Long Locks and Silver Dapples

We didn't have time to go into it last time, but Star Stable has introduced a new horse breed, the Jorvik Mountain Horse! It is based on the gorgeous Rocky Mountain Horse. Apparently because the breed name is trademarked, they couldn't use it in the game. No huge loss if you ask me, since the "Rocky Mountain Horse" wasn't developed in the Rocky Mountains anyway, but instead in the Appalachian Mountains in Kentucky.

At any rate, these horses are often silver dapple, and Star Stable ran with that to give us some stunners.

I think Tigertin was impressed. Our pup... not so much.

To our delight, they do not do anything annoying while idling!

Rocky Mountain horses do a special ambling gait called the "single-foot" rather than trotting. Jorvik Mountain Horses do something called a "trail walk." Either way, it must be fantastic for real-life trail riding!

The rest of their regular gaits are lovely...

...and they also have two special movements!

a faster "pleasure gait"

and a cute animation sequence where the horse plucks a drifting cardinal feather and gives it to its rider.

The rider then places it in the horse's mane.

You get four thumbs up from us on this breed, Star Stable! Fantastic job!

We're savoring one last slower-paced week before Camp Western kicks off next Wed. Not looking forward to the beasties, but we're excited for the rest of it! Time to dust off our Western gear!

And now onto a little real-life update:

As Bethany mentioned in her last post, we were on vacation for a week mid-July. We dolls had a technology-free camping expedition in the backyard. We were planning on doing this anyway, but it actually became even more desirable because the house's AC broke down while the humans were gone. After a few days, it was often cooler outside in the shady backyard than in there!

The humans took off for a week in South Haven, MI. Mom slept in a chilly basement room, but she came prepared with extra blankets and fuzzy socks. Ruby the reindeer got to go along, of course.

It was warm and often sunny and humid during their stay, with each day hotter than the one before. It rained on the last afternoon/evening, but other than that it couldn't have been better for South Haven's big draw, the beach! Mom went swimming in Lake Michigan every day.

Not as many puzzles got put together as some years, but here are the ones they did get to:

done in honor of a Spiderman-loving kid in the family

Mom's favorite. (And yes, she got to do the horses.)

This one - from the rental house - had velvety sections

Another one of the puzzles that was there, The Creature from the Black Lagoon! 

Alas, 2 pieces were missing. 

There was also a lot of white dog or cat hair mixed in with the pieces, which was weird because no pets are allowed in the rental house...

This one was a group effort. Mom spent most of her time on the fire pit and sky.

So tropical!

This one was too big for the table the traditional way, but it just fit diagonally.

A few of the other activities: 

stopping at Sherman's for ice cream

walking the pier and watching the sunset

shopping in downtown South Haven

These are Mom's practical... and not-so-practical souvenirs. The story on the owls: the brown one was lying sadly on the ground by a stuffed animal display tower, face down. Mom picked him up to put him back where he belonged... but decided he belonged with her instead. And, naturally, she couldn't buy him without also buying his gray buddy. Mom felt like she did pretty well leaving the toy store with the just the owls - there were some beautiful Breyer horses also on display that she forced herself to resist. She has named them Myth and Merlin.

Until next time!

Hiding from Shadow Monsters

While the Summer Daze activities were occupying so much of our Star Stable time, we didn't linger in our stable. Now that things have calmed down a bit, we've been spending more time there: taking care of the equines ourselves rather than using stable care, doing stable chores, cleaning up our closet, etc. We didn't make a big deal of it at the time, but when we took home Vanilla the Gotland Pony, we filled the last stall in our stable! 

This definitely warranted a celebratory group photo. We weren't sure we were going to be able to fit everybody into the frame, but we went for it anyway...

Just made it! It's not perfect, but we're pretty happy we managed to snap one where everybody's head is up and facing forward. This is not easy with 18 fidgeting equines, believe us! For the record, from left to right, they are: Frostflight, Tigertin, Desertdash, Magicmirror, Brightbeam, Riverrock, Arcticair, Snowsecret, Pandapie, Willowwind, Eveningecho, Carrotcake, Garnetgazer, Opalowl, Jollyjoust, Ladyluck, Nightnimbus, and Vanillavalley.

Also for the record, here is the stall arrangement:

We were sad to see Summer Daze go.

last Rainbow Race

last butterfly catching

until next year, Ben and Bruce!

Immediately after Summer Daze, Star Stable gave us another Trailblazer Track. This particular one is called "Trail of Wilderness," and never fear, they made sure to note that the saddle pad is faux cow hide.

We will happily earn the free items (our favorites are the stable care tickets and top-notch horseshoes), and here's hoping we won't have trouble finishing it even though we will be on vacation for one of its weeks. Sounds like we're not going to miss out on any of Camp Western, at least. 

Moving on, if you read Julie's last post, you're probably wondering what happened with the bazaar. Did we take home an AQH?

We did see a few of them around, chilling...

....until it's time to zoom!

We came close. On the final day of the bazaar, we got this far - even had a name ready.

We didn't, though. But before you go getting blown away by our self-control, it's not because we've decided against an AQH altogether. We just decided to wait for October, when (hopefully) this horse will be available again. 

Meet Tombhoof, the magical skeleton horse on an AQH base. It at least makes sense for this one to look sad and/or tired most of the time. This will give us some more time to enjoy our full stable as it is, before anybody has to be relegated to the pasture. This also means we're going to blow some major star coins this spooky season, assuming we can take home both Tombhoof and Duskgrim from Galloper's Keep. 

