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A benchmark stud is a stallion against whom you compare every other stallion of his generation, gelding any that aren't at least as good as he is.

You discover one by starting with the 2nd generation sons of a given foundation stallion. If the foundation stallion is C papered, then you neuter every son who doesn't paper B.

If I were doing this, I would do a Search for stallions, using the foundation sire's ID number and the Id of your stable as the primary parameters of the search. Then start comparing the results of the search, once all the C papered son's have been gelded. If, by some chance, that particular foundation has an A papered son, you would also geld any that papered B. This is a rare occurrence, but I have one C papered foundation who gave me 4 A papered sons when he was in a pasture with ordinary create mares, so it can happen.

I find it works better if I open one of the stallions pages in a separate tab from the search, and the comparison test in another. I put this first stallion into the right hand slot of the comparison test and then begin comparing him to his brothers. I open their pages one by one and run the test. If they test worse than the first, they get gelded. If they test about as good as, they stay. If one tests superior to, the original right hand example gets gelded and this new one takes his place on the right side of the test.

Then you should call up the sons of another foundation stallion, comparing them to the stallion from the former foundation son, gelding the worse ones. If, once again, you find a colt or young stallion that papers superior to the one you've had on the right, geld that colt and any that tested about as good as him. Switch the benchmark candidate to the right side of the test, and so on.

I recommend making it a point to copy the result of a comparison test into the owner's notes for each stallion, using the < br > code (without spaces) to insert a line break if you end up testing any of them against a second candidate for benchmark.

As you can see, this is a potentially very expensive procedure, especially if you have a LOT of stallions to compare and a relatively new, money-strapped stable.

Personally, I have never been quite this strict. I compare half brothers, as I have time to each year, but I'll admit it doesn't always get done, especially comparing one year's crop of sons to previous years. I do, however, do my best to keep only the best of each generation in a stallion's line intact. My collection of pixel ponies is so large, I would only be able to breed all the intact ones if I did nothing but play Hunt and Jump every day. :D

There are a couple of easier and cheaper ways to pick a benchmark. If you have a stallion that was the best pasture foal, use him as your benchmark for that generation, especially if the mares had the full 30 day pasture bonus. The other way only works if you have several stallions with a decent number of foals already. Then you pick the one with the best AFPT to use as your benchmark. In either case, if you get a superior stallion, you can switch to using that one as your benchmark, but these methods allow you start with a stallion you know is pretty good.

He would be your best bet for a strong benchmark, yes.