Dashing Through the (Virtual) Snow

From Thanksgiving until just a few days before Christmas, our area was thoroughly blanketed with a thick layer of snow. It really helped put us in the Christmas mood. 

Alas, it warmed up and rained a bunch last week. The snow's nearly gone now, and no more is in our forecast, all but guaranteeing us our third brown Christmas in a row. (Just figures, right? The one time we actually want the snow, it refuses to show up.)

At least we're guaranteed a white Christmas on Star Stable! The winter event is in full swing.

We were so happy to enter our stable on Dec. 10 and see this!

Star Stable does such a great job decorating every year!

We've been thoroughly enjoying the magical beauty of the Winter Village. Most of the fun races and activities from previous years have returned.

We're also getting 31 days of gifts under the big yule tree, which started on Dec. 10. So, the gifting will continue well into January, which is a bit unorthodox but cool by us.

A few new activities this year include:

slipping and sliding on a frozen pond to catch baby gnomes for their nap time,

taking  a basket of gnomes on mini tours of various Jorvik locations,

the running commentary from the capran tour guide is highly entertaining

ice fishing,

and decorating various structures around Jorvik,

like...

Jasper's barn, 

the Fort Pinta bridge,

and even the Fort Pinta statue!

The final levels of Ashfall's training zipped by. Here he is doing his final sparkle, after a New Hillcrest championship.

That means all of the horses are back in our riding rotation at last. The event's long enough that we think everybody will get a chance to see the Winter Village this year. =)

We're getting a break from horse bazaars, which Lily is relieved about. Star Stable did release two cool new magical winter horses this year, though, the Andalusian-based Sól and Máni:

Inspired by the sunlight and moonlight, their magical coats subtly change and shimmer. They also glow (softly, not obnoxiously) in the dark.

Sól has an appropriate golden non-magic coat:

...while Máni's is seal brown: 

I love the idea of these guys, and their lack of deer characteristics is a refreshing change of pace. I'm not fond of Sól's loopy mane or rump spikes, though. And while I love Máni's simpler night sky-esque design, I don't think the seal brown non-magical coat, with its reddish highlights, jives. Why couldn't he be dark and silvery, as in blue roan, grullo, or some shade of gray? 

If we were going to buy another magical winter horse this year, it would probably be Heidrun the "goat horse" or Fawny the "fawn horse." 

Since they're several years old, they are way less expensive than the shiny new horses.

Dash and Clara communing with some Fawncys out in the wild

They've both grown on us over time, but we still find it hard to look past their awkward early generation 3 gaits. We're not fond of the cloven hooves or - in Heidrun's case - the horns either. So, no plans to take one of these guys home on Christmas or New Year's, at least not this season.

Here's a look at the new winter token rewards for this year: the Brownie Bear Hug Set and the Polaris Set. I was hoping for some cheerful jewel tones, or something shimmery or decorated with snowflakes... but nope, it's all brown this year. The bronze bear details on the first set are super cute, though, so we'll probably make good use of everything but the brown sweater and saddle pad. The second set isn't really our style. Hopefully there are some players out there that really like it.

As you can see from that last square, some of the sets from last year are back as well, but we're ignoring those since we already own them.

Star Stable is giving us a northern lights inspired set as part of its latest trailblazer track, so we are getting some shimmer. That color scheme is fantastic, but as it's western style with a non-traditionally-shaped blanket, we probably won't use it much.

Here's a peek at the latest set of championship ribbons to be earned:

Cute! Are they worth all the effort it takes to earn them all? No, but you know we will!

Clearly, many other players want them too. =)

For your enjoyment and ours, here are some fun pre-Christmas screenshots!

You wouldn't know it, but there's a chicken down there in the deep snow too

We played against this NPC in all 4 western races, and the poor girl was stuck in this position the entire time. We could not stop laughing.

my favorite decoration this year

Artie and Clara posing in a snow globe

The rider-in-the-ground bug seems to be spreading. XD

It's possible to bring a winter animal back to Jorvik! Impractical but fun.

