Honeyhollow Racks it Up

We have thoroughly enjoyed Camp Western! It was great motivation to play every day for an extended period, and all of the horses got to experience it at least once. Even after attaining all of the free stuff we were after (this happened by early week 4), we continued to amass shillings, gold, and tokens, because why not? 

For your enjoyment and ours, here are some fun screenshots to illustrate our Western adventures.

One crowded summit! 

This chest was a real pain to open, since it's also a picnicking location. We spent a good couple of minutes trying to get at an angle where we could click it rather than getting the "find picnic basket" message, only to eventually realize we needed to hit E. The poor wandering animals waited patiently in various degrees of awkwardness.

Check out the levitating saddle bag on that Belgian Warmblood!

(Also, we apologize for Clara's poor posture. She was rolling her shoulders in this shot.)

This red bucket has been back in all its levitating glory.

Great minds think alike!

Doing another champ with a big clunky box along for the ride

Behold, the cowboy mule ribbon! 

We made it with plenty of time to spare. Good job, everybody! =)

Thanks to YouTube, we had no trouble finding, satisfying, and taking home this year's wandering pets. 

This is Reuben in his cute green vest, who was hanging out by the wolf-infested abandoned mine.

And here is Ginger in her grass green bandana, who was hanging out by the bull.

Riverrock and Clara didn't have to face Daisy Coyoteclover or anyone else in this Jorvik Stable championship! Even though their performance was lackluster (ran into a horse/rider in the paddock and cheese, as I recall), they happily accepted the gold ribbon.

Ah, the satisfying glow and creaking noise that come with opening a chest. We will miss them.

The wandering horses stick to Clara like glue. Those horse lures must really be tasty!

Artie-Tombhoof overlap after doing the hammer swing. Oof.

Two for one wandering animal return. (We have also tried it with two cows. Would not recommend.)

A wolf about to get sprayed with beast repellent. XD 

For week 3 of Camp Western, an August horse bazaar rolled out, featuring the American Saddlebred (629 star coins), the Appaloosa (449 star coins), and the American Paint Horse (469 star coins). 

This would have been an ideal time to buy an Appy or a Paint, but happily, we already own one of each from past bazaars. Our eyes immediately zeroed in on the Saddlebreds, who made their first bazaar appearance...

We quite liked these two...

...but eventually, we narrowed it down to either the palomino or the chimera pinto.

On the day fateful last day of the bazaar, we saw somebody else riding their new palomino. This tipped the scale firmly on the side of the pinto, though it was already leaning that way anyway. The palomino is gorgeous, but a chimera pinto with a green eye? How could we pass that up when it's the same price?

As you can see, we couldn't quite give up on the alliteration yet. We think we'll keep it going through horse #20.

Hello, Honeyhollow!

Our buddy Yvonne tagged along to witness the momentous first ride. 

Her first 3 gaits are "the usual," but instead of galloping, she speed racks!

She does still gallop if you ask her to go even faster. 

So, so cool! I'm not a huge fan of Saddlebreds in real life, but I love Star Stable's! <3

Thanks to a very small pool of competitors, Honey managed to win a silver ribbon in her first-ever championship! Wow!

She sparkled her way through her experience levels at lightning speed! By the final weekend of Camp Western, she'd already made it to level 15.

One of our favorite parts about her: the proud way she flicks her tail. <3

I think she especially enjoyed this ranch task, where a little pinto foal follows her adoringly around a paddock. :)

She also enjoyed leading the wandering adult horses, of course. This one was in a particularly awkward way...

She's happy to pose pretty much anywhere, really.

And yes, we did save up enough gold nuggets to take home both Savanna the cat and Eggatha the chicken. 

The stage you saw above eventually became the site of the pumpkin competition. It was all up to Clara to transport both enormous pumpkins there. We really should've gotten out Magic the Shire for this, but Honey somehow managed.

Probably because we helped them equally, both Dorith's and Jasper's pumpkins looked... identical.

I saw that one coming! Fine by us, we didn't want either NPC to be disappointed.

Jasper was disappointed anyway, but oh well.

It's Lisa! Clara isn't technically supposed to know her yet (not far enough in the storyline), but she at least knows of her. And is a fan of her music, clearly. (Good day to have selected that t-shirt.)

These random western NPC's danced, Jasper danced, and even Honey danced. Clara and Dorith did not. =)

We're sorry to see Camp Western go, but we know it must to keep it special. Will we continue rotating in the Western gear from time to time? Maybe, since we have so much of it now. The new pets - my favorite part of all this - will for sure continue to make appearances year-round. =)

Alas, no more taking a wandering horse along to championships for moral support.

Goodbye, Camp Western! Hope to see you again next year!