Onyx and Uno

We have two new additions to our herd. That means we have collected a grand total of 7 horses for the month of May. This breaks our previous record of 5. Since we didn't catch any keepers last May and since 3 of our 7 are 6/6 wilds that we caught ourselves, we'll let it slide that we added so many this May.

Here is the list of how many horses we've collected each month for anybody who's curious. I keep a detailed spreadsheet of all of our horses' information because I'm awesome like that. XD

03/13: 2
04/13: 2
05/13: 0
06/13: 1
07/13: 0
08/13: 2
09/13: 4
10/13: 5
11/13: 4
12/13: 4
01/14: 3
02/14: 2
03/14: 4
04/14: 5
05/14: 7

From now on, we will do our best to limit our additions to 1 horse per month. We may still make exceptions (for example, if we catch multiple 6/6 wilds in one month), but our livery and auction impulse buys need to stop or our whole ranch will end up covered with barns. XD

That being said, here are our new stallions. <3

The first is a big 16.2 hand solid black Noriker. He was created with a super horse token. A few days later, he was put up for auction. I happened to notice him when 8 minutes remained, and only the foreign bidder had placed a bid. Since it's not every day you see a 6/6 horse going for only $22,000 in the auctions, I went to peruse the livery horses to kill a few minutes and then returned to check on him. Still no bids from real players. With less than a minute left, I finally broke down and placed a bid. Solid black, +78, explorer personality... it seems crazy that no one else was interested. I guess nobody who likes solid-colored Norikers came looking during those 10 minutes.

I think Friesian horses are beautiful in real life, but I'm not impressed with how they look on HI2. This is the perfect compromise - I get my big black horse without the unimpressive artwork.

I've decided to name him Onyx because his coat looks as smooth and polished as black onyx. He came with the name Diablo, but I didn't think that suited him well at all. He's Austrian, not Spanish, and his personality is not at all devilish.

Diablo is our 3rd black equine. We now have a black horse, pony, and draft horse. =)

Onyx the Noriker - dark brown hooves

Nightshade the American Mustang - brown hooves

December the Fell Pony - black hooves

Our second new stallion is a livery find. I (Bethany talking now, in case you didn't notice the text color change) found him, surprise surprise. He's our first solid bay horse, believe it or not.

He has no negative stats, he's +72, and he has the "My Buddy" personality. We weren't likely to ever find such a great Criollo on our own, as rarely as we find jungle-dwelling wilds.

Not quite tall enough to be a horse. That's okay, buddy.

He looks a bit sleepy, but he's not lazy. :)

We have named him Uno because he has one white foot and because his breed, the Criollo, is from a Spanish-speaking region of the world. Here he is in avatar form:

What a handsome shade of bay!

Still Seeing Double

Two in a row, baby. We've found another 6/6 horse with an avatar identical to that of a horse we already have. Minds. Blown.

It was one of those days where the special event is 50% less wilds roaming the isles. Nevertheless, Rosetta and I headed to Twin Rivers Isle to visit some furburs for quests and to search for wilds while we were at it. After traversing most of the western half of the isle's un-forested regions (to avoid the worst of the lag), we finally came upon our one and only wild of the day. I switched mounts from Rosetta to Ravine for the screenshot, naturally.

The only time we will ever see them side by side. <3 

What's with the dark belly patch? Huge, irregular bend-or spot, I guess.

I almost burst out laughing when I scrolled down and realized she was 6/6. Seriously, HI2? 

A fitting persona for a horse from a big, remote isle. She's going to love the mountains.

And here is Julie's first horse, Ravine, to compare her to.

He has the cutest bend-or spots ever. <3

It goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway: Ravine will never be sold. We shall keep the 6/6 mare too, at least for now, since we did go out and build another barn. Up goes the mare count again. Oh well. 

Post 101

Sorry. I couldn't resist. XD It's fitting, in a way, because we have somehow acquired 3! more horses since Mom's birthday on the 18th, and one of them is even spotted. Our barns are getting so full that we'll need to build a new one soon.

The first new addition is the small but mighty Napoleon. Teddy and Julie found him way out on Bud Isle, the most remote Leaf Isle.

Funny story here. On Friday, Mom heard a random piece of trivia on the radio that she then shared with us: Napoleon Bonaparte became emperor of France on May 18, 1804. So, Julie and I were joking about how fun it would be to find a 6/6 pony stallion of some sort on her birthday and name it Napoleon. Julie headed out to the Leaf Isles on the 18th, and lo and behold, it actually happened! We could hardly believe it.

If you look closely and tilt the screen just right, you can see faint dapples on his rear.

Yep, he does indeed have faint dapples. :)

Okay, so his persona is not exactly Napoleon-like. We'll overlook that minor detail. ;)

Julie's going to keep Napoleon, since she found him and really likes Welshies. Here's one more look at him:

Our second new addition is another pony... And another mare. They won't stop flocking to us now... 

She is Equinox approved. <3

She has +110 gene stats for her breed, which makes her the best horse stat-wise we have ever caught. (And for the record, it was me who caught her.) But... if she looks familiar, you'd be right.

Back in January, we caught - you guessed it - a 6/6 white gray New Forest Pony mare, Jessamine. Here's a flashback to that happy day:

Lily and Zephyr found and caught Jess easily

Jessamine is 1.5 hands taller

Both mares have bald faces and 1 marking-less leg. Good thing it's not the same leg!

