¶ Condition
¶ The Basics
¶ What is ‘Condition’ in Legacy?
Condition represents the horse's weight/thinness/fatness in Legacy. Condition has 9 rankings, from Emaciated to Extremely Fat, based on the ‘Body Condition Score’ scale commonly used in real life.
¶ What does Condition do in Legacy?
Condition affects your horse's health, show scores, and fertility in mares.
¶ What controls Condition in Legacy?
Well, of course, genetics! But, only to a point. You will be able to manage your horse's Condition through managing their feed, exercise/training, showing and jobs. See below for more details.
¶ The Scale
Condition has 9 rankings, illustrated below.
1: Emaciated
2: Very Thin
3: Thin
4: Moderately Thin
5: Moderate
6: Moderately Fat
7: Fleshy
8: Fat
9: Extremely Fat
¶ The Details: What Condition is best, and how to manage Condition
¶ So, what Condition score is best?
Well, it varies a little, depending on what you are trying to do.
1. If your horse is going to be showing, a Condition of 4 (Moderately thin) is best. Being thinner or fatter will negatively impact show scores.
2. If you want to breed your mare, a Condition of 5-6 (Moderate to Moderately fat) is best. Being outside this range will decrease your mare's chance of getting pregnant.
3. If neither 1 or 2 apply to your horse, a Condition of 4-6 is considered healthy.
¶ What Condition do horses start at?
Each horse has a ‘baseline’ Condition that they will start at. Their baseline Condition is genetic, and controlled by 6 genes. This will mean some horses are naturally a little thinner or fatter than others. Baseline Condition will always range from a 4-6 (Moderately thin to Moderately fat).
¶ What things decrease Condition?
- Exercise or Training
- Showing
- Jobs
- Being pregnant - after the 1st trimester
- Having a nursing foal
- Feed (sometimes)
¶ What things increase Condition?
Their feed.
¶ What are the types of feed in Legacy, and how can I use them to control Condition?
There are 4 types of feed:
| Type | Calorie Content | Price (for horses in a Barn) | Price (for horses in a Pasture) |
| Balancer | Lowest | $800/month | $800/month |
| Basic | Low | $200/month | $120/month |
| Conditioning | Moderate | $400/month | $240/month |
| Concentrated | High | $500/month | $300/month |
*Yes, Balancer costs the same for horses in Barn or Pasture. This is a specialty diet feed for horses who've gotten overweight.
Managing your horse's Condition is fairly simple. Here are the basic rules:
- If you are training/exercising the horse, but they do NOT have a job and are NOT showing, they should be on Conditioning feed.
- If you are training/exercising the horse, and they DO have a job OR are showing, they should be on Concentrated feed.
- If you are NOT training/exercising the horse, but they DO have a job OR they are showing, they should be on Conditioning feed.
- If your mare is pregnant, she should be on Concentrated feed.
- If none of the above apply, your horse should be on Basic feed.
Balancer feed is expensive, and will be discussed later.
Now, the above only apply if your horse is the Condition score you want. But, maybe they aren't. Maybe they are naturally a little fat, and you want them leaner to show. Maybe you accidentally left them on Conditioning feed despite them being retired and they got fat. Or maybe you forgot to switch them to Conditioning feed while they were training and now they are too thin. You can change their condition by following this guide:
- Training or exercising, showing, having a job, and being pregnant all have an energy cost per rollover.
- Training or exercise = -1
- Note that the number of training sessions used does not impact this. If you use only 1 session in that rollover period, the effect is the same as using 50 sessions!
- Having a job = -1
- Showing = -1 per show entered!
- Pregnancy, after the first trimester = -2
- Having a nursing foal = -1
- Training or exercise = -1
- Each feed supplies a different amount of energy to the horse.
- Balancer = -1
- Basic = +0
- Conditioning = +1
- Concentrated = +2
You can use the above information to adjust your horse's Condition as you need. But, don't expect your horse's Condition score to visibly increase or decrease after just one month. Depending on how fat or thin they are, it will take some time to increase or decrease their Condition.
¶ Where can I see my horse's Condition?
It is displayed both as text in your horse's information section, as well as a bar underneath that section:
The top bar shows your horse's current condition, marked by the gray vertical bar. The white vertical bars mark the mid-points of each Condition level.
The bottom bar shows how much Condition your horse is expected to gain or lose based on their activity during this rollover period. The black bar in the center marks no change. If the gray bar moves to the left of the black bar, they are going to lose Condition at rollover. If the gray bar moves to the right of the black bar, then they will gain Condition at rollover.
¶ WARNING: Be careful with showing
You are allowed to enter as many shows as you want per rollover, but each show you enter decreases Condition. You could potentially emaciate your horse quickly this way.
Showing is strenuous and horses need rest, so be sure not to enter too many per rollover. We recommend 2 maximum per AM or PM.
¶ Detail of Broodmare Condition management
A pregnant mare will need more calories later in pregnancy. To make it relatively simple in the game, pregnancy won't affect Condition when a mare is in the first trimester (1st 4 game months) of pregnancy. You can easily train or show a mare through this time period. But, as soon as her 2nd trimester starts, she will begin to lose -1.5 Condition per rollover, so at that point it is probably best to rest her!
Milk production is also calorically demanding, so a mare with a nursing foal at her side will lose -1 Condition per rollover.
¶ Are there any consequences if my horse is too thin or fat?
Yes. See the following:
1. Mares that are outside of the 5-6 range will have a lower chance of getting pregnant if you try to breed them. Their fertility decreases the further they are from this range.
2. Show horses that aren't a 4 will lose points at shows. The further they are outside of this range, the more points they lose.
More severe consequences for extreme conditions:
3. If a horse is emaciated (Condition score of 1) for 3+ months in the game, there is a chance they will die. That chance increases the longer they are emaciated.
4. If a horse is fat or extremely fat (Condition score of 8-9) for 6+ months in the game, there is a chance they will develop metabolic laminitis. That chance increases the fatter they are, and the longer that they are fat. If they develop metabolic laminitis though, there is a chance then that they could die of the disease, if you do not manage their Condition. See below.
¶ What happens if my horse develops metabolic laminitis?
Metabolic laminitis is a systemic, crippling disease in horses which causes a weakening of the laminae anchoring the horse's hoof to the bone inside. This is extremely painful for the horse, and results in lameness.
Horses who develop metabolic laminitis in Legacy will never recover. This means they will no longer be rideable, and cannot be trained, exercised, taken to shows, or do any jobs. They will still be breedable, however.
There is no cure, but symptoms can be improved by ensuring the horse loses weight. To make them lose weight, since they can no longer do training or exercise, they will need to be switched to Balancer feed, a low calorie diet feed, to lose weight.
If the horse develops metabolic laminitis and their feed is not changed and they remain fat/extremely fat, then there is a chance they could die. However, this risk of death only applies if they are left as fat/extremely fat. If you successfully decrease their Condition score to an acceptable level, then the risk of death will be gone, but they will still be unable to train, show and work.