Also note one of our gnome-helping rewards this year, starry ceiling decor. 

We might leave this up year-round!

Hee hee, some of Maya's sheep get nearly buried. 

I don't think I'll ever get tired of watching the animals make little trails in the snow.

This is probably my favorite part of the winter event. =)

Whoa, who are these dark, hooded figures in the circus tent? How long have they been there?

a ridiculously precarious Star Stable transport

Brr!

Picnicking in the snow. Raina's not having it.

Our Atlas (right) and his twin, a permanent fixture by the baby gnomes this year

mini donkey cuddles!

This post is already so long that we plan to take a page from Star Stable's book and stretch the season out a bit. Our holiday recap will be coming first thing in 2026! Wishing anybody who would happen to see this a merry Christmas and happy final stretch of 2025!

Ashfall

Winter has had the Mitten firmly in its grip since Thanksgiving. Usually the clouds dominate, keeping the sky pale or gray, but not on the morning below!

Star Stable is not so eager to launch into winter. The snowy decor and the Winter Village won't be arriving until the second Wednesday of December, the 10th. We find this a bit puzzling, since part of the event has historically been daily gifts under the big Yule Tree all Dec. long. Why not a 12/3 start date? 

At any rate, it's fine with us not to be extra busy with special SSO activities just yet. We've spent lots of quality time with our newest pony, Seaglass. We haven't seen many others like her, at least not since the Welshie came to the bazaar and we started paying close attention. Here's one, though, a pony names Jinx who stood in that spot for quite some time.

It's always fun for us to see what other players chose to name the doppelgängers of our horses. We haven't yet come across any with the exact same name as ours, but it is bound to happen eventually...

Glassy's gotten very familiar with the Medieval area in the Forgotten Fields, since we like its activities, music, and proximity to the starting area of the Goldenhills championship.

The only thing we've noticed that Glassy (and our 3 other pony-sized equines) can't do as well as the bigger horses is allow Clara to hit all the targets with the lance on the jousting field. On certain targets, no matter how carefully aimed, the lance is just too low. We pass the challenge anyway, just never with a perfect score. 

We continue to swing by and visit Maya when we're out in the area too: to race her and Elli, to go on picnics, and to bring back wandering sheep. =)

Contrary to the activity name, and also contrary to the sheep near Starshine Ranch, these sheep follow rather than having to be herded. Good thing, since herding 7 would take ages!

Glassy about to start a one-pony Goldenhills championship. Great practice for us, and a surefire win!

In questing news, no sooner did Clara close the crack in Goldenhills than more cracks cropped up in Silverglade Village, releasing more Shadow Seekers. 

The trusty Shadow Seeker vacuum came in handy again.

This was serious enough that we were instructed to meet with Fripp again...

...and received training in using Lightning magic. New skills and same vacuum in tow, they returned to Silverglade and successfully closed all the cracks.

New cracks are cropping up elsewhere now, but as they are not causing immediate chaos (no townspeople fleeing from rampaging Shadow Seekers), we are letting them be for a bit and switched gears to find and rescue Herman.

We got to see inside the observatory near New Hillcrest and met the mysterious Mrs. X at last.

More CHILL members arrived on the scene. We'd already met Jupiter and now were formally introduced to Syntax the hacker and Silencia the spy.

Clara met up with Silencia later in Jarlaheim to covertly observe a meeting between Ms. Drake and the evil Darko.

Yeah, sorry, not the greatest wardrobe choice on our part for this mission. They hid inside big crate boxes, though, while Glassy stood nonchalantly off to the side, so it was all good.

They proceeded to discuss a working relationship in which Ms. Drake's GED team would assist Dark Core with mining for Drakonium in exchange for a cut of the profits. Additionally, Ms. Drake was to hand over Herman. Herman would have to be transported, the perfect opportunity for a rescue mission!

