Double Surprise on Harbor

Last Saturday, Icing and I were on Narrowed Isle. When I checked the map of players online, no one showed up on Harbor Isle or in Harbor Reef. So, off we went to Harbor Isle to use the magic flute. I met no one in the reef, but when I popped out onto Harbor Isle, surprise! A gray horse with another player aboard was standing several strides away. Either the player had just logged on after a prior logout from Harbor (we do that frequently), or she'd been lurking in Hep's abode. Using the flute there was out. The other player just stood there, though, so I decided to take a quick look around before heading back out.

I began to circle the beach clockwise, and immediately, I found a chestnut wild horse! I didn't look to see what breed it was or even attempt a screenshot, because suddenly the other player came to life and began cantering after us. Luckily, I was able to click the capture button first.

It was, surprise, surprise, yet another Morab. (Not that any of us would ever complain. Their artwork is gorgeous!) This particular Morab was a 5/6 stallion. That one negative stat made me think, oh, you're pretty nice, but we probably don't need you. Then I noticed that all 4 of the positive stats were in the 20's and quickly did the math. It turns out he's +100 overall. Wow! That makes him the third highest stat horse we've ever caught - he surpasses all of our 6/6 horses except for our super ponies, +110 Balderdash and +104 Vinca.

I wish he had a marking on his face to go with those cute mismatched socks. Oh well. 

Hee hee. We caught him with his eyes shut. XD

Felicity made it clear that she really wanted this guy. She already had a name picked out and everything, so I let her have him even though she already has a Morab stallion. Say hello to Rally.

His rusty mane and tail will make him stand out from the crowd.

This means PepsiSummer has collected 4 great Morabs now, all of them wilds caught by us on Harbor Isle. :)

1. Brio - Felicity's

2. Umber - Bethany's

3. Petra - Julie's

4. Rally - Felicity's

6/6 Captures: The First 20

Here is the list of our first 20 6/6 wild horses. I think it's fun to look for patterns. 

Here are some of the interesting things I noticed:

• We seem to have a knack for catching 6/6 ponies, while 6/6 drafts have been more elusive. 8/20 were pony breeds but only 2/20 were drafts.
• The only duplicate coat color in the list is white gray, from our look-alike New Forest Pony mares Jess and Dash.
• Our shortest 6/6 wild was Pepsi the Shetland (8.3 hands), while our tallest was Pal the Irish Draught (16.3 hands).
• Exactly half of our 6/6 wilds were technically pony-sized (under 14.3 hands).
• Even though we've been finding more 6/6 mares than stallions lately, the tallies of both came out nearly even. 11 were stallions and 9 were mares. 
• All three of the 6/6 horses we did not keep (#1, #3, and #8) were stallions.
• We've found the most 6/6 horses on Harbor Isle: 4. Not surprising, as often as we visit. ;). Petal Isle has also been a hotspot for us even though we don't visit it as often - we've found 3 6/6 wild ponies there.
• We have captured at least one 6/6 wild on all of the terrain types except for snowy.
• October of 2013 was our luckiest month by far for finding 6/6 wilds. We found 5, and 2 were on the same day!
• We haven't found a 6/6 wild yet in March, April, or December. 
• Lily and I tied for the most 6/6 wild horses caught: 6. Bethany was a close second with 5. Felicity brought up the rear with only 3. XD
• Flora has been Lily's mount for 4 of her 6 lucky captures. She's definitely Lily's luckiest horse. :)

Since this post is lacking in color so far, enjoy this visual representation of our 6/6 beauties:

1. Pepsi (CandyNutmeg's)

2. Kestrel (Bethany's)

3. Grade Draft Horse (auctioned)

4. Zephyr (Lily's)

5. Mistral (Bethany's)

6. Vinca (Felicity's)

7. Palladium (Julie's) 

8. Myrrh (auctioned)

9. Brio (Felicity's)

10. Jessamine (Lily's)

11. Xenon (Felicity's)

12. Umber (Bethany's)

13. Napoleon (Julie's)

14. Balderdash (Lily's)

15. Zesty (Lily's) 

16. Dasani (Bethany's)

17. Vaquero (Julie's)

18. Xanadu (Julie's)

19. Della (Bethany's)

20. Windy (Felicity's)

Windy

We visit Narrowed Isle quite a bit because the NarrowTon general store pays the most to take surplus items off Pepsi's hands. While we're there anyway, it's become part of the routine to travel out to Harbor Isle to loot the reef and check for wild horses. At least half the time the isle is wild-less, but there are also days when we find multiple wilds. As it doesn't cost anything but a boring slow-mo walk to get to Harbor from Narrowed, we can't really complain no matter what we find once we get there.

On Friday, I set out to Harbor with Esker and found two wild horses roaming it. The first, a pretty palomino tobiano Warlander mare, ended up having the Troglodyte persona. That one made me chuckle. =)

troglodyte |ˈträgləˌdīt|

noun(esp. in prehistoric times) a person who lived in a cave.

