What is genetic pontetial on Howrse?

Answer 1

Howrses have 6 skill areas - Dressage, Stamina, Gallop, Trot, Jumping, and Speed. When they are born they have the potential to earn a certain amount of skill in each of those areas depending on their breed (e.g Arabians are better at Stamina than Irish Hunters who excel at Dressage). Each skill potential is added up to give the horse an overall skill count, and this is what is known as Genetic Potential - the amount of Skill points a horse is expected earn over its lifetime through training, rides, competitions, and lessons.

All starter horses begin with a genetic potential of 350 points, and these potential points are split between the horses 6 skill areas. So as I mentioned before, the Arabian will have more genetic potential in Stamina, than it will in dressage and the other skills. It may break down something like this:

Stamina 90.00 Gallop 65.00

Speed 20.00 Trot 35.00

Dressage 71.00 Jumping 69.00

Total potential reached 350.00

(Note: You won't be able to see this until you're your 4th riding level after which you will see a box on your horses pages labelled 'Genetics', in which will be the numbers you see above)

Once the foal is born and his GP is in place, you can INCREASE it by doing proper foal games. This is useful as it will make him or her more attractive for breeding and selling later on and also mean that he can gain more skills. Proper foal games will increase his GP by 1.2 points maximum (so adding 0.2 to each of his 6 skill potentials).

OK, here's where it gets interesting - Sticking with our Arabian example, you've done games with your foal and his Stamina GP has gone up to 90.20, Dressage 71.20, and Jumping 69.20. You start training, riding, and competing him, and doing lessons every day. Eventually he will get 90.20 Stamina points or more, and that skill will now show up on his page in bold type, which signifies that he has gained all he can in that area. You need to do this for each of your horse's top 3 skills (Arabians are Stamina, Dressage, and Jumping) as part of him gaining 100 BLUP.

So now you have a horse with 100 BLUP and you're ready to breed. If you breed him or her with another 100 BLUP horse of the same breed and similar or higher genetic potential, then your new foal will have a HIGHER genetic potential than its parents, and will be able to gain more points in each of its 6 skill areas over its lifetime. Now you must do foal games, achieve 100 BLUP, and repeat the process, each time gaining more and more GP.