Horse Profile Form

[Snowflake]

Create A Horse

Please read Sunfrost's guide below before creating a horse. It will explain the various parts of the horse profile form to you, as well as clarify some points. Once you have read through it, please copy the code into a new thread with your new horse's name as the subject. Make sure you run a search through the registry first using the search function to ensure the name hasn't been taken. After you post, a staff member will review and either accept or ask you to make some changes. Once your horse is accepted, post it's profile in your stable and register it so it can run in races or participate in breeding programs.

SOME IMPORTANT RULES - MUST READ!
1. Only one dual surface horse (a horse that is great on both dirt and turf) may be created per year. An exception to this would be winning the Create-A-Horse with Dual Surface Preferences prize from trivia.

2. Distance ranges cannot cover more than 4 furlongs. The only exception is if you use a Distance Extension that you've gotten from trivia.

3. Distances cannot be shorter than 5 furlongs or longer than 12 furlongs. There are no exceptions to this rule.

4. Horses may not be over 17 hands high unless the appropriate trivia prize is used to extend their height. In that case, the height may not exceed 18 hands high.

IMAGE OF HORSE

[/img][/center]

The Basics
Registered Name:
Nickname:
Age:
Breed:
Colour & Markings:
Height:
Gender:
Personality:
Pedigree: Created x Created

Racing Information
Race Record: 0-0-0-0
Workout/Training Posts:

• workout name
  
• 
  
• 
  

Dirt: Bad/Okay/Good/Great
Turf: Bad/Okay/Good/Great
Distance: 5-8, 6-9, 7-10, 8-11, 9-12
Leg Type: Front/Preceder/Mid/Closer/Variable
Racing Results:

[/b]
[/ul]

[center][img]IMAGE OF HORSE[/img][/center]

[blockquote][size=3]The Basics[/size]
[b]Registered Name:[/b]
[b]Nickname:[/b]
[b]Age:[/b]
[b]Breed:[/b]
[b]Colour & Markings:[/b]
[b]Height:[/b]
[b]Gender:[/b]
[b]Personality:[/b]
[b]Pedigree:[/b] Created x Created

[size=3]Racing Information[/size]
[b]Race Record:[/b] 0-0-0-0
[b]Workout/Training Posts:[/b][ul]
[li] [url=*]workout name[/url]
[/li][li]
[/li][li]
[/li][/ul]
[b]Dirt:[/b] Bad/Okay/Good/Great
[b]Turf:[/b] Bad/Okay/Good/Great
[b]Distance:[/b] 5-8, 6-9, 7-10, 8-11, 9-12
[b]Leg Type:[/b] Front/Preceder/Mid/Closer/Variable
[b]Racing Results:[/b][/blockquote][ul]

[b]2Y0 SEASON[/b]
[/ul]

[S u N f r O s t ~]

The Horse Profile Form Rundown
the how-to guide to creating horses

In this guide, we're going to go section by section with the profile form and I'll explain how to make it spiffy so that your horse stands out more in races ^_^

We'll start out with The Basics section. You can basically put whatever you want here, within reason. For age, I'd recommend making two or three year olds, and not older horses. This way, you can have a foundation for your racing operation for a couple of seasons. Horses retire from racing at age eight at the latest; many people end up retiring their horses after their four or five year old seasons, though. You can always create broodmares. if you'd like, in case you're interested in getting into the breeding aspect of the game. Don't create stallions - without a record to back him up, or any history here, he won't interest people against the other studs available on the market. However, if you really want to take a chance, I won't stop you XD

For breed, all horses are thoroughbreds on this game, so this is obvious. For height, don't forget that hands are measured in increments of four inches. You can have 15.2hh here, but you can't have 15.7hh. The number following the decimal will either be zero, one, two or three. The average height of a thoroughbred is around 16.0-16.2hh, but you also get shorter ones (15.0hh - 15.3hh and tall ones over 16.3hh. As a rule, don't create horses over 17.0hh or under 15.0hh.

Personality is perhaps the most important part of the stats. You want a detailed, realistic personality. Describe everything you can about the horse - general personality, relationship with rider, quirks etc. Examples of detailed personalities can be found anywhere - just go look at other stables, especially those of established members, to get an idea. Be careful not to create a personality that sounds human. Horses are horses, remember. For pedigree, you put Created x Created.

The Racing Information section is very important. The race record is read as number of starts - firsts - seconds - thirds. Prospect race record is the same thing, except these races occurred when your horse was a yearling. Prospect races are for yearlings, measured up against others on merit of their bloodlines and personalities. Prospect races don't count towards your horse's career record. For now, this will read as 0 0/0/0 for both race record and prospect race record.

Workouts are extremely important. These are posts that you write where you roleplay taking your horse to the track and doing a workout, or doing something else with them that may not be on the track. Writing these will give your horse an extra edge in races. Before entering your horse in his or her first race, you will want to write one workout. This workout will be good for the entirety of the season, but of course if you would like to write more you can!

Now for the surface preferences. You want your horse to be great on either turf or dirt and anything else on the other surface. A horse that is great on both dirt and turf is dual surface, and can only be achieved by breeding two dual surface horses together or creating one. You can only create one dual surface horse per year. As for distances, you can only have a range of four furlongs from 5-12. The ranges are as follows: 5-8, 6-9, 7-10, 8-11 and 9-12. The only exception is if you have distance extensions; as a new member, you likely will not.

