Sunday, March 3, 2024

Our New Noble Steed

Julie was right: we could not resist the noble Lipizzaner. I saw that coming as soon as we learned Lipizzaners were being discounted. Even though this came sooner than I'd have liked, I'll admit it is good for Artie that we didn't remain a 7-horse stable for long. He was off by himself across an aisle before, and I think he's much happier now that he has a buddy in the next stall.

We ended up choosing the light gray over the fleabitten light gray. As much as we like fleabitten grays, we just couldn't say no to the classic, white marble-like baroque. 


The winning name: Snowsecret. We liked its punniness, and it seemed appropriate for a horse we took home in winter, even if we haven't been seeing much accumulating snow lately.

That heartwarming girl-meets-horse screenshot

the first ride: heading back to the stable to meet everybody

Oddly, when we entered the stable for the first time, there was no stall nameplate anywhere for Snowsecret. We were concerned and a bit afraid to log off: what if he disappeared? We took him back outside to do a few training runs, and when we re-entered the stable later, he did have a stall nameplate. Whew!

Snowsecret has been Clara's mount exclusively since his arrival, giving the other horses a vacation while we focus on getting him trained.

Here he is during a lunging session - it's been added permanently to the game now, which gets the thumbs up from us. We think it's so cute how the horses have minds of their own and sometimes choose to do things we did not ask for.


On our Saturday morning playing session, Scout stayed out of the saddlebag nearly the entire time. He must've had lots of pent-up energy!


He sure keeps up well despite those short little legs!


He even chose to stay out for many training sessions, but not this one, ha ha.


When Snowy makes it to a new experience level, he does this dressage move called a levade (standing sort of crouched on his hind legs.) So fancy!


Snowy got to see a lot of Goldenleaf Forest and Cape West Fishing Village while on quests. Here he is guiding a horse down a long dock - said horse is going to be shipped elsewhere on a boat.


We also retrieved and carefully transported a fragile box of china... only to have somebody heave it unceremoniously onto the boat.


The same chick we transported earlier wanted to tag along when we first tried out a jumping course she'd built. "Wiiii" on every jump. =) 


We've finally managed to get through the gate to Scarecrow Hill (had to borrow bolt cutters from two smugglers), but we're kind of reluctant to go in. Looks like it's going to be a real challenge getting past the witches on brooms, so we distracted ourselves with less daunting side quests instead.


Most notable was this one, where one of the previously-mentioned smugglers with a wooden leg and eyepatch (total pirate, right?) fell into the water and ran into misfortune after misfortune. First a current swept him out to sea, then he was pursued by a shark! Clara had to throw the wooden leg at the shark's nose to get him to leave. 


The misfortunes have continued. He's still currently out at sea... and apparently a very strong water treader.


Hopefully soon we work up the nerve to face Scarecrow Hill. Until then!

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