Pepsi's Blue Christmas

Our avatar, PepsiSummer, had a fantastic Christmas aboard Wintergreen, her affectionate Highland Pony stallion. Even though he is mine, all 4 of us sisters took turns at the computer riding him. He seemed like the perfect pony to ride on what was a green Christmas here.

Pepsi started her day by heading out to Snowflake Isle to flute a Christmas wild horse. But before she reached the forest, where she was going to use the flute, she discovered this cutie, a flaxen chestnut Icelandic.

Thanks to the Mongolian mare and those two November 5/6 mares who are still hanging around, Pepsi only had room for one wild. So, back she went to Glacier Isle to auction her off. 

Approximately 10 minutes later, Pepsi traveled to Crystal Isle. There, she quickly found this duo hanging out by a yeti cave.

We had her catch the one on the left first, since it was a Fjord. He didn't turn out to be the fabulous high-stat stallion Felicity was hoping for, but he was pretty cute.

Out of slots once again, Pepsi had to leave the second wild. She returned to Glacier, hastily surrendered the Fjord to the humane society (surrendering instantly frees up a horse slot, while auctioning takes at least 10 minutes), and returned to the yeti cave.

The pinto wild was still there. He was busy working up the nerve to approach the cave while Pepsi was gone. 

He turned out to be another good looking horse with unimpressive stats.

Back they went to Glacier Isle again to auction him off. Wintergreen sure was getting his exercise! While waiting for the auction to end, Pepsi and Wintergreen cantered around Glacier Isle. They found 2 meteorites steaming in the snow!

Next up: Blizzard Isle! There, Pepsi finally used the flute to summon a Christmas wild. It was a brave little Przewalski!

Wintergreen got a few hours of rest after that. Then in the evening, we logged on again. While Pepsi and Wintergreen were just standing around on Glacier Isle (we were petting the new horses so that they will bond faster with Pepsi), a random player rode up and said hi. Pepsi wished her a merry Christmas, and before long they were deep in conversation concerning earth-shattering matters such as favorite colors, Kinskys, birthstones, and polka-dotted jets. It was pretty awesome.

I think Wintergreen may have a crush on BlueOcean's Kinsky mare

Pepsi and Blue headed out to White Isle together to look around for wilds, but they found this first:

Then they discovered this gorgeous Finnhorse wild:

Wow, good thing she didn't have better stats or she wouldn't have left! What a lucky day for meteorites and snowy-terrain wilds!

On the way back to the dock house, Pepsi and Blue decided to explore a yeti cave.

Blue proceeded to walk fearlessly all the way to the back of the cave. Pepsi did not have such success. Try as we might, we could not direct her in the correct path to get there without being scared back to the entrance. Following Blue, she got close once, though.

Blue was starting to turn into an icicle in her short sleeves, so it was time to return to civilization and its warmth.

It's hard to think of a better Christmas present than making a new friend! As it always seems to do on Christmas, the hours flew by way too quickly, our time on HI2 included. It was bittersweet to say goodbye to Blue and to Christmas and to go to bed. 

Merry Christmas!

Felicity, Julie, Lily, and I hope everybody had a very merry Christmas! It was a mild, snowless, gray skied one here, but we made sure that Pepsi's was cold and white: we never had her leave HI2's snowy isles.

We had a great day, but it's getting late - no time to go into its details now.  They will be coming soon. Instead, here is a quick preview of yet another mare we lassoed who has decided that she does not want to leave.

Esker and I found her back on Monday the 22nd while looking for a good spot to use the magic flute. 

Wouldn't you know it, another 5/6 mare with loads of personality and a rocking hairdo. First Lofty the Przewalski, and now this girl... HI2 sure is generous with its mares of Asian origin lately. 

I think it's safe to say that she's staying, since she's +84 and only 2 measly stat points short of being 6/6.  Thanks for the 2nd bonus December horse, HI2! Time to build another barn...