Leg type is your horse's race time position. You should have a bit of description detailing exactly how your horse runs in that leg type. Dante has posted an excellent, detailed description of each leg type here. I have reproduced his description in a reply to this thread - go and read it!

Racing results are self explanatory; you record how your horse does in races here. Important information to include is the name of the race, place of your horse and month and week that the race took place. Additional information you may want to include is the track where the race took place and the distance and surface of the race.

You should separate the results by the season. You can also record any feedback you may get from races here.

Well, that's the horse profile form. Now go create your new champion! If you have any questions, message any established member or a staff member, and he or she will help you out

Last Updated: June 25, 2016

[S u N f r O s t ~]

Credit to Dante for the following description.

Leg type is a general indication of how a horse runs - it has nothing to do with physical properties of their legs. There's a few main leg types, that you must choose from:
Closer, Mid Pack (Mid), Preceder, Front and Versatile.

Each of these positions has strengths and weaknesses, and if you mismatch one to the personality and sometimes the distances a horse runs, you can end up effecting your results.

Here's a description of each leg type. Note that variations within each leg type can occur, but I'll address that later.

Closer: A horse dubbed a closer runs in last or nearly last place for the majority of the race. They come slow from the gate for the most part, and save their energy until a certain point into the race, where they sprint up ahead and into first, usually near the very end of the race, hence the term "closer".
In SPRINTS, these horses need to be fairly aggressive, since they don't have much time to act. IN MID-DISTANCE, they can be sweeter tempered, and staying behind lets them avoid fighting for the most of the race.

Mid Pack These horses prefer to run where the majority runs. When you see a race, and you see most of the horses bunched together, between the first and last place? That's mid pack. They tend to make moves for the front anywhere midway or near the end of the race.
Any aggression level works here, for any distance. I find mid pack a good place for a sweet horse and a mild-moderately aggressive jockey. These horses also tend to be more versatile than their peers in the other groups, because they're capable of duking it out with large numbers of horses, and depending on where they run in the pack, can be closer to a preceder or closer in nature.

Preceder This is my personal fav for a position. The preceder settles in a position anywhere from second to fourth (depending on the number of horses running, and the number of frontrunners) for most of the race before sneaking into first at some point during the last half of the race.
These horses need to be clever and of at least average aggression, though if they're too aggressive, it can backfire, too. If they're not, they run risk of getting boxed in, or swallowed up by the middle of the pack. They need to be clever because this is a position largely based on strategy of when to outrun who; if done correctly, a preceder can easily drive the pace of the race. They need to be aggressive enough to hold up against frontrunners, BUT if they're too aggressive they won't listen to their jockey in this position, rather, they'd be tempted to break and run.

Front/Frontrunner A horse with the "front" leg type has the most simple leg type. Frontrunners break fast and run faster. They stay at the front at all costs through the entire race. Despite the simple plan, it's got some nuances.
Good for: Sprinters, as there's not much time for horses to catch up to them. Also, this position is good for aggressive horses - they will not get caught up "battling the pack" and will instead keep to the front where they can focus on running, not beating the poop out of others. Generally, shorter distances = more and more frontrunners.
Disadvantages: Unagressive horses will end up running in front of horses that wish to kill them - that will NOT be good for them. They won't die, but dominant horses will drive them faster and faster and they'll burn out, or need too much urging.
Frontrunning at a distance: This is possible, especially for large, aggressive horses that seem to have an endless pool of stamina. As very long races are slower paced, a frontrunner does not have to run at the speed of light for 12f, but rather can go a little slower until the end.

Versatile These horses can run any style the jockey wants of the above. I do not recommend this! Ever heard the saying "Jack of all trades, master of none"? The same thing is here. Yes, this horse can run anything, but are the good at them? Choosing from two SIMILAR styles is okay for a versatile (ex, versatile between mid pack and closer), but hopping around styles doesn't give a horse a chance at routine or perfecting how to run. If you did track and field, would you do shotput, longjump, the 50m dash and 3000m run all in one day? You could. But would you do as well as someone who focuses in on only one or two of these, given the exact same training time? Probably not. It is possible and can be done, but it isn't a wise idea.

Sub leg types: It is possible to just list one of the leg types on a profile and leave it there, and the horse won't do any worse for it. Sometimes, if you have a very good idea of how you want a horse to run, or over workouts find that this "subtype" works, use it. For example, my horse Executioner's Apprentice. He is a preceder, with a sub type of "stalker". That is, he hangs very close to the horses in first or second place, and pushes them. He always moves fast enough to threaten their position, which forces them faster to stay ahead - and quite possibly TOO fast for them to keep up the pace, which makes his job easier when he makes a move, he just needs to pass tired horses. Other preceders might stay further back a bit.

Other examples are closers who break fast and stay in, say, 5th out of a field or 7, closer to mid pack. The permutations are endless, and if you have an idea, you have to type out a running style for them. Otherwise, just stick with one word and everyone still had a good idea of how that pony runs.