My Horse Ranch/Breeding Program

[EquineSim]

I haven't been on my ranch in a while due to school exams and such, but I went on last night and my breeding stallion Presto won 2 show jumping compititions,
both at internatinol level, so I was pretty happy with that.

Hayley which update/ep did Chantel's hair style come with? I don't think I've seen it before.

[furryjackal]

I'm glad I found this forum, I've been lurking around all night browsing and I landed here! Happily!

I have always dreamt of having horses but it was just never meant to be, for me.  So naturally when Sims announced Pets would have horses, I squeed! I could enjoy that dream in my little pixelated dollhouse world!

Mostly my boys are breeding Gypsy Vanners and a strain of horses that have a bit of an Arabian-esque appearance but originated from a unicorn Taliesen tamed, one of the horses in the barn stock and just filtering in Arabians and making a few CAS tweaks with Master Controller, here and there.

Now I realize these aren't confirmationally perfect Arabians but I still like the looks of the line, regardless. My colors on both lines are not 'perfect coloration' for the confirmation officials but I'm breeding them for the fun of it more than anything. If I ever joined the Equus Sims RP circles I'd focus more on 'breed perfection' but for now, I'm just having fun with intriguing colors, whimsical supernaturals and other quirky things like that.
My main Sim who operates the stable's name is Taliesen, he and his husband run it with their daughter, Tosca. The stable's name is Timewalk Stables for my RP purposes. Therefore the 'registered' names would be Timewalk's (horse's name)

This is one of the younger horses of the Arabian-esque line, Timewalk's Honeypie (nickname Honeypie)


The product of breeding a red pinto Gypsy Vanner with my ghost unicorn. I never knew what the ghost's coloration was but I love this odd calico coloration on Timewalk's Dancer in the Elysium (aka Elysium)


And this is another of that quirky Arabian-esque line. Her name's Timewalk's Cadence Mi Amora.

[Miss Estella]

This is our ranch. It is very open with small buildings. The ranch house is an appropriate starter home for Gabrielle and Shiloh, and as the ranch begins to make money I will expand. The barn is bigger than the house, which if you see all the horse farms in Upstate New York, is very true to life.

Hmmm...sorry if you feel like I'm butting in, but your ranch seems very closed up, by which I mean is that in the Sims 3, horses have their excersize bar drop really fast (so fast that it gets annoying) and they seem to have to run constantly. My failed attempts at ranching was always because of the same problem- I tried to make my ranch as realistic as possible, which meant lots of stalls and smaller paddocks with a turnout pasture or whatever else I tried. I've noticed that your ranch has a lot of fences and small areas, and I just want to give you a heads up that its better to have wide open spaces for your sims horses to be happy and run around in, forgetting the realism of things in a sense. After all, real horses wouldn't be let loose around the town like in sims. You might find that you'll get pathing problems a lot too.

Sorry for the "banging on your ranch" kind of post, but I just thought I'd adivse you and give advice to all those others starting ranches because of the amazing stuff Mary has done. 

By the way everyone, I don't know when I'll get to play my ranch. I've got a legacy and working on a challenge, both timed so I'm doing those first. So no updates from me for awhile, but I'll still be following the topic avidly to see what everyone else is doing. Great job on those ranches everyone, they are all looking great!

[ashlorelle]

Hmmm, thanks for the advice. But I have been playing the ranch for a few days now and I haven't had any issues with them not having enough space to run. They play with the balls a lot though, and they almost constantly have a rider on them for training (Shiloh rides Adele, Gabrielle rides Jack). Perhaps when I get more horses I'll change it up a bit.

That said, building is my least favorite part of Sims 3. I don't have enough patience for it. I love character building instead, so I don't spend too much time on my building projects. As long as it is completely functional, I am pleased with it.

[furryjackal]

Meanwhile , back in Appaloosa Plains my simself has also caught the horse bug , and as her old house wasnt really equipped for horses she decided to move ... so she and the dogs moved to the Seaview Stables (forgot to get a pic)

She bought herself a stallion she named Cyclone , he is a grey and white paint


and a mare called Rayne , a black and white paint


It wasnt long before it was true love and the two horses became inseperable


Then the inevitable happened ... Rayne became pregnant :thumbup:
And in the night little Storm was born (I had to go into buy mode so I could change it to daytime light for the pics)

He has lovely markings

I really love the grey-pinto colors! So beautiful!

