EquusUnlimited

Starting Out.

All members start out as a New Member. As they progress through the game, each level has tasks they must complete to rank up. Each member starts out with $10,000. They must purchase up to 5 "Credits" to either Create or Import horses to start their barn. Each Credit costs $1000. Each new member must also make sure they have enough money to purchase feed, pay for board, pay for show fees, and hire a farrier/vet. Money management is very important, but if a member gets into financial trouble, they are allowed to take a loan out. (See Below). Any loans MUST be paid back in full to the EU bank before they can rank up to the next level. 

Horse limits are negotiable with admin permissions only. Permission may be granted in only extreme circumstances to allow a member to exceed the maximum number of horses allowable. Members must have shown that they are capable of managing horses to receive permission.

There are three Member Levels. 

New Member: This level is the beginning level. At this level the maximum number of horses is 10. Members may not breed their horses to other members horses, but may breed their own horses together. Members may purchase horses from the Public Sale Barn, but may not Sell any horses, bred, created, or imported. This level is not allowed to apply for a private barn yet. (You may start building one, but cannot apply for approval yet.)

Salary $2500 per month

The tasks for this level are as follows:

• Work with assigned mentor to learn the game.
• Create or Import horses by purchasing Credits.
• Sign up for a Boarding Plan on our Public Boarding Area.
• Correctly Enter into at least 5 shows, and Host 2 Shows with Results posted.
• Show responsibility by making sure that horses are taken care of with Vet, Farrier, and Feed needs.
• Bank account must be cleared of all debts and loans before ranking up.
• Correctly pass a Real Life Horse Knowledge Test (still under development).

Active Member: This is the intermediate level. At this level the maximum number of horses is 30. Members are allowed to breed outside of their own personal herd. Members may purchase horses from the Public Sale Barn, or Credits. Members may both buy and sell non-bred horses only.  This level is not allowed to sell any foal bred from their stock or their stock crossed on another members stock. If a member of this level breeds their mare with a stallion owned by a Senior Member, the foal would be owned by the Active Member, and thus the foal would not be eligible for sale until the Active Level Member ranks up to Senior.  The foal may be given to another player, but not sold. (The reason for this is to reduce the number of bred horses that are left behind by players that for whatever reason, stop playing without notice.)

Salary $5000 per month

The tasks for this level are as follows:

• Build and or submit personal barn for approval. You may use a free website builder, or free message board like yola.com or proboards.com.  
• Correctly Enter into at least 25 shows, and Host 10 Shows with Results posted.
• Bank account must be cleared of all debts and loans before ranking up.
• Show responsibility by making sure that horses are taken care of with Vet, Farrier, and Feed needs.
• Correctly pass a Real Life Horse Knowledge Test (still under development).

Senior Member: This is the final level, and the one with the most freedom. At this level the maximum number of horses is 50. All breeding and selling restrictions are lifted. At this level, members are expected to know the game" inside and out", be posting as many shows as they can, and generally assisting where ever and when ever they can. Members of this level will be assigned new members to mentor.  May apply for a boarding licence in the future IF private boarding becomes an option for EU's members.

Salary $7500 per month

Admin: At this time, there are only three Admin. Admin, in terms of playing EU, are equivalent to a Senior Member. The additional responsibility of running EU falls on our shoulders, so the expectation of entering a high number of shows with their own horses is relaxed due to the additional tasks we must complete on a weekly basis.

Please note at this time we are not looking for any additional people to serve as admin. If any positions in the future arise, we will post those openings on the forum along with any additional information necessary.

Buying Credits.

Each Credit costs $1000. When starting out you are allowed up to 5, but since a new member only gets $10,000 to start with, it is not advised to create 5 horses right off the bat. A member can purchase a credit when ever they wish, but there is a limit of 5 credits per month, which is applicable for all three of the member levels. 

A Credit is required for any Created, Imported, or Bred horse within EU. This means to breed your horses, you must purchase a Credit for the foal. When two members are breeding their horses together, whomever will keep the foal is responsible for paying for the Credit. 

Once purchased, a record of when the credit was bought should be kept, along with if it was used, and which horse it was used for. Credits, once bought, are good for 3 months.  A member of any level may have up to a maximum of 15 credits saved and unused at any given time.

Please see the board for more information.

Horse Definitions.

These Definitions apply to every show held in EU.

A weanling is a foal under a year old. A yearling is a foal over a year and under 2 years old. Both of these ages can be shown in halter/in hand, prospect, sire/dam with foal, and lunge line classes only.