It seems rather excessive to keep two mares with identical avatars, but I can't see us parting with either one. Lily says there's no way she'd exchange Jessamine for the new mare, and I refuse to let us pass over the highest stat equine we've ever captured. 

Here's my reasoning. First off, I highly doubt we'll be finding any wilds with stats better than +110 anytime soon. It could very well never happen again. Second, I don't think the NFP is very popular on HI2, which could make it hard for her to find a permanent owner (if not Pepsi). It makes me sad to think of her being passed around the way Equinox was for so long. Finally, I think it would be fun to have one set of look-alikes to keep things interesting. As long as we have room to keep both, why not?  

And for our 3rd new horse...

[insert drumroll here]

A Nez Perce! As I have said before, I have admired the Nez Perce ever since it was introduced to the game. Unfortunately, we have had no luck finding any nice ones in the wild or in the livery, and we refuse to spend our hard-earned money on the kick-butt, expensive ranch store ones. 

It was shortly after Equinox and I had found the NFP that our buddy PintoMustang came online. She had recently acquired two striking Nez Perces. The first was Aspen, a perlino snowflake mare she had adopted from the humane society. When Pinto later was attempting to surrender some other horse to the h.s., she accidentally surrendered Aspen instead. Someone adopted her before Pinto could re-adopt her. Luckily, 4 days later, Pinto located Aspen at a ranch store and bought her back.

As happy as Pinto was to have Aspen back, it appears she was even happier with the second Nez Perce she found, a 6/6 leopard appaloosa named Calypso. Pinto offered me Aspen, since she knows how much I've been pining for a Nez Perce. How could I say no? Her coloring is amazing! Out of all the appaloosa spotting patterns, snowflake is my favorite, and on perlino besides... Wow! 

So, off we both travelled to the Narrowton livery to perform the quick-as-possible exchange. As with Skyrocket, it worked like a charm! Aspen is now all mine. Unless, of course, Pinto ever decides she wants her back. ;)

So detailed! Her hooves even have stripes like real appys.

Interesting. Her personality is almost a forward slash on the chart.

=D This may be my favorite avatar ever!

Whew, that's all for now. The outdoors are calling. The weather out there couldn't be more perfect! Oh, how I love sunny spring days. =^)

Awkward Wild Horse Screenshots

Happy birthday, Mom! In honor of your special day, here are some HI2 screenshots to make you smile.

Watch out, Palladium look alike! Don't disturb the bees with your tail!

Myth busted. Wilds do hang out in the sequoia forest.

Isn't that prickly, guys?

Diagonal

Levitating marigolds!

I'm surprised Felicity spotted this one!

Surrounded by pintos!

A Kerry Bog Pony taking his breed name literally. XD

Don't worry, wild! I'll free your foreleg from that tree root after I lasso you.

I think this black spotted blanket POA is self-conscious of his spotted rear. XD

Nope, you can't cross the river, Belgian wild.

Meet Infrared

We've finally found a stallion, and so far we've resisted keeping any more mares. Before I get to that, I thought I'd share a few amusing NPC conversation snippets from our recent quests:

Apparently, Pepsi finds the Smurls as annoying as Felicity does. XD

Charades with a very smart kitty.
It took me a good couple of minutes upon arriving on Lance to realize that this "MrsMystery" I needed to talk to for a quest was feline.

My favorite line: "Plus you can always just sit on the turtle."

Pepsi's such a tree hugger.

I want a furbur. =)

And finally, here is my new horse, Infrared.

He has the same tobiano spotting pattern as Felicity's Equinox.

Oh well, maybe we'll say they are brothers or something. They still are very different otherwise.

Because of his duplicate spots and his 4/6 positive stats, I passed him by the first time I saw him in the livery. But then when he was still there waiting the next day, I decided it was meant to be. He does have a winning personality, after all. And my sisters and I have been waiting and waiting for a reddish stallion to name Infrared. Welcome to the herd, buddy. <3

His avatar looks chestnut tobiano. =) 

Quickstep

On Horse Isle 2, we've been roaming the remote jungle isles quite a bit lately for some of the longer Plains Isle quests. Jungle terrain is not my favorite to traverse because those trees make for killer lag. We run into trees, temples, bamboo, and totem poles on a regular basis, but unfortunately we rarely stumble upon wilds. We have concluded that there just aren't many wilds to be found on the jungle isles... or else they hide really well under those expansive treetops. Oddly enough, we find adventure gear way more often than wilds. Maybe all of those forgetful geriatric travelers are scaring away the horses. ;^) 

It was last Saturday that Zephyr and I came upon one of these rare jungle wilds on Green Isle. I was hoping it'd be a stellar stallion.

That's a very white tail you have there, wild.

Ah, a tobiano. That explains it. 

But no, it's yet another mare. XD When it rains, it pours. 

That white tail is pretty endearing. She has 5/6 positive stats, and she's by far the nicest horse we've ever been able to catch on jungle terrain. So... yeah, she stays. *Sighs* Now we have to find 4 stallions to even the gender ratio. 

I'm not sure which one of us will get to keep her yet, but I have named her Quickstep. Mom pulled up  a YouTube video of a Paso Fino going through its special gaits for us to watch, and talk about short, quick steps! Despite looking a bit odd, those steps make for an incredibly smooth ride. PepsiSummer will appreciate that, I'm sure.

Here is one more look at Quickstep - this time under saddle. We have given her green equipment, of course.