Filling Up Fast

Well, August has come and gone, leaving us with 4 new herd members. Sorry, Lily. We've totally blown it. I blame the flute and that one buddy who always seems to have an amazing horse or two she no longer wants. 

20-Karat

The first one is named at last! Since Julie and Shady caught him during the Olympics, on the evening when we saw Michael Phelps win his 20th gold metal (in the 200m butterfly), we've decided to name him 20-Karat. Gold is measured in karats. The higher the number of karats, the purer the gold. Since pure gold is 24-Karat gold, I guess that means this guy's hooves must have some other metals mixed in. That's probably for the best, since pure gold is rather soft. XD Thanks for the name inspiration, Gem! We think he's looking good in his carrot-themed tack.

The second horse, the zigzag striped AQH we bought from a buddy, isn't named yet. I thought it would be fun to name him Charlevoix after the northern Michigan city. Last time Mom headed that way, the GPS murdered its pronunciation. (Instead of pronouncing it the correct way, "SHAR-le-voy," it always called it "Char-lay-voyx," to Mom's great amusement.) But sadly, Charlevoix doesn't make it through HI2's filter. I'm guessing the city isn't big enough for it to be approved either. (Can't have some kid from Charlevoix letting the whole HI2 world know where he/she lives...) So we're back to square 1. I guess there's always Zigzag...

Here is his gorgeous buttermilk buckskin avatar:

And for comparison, here's our other buckskin, Whinny the Morgan:

Now for the two horses that snuck in at the tail end of August. Horse #3, the only mare of the bunch, is this golden Hackney: 

Felicity and Toasty fluted her on Brown Isle on Monday night.

Though she only has 5/6 positive stats, when you add them up she is +80, which is exactly the minimum number of stat points we unofficially require to keep a non-6/6er. She's such a beauty too - I love this breed's artwork. I'm also glad she's a she, both because we're short on mares right now and because I think of Hackneys as being mares. ;^)

Minuet

"M" was the last letter of the alphabet left in our second round through the alphabet for mare names. Since Hackneys have an elegant appearance and a cool high-stepping trot, we've decided name her after an 18th century dance of the aristocracy, "Minuet." 

Horse #4 weaseled his way in the very next day. The same buddy who sold us the buckskin AQH was now trying without success to sell her APQH. This guy is pretty impressive! Created with a super horse token, he's fully trained,  he's 6/6 and +119 with Zeus tokens applied already, and he has a full set of pricy companions. Normally we wouldn't even consider buying a horse like him. As you've probably noticed, our horses are mostly wild horses we've caught ourselves, livery horses, and cheap "rescues" from the foreign bidder. We stay away from the elite multi-million dollar horses in the auction house and at ranch stores. But every now and then this particular buddy, who does lots of buying and selling of expensive, elite horses, directly asks Pepsi if she's interested in a particular horse. 

Usually we make PepsiSummer politely decline, but this time we just couldn't. We didn't have any white horses in the herd - nice American Whites have been as elusive as nice Hanoverians. We loved everything about his appearance, from his blue eyes to his smattering of bend-or spots to his one white hoof.  Nobody was willing to pay my buddy anything near what this guy was worth despite the frequent ads she posted, and she was so eager to free up his slot. In the end, we broke down and bought him. Maybe it was meant to be? <3

This big white boy has gone through a series of name and owner changes. He's been Draco Malfoy, Targaryen, Avalanche, and Ameiko at various times. He looks too pleasant to be Draco Malfoy, I don't care for Targaryen (Google says it's something from Game of Thrones), Avalanche is a bit too expected, and Ameiko is apparently a female RPG character. Nope, none of those are really speaking to us as the name for this guy. 

Maybe we'll continue the Harry Potter theme in honor of his first name. Perhaps Scorpius, after Draco Malfoy's much more likable son? Or Quodpot, the American equivalent of Quidditch? Or Evanesco, the spell that causes objects to vanish?

Or we could go with something to do with dreams/vision/nighttime since he has dreamcatcher rump art. Perhaps Glimpse, Espy, Myth, Moonscape, Moonrise, Moonquake, or Moonstone.

Oh great, how are we ever going to choose one now? XD