• a hermit.• a person who is regarded as being deliberately ignorant or old-fashioned.

Someday I so want to find a horse with this persona in the mountains...

The second was this black Don. Not just any Don, but a 6/6 +81 mare. She also happens to be the 20th 6/6 wild to be captured by PepsiSummer.

Interesting side note: I found this Don exactly a year after I found the first 6/6 wild horse we decided to keep, my beloved Kestrel. <3 Hooray for September 12!

I'll admit, at first glance I was pleased but not exactly thrilled. We have 3 black equines already and a surplus of mares right now besides. And let's face it: HI2's Dons are not going to win any beauty contests.

But then I remembered Wendy. Flashback to years ago. Mom was a young girl poring over her first (and even then quite outdated) horse breed handbook: ogling each horse photo, trying to make sense of horsey jargon, and mispronouncing breed names like crazy. On one long car trip, she remembers naming her favorite horse on each page. Of all of the horses, her favorite was the Don, a gleaming metallic chestnut with a flowing mane and tail. She gave it what was then her absolute favorite name, Wendy, ignoring the fact that the horse was male. XD Wendy was one of her first dream horses.

Our scanner refused to scan the photos nicely. x_x

Needless to say, I think all 4 of us have a soft spot in our hearts for Dons. It would seem wrong not to keep the best Don we have ever come across on HI2. In looks, she may be a far cry from Wendy the magnificent, but her markings and personality are pretty cute. Since she is not the right color to be Wendy, we have decided to call her Windy.

This means we now have 4 black equines: 2 stallions and 2 mares. None of them have exactly the same avatar, thank goodness. We'll probably ride them with their halters on most of the time to avoid confusion all the same.

Nightshade: brown hooves

December: black hooves

Onyx: dark brown hooves, blacker

Windy: dark brown hooves, grayer

I haven't decided yet whether I will keep Windy for myself or give her to the one sister who doesn't have a black horse yet, Felicity. Hmm...

Art Fair Finds

Mom went to an arts and crafts fair last weekend. There was all kinds of fun stuff to look at, from jewelry to wall art to giant cattail wind chimes. There also happened to be a booth selling homemade 18" doll clothes. Mom was drawn there like a moth to a flame. She couldn't decide whether she liked the crocheted dresses or the cotton dresses better, so she ended up getting both. She returned home $34 poorer and surprised each of us with a new dress! Pretty good, when you consider that American Girl typically charges upwards of $30 for just one outfit.

 

We decided to model our dresses that same afternoon. The lighting in the backyard was kind of funky at the time, so we opted to take our little fashion show to Mom's room instead.

 

My dress caught Mom's eye first. She loved the aqua and chocolate brown print, and so do I!

 

This lime green polka dot dress looks like it was made for Felicity - it perfectly matches her eyes. Her birthstone also happens to be the diamond. I've never seen Felicity so pleased to put on a dress. =)

Grandma was the one to find Julie's dress. Normally Mom is not a huge fan of brown clothing, but this particular shade with its subtle gold sparkles spoke to her. I think it looks lovely on Julie. It brings out the rusty undertones in her beautiful brown eyes.

And finally, Mom selected this crocheted dress for Lily. It doesn't get much more "Lily" than sky blue with a flower. XD The dress ended up having more of a drop waist than Mom was expecting, but Lily can still totally rock it.

 

I will leave you with this group shot. Looking good, ladies! <3

 

Bethany Strikes Again

Well, we only made it two days into September before we found a horse we just had to have. Or, rather, a horse Bethany thought we just had to have. She sure has a gift for finding 6/6 livery horses.

This time, her find was a Kinsky. None of us have ever come across a nice Kinsky before. Not one that was inexpensive enough for us to consider buying it, anyway. (I have trained my sisters well in that department. ;)) This stallion was a wild horse who was caught by a subscribed player on Labor Day. That player then surrendered him to the livery the very next day! I wonder if she knew what a great horse he was when she did it?

Since I caught the 6/6 Spotted Draft Horse mare and gave it to Bethany, she returned the favor by giving this guy to me. He may be a loafer and a hermit, but at least he's chill and go-with-the-flow about it. I'm excited to try him out in the jumping arena once he's trained.

His avatar is a surprisingly light shade of brown. I was expecting him to be similar in color to black chestnut sabino Galileo, whose avatar is nearly black. Instead, he is almost the same shade of brown as Bethany's brown mare Umber. Good thing they have different colored hooves!

The Kinsky

Umber

Coincidentally enough, the Kinsky's capturer randomly PMed me yesterday when Zephyr and I were on Harbor Isle. Paranoid me thought she had tracked me down and was going to say something about the Kinsky, but no. She was only asking if there were any wild horses on Harbor. XD (There weren't, other than the Abaco Barb I had just fluted and lassoed.) When I told her I had adopted the Kinsky and that he said hi, she didn't have much to say in response. I'm guessing she didn't know he was worth more than your average wild, but no way was I going to ask...