A 2 year old is eligible for saddle training and must take a break from showing for a minimum of 1 real life month (2 sim months)  for "training". After training a 2 year old can be shown in classes for 2 year olds only.

• A futurity horse is a 3 year old and can be shown in only Futurity Classes.
• Junior Horses are aged 4 - 6 years old. 
• Mature Horses are 7 - 15 years old. 
• Senior Horses are 16 years and up. 
  

At this time EU allows the following breeds:

• Horses: Arabian, Morgan, Saddlebred, Standardbred, Thoroughbred, NSH
• Stock Horses: Quarter Horses, Paints, Appaloosas and their Appendix versions
• Gaited Horses: Tennessee Walker, Paso Fino, Missouri Foxtrotter
• Warmbloods: Trakner, Holstiener, German, Dutch, Sweedish
• Drafties: Clydesdale, Percheron, Belgian
• Barque Horses: Lippizaners, Friesians, Andalusians, Lusitanos, Gypsy Vanner
• Ponies: Miniatures (We know, not technically a pony), Shetlands, Fell, Quarter Pony, Pony of the Americas

Other breeds can be added, send an email to Beth or Kit with what breed you would like to see added and why.

Also, we encourage realistic genetics.  IE: Friesians aren't pinto spotted; Tennessee Walkers aren't appaloosa spotted, two chestnut horses aren't going to have a black roan baby, Arabians aren't in dilute colors, etc.  If you are in any doubt or have questions, please PM/E-Mail Kit.

Other

Famous horses may not be created. You are however welcome to use them in your horses pedigree.

All newly created horses must be listed in the creations/breeding thread so they can be added to the database and assigned a number. The horse does not exist in EU until it is added to the database.

Horses CANNOT be created or imported simply for sale purposes. A horse must belong to its creator or importer for one month before a sale can occur, provided your member level allows you to sell horses. Horses bred for sale to the general membership may only be bred by Senior Members.

EU allows the 'importing' of horses, please contact Beth to have your importation(s) approved. Horses do not have to stop showing All-Sim or in other games to be in EU.. All horses enter EU with a point total of zero unless special permission is acquired, as EU does have its own point system. We do support All-Sim, so if your horse shows All-Sim as well as EU Shows, that is fine with the Staff.

You may own only as many horses as your Member Level allows you to. Going over this limit will cause you to have to temporarily loose horses. We have the levels to allow a member to slowly gain more experience within the game.

Gaited Horses

A horse is declared gaited by being listed as a known gaited breed, or by the owner who states publicly that the horse is gaited. Once any horse has been declared gaited they may be limited as to which classes they are able to enter. Most gaited horses are ridden as pleasure horses, so english and western pleasure classes are ok, provided the class or show is labeled as 'open'. Classes such as 3 Day Eventing, Show Jumping, or traditional walk/trot/canter classes such as Hunter Under Saddle are not the best options to show your gaited horse in, as it is very rare to see a gaited horse performing these things. However, it is more common to see gaited horses in western events such as barrel racing, team penning/sorting, and pole bending.  They also are seen on the endurance circuit. 

Aging Horses / EU's Time vs. Real Time

All of Eu's horses age twice a year, January 1st, and July 1st. This is the first time in EU's history that the time frame was anything other than one sim year equaled one real life year. Another way to look at it is each real life month, the sim horse ages 2 months. 

Or, January 1st thru June 30 is one full sim year. July 1st through December 31st is one full sim year. In reference to foals born, we will have two 'breeding seasons' and two 'foaling seasons'. These will be posted on the board when active.

This MUST be taken into consideration when determining the age of foals bred from game stock. If there are any questions, or confusion, send Beth or Kit a PM on the board for more help.

However, if your horses show All-Sim As well, and they are on a different aging schedule, we understand that EU's aging schedules might come into conflict so please just PM Beth or Kit about it, and let us know. 

Speed Aging

If a member wishes to 'speed age' a horse specifically for EU, special permission must be granted. Just Pm Beth or Kit.

Foals may not be sped aged to within or younger than 3 years of their sire, 4 years of their dam, and the new year chosen must already have been open for mares.

• Non stressful classes are Halter, In-Hand, Flat Work, Pleasure.
  
  
• Stressful classes include, but are not limited to things such as Barrel Racing, Dressage, Jumping, Reining, Cow Events, Racing, 3 Day Eventing, and any other class that requires high speeds, sharp turns, high impact on bones, jumping, etc. If unsure about a class, please ask. Lunge Line Classes for Yearling's are included as a Stressful Class due to the stresses lunging places on a young horse's bones and joints.

