Escher

4 more pacers have passed through since Julie's post! Still no amblers. If we hadn't seen a YouTube video of an ambling HI3 horse, we might be inclined to think they are a myth!

Amulet sure was cute! She was only 12 hands tall, though, and Pepsi looked a bit silly.

Ice Spire was 5 inches taller than Amulet and looked like she could be gaited from her stance. Sure enough!

When this little 11-hand pony took off as we were trying to approach and lasso him, he paced! So even in the wild, gaited equines gait. Nice touch, HI3!

Yay for the pony cart! I like how it's the same color as our banana kayak.

It doesn't seem that pacers are limited by biome or conformation. I really wasn't expecting it from Chariot of Fire!

Felicity's birthday was last week Tuesday. As she feared, it was a chilly one. Snowflakes drifted through the air at various times throughout the day. Unlike Lily, Felicity did not find a horse she just had to keep on her birthday. She did find this unusual pintaloosa though:

She also found yet another equine with well over 900 genetics stats:

I'm impressed that Felicity even spotted this one!

Only 9.3 hands! She could (slowly, very slowly) pull the pony cart, but we felt rather bad about making her do it. XD

Not skittish, ornery, or lazy, though!

Three days after Felicity's birthday, on a ride out from Ad Astra Village to deliver a letter, Lily and Talvi found this guy out in the volcanic biome:

It was love at first sight for Felicity, as you can imagine. She even likes his randomly-generated name and won't be changing it. M.C. Escher, it turns out, was an incredible Dutch graphic artist who often worked in grayscale. (We googled him and his art and were quite impressed.)

Here he is with Pepsi on board. As you can see, he's a slim-barreled 15-hander, but Pepsi looks fine on him. I love how unique the pinto spots are on this game - they're even different on the left and right sides of a horse. 

At long last! A piebald! 

We continue to have lag issues at times, which has led to more ghost horses. Check these out!

Pepsi's also gotten to shape shift into a wild boar! 

I don't know why Pepsi drew the attention of another player. Maybe the player thought Cloud was a wild from a distance? Whatever the reason, she stayed to watch Pepsi the boar tromp around, 

levitate on a rock, 

chase around a poor red panda, 

and eventually shift back into a human. It was laughably awkward. Neither Pepsi nor the other player said a word to each other, and when it was over, Pepsi just got back on Cloud and rode off into the night. XD

Finally, this was going on last time Starfleet and I passed through Blood Ruby Knights Village. No idea what this was all about (somebody was even using a cart up there!), but it's even more impressive than the new Victorian-style buildings.