Horses should kick the bucket at a younger age

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Laura Ferguson
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Re: Horses should kick the bucket at a younger age

Post by Laura Ferguson »

I'm against the proposal of killing off player-owned pensioned horses even earlier. I get you qualified it as non-stakes winning, but still I feel it is contrary to the "horses aren't real, it's the emotions" the SIM is known for. If you're not sentimentally attached to your pensioner, you can send it to AJ.
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Dave Trainer
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Re: Horses should kick the bucket at a younger age

Post by Dave Trainer »

Laura Ferguson wrote: 1 year ago I'm against the proposal of killing off player-owned pensioned horses even earlier. I get you qualified it as non-stakes winning, but still I feel it is contrary to the "horses aren't real, it's the emotions" the SIM is known for. If you're not sentimentally attached to your pensioner, you can send it to AJ.
+1
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Danny Derby
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Re: Horses should kick the bucket at a younger age

Post by Danny Derby »

Laura Ferguson wrote: 1 year ago I'm against the proposal of killing off player-owned pensioned horses even earlier. I get you qualified it as non-stakes winning, but still I feel it is contrary to the "horses aren't real, it's the emotions" the SIM is known for. If you're not sentimentally attached to your pensioner, you can send it to AJ.
By that logic, why should horses ever die? Let them just live forever.

It’s not uncommon for people to have thousands of pensioners - at a glance you have over 2,700. Several hundred of those never earned a penny on track. I get that people are attached to some horses, but the sheer numbers are just insane.

It’s one thing to say people can just AJ them, but few people are going to actively make the effort to do it, especially given how big of a task it would be for pension barns of those sizes. It’s simply easier to do nothing with pensioners.

Pensioned horses are no longer involved in the game in a racing or breeding capacity. With tens of thousands of new horses being bred every year it’s only beneficial to the overall game if these horses can get cycled out at a bit of a faster pace than they are currently.
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Laura Ferguson
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Re: Horses should kick the bucket at a younger age

Post by Laura Ferguson »

Oh, I get that the SIM horses must eventually die - I'm not arguing that they need to live forever, but changing the current system to be even earlier is what I'm objecting to. The average horse life span is 25 years, from what I just checked, so the current system isn't unreasonable.

Honestly, I feel like AJ is the equivalent of the SIM slaughterhouse, since they all get killed at the end of the year, and I used to send none of my horses there. But, to accommodate the forum complaints about the names, I've been slowly reducing the size of the pension barn - if you'd checked about a week ago, I had over 3000 pensioners, and I think last year I had closer to 5000. And it IS work. I'll also note that I've had players ask me to release names, and more often that not, I've accommodated them, and I've occasionally asked another player to release a name. For a game that is supposed to be social, I don't see what the big burden is about asking.
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Danny Derby
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Re: Horses should kick the bucket at a younger age

Post by Danny Derby »

Laura Ferguson wrote: 1 year ago The average horse life span is 25 years, from what I just checked, so the current system isn't unreasonable.
Not saying that horses don’t live to 25, but it’s not guaranteed they will either. It’s the impossibility of it happening any earlier which I think is unreasonable.

Two other consideration for real life vs. the SIM since you brought it up.

1) In real life a racehorse’s name becomes available to use again after five years off the track. There’s no such mechanism in the SIM.

2) In real life, there’s significant cost involved with owning an OTTB. You’d never see the numbers or hoarding that exists in the SIM.
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Re: Horses should kick the bucket at a younger age

Post by Jon Xett »

Mr. Lord Derby wrote: 1 year ago Not trying to sound cold hearted here, but is there any reason that once a horse is retired and pensioned it needs to live past 15? It would go a long way in freeing up names and reducing overall barn clutter if a retired and pensioned animal without a stakes win to its credit could kick the bucket well before they turn 20.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
Honest question: why exactly does the number of horses in another players barn bother or concern you personally? Is it a simplicity issue because you are blocked from using names for your horses and this takes time or is it one or more specific names that you are having to wait for a very long time to become free? jX
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Stormy Peak
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Re: Horses should kick the bucket at a younger age

Post by Stormy Peak »

Mr. Lord Derby wrote: 1 year ago ..........Stormy - You've currently got 1,340 pensioners in your barn. At a glance, about 1/2 of them are older than 15. Would it truly impact your gameplay experience that much if some of them died younger? I'm not even suggesting they automatically die at 15, just that they can hit by the random death starting at that age versus whatever age in the 20s it is now.
Yes...it would IMPACT my gameplay experience.

I don't breed Thousands of foals every year like some here do - who then, never race them, junk them out to AJ, sell them, or maybe race them in claimers. I have bred at most, on rare occasions over 150....but mostly I try to keep the numbers down around 45 to 70 tops. And I Train and Race (in non-claiming races) every single one of them and I don't sell them, and I don't send them to AJ. So Each horse is special to me...and I take care in trying to give each good names.

My time...sitting in a computer chair is limited...it Hurts... I have a bad back.
And because I have severe back issues and No money I can't do anything much in real life to entertain myself. I don't even have a t.v. service most of the time. I haven't turned on my t.v. turned on for over a year, because the airwave channels here are off the air so much it makes it worthless for trying to follow any kind of t.v. series or if a PBS documentary is on...there's a good chance the channel will be off air and I will miss it anyways. It's been this way since about 2014 when I couldn't afford DISH anymore and I can't get cable...nor afford it. I try each year to hopefully get to see the Derby or BC races...so that's when I turn on the t.v. to see if the channels are working.

