Writing a stable journal is, for me, a pain in the ass. I have no idea what I wanna write and I think there are more people out there who have the same. That's why I came up with this! I hope this will help everyone!
If you used this, please give credit to me/link back to this journal. I'll appreciate it!
Index
1. The stable
1.1 Name
1.2 Location
1.3 Time
1.4 Map
1.5 Breeds
1.6 Disciplines
1.7 Competitions/winnings
2. Horses
3. Staff
3.1 With reference
4. Breeding
4.1 Breeding terms
4.2 Breeding program
5. Other tips
5.1 Multiple journals
5.1.1 Links
5.2 Point journals
1. The stable
1.1 Name
First, what is the name of your stable? This is, I think, the most important thing ever. Search for an (unused) original name! I got my stable name after watching series, so I guess that you could find inspiration everywhere. You can write about the origin of the name, but that's up to you (I didn't choose to do it).I always put the stable name in the journal title. You can also put a logo in the journal text if you like.
1.2 Location
Where is your stable located? You just take a country or if you want to be more specific, you can even find a (real) city/place. Write about this location.Some questions that might help you out:
What is in the neighbourhood? What is the biggest city nearby? What does the landscape look like? (i.e. mountains, flat, rivers etc.)Your stable doesn't need to be on Earth. If you want, you can even do it on Pluto or Mars or Venus!
1.3 Time
I'm not talking about timezones or whatever, I'm talking about centuries/decades. If you want your stable to be in the century we live in, you don't really need to write that down. If your stable is in the Medieval time or the time of knights, it is better to write it down to avoid confusion. You can even write something about the time in general.1.4 Map
This isn't required, but if you want, you can make a stable map and post it in the journal. You can explain where everything is, what everything is etc.1.5 Breeds
What is a stable without horses? Nothing! What is the breed you want to focus on? This doesn't have to be just one breed, it can be a thousand breeds if you want to! Okay, that's a little too much mabye, but it's up to you to decide how many breeds you want to have!It isn't necessary to write down all your horses. You can just write about what breeds you have on your stable. If you want, you can write about how you find them or what kind of breed it is.
1.6 Disciplines
What is the discipline you train in? This doesn't have to be one, it can be multiple disciplines.1.7 Competitions/winnings
I think most people like do enter competitions. If you do, you can write about this. What kind of competitions do you enter? Did you win something? With what horse(s) did you enter competitions? This part doesn't have to be big, even a sentence is fine! HARPG has no rules (except if you join groups, but that depends xd), so use your imagination!If you have written this down, you have the most basic things!
2. Horses
A stable without horses is nothing. You can list all your horses in the journal. You can add links, thumbs, their breed, genos, personalities ... You decide! I chose for thumbs, because I thought that was more clearer (but the opposite is true, lol).
You can organise this per gender, per breed, per age ... This is up to you!
3. Staff
A stable can't run itself. This is were the staff comes in. The staff is the people that work on your stable. You can make references for them or you can let them me random faceless people.
3.1 With reference
As first, a reference is not required. If you don't want this, just skip it! A reference for your staff is basically the same as for horses. You can use basic details (age, gender, personality) or more advanced details (height, eye colour, hair colour, disciplines, function, etc.).For my staff, I used charahub to write down all my characters. This is what I decided with help of charahub (yes, you may use this list):
First name Surname Birthday Age Gender Nationality Lives now Height Eye colour Natural hair colour Recent hair colour Family Personality Significant other Relationship Horses (that they own/ride) Disicplines Prizes (that they've won)And I did sort of like a "Q&A". Now that I see this, it's a pretty long list. You can just skip whatever you feel like is unrelevant.
4. Breeding
Breeding is in fact just like the rest. Ask yourself questions and answer them (at least that's sort of what I do). I'll list some questions below for you to use as a guideline.
What is the payment to use one of your horses for breeding? Is a breeding picture required? If yes, headshot/fullbody? Do you allow twins? Do you want to keep track of the foal? Are all of your horses open to breed with? (you can do this for each horse individually) Who designs the foal?For my own journal, I separated breeding into two things, breeding terms (rules etc.) and breeding program.
4.1 Breeding terms
Breeding terms are basically what I wrote before (the questions). You basically write down all that a person needs to know if they want to breed with (one of) your horses. You can do this very simple (i.e. the payment, designs etc.) or more advanced (i.e. twins, genos etc.).4.2 Breeding program
A breeding program is, just like almost everything in here, optional. You can list down all the combinations you want to do (in the future). I wrote down the stallion, owner of the stallion, mare, owner of the mare and the required payment I need to do.5. Other tips
5.1 Multiple journals
If you don't like having everything in one journal, you can make multiple journals to write everything down.5.1.1 Links
To keep everything together, you can include links above/underneath the journal. People can click on it to see the "next" part. I used pointers to make clear where people are now. You get something like this:> *stable name* < / Horses / Breeding
Of course you can place everything you want to in there. Don't forget to include (working) links!
5.2 Point journals
Some breeds/registries want a point journal. This is where you include all the drawings of your horse and how much point they earned with that. You also write down the total points and which level/blood/.. your horse is in.You can make one journal where you place all the links of horses' point journal (if you get this). In the "main" point journal, you don't really need to write down stuff. All I did is list all the point journals of my horses with links. It makes everything just a little more clearer by that. But of course, do whatever you wanna do!
If you think I forgot something, please tell me! I'll include this in the journal with, of course, an explanation. Also, if you have any questions, don't be afraid to ask me!
If you used this, please give credit to me/link back to this journal. I'll highly appreciate it!
Good luck!
