Savanna Wanderings

I know we're late to the party. HI3 introduced zebras to the game back on May 4, but we didn't even venture into their turf, the savanna biomes, until last weekend.

We have not yet laid eyes on any albino or squiggle striped zebras (or albino squiggle striped zebras), though they do exist! The few we've seen being ridden around and in Gem's herd have all been the traditional type.

We weren't that enthusiastic about the zebras at first, because with their addition came some unwanted albeit realistic personality developments. All zebras and zebra hybrids buck off their riders with extreme frequency until they reach 5000 experience points. If that wasn't disappointing enough, all donkeys and donkey hybrids now display extreme stubbornness until they reach 5000 experience points. As in it's really hard to get them to go forward from a stop. Constantly. *Sighs.* The developments certainly make sense, but I feel for all the non-experienced donkeys and donkey hybrids on the game who were suddenly way less desirable. Poor Toby and Nightingale are out of commission for now until we get around to giving them intensive stat training.

As you probably already know, we are not big fans of being virtually bucked off, but curiosity eventually won out, and Pepsi headed out to various savanna biomes, deliberately seeking out zebras. It took a long time last Saturday, but eventually we found one near a village, not even trying to hide. It's interesting, because with our "normal" graphics setting, at least, you can't really see the stripes until you get close. 

Above-average stat total but too small to ride. It figures, right?

Going just by her personality, she was not ornery for a zebra, but that did not stop her from bucking. And yes, you can be "bucked off" (or bucked out?) while in a cart. Pepsi will go sailing through the air and find herself standing an inconvenient distance away, and the harness and cart magically vanish from the equine.

This past Tuesday was Mom's (and consequently PepsiSummer's) birthday! HI3 knew!

Thank you, HI3!

We decided to have Pepsi ride around savanna as much as we could that day, not only because we wanted to see more zebras but because we enjoy the big, speedy savanna wilds.

We found many non-noteworthy wild horses. We'd nearly given up hope of finding any to so much as tempt us, when we found this big, black, Beatles beauty:

Her genetic stats are good...

... plus she's speedy and turns well for her size. We expected the skittishness, since that's typical of savanna wilds, but what a shame that she is just ornery enough to buck!

Here is the very next wild we caught:

Another big, marking-less beauty, this time in fancy "claybank apricot" dun.

Nice, once again an above-average genetic stat total.

It's almost like the game was saying, "Oh, Pepsi, you don't want an ornery horse for your birthday? Okay, then how about this one?

And then, like it really wanted to make sure we were happy, it gave us a zebra in short order.

This one had bigger, bolder stripes than our first and was also over 12 hands. Yay!

He was also very ornery, so we didn't consider keeping him, but it was entertaining to see Pepsi ride a zebra for the first time! (And get bucked off several times. Sorry, Pepsi!)

We sold a bunch of wilds (including the zebra, not big black or big apricot) and travelled back to the savanna. Because why not push our luck at this point?

We found another zebra! 

Not just any zebra, but one with a genetic stat total over 1000! And he's just tall enough to be ridden. 

Again, it's like the game was saying, "Oh, Pepsi, you don't want an exceptionally ornery zebra for your birthday? Okay, then how about this one?

Pepsi's quite big for him, but since it was Mom's birthday, and since his stat total is so high, I think he may be staying anyway. We really want to breed a zorse once we find the right mare...

We thought for sure that was it for the day, but the game gave us one more surprise before we logged off. 

Wow, it's savanna horse #3 with a good genetic stat total! It's like the game added her as an afterthought: "Oh, Pepsi, here's one more. Just in case you really wanted spots for your birthday."

She's not as big and speedy as the other two, but she is a little braver... and not quite ornery enough to buck.

Thank you very much, HI3. You are so generous! We're going to have a really tough time deciding which of the horses to keep!

That's it for now on the virtual equine front, but feel free to read on if you're interested in Mom's non-virtual gifts. 

Here was the birthday pic from her page-a-day calendar this year:

Kind of cute, right? I find it interesting that he has a blue eye on the dark patch of his face and a brown eye on the white. (It's often the other way around.)

Speaking of page-a-day birthday pics, we never posted about mine... Maybe I'll sneak it in a future post, but I'm too lazy to go take a picture of it now.

Anyway, Mom's family was as generous as HI3. Here are the gifts waiting to be opened:

And here they are unwrapped: 

Lots of clothes this year! Also more of the little Audubon birds that make the real-life call of the bird they represent. (Except for the pileated woodpecker, who was sadly mute upon arrival.) My sisters and I have been having fun with those. The big black thing in the back is a sparkly lap desk for Mom's laptop, Milton. Mom is loving the padded cushion and wrist rest. And the little silver thing on the right is a necklace with a little Michigan-shaped pendant. (Because who doesn't want jewelry in the shape of their home state? XD)

The most sentimental gift: the white teddy. Mom happened to find him on eBay and noticed that he bore a striking resemblance to her brown teddy Hubert. 

Hubert has been a bit more... well-loved than his twin (Cubert, maybe?) but it does not detract from his cuteness. <3

The teddy and the birds all immediately got moved to the safety of Mom's room, as they look way too much like dog toys to Nala. It's starting to look like a stuffed animal convention in there.