I also don't have much for family, I have one sister here in my town, and she has her own life with her kids and grandkids...so it's not like there's big Thanksgiving dinners or get togethers. My sister and I see each other about once a week and then it's usually only for about 10 to 15 minutes. My friends...many of them moved out of this town decades ago, we have phone calls like twice a year...or the occasional email. And those who stayed here...yeah...they too have their own families and so it's not like I have much of a social life.

This game is my escape from a pretty crappy existence. It's where I go to help me distract myself from both physical and emotional pain... I've had depression since I was around 16 years old. And living the Crappy life I have now hasn't really helped with that.


I do go into my pensioners barn and check things out at least 2 to 3 times a Sim year, and it's often to hunt for names for my current crop of yearlings and 2 year olds that are waiting to race.
Sometimes I see a name I just love on one of my pensioners But... I don't have a horse that I think suits the name yet. One of my pensioners might be 19 years old when I finally see it's a perfect fit for one of my yearlings. I don't want my pensioners dying young...for that reason too.

I detest the idea that some here suggested of making it so anyone can just go rummaging around my pension barn taking names off of my live horses.

I detest the idea of my horses, that I put so much time and care into (often while sitting in my computer chair hurting)...from being killed off early just so it's name can be on a list a list that is ALREADY FILLED with Thousands good names. AND there are
Thousands of names out there in real life that can be made up and used...grab them from song lyrics, or movie lines, or from reading a book.

It was from a history book that I got the name Roughian!
No one had Ever used that archaic spelling of Ruffian in this game before. And the name Ruffian is locked.
Yet I read and saw the archaic spelling it in a book about some aristocrat back in the early 1700's complaining in a letter to someone else, about 'roughians' trying to attack his coach as it went through London' Voilà -- I had a great name to use!

This year... I have had a lot of pensioners die on me...right now in my PM box, I have 82 Horse Alerts about dead horses...and that's only some of them - I deleted about 40 or more earlier this racing season. And I reused the names on about 20 of them.
That's just My barn... so there are plenty of names Already being released each year...when you think about all the other barns who are seeing their elderly pensioners die off. There's no need to increase it by killing our horses of even earlier.

I find names all the time that are ALREADY released...and I don't know why you are having such a horrible time of it that you are complaining about it and wanting Everyone else's horses to start dying early so you can have even more Thousands of names to choose from.

I picked up a name I loved not too long ago. It's been on 3 horses in the Sim....I was happy to find it.
Obladi Oblada

I was surprised it's only been used 3 times in the Sim. Yeah... it went 30 YEARS before it was discovered again by me.
I love the Beatles, Love that song. But I would have never thought of punching it in for name (and apparently no one else has either for 30 Sim years...even though I know there are Beatle fans here in the game)...but I was listening to some Beatles songs one day. I've been in the game since 2006...or Year 17 Sim time. Yeah...15 year years and I never thought to look up that name for for a horse. It was available for most of the time I've been here.

So you can't tell me/Convince Me there are not any good names out there and that more need to be released by killing off other people's horses early.
(Convince Me...is another name, like Roughian, that no one ever used. I had it on another horse until I put it on that multiple Grade 1 winner)

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Lily Wilkins
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Re: Horses should kick the bucket at a younger age

Post by Lily Wilkins »

Laura Ferguson wrote: 1 year ago I'm against the proposal of killing off player-owned pensioned horses even earlier. I get you qualified it as non-stakes winning, but still I feel it is contrary to the "horses aren't real, it's the emotions" the SIM is known for. If you're not sentimentally attached to your pensioner, you can send it to AJ.
+1

And if game management were to change anything, I would hope to see them lengthen the time horses can reliably breed for (rather than shortening lifespan) so their long life doesn't seem quite as cumbersome. However, I do understand why things are set up the way they are.
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The Steward
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Re: Horses should kick the bucket at a younger age

Post by The Steward »

I know I always weigh into these threads like cold water but right now there is zero plan to change anything on this topic.
"There's no secret to training a good horse. It's a matter of being fortunate enough to get one."
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Re: Horses should kick the bucket at a younger age

Post by LA Pepper »

so - - - much ado about nothing ;)
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Carolyn Eaton
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Re: Horses should kick the bucket at a younger age

Post by Carolyn Eaton »

The Steward wrote: 1 year ago I know I always weigh into these threads like cold water but right now there is zero plan to change anything on this topic.
Thank you,

You've given Stormy and I a big sigh of relief (I'm assuming Stormy is giving a little cheer - I didn't check with her first before posting - :P )
I'm just here for the fun of it
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Re: Horses should kick the bucket at a younger age

Post by Nicole Marie »

The Steward wrote: 1 year ago I know I always weigh into these threads like cold water but right now there is zero plan to change anything on this topic.
Adding to the list of those pleased by this. :D
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Gavin Guile
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Re: Horses should kick the bucket at a younger age

Post by Gavin Guile »

https://www.simhorseracing.com/horse.ph ... ID=1386747

I’m glad I learned about this work around…saving on Game Points already
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Danny Derby
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Re: Horses should kick the bucket at a younger age

Post by Danny Derby »

Gavin Guile wrote: 1 year ago https://www.simhorseracing.com/horse.ph ... ID=1386747

I’m glad I learned about this work around…saving on Game Points already
This guy gets it.
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Stormy Peak
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Re: Horses should kick the bucket at a younger age

Post by Stormy Peak »

Carolyn Eaton wrote: 1 year ago
The Steward wrote: 1 year ago I know I always weigh into these threads like cold water but right now there is zero plan to change anything on this topic.
Thank you,

You've given Stormy and I a big sigh of relief (I'm assuming Stormy is giving a little cheer - I didn't check with her first before posting - :P )
I'm happy there will be no changes.
I like my old fake horses : )

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