Silencia borrowed a GED uniform under the pretext of needing it for a theatrical performance. This rather dim GED guard, also a theater enthusiast, was happy to help.

They took him up on his offer for props too and set up a fake construction barricade on the bridge. 

When the van transporting Herman pulled up, Silencia distracted the driver while Clara freed Herman. I love how the Wolf Hall Inn people just stood there observing and did not react in any way. XD

Then they were discovered, and it was a mad dash for escape, riding double on the mighty little Seaglass.

Once they'd lost the pursuing van, they had a short open-air meeting with the rest of the rescue party before everybody went their separate ways.

As you might have noticed, partway through all this questing, Clara finally reached level 22! (We were stuck at 21 for so long!) Good thing horses level up so much faster. Glassy's final level up sparkle came after she'd won The Baroness's Championship.

The final week of November, Star Stable offered another bazaar! This one featured the Morgan, the Pintabian, the Friesian, and the Arabian!

In order of increasing price, first up are the Arabian and Pintabian. The only difference in Star Stable is - obviously - that the Pintabians are pintos. 

Wow, that's a great deal! If we ever were to get a duplicate of a model we already have, good chance it would be one of these. But we're not; for now Des will remain our one and only horse in the Arabian model.

Ah, the somewhat bug-eyed SSO Morgan. We've passed them over at previous bazaars for that reason, but as time's gone on, we've gotten rather desensitized to it.

Ooh, the beautiful Friesian. From what we've gathered, they have been much better received by the SSO community than their predecessor, the Jorvik Friesian. We're not surprised: what is not to like? We've long admired them and been waiting for them to go on sale.

Here's the before screenshot of that Baroness's championship we rode Glassy to victory in. Two newly-purchased Morgans with silver dapple coats (and their riders) entered with us. So, so pretty!

It wasn't easy, but I managed to talk my sisters out of buying both a Friesian and a Morgan. Getting a Morgan now made mores sense, since they were both on a better sale and cheaper overall. This being the Friesian's first time ever on sale and as popular as it seem to be, the odds are very good that they'll appear in another bazaar before too long, with an even larger discount.

So, off we headed to Firgrove for an up close look at the various Morgan color options. Behold our top 4:

black silver dapple

flaxen liver chestnut

bay

black rabicano

The first two are so striking, but we think they'd have been even more striking with facial markings. We love the bay and its gorgeous star. But in the end, the black rabicano, with its ashy belly, bold splashy markings, and two-tone tail, won our hearts. 

We named him Ashfall, both because of his ashy middle and because Mom slipped and fell the day before we got him. (Mom's ok, just was hobbling around with a bruised foot for awhile after.)

Aww! <3

The first ride! 

Fortunately, Ashfall is much more graceful than Mom! Here he is rocking our new Hufflepuff-esque tack set from the most recent Trailblazer Track. 

We're all so happy with our choice! <3

On Dec. 3, the Morgan/Pintabian/Arabian/Friesian bazaar was immediately replaced with another! The three breeds to tempt us this time: the Curly Horse, the Chincoteague Pony, and the Trakehner.

We don't own any of these breeds yet, and they're all likeable in their own ways.

This might be the Curly Horse's first time ever on sale? This would explain why they cost the most of the three. They're cute and cuddly looking at rest, but they are made in the more cartoony style, with very awkwardly-moving back legs. 

The Chincoteague Pony is another very cartoony early Gen 3 breed. So, again cute, but a very awkward mover.

The Trakehner reminds us a ton of the Jorvik Warmblood. Again, lots of cartoony charm, but not a pretty mover. 

Had we not just been on a new horse spending spree these last few weeks, we'd have had a harder time resisting these guys. But, as it is, we'll get back to saving star coins for now. As soon as we're done training Ashfall, I'm sure our other horses will be eager to finally get some riding time again!