Speaking of spooky, some dark, glowing rocks appeared by Jasper's farm a while ago. We first noticed them when en route to the Goldenhills Championship. With a little more time on our hands, we finally decided to find out what they were all about. We eventually met the witch Pi up the mountain.

These make me think of pop rocks for some reason.

They danced! Even Jollyjoust got in on it, and down came the rain.

This left the pass clear (and very pink), but there's something dark and ominous out there...

Great, just great. Shadow monsters from another dimension (or whatever Pandoria is), and as usual, Clara has to face them solo.

Yeah, that's what we figured, Jolly. Off walked Clara alone.

Hiding from the shadow seekers wasn't so bad, thanks to the conveniently-spaced thickets. At least no crouching was involved!

Yep, found the portal, alright! 

That turned out to be the "easy" or at least, "easier" part. There was a helpful-looking sign that said "Shortcut." We assumed it was a shortcut back to Pi and Jolly, but instead it just led to a cliff with no discernible way down. We tried easing Clara down said cliff in various directions, but only ended up getting stuck on a ledge. This meant having to log out, relog, and start totally over. Then on our second attempt, we forgot to click on Pi first and made our steathly way back to the portal... only to have nothing to show for our efforts at the end. Once we finally made it to the portal the third time, we had a hard time retracing our steps and got caught by shadow seekers multiple times. In the end, we made it out... only to receive a "come back later to continue this quest" message from Pi. Fun times.

I will leave you with something else that was frustrating (this time for Mom) but well worth the effort. Mom got this "sew your own sloth" kit for her birthday this year. The box indicated it was for ages 8 and up, but there's no way Mom could ever have done this as an 8-year-old! It was missing some of the thread it was supposed to come with, with one color missing entirely. Multiple areas of the felt pieces were not pre-punched properly, rendering the plastic round-tipped needle it came with useless. The instructions also left much to be desired. Fortunately, she had extra thread and needles on hand and lots of patience.

We think he turned out really cute! <3 Despite the struggles, it must've been a positive experience overall, because we see she another similar kit on her wish list now. =)

Arbie

It's been toasty here in the Mitten, as is to be expected now that we're in July! We're so glad for AC and for fun things to do indoors, such as playing Star Stable. The Summer Daze has made the last 4 weeks extra fun.

Vanillavalley sparkled for the last time here at Firgrove, joining all her fellow stablemates at level 15. 

After that, all the other equines came back into Clara's riding rotation. Mares and geldings alike have gotten to be decked out in old and new rainbow-themed tack. I'm especially fond of this shimmery saddle, bridle, and boot set.

Lady and Clara joined the Bobcats' hourly parade here but did not take time to dance at the disco after. So much to do!

No Cloud Kingdom this year, but at least its Rainbow Race made a return. Without the golden horseshoes to collect, two laps around the rainbow track each day seemed excessive, but we still enjoyed it! Especially this part where your horse temporarily sprouts wings.

The championships have remained well-attended throughout Summer Daze, but the numbers have definitely decreased a bit since the beginning. We went up against "Cornconqueror" the Percheron in this one. I don't remember if they won a ribbon or not, but that name deserves one. XD

We competed our way to the final ribbon with about a week left in the Championship Ranks, which we were pretty pleased about. All of the ribbons this time around were cute, but the seahorse is by far my favorite! 

During the final week of the festival, Bruce and Ben rewarded Clara for all her help beachside.

Not only did we receive this blue crab pet named Arbie, but Ben also played his guitar for us!

At the end of this quest, our horse (Panda) was auto-moved to the beach rather than where we left her on the dock. So were two other players' horses, leading to this...

=^D

During the final week of the festival, during which the 4th of July also fell, we get to set off a firework once a day from the top of Fort Pinta. Good times.

Here are Clara and Willow posing in their 4th of July finery.

And one more shot during the pre-championship wait, where almost everybody but them appeared to be galloping in place:

Another bazaar has rolled into Moorland. The featured breeds this time are - appropriately - all American breeds: the Mustang, the American Quarter Horse, and the Tennessee Walking Horse.

Obviously, we're already all covered on the TWH front. We love you, Willow! <3

If we were going to pick a breed to get every color variation of, this would be a great one. They're all so pretty! We're not going to do that, though. Don't worry, Lily.

The Mustang would be equally great if we were into pretty coat collecting. Not a clunker in the bunch, if you ask us. Being a bit newer, their discount isn't as big as the TWH or AQH. 

My personal top 3 are the bay pinto, the Spirit look-alike, and the blue roan pinto.

These final two are not discounted as much as the other Mustangs because they are newer. Interesting!

These guys are very tempting. But, as we've said before, we're not into their frequent lip-curling while idle, or their special bucking animation. So, not tempting enough for us to spend our star coins on.

That leaves the AQH for us to talk about. With their super muscular bodies and low head carriage, they look the most distinctly Western of any of Star Stable's current breeds. The low head in particular has made us steer away from them in the past - it gives them a sort of tired, sad vibe.

But, they don't do anything we find annoying while idling, which seems to be getting more and more rare. No head tossing, lip-curling, air chomping, or dozing off. And they do pick up their heads for the faster gaits. Here are my three favorite color variations:

palomino

strawberry roan

fleabitten gray

Hmm, more tempting than the Mustang. We'll let you know next time if we end up deciding to take one home!