Where are all the young stallions?

[Polk Buffalo]

I checked the freakproducing mixer stallions and realized that they are all old.
Almost all of them are 10+ years.

Just and handful throughout the mixer divisions are 8 or 9 years old.
In thouroughbred divisions there are several freakproducing stallions aged 7 or under. I didnt find a single one in the mixer divisions.

Are mixer stallions declining as a group?
Are we sending our mares to "proven" stallions and forget about the young ones?

[Jennifer Blake]

When these freshly retired "unproven" studs are retiring and being strapped with a $25,000 or higher stud fee, it does make them hard to use.

With that said I'm an only mixer kinda stable and I mainly breed all A+ hypoing blue hen mares. I can't breed a yearling freak to save my life.

[Gen Ravenwood]

It's mostly the adjustment. I have a hard time breeding stakes yearlings, let alone freaks. I make it a point to try Freshman and Sophomore stallions each year, but I haven't gotten anything fancy lately, hopefully someone else is having better luck. Of my current Stakes/Late Bloomer yearlings the youngest sire is Cousin Brucie. So, shout out to Cousin Brucie.

[Randall Allen]

The gallop adjustments make the younger stallions look terrible. It has happened several times in the past. The younger stallions won't see the amount of mares that the old ones do, until a few sim years down the road... the younger ones are now 9-11 and people realize that they have the top numbers. Then, the steward downgrades the gallops again, the young stallions look poor and the cycle continues. I have seen a repeat of this movie in the sim probably 3-4 times already.

I used to breed a half dozen to a dozen freak mixers each year. Now with just mainly A+ blue hens, I have won the lottery if I get one freak.

[Maria Schreuder]

I agree that younger stallions were definitely hard hit by the gallop comment updates, although I do try to take that into account when making my breeding choices.

I would definitely be supporting more of the Paints in their first season(s) and with nicer mares if they were priced in order to attract support. I'm sure there are exceptions, but on the whole I've been hesitant to shell out the same or more than it would cost me to send my mares to proven producers instead when I can't see a difference in hypo levels.

[Jo Ferris]

Paints are kinda lacking in the stallion department. The older stallions numbers are slightly skewed due to the gallop adjustment a few years ago, all retired horses by those stallions were not affected as the comments did not update for retired horses. I’ve gotten in the habit of just looking at stakes numbers. That being said, freak paints do exist, the younger Paint studs just haven’t produced them. I’ve been cross breeding a lot and have been happy with a lot of the QH studs, the GP studs especially.

[Laura Ferguson]

I check stakes numbers and workout times as well. I've resisted breeding too frequently to the QH stallions, just because I'm worried we'll end up with essentially QHs instead of paints (like 1/64th paint, 63/64 QHs). I'm sure that's affecting my numbers a little bit, but that's okay.