Doll Diaries: May 2020

Here is our 1000th (recorded) wild!

(There have been a couple wilds we accidentally sold before recording, so he's probably more like # 1005, but close enough!)

Quite a cool Alpine wild! I especially liked how his flaxen mane and tail turn red at the bottom. Lily did not let us keep him, but we had fun riding him around for a while.

We were mildly disappointed when nothing happened when we logged in on Mom's birthday. But about a minute in, cheery music started playing, and colorful sparkles and birthday-themed greetings popped on the screen.

We didn't get a virtual birthday cake like we did on HI2 (we still have several sitting in our inventory there, ha ha), but we did get some other goodies!

Aw, thank you, HI3! We have not used the wishing well coins yet, but I think we should each get to throw one and see what happens.

To celebrate both these achievements (1000 wilds captured and Mom making it another year), enjoy these screenshots of our top 20 most amusing auto-generated wild names.

I think this is my favorite. XD

As we mentioned before, she really was gaited!

Appropriately, this one was ornery.

We also recently found a "Butter."

Our newest HI3 news is that we found yet another May contender for joining the herd! She was hanging out with 4 other wilds when Cloud and Pepsi happened upon them - that blob in the way back center is her.

Interestingly, Pepsi wouldn't have been riding anywhere near here if I hadn't forgotten about a mail mission I never completed the day before. You're welcome, everybody.

Any guesses from a quick look what it is that makes her so special?

It's her speed! She squeaked by Topi by .1 mph to become the fastest wild we've ever caught! Her sprint boost is also quite impressive: in our top 5.

For comparison, here are Topi's original screenshots:

Don't worry, Topi. Bethany's not letting you go anywhere, and you're still our tall-fence-jumping king!

While our fastest wilds have all been horses, not ponies, which makes sense, I find it cool how different they've all been from each other. They've ranged in height from 15.2 hands (3rd fastest):

to 19 hands (4th fastest):

Here's our 5th fastest, who's about Windfall's height but is built way differently:

I like that gender doesn't seem to matter - 3 of our 5 fastest have been mares! =^) Biome seems to play a part (3 of our 5 came from savanna), but they can clearly crop up elsewhere too, like in the desert and fall forest.

Here is what Loch Ness looks like under saddle:

She looks a bit like Topi crossed with an Arabian to me. XD

Here comes our last post from total quarantine! Mom's workplace wants her back in the office on Monday, which is, unfortunately, her birthday. Sorry, Mom. :( These last few months sure have been a wild ride!

Speaking of wild rides, (sorry, couldn't resist) we've been finding loads of them lately on HI3. We'll likely hit 1000 total wilds captured yet this weekend!

We caught a taller wild than any we've caught before, a 21-hand stallion with Bend-Or spots:

We regrettably did not take any shots of Pepsi riding him or standing near him before selling him.

We also caught a shorter, lighter wild than we ever have before: a 7 hand, 114.2 pound stallion.

So tiny!

He could barely move the cart! Sorry for making you try, little guy!

I thought this little mare (but not nearly that little) deserved mentioning in this post also. She's a lovely purple roan (roan on seal brown, I think?) with bold markings, she's brave, and she has a very powerful jump!

The expert deemed her a Grade Warm-blooded Horse, but she is lacking in the height department.

I don't think she's a serious contender for joining the herd, but she sure is cute!

Here is our 25th wild with a genetic stat total of 900+. Sadly, she is also the first to have no mane/roached mane.

I wonder if HI3 will eventually add a mane-modification feature to the game? According to the forums, it's a possibility. Even if they did, this mare might still be out of luck, as there is virtually no mane there to modify. At least she has a nice tail, an eel stripe, and pretty sabino markings.

Of course this would be one to have an especially high genetic stat total (in our top 10.)

Her metrics aren't as impressive, but she is fairly speedy and has decent jump power. No extreme left-side personality traits either, though the skittishness will still cause her to balk more about water, ice, heights, dark forests, etc. than braver horses.

