So, I'm sure someone has done this before but I wanted to give it a go myself. I am starting with two sets of store bought Quarter Horses. One pair is on an upgraded account and will get only enter all shows. The second pair will be on a basic account and have hand picked shows. I want to see how much difference there is between basic and upgraded training. I thought it could be fun to watch and see and share my results here. So each week, after all of that weeks shows have run, I'll post their points here so that everyone can see how it goes. :)

Here are the accounts the horses are on:

Quarter Horse Experiment - Upgraded

Quarter Horse Experiment - Basic

*Special notes: The first major difference is basic accounts only get 70 shows a week vs. 80 shows that upgrades get. This also means they only get 28,000 entrance points vs. 32,000 entrance points.

Week 1:

Upgraded Mare: 97,980

Upgraded Stallion: 102,470

Basic Mare: 108,200

Basic Stallion: 101,180

Week 2:

Upgraded Mare: 189,630

Upgraded Stallion: 196,790

Basic Mare: 208,960

Basic Stallion: 171,880

Week 3:

Upgraded Mare: 292,440

Upgraded Stallion: 281,480

Basic Mare: 272,560

Basic Stallion: 253,620

Week 4:

Upgraded Mare: 382,610

Upgraded Stallion: 382,630

Basic Mare: 360,660

Basic Stallion: 336,400

Week 5:

Upgraded Mare: 488,140

Upgraded Stallion: 472,910

Basic Mare: 458,620

Basic Stallion: 446,640

Week 6:

Upgraded Mare: 584,530

Upgraded Stallion: 564,370

Basic Mare: 549,020

Basic Stallion: 545,100

Week 9:

Upgraded Mare: 927,800

Upgraded Stallion: 940,070

Basic Mare: 905,820

Basic Stallion: 905,600

Week 10:

Upgraded Mare: 1,041,040

Upgraded Stallion: 1,044,900

Basic Mare: 986,500

Basic Stallion: 997,960

Week 11:

Upgraded Mare: 1,138,490

Upgraded Stallion: 1,143,250

Basic Mare: 1,102,320

Basic Stallion: 1,107,020

Week 14:

Upgraded Mare: 1,393,860

Upgraded Stallion: 1,381,080

Basic Mare: 1,299,620

Basic Stallion: 1,310,360

Week 15:

Upgraded Mare: 1,513,830

Upgraded Stallion: 1,525,580

Basic Mare: 1,412,120

Basic Stallion: 1,421,860

Upgrade back-up colt: 116,061

Basic back-up colt: 108,698

Week 16:

Upgraded Mare: 1,607,520

Upgraded Stallion: 1,617,280

Basic Mare: 1,473,300

Basic Stallion: 1,472,760

End Results: 

Upgraded Mare: 1,818,120

Upgraded Stallion: 1,828,770

Basic Mare: 1,702,050

Basic Stallion: 1,684,190

-whispers- _{That's how to succeed on points in the mascot no-tix category, what Insomnia's doing for her experiment. It's tedious AF to do for the entirety of mascot, but that's how to wrack up the points for that category!}

imma do that next year I think xD

The proof is in your results on that one insom lol 

I posted last weeks results. Everyone seems to be gaining a steady rouly 100k a week but without those extra 10 shows the lag behind. I'm thinking my next round of the experiment I might give a basic pair the permanent extra energy or something and see if that closes the gap.

oops -face palm- I was bad about posting the data for 2 weeks but I put up what they are now!

Just some clarification questions: When you guys talk about hand-picking that literally means clicking on the show and looking how many animals are already entered into the show, right? And how do you know that 20 more animals aren't just going to be entered into a hand picked show after you entered your animal into that one? Is there an advantage to be the first or third animal entered into the show before it "runs"? I'm a little lost on how one can be so precise in choosing shows when I thought it was sort of a random chance when the shows run -- like you can't guarantee first place placement in show, or can you?

I'm sorry I'm ignorant in the science behind this. I've never thought there could be planning in a chance placement of a show run. 

🧐 this is still fascinating to me 

Eyre- that's pretty much it. the best chance for it to work is to do like 10 per day like an hour or 2 before midnight game time. so there is less chance of too many more being added to the show.

Sat- it really is very interesting! The basics are at a disadvantage but only by a little bit.

Yeah, that's why is so time consuming, Eyre. :P Works well, though.

Week 10 and 11 are up. I think I am most impressed that the basic pair aren't too far behind. 

Put up the last two weeks of points. Today they turned 18 so I did their back-up breeding and the points are still doing okay. The basic baby is a little behind but not too bad. As this experiment is coming to an end I have been thinking about what to do next so I figured I would leave it up to everyone and what y'all wanna see.

So either:

A. Same experiment with dogs (so basic and an upgraded pair in random shows)

or

B. A basic/upgrade pair but this time they are all put exclusively in the Humane Association "Auto Shows".

Oooo I think B would be really interesting to see! 

B would be interesting.  I do think that dogs points are alot better than horses. 

I used to think the worst thing in life was to end up all alone. It's not. The worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel all alone. Robin Williams

As I am hitting the home stretch of the experiment I am seeing an almost 150k difference now. This group only has 2 more weeks of training to go so this is wheree it'll get really exciting to see where they finish. Looks like people wanna see the auto show experiment so that will be starting when I finish this one. :) I'll make a new post for that one when it is time but it'll be pretty much the same thing with 1 basic/1 upgrade store pairs but instead of random shows i'll pick only the auto shows made by the humane society. 

And the end results are in! The gap between the highest and lowest of the 4 horses is 144,580 points. The upgrade advantage is pretty obvious but obviously you can still get some pretty respectable animals on a basic too. This was fun for sure and I'm excited to to start the next round in a few weeks. Thanks to everyone for being apart of this with me!

yay!! 

How cool!!

Cool results.  

I used to think the worst thing in life was to end up all alone. It's not. The worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel all alone. Robin Williams