Novo Bello Breeding Color Guide

See below for some more explanations! ((still some-what under construction, sorry for mistakes/sloppiness))

The numbers are referring to rarity. 1 being the most common, and increasing.

NB breeding is year-round.

NBs have a very high chance of producing twins.

While it is not unheard of for NBs to have life-long mates, it is rather uncommon. Because of their heritage, they are naturally driven to find mates that they believe will produce the strongest, healthiest offspring. And because they live so long, this usually means that they tend to "play the field" quite a bit (stallions definitely more-so than mares).

Although the males tend to leave home early and make their own way in the world, mares are much more inclined to stay very close to one another. It isn't uncommon to have several generations of mares all living together, each helping one another to bring up the next generation. 

Stallions will fight for breeding rights to females, and often control large harems.

While stallions will usually take a harsh view of colts and drive them from the herd as soon as possible, they are very protective and fond of their daughters. During a mare's first courtship, a stallion will have to fight her father first before he can even think about trying to claim rights to her. Even after defeating the mare's father though, a stallion may still have to fight any other suiters that have also made it past the patriarch. 

When breeding contrasting colors, the foal will likely be a color that falls almost directly between the two on the color wheel (so breeding a red and green could result in a yellow-orange or a blue-violet. Or a blue bred with an orange may result in a yellow-green or a red-violet, and so on...). ((see the color wheel above))

Because marking colors are directly linked to the base color, foals can often times end up with marking colors that don't always resemble their parents. For example, if a pastel pink with violet markings were bred with a pastel blue that also has violet markings, the foal will be a pastel violet, but it won't necessarily have violet markings. It could have any of the common possibilities for a violet base, such as blue or pink.

Despite the actual color not always being effected, the rarity and style can be effected by the parents. For instance, if both NBs  have contrasting marking colors to their bases ((such as a red with green spots, and a blue with orange spots)), then the foal is much more likely to have contrasting colors ((in this case, a violet with yellow markings)). Also, the style of marking is passed down, meaning if both NBs have dapple markings, so will the foal. 

Whether or not an NB will pass on a mutation to a foal depends entirely upon its rarity. If two NBs express the same mutation, it increases the chances of it being passed on, but it does not guarantee it.

Common mutations have a rarity of 1, all the way up to Super Rare mutations which have a rarity of 5. The rarer a mutation, the less likely it is to be passed to a foal.

The best way to determine if a foal will inherit a parent's mutation is to use a Random Number Generator. Roll numbers between 1 to 100. If a mutation is common, any number selected between 1 to 75 will express the mutation. For uncommon, any number from 1 to 50. Rare, 1 to 35. Very rare, 1 to 20. And for Super Rare, 1 to 10. 

If two NBs are bred together that both express an uncommon amount of plating (meaning face/neck/leg plating, helmet or greaves mutation, or the turtle or medieval mutations), numbers must be rolled to determine if a foal will express the unfortunate Underbelly mutation. The more armor the two NBs carry, the greater the chance of the mutation. For example, if you were to breed two NBs that both expressed the Medieval mutation, you'd have a 50% chance of having an Underbelly foal (so rolling between 1 to 100 and getting anything from 1 to 50). Since the Medieval mutation will often also express the Helmet and Greaves mutations, they are the most heavily armored of the Novo Bellos and therefore at the highest risk of having an Underbelly foal, however the risk will never be greater than a 50% chance.

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~ Novo-Bello