We're Up to 30!

 We took home our spotted mule on the last day of the bazaar. Even though our Evie is a "near leopard" and the spotted blanket appy would've been more different, in the end, the leopard appaloosa mule still won out. There's bound to be another appaloosa-spotted equine in our future that can be one of the other patterns. (There had better be!)

Here she is, our very own wildly-spotted mule mare, Cookietime!

Not a bit shy, this one!

It was a super quick "buy and log off" because we had a very busy Tuesday evening. She looks cute bareback...

...but also great in tack. Here they are modeling the final prizes from the Western Style Riders event, the ribbon and coordinating t-shirt. 

When mules level up, they buck rather than rear. This would not have been our choice, but I will admit it's an interesting change of pace.

Much more endearing is her floppy groove, a happy walk where her ears flop.

We were expecting all of this, but we weren't expecting her to be so vocal! She brays a TON when idling. We don't mind it, but thank goodness the horses and ponies are quieter. 

The day after we took home Cookie, Star Stable launched its special 15th birthday celebration event. Well done, Star Stable, for enduring so long! 

We met up with all four Soul Riders and had the honor of unlocking the ceremonial gate to the festival. (We really ought to get going with the main quest line already, so that it would make sense for Lisa and Anne to be around...) 

The massive birthday cake is its centerpiece, and yes, we can jump onto it for photos.

We've only been playing for about 3 of Star Stable's 15 years so don't have the history that many others do, but even we have been appreciating some of the nostalgic stuff the event brought back. For example, there's a scrapbook you can rifle through with some NPCs, super old now-retired horse models you can take for a spin around the festival area, and some displays where you can view before and after shots of some of the revamped iconic buildings.

Oof, the horses have come such a long way in 15 years!

By far the best part of the event has been the birthday horse!!! On day 1, we logged on without reading the game news. Even so, we figured out pretty quickly that something must be going on: so many other players all riding black tobiano warmbloods. 

At first glance, I thought they were Selle Francais pintos like Nightnimbus. But no, it's a brand new black tobiano version of one of SSO's most loved new breeds, the Hanoverian. And for the whole week, each player could claim one totally free! We could hardly believe it.

After we'd finished our daily activities on Cookie, we immediately went to claim ours!

Here he is, our big, bold Hanoverian!

The randomly-generated name suggestion was so good we almost used it. It went on our list for later, though, because we think he looks even more like a name we've had on standby for a while. 

Meet Inksplash!

Here he is next to Nightnimbus for comparison.

No mistaking them for each other up close, but you can see how it could happen from a distance.

It's been awesome having two new equines to take turns riding through all the special activities. It will probably never happen again, so we're thoroughly enjoying it. 

Speaking of those special activities, it's high time I got around to that. The Soul Riders honorarily joined different NPC clubs for the event: Linda to the Bulldogz, Anne to the Bobcats, Lisa to the Stampeding Stars, and Alex to the Flying Foxes. Unfortunately, Clara could not join any of those clubs and was expected to participate in a player-led club. Fortunately, during the Western Festival, someone sent her a club request that we accepted, so even though we've never talked to anybody in the club, we technically are in one. 

The player-led clubs can unlock rewards by doing certain tasks to earn points during the event, with a new batch of rewards revealed each week. Alas, it would be a huge challenge to earn all the rewards in a solo or tiny club - it's possible but would involve major repetitive activity while in a group. A club with at least a few other active members really is key. 

Thank goodness, we haven't had to resort to any extreme measures so far, like initiating contact with other players or creating another account. XD It turns out our rando-invite club is not totally dead, even though we rarely see any of the other club members online. Thanks to my contributions and the contributions of at least a couple of other people, we haven't been having trouble unlocking everything in the time allowed.

During week 1, Clara could participate in 5 special activities: one with each club, and one race against a bus.

The Bulldogz send us forth to answer trivia questions in two different regions of Jorvik. 

So far, there have been some repeat questions, but there has been a wider repertoire of them than we were expecting.

The Bobcats have set up a fancy cross country race through the Moorland/Fort Pinta area.

They went all out with the decorations! Good thing SSO horses do not spook.

The Flying Foxes have set up logic puzzle boxes. You have to figure out which box has the prize inside from the clues. Could be two are true and one is false, or vis-versa.

Though confusing, usually we can figure them out. If not, just repeat 1-2 times more and get there anyway by process of elimination. This one was particularly memorable because the second box had no statement. We assumed that meant we had to have one true and one false. Sure enough, box #2 had the prize!

The Stampeding Stars' challenge for us is to remember the sequence of 3-6 bleating sheep.

We find we can remember 4 without issue, but our memory gets dicey with any more than that. XD So far the game has had mercy on us and given a shorter sequence on the re-try if we fail a long one.

