HGG Community Forums

Hi! I’m newer to the game but I have been bootstrapping so I’ll pass along the info I was told.
You want to start with a a high quality lined stallion. I personally crossed mine with red papered/exceptionally perfect mares, sometimes lined higher mares if I could get them. Mostly my horses came from red papered ones tho. Imo, experf mares are very valuable when starting bootstrapping. My bootstrap stallions were either given to me by kind players, or purchased by me. I have a few now in my bootstrapping herd so I have varied genetics.
For the foals, first keep all mares intact. Don’t bother with breeding advice, as your foals will fail in the beginning due to the stallion being so much higher. Geld all stallion foals, which will bring you lots of snow ponies, since they won’t be up to snuff with your stallions. I kept all mares at first, but I started getting blues and golds pretty early on so I started spaying my reds for more show horses.
When your fillies come of age, you can breed them back to their father or breed them to another high quality bootstrap stallion you own. This will continue to increase the quality of your foals. Don’t bother breeding advice testing them for a few gens cause they need to surpass their parents in order to pass, and it doesn’t really make a difference in your program. Continue gelding all your stallions until you start getting really nice ones that can replace their parents in your program! I have two stallions coming that will replace my bootstrap stallions that will age out.
I hope this helps! Happy bootstrapping- it’s so fun

Edit: I forgot the part about the mares and pasture. Leaving mares in pasture is a great idea, but remember they won’t make you money showing while they’re in there. I leave my nicest mares in pasture, and let the others I don’t really need for breeding anymore stay in a barn to show instead. Before breeding your mares in your barn, you should throw them in pasture for breeding, even if it’s just for a few minutes- cause it’s half the price to breed in pasture, 500 in fees instead of 1000. I only figured this out this week so I’ve been spending more money than I had to on breeding, haha.

Thank you! That is all very helpful <3<br />
I have one stallion that is old enough to use and 2 that are still foals, that I was potentially going to use once they were older.

I'm not sure if this stallion is worth starting with or if I should try to find something better?

Heathen Thrills BS

These two I was planning to use once they were old enough.


Legend of Sparta BS


North Star BS

I think those yearlings would be great, I personally wouldn’t use the first one cause his PT is lower. For bootstrap I tend to stick with 13+, tho I’m phasing my lower 13 ones out Sometime in the near future and getting higher ones to replace them

@GreenAcres873 That makes sense. I would love to add that boy to my BS strong.

@VenemousGiant, I am looking forward to using them in a couple seasons

@ObsidianKitsune That sounds like a good plan for him. I admit part of the reason I got him was because he is pretty, lol. Thank you for the explanations. I think I am beginning to wrap my head around it all ❤️

Thank you so much ❤️