Spring at last!

Spring hit the snooze button this year, it seems. Last weekend we suffered through a painfully drawn out sleet-ice-snow system, and on Monday night into Tuesday, we got a few more inches of snow-into-ice. I was beginning to think I would have my first wintry birthday ever, but thankfully it was not to be. In true midwest-spring-roller-coaster fashion, we find ourselves suddenly in a world of dry, gentle breezes and 60 degree temps. I'm certainly not complaining! The bunny and chick stuffed animals in Mom's window seat don't look so out of place anymore. =^)

My personal favorite is Chickie, the big yellow chick on the far right in the back. <3

Also, check out these interesting spindly things that one of the succulents in her window has sprouted:

Not as impressive as the tiny flowers that that other rather unfortunate-looking one sprouted last year, but still cool. (That one still lives and sprouted flowers mid-winter, in case you were wondering, but it has grown so big that it spent the winter by a different window.)

My sisters and I have agreed to another round of our birthday flute contest. I get to start it off again, since my birthday is the first in the calendar year, as always. After all 4 of us have had our birthdays, we will again award the winners of various categories with premium companions as prizes. 

They shall be:
- Fluted wild that looks the most like the horse of the day on Mom's calendar
- Fluted wild with the prettiest/handsomest profile artwork
- Fluted wild with the coolest avatar
- Fluted wild with best personality
- Fluted wild with the highest sum of stats for its breed
- Fluted wild with the highest total sum of stats

Let's get this contest started! Here is my birthday horse on Mom's page-a-day calendar:

Hmm, you can't really tell what color this one is. He/she could easily be chestnut, bay, seal brown, or black...

And here is my HI2 birthday flute:

Unfortunately, it doesn't matter what solid color my partial-silhouette calendar horse is, because I went and fluted a dapple gray! Drat. 

Now let's see the profile:

Okay, now we're talking. My dude may not have a prayer on the stat front, but he sure is easy on the eyes! I love his dapples and markings!

We haven't gone and bought any new horses this past week, nor have we taken screenshots of any we just have to show you. I did want to mention the newest breed that has been introduced to the game, though, the Carolina Marsh Tacky.

Yay, another American breed! The breed developed from feral horses that roamed some swampy islands of coastal South Carolina. Because Spanish horses are believed to have been in their ancestry, the look breeders are going for now is "Spanish Colonial." Maybe it's just me, but I don't see much of that in HI2's Marsh Tacky artwork. The impression I get is more "stringy and foal-like."

Here are a couple of examples from the BBB:

seal brown

muddy dun roan

strawberry roan

dun

They aren't that bad. I guess I'm just a bit underwhelmed because there are some gorgeous Tackies that come up on Google image searches. XD

Lurking in the Livery

There have been some really nice horses in the livery this past week! I know, I know. I should be staying far, far away. But somehow, I just can't keep myself from looking. You never know when you might find your next gem like my Esker, Quasar, or Groovy, for instance. XD And of course, there's still a remote chance I could even find Coquina, my dream Florida Cracker mare, there.

This mare came close!

Right color, great personality that's even symmetric in its distribution, and only one negative stat! If only those stats added up higher! *Sighs* 

The next batch of horses below all were surrendered by the same player, I believe. This is just a sampling - he or she was really unloading.

<3 As much as I love Felicity's awesome blue roan Abaco mare, Cascade, it would be so fun to have a pinto Abaco in the herd! (That's how I picture them in my head.) Alas, she's 10 stat points shy of the magic +80. 

I bet my Brumby Kestrel would have been delighted had I decided to add any of these fine specimens to the herd! I feel like the breed is often overlooked on HI2, but I think they're quite easy on the eyes and love that they come in such a wide range of colors and patterns!

I will be content with my Kestrel. None of these Brumbies, however cool, have his unique dappled, rabicano look or his goofy striped hoof. <3

Next up is a Datong with lots of bend-or spots. I was really tempted to adopt him to retire to our Millennium Fields because of his cuteness and his "interesting personality."

I think we'd have named him "Arrow." =) Since we just kept that Shagya to retire last weekend, though, I decided I'd better resist his considerable charm.

Aren't you impressed by how good I was at leaving all those horses be?

*Looks down and shuffles feet guiltily*

Don't be. 

