Behaviour
You must be at least 14 years old to join HF.
Pointless bickering will not be tolerated.
No foul language, teasing, or rudeness is tolerated to anything or anyone.
No posting other games on our private message board for members only. You can be in as many games as you want to, but just stay active.
No sending chain letters to the members of HF. If you want to send an e-mail related to HF, that is fine.
The Officers have noted that several members have recently stated about a loss of records or something along that line. I must reiterate PLEASE PLEASE make sure you keep accurate, up to date records! This in our opinion is of utmost importance to the game.
Any Committees or the Officials have the authority to suspend or expell members who violate rules about a person's behavior.

Double-playing in HF
Double-playing in HF, essentially having more than one identity, is ABSOLUTELY NOT ALLOWED. It is quite ridiculous to double-play in HF; there isn't monetary or equine gain by it, especially when the Advanced Member Level with "unlimited everything" is reached. There have been instances before of double-playing that caused serious problem and headache for the administration.
If you are caught double-playing, serious immediate action will be taken against you. Punishment ranges from long-term supervised probation and revoke of "unlimited" privileges to a permanent ban from the game, depending on your behaviour and how willing to accept the responsbility for your actions you are. The administration has the utilities to find double playing that has worked very well for us in the past, so you WILL eventually be found if you decide to double-play.

Quitting HF
In the unfortunte event that you decide to quit HF, please e-mail the President with your name, e-mail address you joined with, and the URLs of anything you own so the links can be taken off the web site. Also, inform the same person if you change your e-mail address or change web page links.
Please secure the future of your horses before you leave. You may sell or give away, export, or send them to The Committee. The MR must be notified if you export them. In the event you sell or give away your horses, please be sure to state whether or not you retain buyback/reclaim rights on those horses in case you decide to return. If you do not state this, or leave under the pretenses of no possible return to HF, then you forfeit your rights to ownership of that horse if you do return to HF, and do not have the right to ask the current owner for the horse back.

Forum Use
Perhaps we Officers are just grammar freaks, but could you all PLEASE use normal English. That means regular capitalization, punctuation and, most importantly SPELLING! Please don't use "cheat" spelling (ie. thanx/chex, u, r, etc.). We want to see full words spelled to the best of your ability. Frankly, trying to decipher some of that typing is not fun to a lot of us. Also, notice that there is a "Spell Check" button available. Please make use of it when you can!

Finances & Management
All members start at the New Level of Member Status. Click here for more information.
The only type of payment is a check. Below is an example of a check:

Date: 1/1/01
To: Name of the person whom the check is for
From: Name of the person who wrote the check (you)
Amount: Amount of money that the check is for

Random finance checks will be done. Once a month, I'll pick a few members and e-mail them to see an up-to-date copy of their finances. If they don't have finances, they will be fined substantially, and have to send finance reports to me every so often (amount of time between reports to be decided per member) so I know that member is telling the truth and keeping records.
You must take your horses to the veterinarian at least once every 12 months and the farrier every 6-8 weeks.

Time & Aging
1 real year = 1 SIM year
A stallion should be no less than two years older than its oldest foal.
A mare should be no less than three years older than its oldest foal.
You may not keep a horse at a single age for more than one real life year.
Mares must be in foal for 1 month before they can give birth.
Once a foal is born, you can age it within the normal guidelines.
A horse can only be speedaged once in its life.
Once a horse has shown or been bred (IE become active in HF), the horse can no longer be speedaged.

Death
Horses are allowed to die in HF. It rarely happens, but it has usually in the form of a creative disaster that a member has written for others to read or participate in. HF likes to promote creativity and not rules, so there is no set age for a horse to perish in HF. However, we do ask that you keep their ages reasonable, and not have an unrealistically aged horse.
If you purchase a horse from another member, you MAY NOT have it perish for at least a year after the purchase date. It is also encouraged that you notify the previous owner of the horse's impending misfortune before the fact, as many members might be upset by a previous horse of theirs dying.

Registration
No two horses of any breed can have the some name.
We have also noticed a slight confusion over horse naming in HF. If YOU breed a horse, you put YOUR stable's initials on it. You MAY NOT use another stable's prefix/suffix on your own foals' names, UNLESS you have used another stable's mare for the breeding (IE embryo transfer or lease). This also applies to using real life stables' prefixes/suffixes, such as V for Varian Arabians. You may not have two stable prefixes or suffixes on a foal's name. The prefix/suffix should be the stable of who the mare the foal is out of belongs to, UNLESS an agreement has been arranged previously. Regardless, the foal should only have ONE stable prefix/suffix.
All horses must be registered in the Mandatory Registry.
Famous, fictional, and real life horses' names and statistics cannot be used (ie. Secretariet, Khemosabi, Black Beauty, etc.)
You may not change a horse's name once registered. Once it is registered, the name is "set in stone" - minor changes may ocasionally be made-such as adding or changing a prefix/suffix or the spelling of a name.

Creating Horses
New members through intermediate members must follow the creation rules for their member level. You may read about the restrictions at the Member Levels page. Advanced members have unlimited creation credits to be used as desired. However, it is important to remember not to create horses unnecessarily. Make sure you only create horses that you intend to keep for a very long while. While we do not closely regulate the amount of horses created by each member, the officers will notice if a member begins to create a gross amount of horses and will be forced to take action and begin regulating the offending member(s).

Importing Horses
Importation of horses into HF is allowed and encouraged. However, abuse of this priviledge, such as importing more horses than you are capable of handling, or an excess number, will result in having it revoked at the Committee's discretion. Please use common sense when importing, and don't forget to register all horses imported. You are not allowed to import to sell.
The only exception to the No Import to Sell rule is if you have imported a group of horses (rare) and you are only selling a very small portion of those horses: for example, you import ten horses and sell one or two. It is advised to contact the officers before you do this though, and your horses must still be registered in HF first before you attempt to sell them.

Breeding & Selling Horses
Members may not create horses just to sell them.
Horses not registered in Horses Forever before being sold will not be accepted for registration in the game.
Horses may be sold into All SIM, as long as the Mandatory Registry is notified.
Exceptions have been made in the past for the No Creating/Importing to Sell rules only for associations who are promoting a new breed in HF or introducing rare lines not seen in HF. To apply for an exception, you MUST contact the Officers with your petition as to why you should be considered for an exception, along with the details of why, what, and how many horses.
If you decide to breed for a foal crop, please do not breed only to sell. This contributes to the overpopulation of HF, and there are plenty of great horses already for sale. If you do plan to sell a portion of your foal crop, please keep it around a 1:4 ratio, where one out of four of your babies are for sale and you are keeping the rest. If you do not want to do this, another option we offer is to post a foal crop announcement, accept private offers through PM on your foals, and keep the rest that aren't sold.

Please abide by these rules. If you are caught violating them, you *will* be punished!