HGG Community Forums

They are foundations because they have no parents, so to speak. They can be bred to 2nd gens with the same papers in the same way as yellow/C horses are bred together. In other words the paper levels are equal no matter what generation the horses are.

Generations and papers are two separate things, generation is starting from foundation for gen1, and gen2 etc, no matter what the papers are. So you can start from exceptional red/B foundations, or perfect yellow/C foundations. second generation is simply the next generation after foundation, it has no correlation to paper level. Gen2 can be any paper level depending on parents.
You can breed B paper to yellow paper foundations, or visa versa, the foals are still gen2 if both parents are foundation

The generation is what matters when you are doing the specific benchmark stuff that is needed to hit the best possible PT score per generation when era chasing. (That is what the FAQ is talking about)

It does not impact you otherwise.

It's a foundation, so it's 1st gen. But the FAQ benchmarks are specifically for those starting at Yellow/C papers, so obviously starting from Red/B paper you can expect a bit better. It's not really relevant for Era chasing, as by the time you have Red/B foundations in an Era, the best horses are generations ahead. So generation benchmarks are simply going to be your own preferences by then.

A rough benchmark I use when starting with all Red/B foundations, is that Gen2 have to be Blue/A papered, and Gen3 have to be Gold/Star paper. As they aren't used for Era competitions, I'm not 100% strict on it unless I want an excuse to spay/geld.

I personally match generations, not paper levels, but obviously there is no problems with mixed generations, it's just that there will be no clear benchmarks. What you chose to designate a mixed generation horse with regard to benchmarks, is totally up to you