  • If your horse is best in Halter, take the last score from Halter class that horse showed in.
    
  • If your horse is best in Trail, take the last score from a Trail class that horse showed in.
    
    • If our example horse scored a 2.00 on day 1 in Halter, a 3.00 on day 2 in Halter, a 1.5 on day 4 in Trail and a 2.00, this his last halter score was 3.00 and his last trail score was 2.00
  • The daily gain in halter is 1.00, the daily gain in trail is .5 using the math from the Figuring out Daily Gain section.
    
  • If the average 4th place score is 35, take 30 (average 4th) – 3 (last halter score) = 27.
    
  • 27 divided by the daily halter gain of 1 is 27. 27 / 1 = 27.
    
  • It will take 27 days of training for the horse to compete well enough to break even or win money at halter.
    
  • If the average 4th place score is 35, take 30 (average 4th) – 2 (last trail score) = 28.
    
  • 28 divided by the daily trail gain of .5 is 70. 28 / .5 = 70.
    
  • It will take 70 days of training for the horse to compete well enough to break even or win money in trail.
    
  
  
• As you can see, once broken down the math is very simple. It is just finding the length of time needed to train. Once your horse has trained for enough days, start entering it in the correct division. Keep showing this horse everyday allowing it to earn money. Eventually your horse will train enough to level up. Once they do you will need to recalculate for the next level.
  
  
• Advanced Tip: The horse’s score is a combination of its talent for an event and its overall quality. A horse can be very high quality but have no talent for an event, or the other way around. Some horses can be high enough quality that they train very fast, but because talent is so low the scores never show this. That means they can train fast enough to level before they become able to win money in any event. If you find horses like this send then to FSYYC as they will never be profitable.
  
  
  

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3. Weekly Pay

• If you have not upgraded your account you will be shown a weekly pay button each Monday. Clicking this will increase your income by 5000 sbs. Saving this money can help tide you over until your horses train enough to become profitable in shows. You can also invest it in additional horses, but be sure to save enough for testing and upcoming breedings.
  

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4. Breeding Basics

• Breeding Season starts every 2 months. On Shoco it begins on the first day of February, April, June, August, October, and December. Admins and mods breed on the first day (this gives them time to insure everything with the end of last year went smoothly), upgraded members can start breeding on the second day, and free accounts can start breeding on the third day of each month.
  
  
• All that testing of your mares in classes will really pay off a this point. Once you know which class your mare has the highest daily gains in you can best select a stallion for her.
  
  
• Go To Community >> Search Horses in the Navigation Menu. This will bring up the horse search page. Under gender select "Stallion", under status select "For Breeding". You will be presented with a list of stallions that you can breed too. This search only works during breeding season.
  
  
• Click on a stallions name in the search results to see his page. The stallion should either have a Training Exam or his gains written in his notes. If he does not, find a different stallion to breed to. You want to find a stallion for your mare that is...
  1. A foundation created horse just like your own foundation mares.
  2. Has gains as close to 1.00 as possible in the same class as your mare's best class.
  3. Fits his breed standard. See the guide on breeds for more information.
  4. Listed at a very affordable price. The cheaper the better, remember you are just starting out and are still pretty broke.
  
  
• Once you find a stallion that meets the four above criteria go ahead and click the "Breed To This Horse" button on the stallions page.
  
  
• The page will reload and a new menu will appear at the top pf the horses page. Under "Pick Horse to Breed" select the mare most appropriate for this stallion. Then give the foal a unique name. You can always change it later, some people use their stable initials plus a number for the foal others use the sire and dam names. Once you are ready click "Create Foal"
  
  
• Your new foal will appear at the top of the stallion's page. Click the "View Your Foal" link to see your new foal. Note that, at this point in time, all foals are born as yearlings.
  
  
• Continue the process of finding the most ideal stallion for your mares, and breeding until all your mares are bred for the season.
  

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5. Summary

• Figure out the daily gains of your horses or give them training exams.
  
• Enter each horse in classes whenever they are best able to bring you a profit.
  
• Keep up to date collecting your weekly pay.
  
• Breed to affordable stallions with strong gains that compliment your mare's gains.