Morning Dust Ranch

Development blog for Morning Dust Ranch, a new and innovative horse game. Eventually we will have links to both our website and our international Facebook page listed here.

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Today we like to talk about the weather a bit more! In the summer the temperatures can get pretty high! If there is no breeze, talk about heat! If this high heat occurs you should make sure that your horse has a shelter to stay in the shade. If there is no shelter on the pasture you should take your horse inside so it does not suffer from heatstroke. You should also make sure your horse isn't covered up by a blanket, which may cause overheating! 

On misty days there is nothing special you should take action of. But it looks nice, doesn't it?

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Stable System

On MDR there is a complex stable building system. There are very basic stables where you need to do all the tasks by yourself, and there are fully automatic stable systems where your horse is fed, watered and mucked out automatically. This makes it possible to have a lot of horses at once without needing to care for your horses everyday manually. When you build up your stable you can choose between 12m2 boxes and 16m2 boxes which are made for foaling. You can also choose which 'extras' your stable should have. Once you chose one of the extras you need to pay for it with every new box you purchase. The extras are: Automatic water trough If you have this installed in your stable, all the horses that are stabled in this stable are watered automatically. Automatic Hayrack Your horses in the stable will be fed hay automatically every day when you have this extra installed.

Feeding Machine Similar to the automatic hayrack, your horses are fed daily concentrate with this machine.

Mucking Out Machine This machine mucks out your stable automatically.

Pastures To give your horses some time outside, even if they are stabled, you need to purchase pastures for your stables.

Shelter You can buy shelter for your pastures as well!

Training Arena Indoor/Outdoor

To train your horses in your stable you need to have at least an Outdoor Training Arena. To train your horses in winter you need to have an Indoor Training arena as well.

Of course, you can keep your horses on your own private pasture if you do not have your own stable and don't want to pay for stabling them externally. These horses are kept outside all year round. You need to keep a close eye on the weather, and buy a shelter. You also need to feed them manually. In spring and summer they will automatically eat the grass on the pastures, so you only need to feed them concentrates. You can buy a watering trough so you don’t have to bring them water each day. Horses that live on the pastures all year round can’t be trained. You can still go with them for a walk or do trail riding. So this is a good method for keeping your youngsters and breeding stock and saving money.

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Chestnut horses are homozygous for non-extension. They always have e/e. The agouti gene does not show on chestnut horses. On MDR there are 8 chestnut shades: Light Chestnut, Gold Chestnut, Sorrel Chestnut, Chestnut, Copper Chestnut, Dark Chestnut, Liver Chestnut and Dark Liver Chestnut. A special note about the chestnut is that they not only come in different shades but their mane and tail can also have different shades apart from the body color. Chestnuts can either have the same shade for mane and tail as for the body or one shade lighter or one shade darker. Again, this is due to the shading genes the horse carries.

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Today I want to show you the tack room. Every horse has its own special tack room that offers space for each tack type! So you can store a saddle, a halter, a blanket, etc. in it. But you can't store two saddles in a tack room for one horse. To store the tack in your horse's tack room you need to go to your inventory and distribute it to the tack room of your horse. Once you've done that, you can easily apply and detach the tack to and from your horse from their profile. You can of course remove the tack from your horses tack room and put new tack in it. Just how you fancy it!

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Horse Care

What is needed to keep your horse happy and healthy? There are plenty of factors that influence the everyday life of a horse! Let's talk a bit about each of them.

Food To keep your horse healthy, it needs to have water as well as hay / grass daily. It should also be fed concentrates at least every third day, and horses in training as well as pregnant or lactating mares need to be fed concentrate food every single day.

Vaccinates, Worming, Teeth & Hooves In order to maintain a healthy herd, you should call a vet and farrier to take care of a horse's medication, teeth and hooves regularly! If your horse doesn't receive their vaccinations and dewormer, it can become very sick. There are also several illnesses caused when teeth or hooves are allowed to grow too long. Whenever your horse is in need of treatment, status bars are present for each part. If everything is okay, it will be green - but it will begin to turn yellow as the renewal date for vaccines and dewormer draw closer! If the bar turns red, you should not wait any longer, as your horse's protection has expired. Teeth and hooves have bars but jump the yellow phase entirely, leaving you with only a few days time before they become sick or injured.