The expert determined that she is a Grade Pleasure Horse. Here is Pepsi trying her out:

I feel like the lack of mane is especially disappointing on a mare. *Sighs* We have taken to calling her Eagle (not preceded by Bald, but we're all thinking it. XD)

Now check out this little chestnut:

You're probably wondering why in the world I'm showing you this one, right? Common color, unglamorous build, low genetic stats...

...and the only thing out of the norm metrics-wise is a pretty nice turning speed. Her personality is what caught our attention! If you add those 6 numbers up, they total 514. This probably doesn't seem that spectacular, considering all the player-bred horses out there with amazing personalities. However, we've never even had a wild's personality trait total total crack 475 before, so 514 was rather shocking for us.

As an added surprise, she also paces! Despite her pony size, the expert deemed her a Grade Gaited Saddle Horse.

No ambling, but I definitely did notice how quickly she turns compared to most horses.

Next on the list is our 5th wild with a genetic stat total that cracks 1000. She's a beautiful ebony black mare with a long mane and dapples.

We were quite excited up until this point.

Oh no, that persona! Not a single trait on the right side of the chart. Though she isn't quite ornery enough to buck, her laziness and extreme skittishness make riding her much less fun. None of her performance metrics stand out either, but she looks quite pretty!

Our disappointment over Into The Moonlight did not last long. Later the same day, Bethany and Topi found some grey wilds while riding through Stone Forest. The first was a typical grey Stone Forest wild.

The second was a bit rounder and shorter than your typical Stone Forest wild, but because he was grey, Bethany was totally not expecting the Lucky Find messages that flashed across the screen. =)

Yay, our third lucky find is a really cute pony-sized stallion!

Even though he's only 5.3 years old, he has already gone quite grey - you can't even tell he was once grullo. What a difference from Cloudburst, who did not get his infinitum amulet until he was over 8 and still had not greyed that much. Evergreen's genetic stat total is not as impressive as our first two lucky finds' (Talvi's and Mariette's both topped 1000), but he sure is strong and sturdy for his size.

Make your breed guesses now! Bethany's initial thought was Connemara, since he looks like a large pony and doesn't have feathering. He seems a bit too short-legged and stocky to be a Connemara, though. Some of our other best guesses before consulting the BBB were Hucul Pony, Highland Pony, and New Forest Pony, but none of them seemed quite right.

He's a Highland Pony! The non-shaggy mane and lack of any feathering threw us off, but yes, we can see it now. Our lucky finds have all been from Europe so far: Finland, the Netherlands, and now Scotland! His performance metrics are not spectacular, but he is strong for his size. He's slow and lazy but otherwise quite pleasant to be around and ride.

Yay for a big barrel! For once, Pepsi's on a pony where there isn't daylight between the bottom of the girth and the top of Pepsi's foot.

A few days later, we found Bumpy!

If you glance at him quickly, he looks a bit like Starfleet. Look more closely, and you'll notice he is sooty, less leggy, and has a really, um, bumpy back end.

His genetic stat total is not great, but that muscular rear has given him excellent turning speed, the second best of any wild we've captured so far.

He's not skittish or ornery, and his laziness isn't quite extreme enough to cause slowing under saddle. According to the expert, he is a Grade Pleasure Horse.

Finally, here is our 6th wild with 1000+ genetic stat total.

To our delight, he was another pinto!

He's tied for 3rd place with Talvi when it comes to genetic stat total.

The expert calls him a Grade European Hotblood, but he is slow and lazy, not hotblood-like at all. At least he has a fairly powerful jump! Since he doesn't really strike us as the vampire type in any sense (and totally does cast a shadow), we have taken to calling him Taurus instead because of his stubbornness and bovine-esque coloring.

It's going to be really tough to choose our May equines!

I'll leave you with a few random fun screenshots.

Mariette and Pepsi surveying a herd at dusk.
We did not successfully catch them all before it got too dark to see,
so a few had to wait until morning.