So... name? So far, Poinsettia, Mistletoe, Merry, and Jolly are all under consideration. Hmm... I guess you'll have to check back later to see which one wins out.

Whew, time for bed. Merry Christmas and good night! 

We'll Have a Blue Christmas

When I visited the humane society horses on Tuesday, this gentle giant refused to be passed by. He was captured and surrendered on the same day I found him, and I was lucky enough to adopt him before anyone else - even with a good 15 minutes or so of debating with myself whether I was going to adopt him or not.

I think it was meant to be. Like Airbrush (yes, Bethany decided to name her new Gypsy Vanner stallion Airbrush), he is a really appropriate horse to bring home in December. Airbrush was supposed to be our only December horse, but just look at this handsome boy! Impressive size, great stats, awesome personality, and gorgeous coloring... wow! Since I was the only sister who didn't yet have a 15th horse, I decided to risk Lily's wrath and take him home anyway. 

At 19.1 hands and 2406 pounds, this Shire is by far the tallest, heaviest horse ever to join our herd. He is even big for a Shire: just 1 inch and 32 pounds short of the Horse Isle 2 maximums. 

Here is his avatar: fitting, though I wish he had white dapples to represent the patchy roaning pattern he has in his profile. Like Icing and Airbrush, he has those starkly white hooves that make him extra fun to ride on snowy terrain.

Lily was not happy when she first heard I'd adopted "another 5/6 livery horse!" (her words), but when she saw him, she gave in. We're hoping that he and Icing, Lily's "exclusive-circle only" Shire mare, end up becoming pals. So far Icing is not on board with the idea. ;^)

I'm not sure what I will name him yet. Since the Gypsy Vanner didn't end up with a particularly Christmasy name, it would be nice if this guy did. So far the best I've come up with is Tinsel, and I'm not sure it's manly enough.

12/13/14: More Awkward HI2 Screenshots

12/13/14 is an awesome date and a Saturday besides. In its honor, here are some awkward HI2 screenshots. Some wouldn't have come about without Poseidon's flute, so you have him to thank in part.

Er... I like your outfit, Stem Isle rowboat dude

A wild caught mid canter

Getting chummy with a bay Kinsky

 Kiger-tree overlap

Careful, Kaimanawa!

I love it when wilds try to block portals into caves

I think this Mangalara Marchador was spying on the NPC's inside this house

Ghost horse!

Another Kaimanawa that likes to live life on the edge

When Julie fluted this guy, he appeared right on top of the NPC pony. XD

A few seconds later. The pony took the joke well.

Chatting while our horses sniff our kneecaps and a wild waits calmly in the background

Xanadu and a wild admire a levitating sunflower

An Abaco testing the water

Ah, pine fresh

How did your tail get stuck there?

We still see you...

I think she liked Pepsi

A wild raiding the grape vines

A wild investigating a playground

An unfortunate flute placement

A wild rubbing his rear on a raspberry bush

???

Snow-Finnhorse overlap

You guys aren't very good at hiding, are you?

It looks like a log has fallen on this poor wild

Blagdon Beauty

Now that it's a new month, I've been livery stalking again. Sorry, sisters, but it's starting to look like if I don't intervene, our stallion count will never catch up to our mare count. And I've only been looking at stallions, I promise! Of the stallions I've found, I've resisted a very nice 5/6 blue roan Kaimanawa, a 5/6 brown Dole, a 5/6 bay Peruvian Horse, and even a 6/6 flaxen sorrel Jutland (same color as Solitaire or things might have turned out differently).  

This guy, however, I could not pass up:

He has existed on the game for over two years but has never even gotten a real name. You know what a sucker I am for histories like that. Still, I waited about an hour after I found the little guy to give somebody else a chance to adopt him. When no one did, I took him home. The deciding factor for me: his fun, rather Christmas-y avatar:

I'm thinking of naming him Gingerbread. Or maybe Airbrush. =) We'll see what my sisters think. It's about time a Gypsy Vanner joined the herd - I think the breed is fantastic. 

Welcome to the herd, buddy. <3