A Pony, a Mule, and a Panda Imposter

Winter has been making up for lost time here in the Mitten. It's been too cold and snowy to spend much time outside, so thank goodness for HI3 and an escape into the virtual outdoors.

Right after Bethany published our last post, we found this pony:

He's not that remarkable in appearance, other than having abnormally long legs, and his genetic stat total is only in the 600's. Why am I showing him to you, then?

Because for such a little guy, he has a huge jump! He's tied with another volcanic wild pony (an ornery bay mare named Robin Hood) for highest jump power of any wild we've lassoed. 

Even though he's 14.1 hands, he has a very light build and weighs about a pound less than 12.1 hand Pizza! Pepsi looks awkward on him, no denying it. But, with such a great personality and cute markings, my sisters were of course more than ready to overlook it. *Sighs.* He's lucky they like him so much, because he managed to injure himself after approximately 5 seconds of being ridden on the bumpy terrain of a fjord cliff village. *Rolls eyes.* 

"Dixie Delight" (ugh, we really need to think of new name) isn't the only new small fry hanging out with the herd. We welcomed our first ever mule foal to the HI3 world!

We have so many horses now that they have gone onto a second page. Whoa!

It's a filly!

Her genetic stats are unfortunately lower than either of her parents.

Speed and agility are definitely not going to be her strong suits, but we were pleasantly surprised by her personality! 4 cheers for 100% bravery! Here are some screenshots of Pepsi posing with the little newborn:

It really is fantastic how much she truly looks like a cross between her two parents. Well done, HI3 genetics system!

As you can see from the above and below, mother and daughter finally have names chosen by us. "Wolf" is now Moonrise, due to her large oval star. We are calling the foal Nightingale. It started out as a bit of a joke, actually, since the noise mules make on HI3 couldn't be farther from a sweet bird call, but it stuck. XD

She is now a year old and has already grown quite a bit! Based on her birth height of 8 hands, she's predicted to mature to about 13.1 - 13.2 hands. So, big enough to ride, but firmly in pony territory. Hopefully by being half draftie, she's bulk up enough that we won't feel bad about riding her. =)

Not long after Nightingale's birth, we found this bamboo wild that was trying somewhat to camouflage as a big panda. We weren't fooled, but we were intrigued by her coloring. The sooty is so patchy and extreme - we've never seen another quite like her!

Her performance metrics aren't bad despite her low genetic stat total. Talk about the polar opposite of Nightingale in the bravery department, though!

Unfortunately, we don't have a post-lasso screenshot of her in her lasso site, because lassoing her put us over our max number of horses at the time. For the record, though, it was near Valhalla Village (and an actual panda.)

We've shortened her name to "Waffle," since she does resemble a charred waffle with whipped cream.

She doesn't rock the no-mane look nearly as well as Maral does, so Bethany took her to the hair stylist. Wouldn't you know it, if you pick the 3-tone standing mane and make the first section black, it matched up decently with her spotting pattern.

So, to sum up, Nightingale is in our clutches for good, whatever size she ends up. I fear "Dixie Delight" and Waffle are too, since we've already dumped virtual money into vet bills, fake hair, and infinitum amulets, but who knows? We're lassoing more wilds than ever before now, thanks to horsie sense, so we'll see if they get any more competition before the end of February.

Following Sparkles

Snow lovers around our area are finally happy. Arctic air has settled in for the long haul, and the Lake Michigan snow machine has been activated. We all knew it would happen... but none of us thought it would take until February! Mom's really happy she is mostly working from home, as much she dreads long drives in it.

This week also brought a way more fun first, our first wild donkey. At long last, behold:

We considered keeping her to be a companion for Toby, but since she's lazy and her metrics aren't so great (and since we'd already decided to keep so many equines in January), we decided against it. 

On a happier note, our Poitevin mare and Toby will be the proud parents of our first foal by this time next week! Fingers crossed that the mule will take more after its mother in terms of size.

The donkey wasn't the end of the January excitement: we also found two 900+ genetic stat mares before the end of the month.

First was Portia of the rainbow eucalyptus forest:

As much as I love duns, in this case the shading on her mane is kind of unfortunate: it makes her already thin neck look even thinner. XD

Her performance metrics were ok:

...but we were not big fans of the bottom half of her personality, so she didn't stick around either.