Brushing & Mucking Out You should brush your horse at least once a week to prevent the coat from becoming too dirty! Otherwise you'll end up with Acarids like ticks and mites. We also recommend regularly mucking out your horse's stall, as the filth can cause many sicknesses.

Trust Trust is a happiness factor; the more you care for your horse, the more it begins to trust you. This will earn you bonuses in competitions. To raise the trust of your horse, give them treats or take them for walks and trail rides. Brushing can raise their trust as well!

Weather We already talked about weather quite a bit! It can have many different influences on your horse's health, and you should carefully watch the weather report and decide if you need to take action. For example, if your horse is left outside in low temperatures without a blanket, it may become cold and sick.

Stable & Pastures There are differences for the game depending on if you keep your horse on the pasture, or in the stable. In the stable, horses are safe from all weather and temperature conditions; but they also become unhappy the more time they spend in their stall, even though horses have a smaller likelihood of getting sick or injured.

Horses that spend their days outside on the pasture are happy horses, but they are more prone to sickness and injury. If left outside in the spring and summer, hay isn't as needed, as horses can fill up on grass! Still, you'll need to keep an eye on the weather and temperature to take action if it becomes too cold or dangerous. Horses with shelter provided on their pasture can happily spend time outside in the rain or snow!

Happiness Every horse has a happiness bar that is calculated through many different factors. If the overall happiness of a horse is low, that horse can get chronic abnormal behavior. Horses with a high happiness receive boosts in competitions. If a horse never gets pasture time, their happiness will decrease. Good training sessions, trail rides and treats can increase the happiness, and happiness increases over time with a healthy and satisfied animal.

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Horse Coloration: Part 1 - Black

Black horses do have at least one allele for the extension gene, but no agouti color. Their genotype will appear as the following: E/e a/a or E/E a/a. Blacks with two extension alleles will pass on one extension allele to every foal. These are called homozygous blacks. At MDR we have four different shades of black: Coal Black, Black, Pitch Black, and Jet Black. These shades are not random, but rather interpreted through a unique genetic system which has never been revealed. At least, we can say that the darker shades are dominant to lighter shades. There are different shades of bay, sealbrown and chestnut as well!

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Today we want to show you another part of our Halloween Edition. This one is called Black Cat.

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Genetics, Part 1: Fertility and Frozen Semen

Almost every trait of the horses at MDR is based on genetics. We're going to talk about each trait at least a little bit (excluding colors, they'll get their own series!) so that you can get the possible outcomes for breeding. We begin with the most simple piece: fertility. The fertility of each horse determines how high the success rate of breeding is. You can only cover (or mate) your mare once a day, so you'll want to make sure the breeding has a high success rate. The fertility of a stallion and a mare will be judged equally, and the foal will inherit the fertility of the parents. The foal's fertility will be an average of both, with some variability in either direction.

The fertility of a horse not only decides if a breeding is successful. It also determines how valuable the frozen semen of a stallion is. If your stallion has stood publicly for stud, you can later sell frozen semen from the stallion after a period of testimonial. The fertility of a stallion determines how frequently you can get frozen semen of the stallion. If the stallion has a fertility between 90%-100%, you'll be able to claim some once a week. At 80-89%, it becomes every other week, and at 70-79% once a month. If a stallion's fertility is below 70% he is not eligible for frozen semen.

You can sell frozen semen to breeders from foreign countries (system breeders) for a fixed price which is based on the points your stallion has made in a performance test. Overall, fertility is just a small trait, but it has a fairly large impact on the game.

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Just a few background impressions... :)

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From a Foal to a Riding Horse

Which steps do you need to take to grow your horse into a champion riding and competition horse? When your foal is born, it will require some behavior training. This includes picking up hooves, brushing, loading and more! Once it has completed all of this training, you can start to work with the foal from the ground. This is a mixture of riding lectures from the ground and desensitization points.

After your horse has aged to at least three years old, you can send your horse off to a trainer to have your horse broken in (this is a user job!). Only when the trainer has taught your horse the basics will you be able to further train the horse yourself. By then, you should have decided which discipline(s) you want to train your horse. It has potential for each one, so you should choose where it will have the best boost from genetics! After you have fully trained your horse, you can begin to compete it. If you have prepared it well, it may be a successful competition horse - or maybe even a champion!