The Wheels on the Bus Race is not sponsored by any particular club but also lots of fun.

It's a little tricky in its early stages thanks to the party bus. Once we've gotten a good lead on it, it's smooth sailing. That's gotten easier as Cookie and Inky level up.

In week 2, the Dark Riders arrived late to the party and tried to show up the clubs/Soul Riders with their own activities.

Jessica alters the appearance of a random NPC in the festival area (reverts them back to original, pre-updated version) and challenges us to figure out who. You'd think it wouldn't be that hard to figure out, but we've been stumped a few times. 

This one was obvious!

I'm assuming the goal is to update all of the NPCs eventually, as it's a non-cohesive mixture right now.

Sabine transformed the Bobcats' race into a challenging nighttime one - good fun, and no getting zapped with lightning or anything.

Erissa has brought back a creepy voodoo doll version of the "mirror the monkey's path" task we did once in the mine. 

And finally, Katja messes up scrapbook photos and challenges us to find the difference. Sometimes they're pretty obvious, while other times we are really glad we have taken before and after screenshots. 

This was one of the easiest ones. :)

As you can probably tell from the length of this post, we're having a great time and wanted to make sure we can look back on all this fondly later. 10/10 from us, Star Stable, and happy birthday! =^)

That Western Style

No big real-life events to report, other than an awesome chill Saturday birthday for Bethany back on the 8th. We've been savoring some AMAZING summer weather here in the Mitten. 70's, sunshine, breezy... just about perfect if you ask me. We've spent a lot of time outside but have not neglected Star Stable either.

The Western Festival wrapped up on Tuesday, 8/18. In its later stages, Star Stable added some enjoyable new Western-themed races, but alas, no free pets this year. 

Wild for Hay Race:

So much hay! Fun detail: if you mistime a jump and bump a bale, it moves quite realistically!

Cowgirl Cross Country Race

The little hills and valleys on the loop outside of the arena made for some tricky jumps.

My favorite western races are still the two cross country ones from last year that start and end in the renegades' camp. The slippery mud keeps things interesting, and the splattering each time our horse lands a jump is such a satisfying touch.

For the record, our best score in Gary Goldtooth's gold mining challenge was 238 nuggets, which we managed on the second-to-last day of the festival on Frosty.

Too bad we had to give it all to greedy Gary.

I wonder what he'll do with it all?

We dutifully completed all the daily tasks from festival start to finish, even though there wasn't as much motivation for us as sometimes (no tokens to amass for next year, no new event-limited items we loved enough to shell out max shillings for.) We did make enough shillings to buy a few pieces saved to our favorites in the global shop, which was great!

The very last thing we did was complete the pumpkin growing contest between Dorith and Jasper.

Oh, wow. Sorry, Tigertin and Clara. If this contest comes back next year, maybe we'll finally remember to ride Magic the Shire for the pumpkin transport.

In a shocking turn of events, it was another pumpkin tie.

Lisa Peterson then performed a song on stage like last year. Pretty sure the song was different this year, though, and people just watched from hay bales - no dancing.

So long, Western Festival. 

The Western theme has carried on for one more week with a Yeehaw edition of the Style Riders competition. 

Day 1: A Sheriff and Her Steed

We were going for Woody and Bullseye from Toy Story. Not sure if anybody could tell, but we tried. XD

Day 2: Ranching is Hard Work

We tried to pick something practical for ranch work but added sky blue to lighten the mood and keep the pair cooler. Many of the free sets we've gotten are earth tones, so we thought this color palate would be a refreshing change of pace.

Day 3: The Lonely Bandit

We think Clara and River made quite convincing bandits. New Halloween costume idea, maybe.

Day 4: Line Dancers, Dance!

Carrotcake was a good sport and rolled with the Barbie vibes this one gives off.

Final: Rodeo Night

This is as fancy as we could manage with our limited Western wardrobe.

Last bit of news: it's bazaar time again! On sale this time are the Mule for 595 star coins, the Shire for 450 star coins, the Jorvik Connemara for 486 star coins, and the Akhal Teke for 510 star coins. 

I'm still not loving the old Connemara Pony or the Akhal Teke, but my sisters and I are all pumped to take home a goofy mule at long last!

Here are our choices:

flaxen chestnut pangare, sooty bay dun, grullo...

...bay leopard, black pinto, sooty bay dun blanket...

...dapple gray and bay dun

I don't care for the markings on the black pinto, but the others are all fanastic! My clear favorites, of course, are the two appaloosas. Both are so cool that I didn't have to do much to convince my sisters to narrow it down to one of them. Which will we pick? Not sure yet, but we'll be sure to tell you all about it in our next post. I wish we could get both, as well as they go with each other. I know that's not going to fly right now, don't worry, Lily. Maybe someday, though...

