My Horse Ranch/Breeding Program

[Miss Estella]

Dellena,

That picture is incredible! I love how the holiday lights and snow just cast a perfect backdrop for that gorgeous horse. I can't wait to see my horses take part in the various seasons once I get the expansion pack. It should add a whole new realism to ranching.

[Dellena]

No, not my Darcy ranch.  Unfortunately, that save game because corrupt and I lost it.  This is the house of my Southerland family, a family of witches.  They have a couple horses as well.

[LadyMustang]

When you created your horse ranch, did you create it as a public lot and use the "Horse Ranch" designation? Or did you have to leave it as a private lot?

I was wondering if the public lot, Horse Ranch is different then the other public lots, and allows your Sim that owns it, to live there?

If you did have to make your ranch as a private lot, do you have to invite other sims, in order to get visitos?

[Dellena]

Sims cannot live on a community lot.  Mine are residential.  However, the community lot "Horse Ranch" can act like a 'hotel' for your horses if you have stalls on the lot.  Horses can sleep just about anywhere from what I can tell. 

I just had an interesting thought about the Base Camp from World Adventures.  It's a community lot you can sleep on.  I've never built a base camp but in theory, you could build one and your sims could sleep there while not owning the property.  The only downside is who else might decide to sleep there.

[EquineSim]

its been too long. im still simming and running ranches and its all going great  i have to school my real horse too, not enough hours in a day :-)
i want the seasons ep very much, it looks fantastic. does anyone know if you can get rugs for the horses in winter? also to be able to adjust a sims height and get ponies would be amazing too
happy simming everyone xx

[ladybug12]

Where do the rest of the horses sleep when there are only 3 stalls?

[Phil is Pro]

I am new to Sims 3 pets and cant wait to but it. I have read the whole 19 pages and learnt alot about ranches. im hoping to have a breeding project up and running in the next few weeks when i get the game. All the awesome ranch designs have really inspired me and I have lots of designs in my head. does anyone have suggestions for strong fast horses with high stamina. Im thinking of American Quarter horse with an Australian Stock horse maybe with some Throughbred?

[EquineSim]

Oooh I'm so very jealous of those who have Seasons- I finally got my hands on Generations (And Showtime, too) and its fantastic. But I still long for Seasons, oh well   Life also intervened, my old horse passed on, I got another horse, and then one night remembered Sims. And well there is still lots of simming to be done, but most of my old ranches are still there- yay!

       

[JudesSims]

Where do the rest of the horses sleep when there are only 3 stalls?

They just sleep in the yard.

[ElliOop]

I joined this forum for this thread - it came up in a related Google search, and I just couldn't stop reading it. I'm very impressed with everyone's ranches, and it did inspire me to play with the horses more. Right now I'm trying to recreate some Finnhorses in CAP, but it's tricky going as the proportions aren't as easily adjustable as I'd like. It's a pity there aren't any horse-pulled carts in the game; I'd love to have a little hippie co-op farm whose Sims would make it to town in a horse-drawn cart to peddle their fares at the festival lot.

One thing I've noticed: messing around with the barn doors is horrible. They led to a lot of funky routing and pathfinding errors wherever I put them, and at one point my sim and his horse would both just turn and turn and turn and sort of twitch on the spot. At least in my games horses have had no problems using archways or fence gates, so I've been using those on my stables where I haven't just demolished one wall entirely.

[Dellena]

With the release of the newest patch and the Additional Property feature, I'm resurrecting my Darcy's and starting a new ranch.  Now that I can have more properties, I can make the really big ranch that I want.  I'm also going to use some of Twallan's mods so I can have as many horses as I want.   Time to get serious on the breeding program.

BTW, there's a poster on the official Exchange who's done some truly amazing work with horses.  He's made horses that you'd find in the bin as well as horse coats.  I'm going to link to his profile so people can have a look.  He's also done some incredible dogs.

http://www.thesims3.com/userExchange.html?selectedAsstType=all&persona=LittleV

That's a link to the studio.  The horses all have around 30-50 layers in the coats so they are incredibly realistic.  I hope the link is ok.  Otherwise, just look for LittleV.

I'll post pictures of my new ranch soon.

[Dellena]

And here's the new Darcy Farms.  This is located on the 64x64 and the 50x50 next to each other in Appaloosa Plains.  The main stable has 7 stalls and will be the primary location for housing the horses.  There's a small stable back behind the house with 3 stalls and will be strictly for pregnant and nursing mares.  Soon I'll buy the lot across the street with the empty house and pond and have that for training.  I might take one more yet for a more elaborate jump training setup.  This was taken early in the morning which is why it's a bit dark.

[Dellena]

Finally got some good shots of my horses.

Parsifal - Retired Champion Racehorse
Traits: Neat, Obedient, Friendly, Agile, Fast


Crimson - Retired Champion Racehorse
Traits: Playful, Quiet, Friendly, Fast


Big Red - Racehorse in training
Traits: Obedient, Playful, Genius, Fast

Note: This is LittleV's version of Secretariat.  He's always fascinated me and I remember watching him win the Triple Crown on our TV when I was young.  I wish I'd known then what a moment in history I was watching.  Incredible athlete and I had to have him.

Mandy - Jumper in training
Traits: Genius, Agile, Brave

Note: The Darcy Farm's main focus is racing.  However, Elizabeth Darcy enjoys casually competing in show jumping.  So Mandy is primarily her horse.

This winter I'll breed Parsifal and Crimson.  Big Red is getting regular racing training over the winter with the plan to compete steadily starting in the Spring.  Elizabeth will help with preliminary training on the new foal in the Spring with Darcy taking over in the summer (after age up).

That's the plan.

Edit:  All of the horses are using a LittleV coat.  I'm curious to see what the offspring look like when both coats are so detailed.

[Dellena]

And we have our first foal, a colt.

Apollo
Traits: Agile, Friendly, Untrained
Nice markings on his face.

[Korva]

Handsome fellow, I really like the coat color. Gah, I'm getting the urge to do a horse-focused game, too.