A horse may only compete in 10 classes per show (5 Stressful), if a one day show. If the show is more than one day, a horse may not show in more than 10 per day, with up to 5 allowed to be Stressful. Some shows may allow unlimited in-hand halter type classes, this if specified by the show host, is allowed.

All horses must retire from stressful events at the age of 20, from all events at the age of 25, and pass away at the maximum age of 30.

Judging Shows.

There are several good show randomizers available to use to judge a show. Links to these will be found on the message board. Simply copy the very last post in your show, plug it into the randomizer per the directions, and then copy the results back into a Results post. Shows should be judged as soon as possible, but no more than a month should pass. If unable to post a result in a timely manner, please ask for someone else to run the show for you for a small fee. 

Show placings are awarded points and money. 

Points are only given to places 1st through 10th. Points and Award Money are to be given out as follows:

1 (50) $500
2 (45) $450
3 (40) $400
4 (35) $350
5 (30) $300
6 (25) $250
7 (20) $200
8 (15) $150
9 (10) $100
10 (5) $50

Racing meets will 10x these points per placing to allow for the limited times a racehorse may earn points.

Please place shows with the placing and the points given listed before the horse’s name.

1 (50) $500 horse 1
2 (45) $450 horse 2

And so on… this makes gathering points and appropriate placing’s much faster.

Please either note how many horses total entered the class, or create a Did Not Place (DNP) listing under the results for each class. Either method is acceptable.

If you have one show’s results still pending, you may not host another show in the meantime. This affects all levels of players except for Senior’s and the Staff, as they have proven to the game that they are responsible members and can handle multiple shows at once. 

Splitting Classes: Not allowed.

A special note regarding Geldings: Geldings get DOUBLE points to encourage the gelding of EU's less stellar stallion prospects. Not every son of every stallion needs to be kept a stallion. Quite often in real life the gelding sons of a stallion reflect better on the sire MORE than what the stud sons do. All of EU's admin actively support gelding all but the very best colts in real life, and encourage EU's members to do the same. Other incentives for Geldings will be implemented in the future as well.

Champion & Reserve Champion.

All shows which have a champion and reserve champion placing must require horses to send in their point total from the show after the results are posted. Listing Ch and RCh is not required, but optional. There will be no points or money given out, recognition will be the title earned by the horse.

The horse which received the most points during the show will receive Grand Champion and the horse which received the 2nd most will receive Reserve Champion. 

This can not be a randomized class. There can only be one champion and one reserve champion per ENTIRE show (unless approved for more by Beth or any member of the Staff.) Permission must be acquired before the show is run.

Any member who does not send in their point total by the date specified forfeits the chance to earn this placing.

Titles.

Once a horse has reached a certain number of points, he is awarded a title, which can be added to the front of his name accordingly.

0-500 No Title
501-1000 County Champion
1001-3000 State Champion
3001-5000 National Champion
5001-7000 World Champion
7001-9000 International Champion
9001-10,000 Hall of Fame
10,000 + Lifetime Achievement

Once your horses have earned the correct amount of points to earn a title you must send a complete show record to have the title approved for use. (Where and whom to send approvals into has not been determined as of yet, so until further notice, simply post on the board for approval). After your horse’s title has been approved you can automatically add it to the FRONT of your horse’s name.

LAh. Horses.

A horse has truly earned the title of Lifetime Achievement if he/she has earned 10,000+ points. These horses are the epitome of what EU is all about. However, once a horse has reached this level, the question is, “What do we do with the horse?”

There are several options. The horse may be retired to breeding uses, a well earned reward after a job well done. The horse may be retired permanently and placed in the EU Retirement Home, or they may be entered into LAh. Level shows / classes - but these shows / classes will not be, and are not pointed. They exist just to help our best show horses keep fit, sharp, and active.

If you own one of these remarkable horses, congratulations! The best advice our admin team can give you is to simply enjoy the horse that you have worked so hard to get to the very top.

Financial Matters

All of the money in the game is fake. We use SIM dollars, and in no way is it to be expected that a member will be given this money in real life, or expected to pay a real dollar amount. Yes - we all would love for it to be real, sadly, it is not.

Members start out with $10,000.00 and will receive more money as they advanced in status. This may seem like a lot of money, but please remember that horse care is EXPENSIVE even here in our game.

All payments are to be issued in the standard Check form, or an understandable version of it. We all end up getting informal in writing checks, so as long as it is clear regarding who its to, the amount, what its for, and who its from, the check form will be fine. (Unless our bank script is working, then disregard the below rules and follow any posted instructions on the board.)