Second was Hard on the Rocks of the taiga bog:

We loved her coloring and markings, naturally...

...but we have enough slow, lazy horses as it is, ha ha, so she didn't stay either.

Last Sunday, all of our dark forest essence gathering finally paid off. We unlocked horsie sense! Whenever it's turned on and a wild horse is nearby, sparkles appear and point the way towards it. It works, alright, and we are absolutely loving it! 

We're finding so many wilds now - it's amazing how many are so close but not in view - and it's great not having to keep such a close eye out for wilds all the time. Horsie sense also keeps us from wasting our time riding up to deer and other things that sort of look like horses from a distance. So, yeah, it was definitely worth all that time blundering in and out of the fog!

Even with horsie sense, we have not found any noteworthy equines yet in February. That's perfectly alright, since we have the mule foal on the way and all, but it leaves this post feeling kind of incomplete. So, enjoy these fun screenshots of some other fun stuff that's happened lately.

We tried to dismount for a photo op with a sleeping panda, and this happened.

Pepsi's legs? XD 

At least they're not going through the horse like they do on Blitzen.

=)

Wow, that's green!

How?

Yeah... we'll pass.

Beef N Low

So Far So Good

Meet our first noteworthy wild of 2021! Back on the 4th, just as we were approaching our mail delivery destination and preparing to call it a night, we spotted this guy:

(Also, I am probably way more amused than I should be by the two random chats showing here.)

He reminds me of Windfall, only less spindly and with a Taurus-like neck. 

He's fairly speedy and has a great personality, so we were fans right away. "Soozy" had to go ASAP, so he is now Capricorn. XD

We found this pretty pony two days later, again hanging out near the destination of a mail run: 

With such a high genetic stat total and fun coat color, we were really hoping for a pleasant personality...

...and we got it! (Aside from lacking in the bravery department, that is.) Her performance metrics aren't bad either, and while Pepsi is big on her, it's not comical.

Since we found her on Epiphany, that became her name! (Good thing she wasn't a stallion.)

For the record, here is the ranch she was hanging out near. (The wild Pepsi is riding was another captured in the same vicinity, but she was nowhere near as special.) Wilds seem to mosey up near people's ranches frequently. Bethany's theory is that these are the lonely ones that want to be caught.

Our buddy Gem and her horse Ham came across some wilds that were definitely not lonely. 5 or 6 of them were spread out near each other in this patch of fjord highlands. There was an albino elk in the mix too. You know you've got a great buddy when she alerts you to said herd and offers to let you lasso them all. (She was at her horse max at the time, but still!)

How's the weather up there, Gem?  Ham is so huge! XD

Gem has a pair of donkeys and also generously offered Pepsi their first foal! We've been pining for a donkey since they were introduced, but so far we've had no luck combing dark forests for them. So, we are now the happy owners of a donkey colt! Here was the little guy the day we got him!

Here's a look at his profile from back then:

It doesn't get much cuter - he makes goofy braying noises instead of whinnying - and we love that he has a fairly believable donkey personality. XD

He's gotten much bigger since then. We were hoping he might make it to 12 hands so we could ride him, but we're not thinking that's going to happen. He seems to take more after his dam than his sire. <3

Fortunately, he has no trouble pulling Pepsi in the pony cart! We were so excited when he turned 2 and could be harnessed!

We're calling him Toby, since he somewhat resembles Toby, the real-life donkey of This Esme (an equestrian YouTuber we all enjoy.) =) 

Lily was already less than thrilled that we were planning on keeping 3 new equines this month. Then what happens? She goes out and finds our first lucky find of 2020!

This horse does look suspiciously unlike either typical volcanic or swamp wilds...

We recently picked "Keen Eye" as our second specialty, which has taken a lot of the suspense out of wild horse ID. 

We knew within seconds that we had lassoed a Poitevin! I thought that this breed (AKA Mulassier)

 was one of the prettiest draft breeds on HI2, so it's really cool that we get one on HI3 too.

She has lovely feathering, but she's definitely more refined than our other two lucky find drafties, Clavius and Herschel. =)

Whoa, skittish much? Between this and the laziness, she's not exactly the most fun horse to ride. At least she's not ornery!

Since the Poitevin has a history of being crossed with donkeys to create mules, and since we happen to have a male donkey, I think she and Toby may be destined to have our first ever HI3 foal!