Interesting Avatars Part 1

We've focused on cool HI2 horse profile artwork from time to time in this blog, but I don't think we've ever created a post centered on HI2 avatars. I guess that's because we tend to picture our horses in our minds more in terms of their profile pics than of what they look like in avatar form.

Still, a horse's avatar is pretty important. It's what we and other players see as we travel around HI2. Some players buy and/or keep certain horses solely for their eye-catching avatars. We haven't gone that far, but we do definitely take a horse's avatar into consideration when deciding whether or not to keep it. 

So, we're long overdue to give the avatars some undivided attention. Our buddy Xylyl has spent a lot of time combing the BBB for interesting avatars, and she was kind enough to share her list of them with us. With her permission, we will now share them with you - with BBB screenshots to illustrate. It's a long list, so to do it justice, each of us is going to take a turn at it.

I will share the first set. Enjoy!

American Mustang: brindle buckskin

brindle takes the form of gray dapples!

American Paint Horse: any splash white 

(with the exception of cremello and palomino, since you don't really notice their starkly white tails)

silver dapple bay splash is Xylyl's favorite

I'm partial to the silver dapple black splash

American Quarter Horse: the brindles

palomino brindle: black dapples on a bright golden base

brindle sorrel: black dapples on a deep red base

American Saddlebred: flaxen liver chestnut (with or without sabino)

Black horses with orange manes and tails! I prefer the sabino myself. :)

Anglo Arabian: bay gulastra plume (with or without sabino)

Check out the flaxen tail and the faint dapples!

Again, it's pictured with sabino because white stockings are awesome. ;)

Appaloosa: chestnut leopard

pale gray base with bright chestnut points and dapples

Arabian: bay gulastra plume

Love that tail!

Australian Brumby: all leopard colors

All have white bodies and colored blankets rather than the typical dapples.

My favorite is this one, the bay leopard. =)

Australian Stock Horse: brindle palomino

Ooh, dark red dapples!

British Appaloosa: I think the orange-haired chestnuts deserve mentioning!

(Xylyl hasn't weighed in on the breed yet - the breed is too new.)

Chestnut varnish: orange mane, tail, and dapples!

Liver snowflake, blanket, and solid liver: they're not quite as extreme a black and orange as the American Saddlebred, but they're still quite bold!

Liver varnish: orange on a gray-tan base!

Expect more interesting avatars in our next post!

To update you on HI2 news, the most interesting thing that happened last week is that Bethany and Della hit the jackpot on Sunny Glade Isle on Wednesday night. They dug up 10 pirate treasures, caught 4 wild mares, and fluted a 5th wild mare!

Wild #1 was standing right near the dockhouse - a good sign of what was to come.

A +4/6 yellow dun Nokota

Wild #2 was the flute. Bethany didn't expect to find any more wild horses, so she used it early on.

 A +0/6 strawberry roan splashed white Abaco Barb

Wild #3: our first British Appaloosa!

I'm not sure why she looks so gray here - leopards don't look nearly so gray in the BBB

Felicity was drooling over this one, and wow, the mare sure is pretty! Had her personality been more pleasant, we'd have retired her to our ranch isle.

Wild #4: a strawberry muncher

Yes, she's +5/6, but sadly those stats only add up to +22. And in case you, like me, didn't know what a sycophant is, Dictionary.com is there for you. A sycophant is "a person who uses flattery to win favor from individuals wielding influence." Well, she can flatter all she wants, but she's not worming her way into the herd. XD

Wild #5 probably thought Bethany wouldn't ride far enough to the edge of the isle to catch her. 

A +4/6 dark bay Dutch Warmblood

Finally, I will throw in a little bit of real-life news. We got a ton of rain in a short period of time last week. Lots of rain + frozen ground = dramatic flooding. Our house and yard are okay, as we aren't in a low-lying area or near any bodies of water. This parking lot where Mom's car hangs out on weekdays wasn't so lucky.

That narrow little pond that Mom watched geese on this past year? It's supposed to stop several feet to the left of that little no parking sign on the far left of the photo. As you can see, it nearly took over the whole lot! Somebody (not Mom) tried to drive through the water in the dark, got disoriented, and drove their SUV into! the pond. As far as I know no other vehicles were harmed.

Cute Stuffies and Cool Horses

Mom recently visited the toy isle in Walgreens. Its spread of Valentine's Day stuffed animals was quite extensive, from traditional teddy bears to hippos to llamas, and from Beanie-Baby-sized animals to jumbos. Mom already has several Valentine's Day-themed stuffed animals (regular-sized Maltese, Poodle, and teddy bears), so she resisted their charm. It's too bad she didn't at least take photos, though. I'd have loved to have seen the llamas!

I couldn't find any photos of the llamas online, sadly, but I did come across photos of some other cute Valentine's Day stuffed animals. Here are my 18 favorites (since it's about to be Valentine's Day 2018) for your viewing pleasure.











Aw! Forget the candy and flowers. In my mind, these all blow them out of the water. <3

Like Mom, who resisted the Walgreens stuffies, we didn't go totally crazy and add any more horses to our HI2 herd last week. A different buddy was selling a high-stat bay Anglo Arabian mare she'd caught (How she can bear to part with her best wild-caught horses?!), but we were good and didn't express interest. (Even though we were interested, let me tell you! It's a good thing the mare didn't have a more exciting coat color!)

Bethany and I have, however, removed any lingering doubts about keeping our two new stallions. They now have names and tack!

Meet the Volante the Alter Real!

 His name is a term for playing music in a flying, light manner. I think it suits an agile horse with feathered companions perfectly!

Also let me officially introduce you to Ghirardelli the Ardennais!

His previous name was Coffeehouse Blend, a fitting name for a horse his color, but I changed it because I'm way more fond of cocoa beans than coffee beans. He gets blue tack because the Ghirardelli logo is blue and gold. =) (Sidenote: we seem to have misplaced our finely crafted English saddle. We either put it on a random horse and forgot about it or accidentally sold it. That's why the halter's metal fastenings don't match the saddle's. This is incentive to finally reach Constructing level 5 and craft ourselves another one...)

We spent most of our HI2 playing time last week in the eastern mountains. We hadn't visited Alpine Labyrinth, Star Ledge, or the Mines of More or Less in quite some time, but we managed never to get very lost, thank goodness. XD 

Just in case you were wondering, it is possible to flute a wild horse from on a mountain bridge. Ours happened to be a brown Welsh Cob, so we had Pepsi switch to our brown Welsh Cob stallion, Landslide, for the screenshot. =)

We found a lovely 5/6 +66 wild Highland out in the mountains too. We surrendered her to the humane society rather than auctioning her, so hopefully she found a home.

Once out of the mountains, Aspen and Felicity found our first wild Dutch Tuigpaard!

That left foreleg marking sure is unique!

And finally, when Felicity went to auction the Tuigpaard, she noticed two more great mares going to the foreign bidder. She bid to keep them on the game. Lucky for us, we got them both. We're planning to surrender them both once they reach 1000 exp, since we have the slots to spare right now.

In the meantime, Napoleon and Solitaire aren't the only equines of their respective breeds hanging out on our ranch isle. Napoleon doesn't really care, because he knows the Welshie is too short to stick around permanently.

my Welshie, Napoleon <3

I think Solitaire's a little nervous about this more outgoing Jutland with higher stats than his.

Don't worry, big guy! Lily would never replace you.

Lily's Solitaire <3