Breeding Your First Horse

When the source article below is finalized, just the paragraphs on hand breeding can be added here, instead of the full page content.

Breeding your horses

To breed two horses you own, open either the mare's or the stallion's page. Mares need to be 4 years old and Stallions need to be 3 (Horses age 1 year at the end of the month no matter when they were created in the month). Go to the Control Panel tab and select the "In-house Breeding" button.

Go to the section that says Horse Breeding (usually the topmost option) and click the drop-down box to select the horse to which you would like to breed and then enter a name for your foal. Names can be changed very easily later, so don't worry about being stuck with something you don't like. If you can't think of a name right now, just enter a hashtag (#) and the horse's name will simply be its unique ID number. If the name you chose isn't available, the game will not create the foal and will instead give you a notification that the name "is already in use, please choose a unique name." (Using the hashtag alone or as part of your chosen name will prevent this error from occurring.)

Since this particular account currently has a premium upgrade, there are additional breeding options available. Basic upgrade accounts may collect and use straws; only premium upgrades have access to egg and embryo breeding.

You will be charged 1,000 HBs for vet bills. You will get a notice showing you an image of your new foal, and the foal will be placed in your Primary Barn.

Since Hunt And Jump uses very realistic genetics there is a chance your foal may not survive based on the extent of the white patterns it might have. This is usually not a problem with Foundation (newly created) horses, but you should be aware that it could happen.

There is also a slight chance your mare could have twins! The chances are slim, but don't be surprised if you get 2 for the price of 1!

(Screenshot needed)

Inbreeding and linebreeding (breeding parents to offspring, siblings to each other, etc.) have no consequences on Hunt And Jump.

Other In-house Breeding Options

There are three options available when you click on In-house Breeding: horse breeding (live cover), using a straw, and implanting an embryo. In this tutorial we are only discussing live cover breeding. The other options are explained in the Advanced Breeding Lab (link).

Breeding Your Horse to a Publicly Listed Stud or Broodmare

You aren't limited to breeding only your own horses. You can also live cover one of your horses to a stallion or mare placed for public stud or brood by another player.

How do I find horses for breeding?

On the navigation bar scroll down to "Community". From the drop-down menu select "Search Horses" and click "For Breeding" in the status box. On the search page you can search for horses by patterns, color, age, bone density, era, etc.
This search is best done later in the month, as all horses listed for public breeding are removed at monthly rollover.
If you are on a budget, you can go to the search, select "For Breeding" and in the box that says "Basic Sort" click the drop-down arrow to see a list of options. Select the "Breeding Price" option, and click the "Search Horses" button at the bottom of the Search page.

Remember that the breeding price does NOT include the 1000 HBs vet bill for the breeding, so you will need to take that into consideration when budgeting.
Once you have used the search to find a horse you like, click on the horse's name to go to the horse's main page. Scroll down past the Somatic Tattoos section and you will find the "Breed to This Horse for XXXX HBs" button. Once you click that just follow the same procedure up above for breeding. The foal will appear in your Primary barn when the breeding is complete.

Why Can't I Breed to This Horse?

First check the horse's age.

Mares cannot be bred before age 4 or after age 20
Stallions cannot be bred before age 3 or after age 20

Check how many times the horse has been bred this season.

Stallions can only sire fifty foals via live cover in a single season. They can breed a nearly unlimited number of foals using artificial insemination or embryo transfer, but those methods require extra HBs and/or an upgrade to access.
Mares can produce only one foal per breeding season when using live cover or artificial insemination. They can have several more foals per season by using flushed eggs and embryo implantation, but you need a premium upgrade to use the flush eggs feature.

Make sure the mare is not in a pasture.

You can use the pasture to breed your mare to a stallion you own, but both the mare and the stallion must be in the same pasture. If you are breeding to an outside stallion, you will need to move the mare to a barn. Once she is bred you can move her back to the pasture, but you must do it before the nightly rollover (approximately midnight Eastern Standard Time, aka the 'Cinderella Effect'). If you don't move the mare back to the pasture, she will lose her pasture bonus for the month and the 'days in pasture' count will reset to 0. Days in pasture will start accumulating again as soon as she does move back into a pasture.

Double check that breeding season is open

Breeding season ends at rollover (approximately midnight Eastern Standard Time) on the 27th day of each month. Once the clock rolls over to the 28th day of the month breeding season is over. There will be a big notice on your main stable page telling you that breeding season is over. When breeding season ends all horses who were available to breed are no longer listed.

Breeding season reopens on the 3rd of the month for free accounts. Upgraded accounts can breed on the 2nd of the month.

Pastures open for breeding on the 7th day of the month unless you paid real life cash for a feature in the previous month. For example, if you purchased a pasture with real money in July then your pastures will allow you to breed on August 5th. This purchase does not carry over to September or any future month unless a new purchase with real money (via PayPal) is made.

Also see article about pasture breeding and closed/licensed genes.

Placing Your Horses Up for Public Breeding

If you have a mare or a stallion that you would like to share with the community for breeding, but don't want to sell, you can set a price for other players to pay to breed their horse to yours.