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We're featuring the clouds in the next part of our weather series! Clouds do not have any effect on your horses, but they do show up in the background. There are small clouds, and heavy clouds. Heavy clouds will show on rainy days, snowy days, and thunderstorms. The dark clouds look rather drastic and gloomy, don't they? The smaller clouds look so much friendlier - and at least the sun doesn't burn so much on a clouded day!

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Horses: Aging

Today we're going to discuss the passage of time on MDR! How fast do horses grow? How old can they become? Will they die of old age? At which age can I begin breeding my horse? How long will my mare be pregnant?

One MDR year is 12 real life days! So one MDR month equals one day of real time. As horses are pregnant for 11 months, their pregnancy will last 11 real life days. After your mare has foaled, it can immediately be covered again. Foals will be ready to train and breed at the age of three, and their appearance will change as well! (From Foal skin to the skin of their breed!)

As soon as your horse reaches the age of 25, you will not be able to breed, train or compete with it anymore. You can retire it, and the horse will be moved to your oldies pasture! At this moment, horses cannot die of old age, but this may be changed in the future. You can't do much with a horse at 25 years old, and most people tend to retire them anyway.

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Breeding Shows

Today I want to talk about how competitions links to breeding. Any horse which you want to use for breeding needs to be registered as a breeding horse.

To register your horse for breeding, they have to win a breeding show. Breeding shows take place on a daily basis, as long as there are enough horses entered.  Breeding Shows for mares need at least 3 entrants, the breeding show for stallions 5. If there are twice as many participants as the minimum, there will also be two winners.

To be allowed to enter a breeding show, your horse must have at least one competition placing. All stallions from each breed entered into a breeding show will compete against each other; the best stallion in the show will win the title "registered stallion". The same for the mares, the winning mare will be awarded with the title "registered broodmare".

Evaluated are the conformation, interior, genetic stats, training status and competition placements. Genetic disease and mixed lineage minimize the points your horse will get. 

Every horse has the capability to win the breeding show. For some horses it may only take longer and they do need more competition placements to win against their competition.

As soon as your horse wins the breeding show and is a registered stallion or mare, you are able to breed with it privately or in a breeding association.

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Diseases

Today I want to talk about diseases your horse can obtain in the game.

What kind of diseases exist on MDR? On MDR there are several acute and chronic diseases.  Acute diseases can be treated by a vet, and are typically not fatal so long as they are regularly medicated. Chronic diseases can be either genetic or obtained diseases, and both are unable to be treated.

Genetic diseases are passed on from parents to their offspring. Some are inherited as a dominant trait others as a recessive trait, which decides how the disease will play out in a horse’s life. If the disease is dominant, just one allele of the disease is enough to make a horse ill. An inherited recessive requires two alleles to make the horse sick, meaning both parents must carry the allele. Horses with only one recessive allele may be entirely healthy but may pass the disease on to their offspring. Most genetic diseases are inherited recessive.

Some genetic diseases allow a horse to live but present certain disadvantages in competitions or the daily life. Others may lead to a stillborn foal.

The second version of a chronic disease is an obtained disease. These may develop due to bad care and training on a player’s part for their horse. These horses may need special treatment and medication, and may cause a handicap in competition.

 What means “Carrier” and what do I need to consider? Carriers are horses that may carry the gene for a disease but do not actually show symptoms of the disease itself. Horses such as this carry the gene recessively, meaning they only carry one allele of the disease, preventing them from being sick. Carriers have no disadvantage in competition or breeding shows over horses which are free of genetic disease, and do not need other treatment. However, take care not to breed two carriers who have the same genetic disease, for the produced offspring may carry the disease homozygos and become very ill or even die.

What is CA? CA stands for “cerebellar abiotrophy”. It is a neurologic disease, where more or less neurological errors can appear (i.e. disturbance of equilibrium). Affected horses can live with the disease but shouldn’t be entered in competitions or strenuous activity. This genetic disease is inherited recessive.