Is there an area where we're trading our horses at? I didn't see any horses on the Swap Shop.

[lindsaypalmerr]

Hi Guys! Im Lindsay and have just installed sims 3 pets. I am super excited to start my own ranch but I am having trouble deciding what my main focus should be on with disciplines and breeding.
I have been and still been riding in the hunter/jumper world for the past 6 years of my life and would like to continue my dream virtually as well! So I would like to train my horses mainly with jumping and racing in their blood.
Maybe a little dressage. I am not sure what breed to pick. I would like to set up a breeding program to make money off my foals to fund my expenses. I am leaning towards a warmblood build or even thoroughbred.
I dont want to mix any crazy colors together so any ideas on where I should start? Thanks!

[EquineSim]

Hi Guys! Im Lindsay and have just installed sims 3 pets. I am super excited to start my own ranch but I am having trouble deciding what my main focus should be on with disciplines and breeding.
I have been and still been riding in the hunter/jumper world for the past 6 years of my life and would like to continue my dream virtually as well! So I would like to train my horses mainly with jumping and racing in their blood.
Maybe a little dressage. I am not sure what breed to pick. I would like to set up a breeding program to make money off my foals to fund my expenses. I am leaning towards a warmblood build or even thoroughbred.
I dont want to mix any crazy colors together so any ideas on where I should start? Thanks!

You'll love pets, its great.

You could start with something the the warmblood, if you breed two of the same colour, or simalr, you shouldn't get any unrealistic outcomes.
Sadly, you can't do dressage, you can do show jumping, cross country and racing compitions, and the subsequent training actions once you've bought equipmet (such as show jumps, racing poles etc)
Plus its a good idea to start small until you're used to the way the horses work in the sims (:

Have fun!

[Hayley]

I haven't been on my ranch in a while due to school exams and such, but I went on last night and my breeding stallion Presto won 2 show jumping compititions,
both at internatinol level, so I was pretty happy with that.

Hayley which update/ep did Chantel's hair style come with? I don't think I've seen it before.

Not sure,but I will check for you

[Hayley]

I haven't been on my ranch in a while due to school exams and such, but I went on last night and my breeding stallion Presto won 2 show jumping compititions,
both at internatinol level, so I was pretty happy with that.

Hayley which update/ep did Chantel's hair style come with? I don't think I've seen it before.

Okay,it has a blue sim icon in the corner,I, not sure which one that is

[Miss Estella]

I believe that hairstyle came from Showtime.

[EquineSim]

I believe that hairstyle came from Showtime.

Thankyou That explains it- I don't have Showtime. I have only Pets, Ambitions, World Adventures and High End Loft (:

I made a blue sim...along with a blue horse...I mean like an ice blue- quite creepy, actually! She goes out riding at night and scares other sims, its very funny

[Miss Estella]

I don't have Showtime either, but I always do research on new expansions to see if I absolutely have to get them or not.

[EquineSim]

I really feel the need for generations, at the moment

[Miss Estella]

I'd recommend it, Generations adds a lot to gameplay in the family aspect, and it adds a lot of content I find myself using often. I'm not going to go into too much detail, as it doesn't belong in this Thread, but if you want to get a new expansion pack and don't have Generations, I'd get it.

I'm finding it hard to get back into my ranch, and even harder to document it, sorry. But I guess I should expect that, considering I only have a limited time to play and so many games to keep up with plus the new ideas that always pop into my head for a sims game. But hopefully I'll get around to it, and put some pictures up, as long as the thread doesn't die. Which I don't think it will, because Mary keeps inspiring new people to start a horse ranch by just sharing her beginning work. Good job everyone and goodluck to all those new ranchers out there. 

[Hayley]

I started a new ranch.......again. I started it a month ago and I am liking this one. I am using a cheat to keep their needs always up. I know it's cheating but that's the only way that I can keep a bunch of horses alive. The starter horse was Cloud Chaser, a paint horse. Then I adopted 2 wild horses and I was expecting more little shoes running around. Cloud Chaser has won a lot of of Competions in only racing,I always do take risks. I am also trying to get him to jump. I am having him jump 24/7. Jade the owner of the ranch just came back from Egypt, it felt weird without them.