Western Festival 2026

I'm pretty sure Star Stable called the Western Festival "Camp Western" in previous years, but whatever you call it, it's back! The first thing we noticed when we logged in was that our home stable has been decorated for the occasion. Such cheerful sunflowers! 

Two thumbs up on the tack room decorations. <3

The next thing we noticed: there's a new western-themed Trailblazer Track! The color scheme of the western set, white and blue, is lovely! 

We're not fans of the shirt (crop top with crop jacket over it), but the rest of the set is nice. We're way more excited for the free stable care coupons and horseshoes from the master blacksmith. 

Star Stable made lots of changes to this event this year. There's a hub in Moorland for the first time, which allows non-star riders some limited participation. 

A wagon can then whisk horse and rider off to the other hub in Starshine Ranch for free. We LOVE this feature and so wish there was a wagon from Starshine back to Moorland... Maybe next year?

The wilds around Starshine Ranch are totally wolf, bear, and bull free this year! This seems to have bummed out many players, but it was welcome news to my sisters and me. While the beasties did keep things interesting, and the wilds feel emptier without them, it is so much easier and less stressful not having to deal with them!

Cantering unconcernedly through the formerly-wolf-infested grassy expanse between the beach and Starshine Ranch. If you're wondering what's with the donkey's legs, it's actually two overlapping donkeys. XD 

Making things easier is a theme this year: revamped task board, cowboy hat icons indicating which activities pertain to the Western Festival, no more trying to find treasure chests and horses that aren't plotted on the mini map. We're down with all that.

The aspects we miss: gold mining, ways to earn free pets, and a token shop. We're still enjoying the event without those things, of course, but it was more fun with them.

Our favorite ranch chore, herding three ranch horses down to the beach, has returned with different ranch horses from last year. 

We do still get to find three missing ranch horses, but all the challenge is gone. The NPC specifies the region to search, and their locations are plotted on the mini map besides. (It's like somebody put GPS trackers on the horses - smart!)

The missing horses vary somewhat day to day. As you can see, one of them is a Phoenix duplicate. =)

sometimes they space themselves well...

...and sometimes not.

Back at the Moorland hub, Clara is helping out both Dorith and Jasper grow massive pumpkins for an end-of-festival contest. Every few days, they both grow identically bigger, so I'm guessing it will be another tie.

Conrad's strength contest (whack a target with a mallet) has migrated there, and you can do a new twisty cross country race around Moorland.

The other new race we've gotten so far is a western trail type one where you navigate through obstacles as well as go over some small jumps - quite fun!

Rootin' Tootin' Race

The premise of another new task, moving hay bales out of the road because the hay truck drivers are locked in their trucks and can't do it themselves, is rather ridiculous. However, it is quite satisfying to move these by ramming into them at various angles.

We do still get to do a timed three minutes of gold mining a day. This has made us much faster at mining!

Sadly, Gary Goldtooth takes all the gold at the end of each session. We do get a set amount of Jorvik shillings for participating, at least. And we quickly earned an amusing but totally impractical stack of 5 hats.

Here is someone else modeling the full stack:

What's odd is that all of them except the must be stacked and cannot be worn on their own.

As expected, we did get another edition of the Champion Ranks. My sisters and I are growing weary of these, especially now that the ribbons aren't nearly so fun - each one just a progressively fancied up version of the one before. But at this point we still enjoy participating and watching the other players and horses, so we're going for it and working our way steadily towards the daunting 250-point goal.

It's cool to see so many other people embracing the western gear for the festival!

There have been so many bay brindle Quarter Horses in these - more on that later!

Here's a look at some of the ribbons. We still have a long way to go before earning the last one, but you get the idea.

Thanks to all the championships and western-themed activities, Phoenix blazed his way to level 15.

the final sparkle

The other horses are now back in the rotation and enjoying their beast-free western activities. Star Stable has lost no time trying to get us to buy even more horses, though.

They timed the release of their new American Quarter Horse well: right at the launch of the Western Festival. We took a long look at them in the Starshine sale paddock and have also seen many being ridden around Jorvik. They are all gorgeous! Four of the stunning color variations are below.

The old American Quarter Horse has been renamed "Jorvik Quarter Horse" and has good reason to hang its head low now. The new and improved ones seem to be way more popular than they ever were. We definitely want a new one in our herd, but not at their current 950-star-coin price tag. We'll bide our time until they eventually show up in a bazaar.

The western event exclusive color variations of the Mustang, American Saddlebred, and Mule have returned at lower cost than last year. They are all quite nice, but the discount isn't that deep, and we're not in love with any of them.

The latest bazaar doesn't have us tempted at all, since we already have a representative of all four breeds in our herd (Brightbeam, Honeyhollow, Willowwind, and Kitekey.)

Looking good, guys! Hooray for American breeds!

Until next time!