Strategic Designs Ltd., forums
https://www.startersorders.com/phpBB2/

Recovering Condition
https://www.startersorders.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=20032
Page 1 of 1

Author:  marklaker [ Sat Apr 24, 2021 12:20 am ]
Post subject:  Recovering Condition

Two questions for those who've played this game for awhile:

1) Does training intensity affect the condition bar or just actual racing?

2) Does a horse perform more poorly when the condition bar is low?

I'm in September of my current season and a few of my horses have condition bars at 10-15%. Aiming them for stakes races in 30-45 days and wondering if I lower the training intensity for a few weeks, if that'll help them recover faster?

Thanks in advance!

Author:  bcrstrat [ Sat Jun 19, 2021 9:42 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Recovering Condition

Apologies for the super late reply, but to answer your questions, both and yes.

1) From my experience, yes, training intensity does affect condition. Low intensity training is optimal for recovering condition, while moderate and heavy training tend to make your horse lose some condition, especially heavy training. It really depends on how long you use that specific intensity. Training intensity also affects racing; the biggest thing I've noticed is training your horse at high intensity the day before a race. If you do that, you might see in the paddock that the horse is agitated and simply not acting too professional. I have had some horses run well showing that behavior pre-race, but most times they don't run as well. So, I recommend you switch to moderate training the day before a race. You won't lose enough condition to make an impact on your horse's performance and your horse shouldn't be worked up.

2) Yes. You may already know this, but one thing to note is that the condition bar has two parts: a red bar and a green bar. The green bar is the horse's condition for the season, and the red bar is the horse's current condition. The green bar usually recovers relatively fast and goes down the most after a race. Though they're both important, I'd say that the red bar is the most important of the two. If that bar gets too low, your horse will not run its best and also has a much higher risk of being injured. So, never race with low condition bars. I personally try to race with at least 95+ condition and 95+ fitness.

Another thing that affects condition is galloping, but I tend to avoid galloping unless my horse really needs the extra fitness.

Also, here's something VERY helpful that I've learned from reading the forums and which I've applied to my gameplay with great success:
Try to give your horses a minimum of 28 days off between races, unless circumstances require otherwise (for example, the two week break in between the Kentucky Derby and Preakness or if they need more time to recover condition) During this layoff, put them on light training and adjust it so they work on agility or breaking, whichever they need the most work on, ie. which ones they have "poor" or "average" in. After the layoff, find a race to enter them in (preferably after the declaration cut-off) and keep them in moderate training until 14 days before the race. Then switch them to heavy training until the day before the race, which like I mentioned before, should be moderate training. I only use heavy training the day before if fitness is just below peak and it's a big race, or they absolutely need it for whatever reason. It's a last resort though; most times if my horse isn't at peak fitness I just remove them from the race and point them elsewhere.

Credit to SiriusChill for this great training method! :)

Hopefully this is helpful!

Page 1 of 1 All times are UTC [ DST ]
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group
http://www.phpbb.com/