Standard Check form is as follows, (but it doesn’t have to be in this exact order):

To: (member’s name)
From: (your name)
Date: (date written)
Amount: (in sim dollars)
Memo: (what the check is for)

Another way is: Check to x, For x, $x, from x.  This method is also acceptable. 

It is recommended that the member issuing the check keep a record of the check for themselves so they can keep their bank account accurate. Excell or another spreadsheet program, even a banking program such as QuickBooks will work well for this.

When paying for anything in EU, it is required that the check be posted to the appropriate bank section by the person paying. These records are what the EU Lotto Amount is tallied from, and if checks/payments for Feed, Credits, Board, Etc., are missing, that makes a lower total than it should be. And having the highest total makes things more fun!

Members must keep accurate financial records for themselves.  Please record all checks written and received.

It is each member’s responsibility to stay on top of their own finances and make sure that they have the funds for necessary purchases (such as feed, vet, and shoeing costs). This also includes non-necessary purchases, such as buying horses.

Do not spend more than you have.

If a member finds that they are in need of extra money, there is a Loan Application Thread on the forum. When asking for extra funds, please follow the instructions posted there.

If a member finds that they have run out of funds, and they have gone into the ‘red’, they are not allowed a bank wipe and ‘start over’. Instead, the member will apply for a loan, all owed debts will be paid off, and the member will be required to repay the loan in full with interest before being allowed to rank up. This is the EU equivalent of declaring Bankruptcy. If a member continues to have financial issues, Staff will step in and assist.

Making Money, Adding Money, and Withdrawing Money

EU Staff pays out a small salary to each member dependent on their member level. 

The board also pays out $100 per post you make, through a special 'money' script coded into the board. This script places a balance total in your profile that shows on each post you make. This balance is editable by admin, and includes your post money automatically. 

Each member is also required to send a weekly pm to either Beth Or Kit. This PM should have 2 amounts listed - the total amount of money you need added to your balance, and the total amount you need withdrawn from your balance. 

Things to be included in what you Add - Show purse earnings, Show Fees paid to you for your hosted shows, personal checks written to you, etc. 

Things to be included in what you Withdraw - Show fees you pay to others for their shows, Feed, Board, Credits, Vet, Farrier, etc. 

One of the best ways of making money is by holding reasonably priced shows. If your shows are priced to high, you won't get many entires. If they are too low, you won't make money. Strike the middle ground, and most will do well. 

There are other things you can do as well, selling horses if allowed, or providing services to other members. Businesses are allowed but not required for game play, so if you have a great idea, present it to the Staff for approval. Running shows for others is another way to make some cash. 

Boarding and Owning a Stable.

All members that are not allowed to own their own stable must board at the Public Boarding Barn on the Forum. 

All horses must be living in an EU approved Stable, either boarded, or privately owned.

Our Member Levels indicate when members are allowed to open up stables.

All stables must have a working website with the following information:

Facilities, all horses housed, vet/farrier records, and most recent feed records.

There are several free hosting sites available; however we do not allow sites to be built on Expage or angelfire. Yola is a very good free site builder with free hosting. 

All stable sites must be submitted to Beth or Kit for approval before they can be used to house horses. All links, pages, and text must be completed before official submission.

Opening an Establishment.

Opening associations, establishments, and businesses is not required to play EU. If a member wishes to open one, only Active and Senior members may own one.

Each establishment must have its own web site, with no broken links or images. Websites must give an accurate overview of what the association is, purpose, products and/or clearly defined point systems and rewards. They must also be routinely updated or the association/business will be asked to be shut down or given over to another player. 

Registries and Associations must be for a subject not already used, and serve a general purpose. If an association is not actively holding events and/or serving a purpose in EU, another member may enquire about re-opening the assoc under their management.

Businesses should be realistic (or EU related), and provide realistically priced products and services.

A system for real estate/land development is currently being developed. At this time, the only ‘system’ we have is whatever the member makes up. Please be thoughtful in what type of facility you create.

What is NOT Optional:

All Stables & Establishment websites for the game of EU MUST have the following:

• This statement on EACH INDIVIDUAL PAGE:
  “This site is for the game Equus Unlimited. Nothing on this site is real.”
  

And Finally, 

The ultimate goal of the game is not to win or loose. It is to become a successful member, making a profit, and hosting shows that others want to enter into. It is becoming a fixture in the community, and helping others out. Members that help the progression of the game by recruiting new members, helping new members, and helping to develop the game into something bigger, better, and more fun then ever!

Good Luck!

~Admin