HGG Community Forums

Yes and no. When a horse is 10 years or older, their auction bid from the game will be equal to their lifetime earnings, unless their lifetime earnings are less than 2500, in which case the base bid for all horses (2500) will override the lifetime earnings.

If a horse is 9 years old or younger, their bid at auction from the game will be 2500.

EGs:
A horse is 10 years or older and has a lifetime earning of 9k. Their bid at auction will start at 9k.
A horse is 10 years or older and has a lifetime earning of 1300hbs. Their bid at auction will start at 2500hbs.
A horse is 9 years or younger and has a lifetime earning of 7k. Their bid at auction will start at 2500.

Another factor to keep in mind when choosing whether to auction a show horse is potential future point gains. The "current lifetime payout" is what they would earn if they never gained another show point. If your 10+ year old with 10K lifetime payout is placing well in its classes it will likely add a lot of points and make you a lot more than the the 10K if you keep it. On the other hand, if it has leveled off with a bad score and consistently places at or near the bottom of its class, then it makes more sense to sell now. When I cull show horses, I sort my horses at risk of aging out by "points this year" and auction the ones from the end of the list.

Do note that horses that are 17+ are at a risk of aging out, so that their lifetime payout is only for that season. If they live another season, they'll earn you more money! Take this show horse of mine for example: She's 20 years old, so is in risk of aging out. Despite having over 2k points though her lifetime payout is estimated at 226 hbs. This is because the game doesn't know whether she'd make it past rollover until it happens.


3 TheoreticallyPerf