What is HERDA? HERDA stands for “Hereditary equine regional dermal asthenia”. The skin of affected horses is extremely sensitive and prone to building up scar tissue, leaving the horses covered in it. Horses with this disease are viable but must be treated with utmost care. This genetic disease is inherited recessive.

What is PSSM? PSSM stands for “Polysaccharid storage myopathy”. This disease causes horses to retain too much glucose within their body. Symptoms include lameness, muscle stiffness and aversion to movement. These symptoms often appear after 10-20 minutes of light work. Affected horses are viable. This genetic disease is inherited dominant.

What is EMH? EMH stand for “Equine malignant hyperthermia”. Diseased horses suffer from muscle cramps and cardiac arrhythmia. However, the horses are viable. This genetic disease is inherited dominant.

What is ASD? ASD stand for “Segment Dysgenesis“. It is a eye disease where cysts can build up on the eye. The horses are viable but their vision is strongly affected. This genetic disease is inherited recessive.

What is HYPP? HYPP stands for “Hyperkalemic periodic paralysis”. The symptoms of HYPP are muscle cramps and fatigue. The disease becomes visible in the form of sporadic attacks. Between the attacks, the horses seem to be completely normal. The affected horses are viable. This genetic disease is inherited dominant.

What is LFS? LFS stands for “Lavender foal syndrome”. The foals have neurologic perturbances and cramps and cannot stand on their own. They die shortly after birth. This genetic disease is inherited recessive.

What is SCID? SCID stands for “Severe combined immuno-deficiency“. The newborn foals are missing two kinds of lymphocytes. Therefore, they have practically no immune defense and die within a few days from diseases such as diarrhea or pneumonia. This genetic disease is inherited recessive.

What is GBED? GBED stands for “Glycogen branching enzyme deficiency “. These foals are missing a vital enzyme and typically die from a heart disease a few days after birth. In most cases they are typically stillborn. This genetic disease is inherited recessive.

What is JEB? JEB stands for “Junctional epidermolysis bullosa“. Foals suffering from JEB lose skin from their body, and their hooves typically dissolve from the corium. Foals born with JEB die shortly after birth. This genetic disease is inherited recessive.

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Horse Sharing

On MDR, we allow the possibility of horse sharing! What does that mean? If you don't have time to care for all of your beautiful horses, you can share them out. They'll stand at your stable, and you will be responsible for all their costs, but another user can overtake the daily routine of feeding, brushing and training your horse. You can even allow the other user to enter competitions with your horse!

Players can agree that the horse sharing is free, or that one user must pay for riding your horse, or that you have to pay them for their care! It all depends on the horse, and the players involved. Most commonly it is the horse owner paying the caretaker.

What are the advantages? The horse owner saves time, and the care taker can earn experience even faster if they don't have enough money to buy their own stable full of horses. If they're lucky, they can get their hands on a good competition horse without actually emptying their wallet for one of their own. Most commonly, sharing is between an older user with loads of experience (and horses!) and a newbie, who has more time and less horses but is in need of a lot of experience. In the end, it's a win-win situation!

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Today we wanted to show you the last piece of our pasture daytime series. This is the pastures in the evening - what do you think of this beautiful sunset?

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We've already talked a LOT about the weather on MDR, but now I'd like to go into more detail. Today we'll be featuring sun, rain and snow.

First off, you'll have an overview of the weather and temperature of today, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow! This is necessary for planning a schedule with your horses. Weather does have consequences, all of which take place at rollover (midnight). So, if the next day is going to be very cold, you should place a blanket on your horse before rollover! In this way, you need to perform all actions for tomorrow on your current day.

For a sunny day, there are no special things you'll need to consider. If a horse is out in a pasture, it will likely spend more time outside then in a shelter. It's also a nice occasion to train your horse outside.

Rain and snow act very similarly, although rain can happen in every season while snow can only occur in winter. If your horse(s) are out on the pastures, you'll need to ensure that they have a shelter to retreat to when needing to escape the rain and snow. If there is no shelter available your horse will need to be stabled, otherwise it may become sick! In the winter, temperatures can drop below 0 °C. Horses not returned to their stable will need a blanket to keep warm out in the weather.  They can both appear in a light and a heavy version.

Stay tuned for more talk on the types of weather!