Sorry, guys, but he's +94 and so very shiny and handsome! I tried to resist him, really I did! I logged out and waited a whole hour to give other players a shot at adopting him. Nobody did, and I couldn't just go to bed and leave him there!

Maybe we can try selling him? I know we're all thinking of replacing our ranch store or our sheep pen with a horse store... Otherwise, who knows? The luck we've had lately with wild horses (they've all been +3/6 or less) maybe we'll want him as our May horse? He would make an excellent "Quartz" or "Rhodium," don't you think? 

Interesting Avatars Part 4

Hello, all. Here comes the final installment of interesting HI2 equine avatars! I get to start with my favorite HI2 breed, the Nez Perce!

Nez Perce Horse: 3 varnish roans with tails that don't match

grullo varnish roan: a grullo blanket appaloosa with a brown tail? Okay, then.

liver chestnut varnish roan: a dark chestnut blanket appaloosa with a grey tail. It's almost like the tails of these two avatars got flip-flopped.

red chestnut varnish roan: it is way more subtle than the previous two, but this one's tail is again lighter than the mane.

Noriker: all the leopards! I will illustrate my favorites.

brown leopard: rusty legs, muzzle, and dapples, dark mane, and white tail

flaxen sorrel leopard: golden points... except for that snowy white tail, and brown dapples

silver dapple black leopard: chocolate legs, muzzle, and dapples, deep golden mane, and a flaxen tail. Wait, what happened to the white tail? So much for consistency. XD

Orlov Trotter: two unique greys

white grey: hee hee, the mane and tail are a pale shade of pink! 

We are the proud owners of one of these!

Tchaikovsky <3

dark dapple grey: this one's tail is a lighter and more brown-tinted shade of grey than the rest of its points and dapples

Paso Fino: all the minimal tobianos (except for palomino, since they have pale manes and tails anyway) have sabino avatars with bright white tails!

black minimal tobiano: I'm partial to this one because of the extreme black-white contrast... and because we have one.

Quickstep <3

If I may, I'd also like to add two more Paso Fino avatars to the list because of their almost neon orange-pink bodies:

red dun: bright orange-pink with golden brown mane and tail

We have one of these!

Juliet, the one and only horse we've created using a horse token

red roan: bright orange-pink with dark brown points. 

(One of our buddies had a red roan Paso named Romeo for a while. 

Sadly, we don't know what happened to him.)

Plateau Persian: sooty palomino rabicano

A dark gold horse with silver grey mane and tail, a dark blanket, and topped off with stark white dapples? Wow!

Salernitano: the last of the mosaics

mosaic chestnut: Oh, yay! A chestnut-black combo that has a chestnut tail! This makes me so happy!

mosaic chestnut sabino: Ooh, white thrown in too?! Fantastic! =D

Shagya Arabian: two stand-outs

bay gulastra plume: a dark bay body and a beautiful flaxen tail. As Xylyl pointed out, this is the most unique of the gulastra plume avatars on the game because of how dark the body is!

rose grey: this chestnut horse is graying out on its legs, muzzle, and hindquarters first. Also note the pinkish tone to its body and that its mane is darker than the tail.

Coincidentally, shortly after I took the screenshot of Juliet's avatar for this post, I noticed a wild horse in the woods. It was...

...yeah, a rose grey Shagya Arabian! What are the odds?!

Even though this stallion doesn't have an interesting personality label, I think he definitely deserves to be retired to our Millennium Fields!

Spanish Mustang: two avatars with surprising dapples!

buckskin blanket appaloosa: a light buckskin appaloosa with bright red-orange dapples!

yellow silver: light yellow body, silver mane, white tail, and bright yellow dapples!

Westphalian: light dapple grey

The tail is darker than mane, the dapples are a pale yellow, and the muzzle and those legs sure are dark!

There you have it. Illustrated list of interesting avatars complete! (For now, anyway!)

 Things have been quiet on HI2 lately - so far so good for Nebula the Icelandic. We've found some horses with cool artwork, like that Shagya above and these three beauties:

None of them had great stats, though. :/

We also noticed two bays in the livery with quite nice stats and lovely markings:

We weren't very tempted by that Frenchie because of his personality label and because we already have a Frenchie.

20-Karat <3

It was way harder to pass over that gorgeous Grade! *Sighs* We'll probably never find one that nice again in our price range. I sure hope somebody else found and adopted her!