Livery Lurking and an Elusive Raven

We're taking a break this week from our favorite artwork posts because neither Julie nor I have ours anywhere near ready yet.

This has been a more eventful weekend on HI2 than the last one, though. I came dangerously close to impulse-adopting a great mare in the livery last night.

Check out those stats! Even with that cringe-worthy -24 in agility, the rest of her stats are so good that the combined total is still +82! She also reminded me of the Curly mare we still have hanging out in our herd that we intend to sell... eventually:

I thought to myself, Okay, Bethany, let's not be hasty here. She's not +6/6, and her personality leaves much to be desired. "Bashkir" is so early in the alphabet that somebody else is bound to notice her and adopt her. Ride over to city hall and write your letter to our buddy, and if she's still there afterwards, then maybe...

Well, she wasn't still there afterwards, so that settled that! I was kind of bummed out, because it means we still don't have a June horse, but I will try to be patient.

Wait a second, Bethany, you may be thinking. What about that Dartmoor that Julie won at auction back in May? Did Xanadu kick his little sorrel rear?

No, he and Xanadu have not been at odds so far after all, thank goodness. Not sure why. Maybe they are making plans to join forces and rule the herd together, who knows? 

To recap on the horses we've decided to keep so far this year, we have:

January: Volante

February: Ghirardelli

March: Quip

April: Nebula

and yes, we did decide to keep Rhodium as our May horse. 

That's 3 stallions and 2 mares, which means our June horse really should be a mare. 

All the same, I've named the Dartmoor. He's now Yew, both because he's the color of yew wood and because there was a dictator of Singapore named Lee Kuan Yew, a better dictator than many. I've given little Yew some tack too, so here's hoping we'll be able to convince Lily to keep him as our July horse. Keep your fingers crossed!

Moving on, along with the Bashkir Curly mare, I also noticed two aptly-named stallions in the livery last night.

Sorry, guys, but I kind of like your capturer's sense of humor. 

This morning, Felicity noticed two more quite nice horses in the livery.

Even without spots, I doubt this one had to wait long to be adopted!

What a nice boy! <3 I would've been sooo tempted by him!

Felicity and Caraway met up with a buddy we hadn't talked to in a long time today. The buddy asked her if she would pick up some premium companions for her new Gypsy Vanners from the pet shop way out in the eastern mountains. Felicity readily agreed - she had time and always likes visiting the mountains. Mission accomplished, she returned and gave our buddy the requested companions... only to realize she'd accidentally gotten 2 falcons instead of a falcon and a raven (the falcon is right above the raven on the pet list...) So, off they went again to pick up the raven, racing the clock to see how soon they could make the round trip. 9 minutes!

The raven was for this amazing stallion. He looks like a bigger, brown-eyed version of my Airbrush!

Airbrush <3

Our Favorite Art: The Big Guys

This post honors the draft breeds of HI2 that we think have the best artwork. Our top ten includes both heavy and light draft breeds. 

Ardennais

The Ardy looks so kind, shaggy, and huggable that I can see why it's Julie's favorite draft breed artwork on the game. Their feet - thick shag with just a bit of hoof peeking out underneath - are awesome. I especially like the roans, like this one.

Grade Draft Horse

The expression on these horses' faces is intriguing. Are they worried? Apologetic? Hopeful? At any rate, they are quite pleasant to behold and come in a wonderful variety of colors and spotting patterns, including manchado like this mare.

Irish Cob

What's not to like about these gorgeous horses? Their sleek, muscular bodies contrast nicely with their long, lush manes and tails and light feathering on their feet. Like the Ardy, we get to see some hoof, which makes us happy.

Jutland

Ah, the Jutland. Your stereotypical heavy draft horse: big and clunky with gobs of feathering. Underneath those thick forelocks, HI2 Jutlands' eyes seem peaceful and docile - maybe even sleepy. I think of these horses being chestnut like my beloved Solitaire, but they do come in a variety of colors, including this lovely shade of dapple gray.

Mulassier

These beauties are my personal favorite draft horses on HI2. They prove that draft horses can be just as elegant as light horses. I love how the artist crafted their forelocks to fall around their watchful eyes and how he or she decided to make one hoof slightly cocked.

Noriker

As you may have guessed, Felicity is especially fond of the Noriker's artwork, since they often have bold Appaloosa spotting. Even when they don't, though (like my solid black stallion Onyx), they are still winners. Their long, wavy manes and tails, their super sturdy, well-proportioned builds, and their watchful eyes make them hard to resist.

Norman Cob

Super buff but without any extra fluff, these horses look like they're equally ready to pull a heavy load or tackle huge jumps. Even though I know half of these horses are females, I tend to think of them all as males because of their short manes and the breed name. XD 

Percheron

HI2's Percherons look powerful, stately, and hardworking, as they should. I like their short, solid, unfeathered legs. My only complaint is that I wish the artist had given them full-length tails. I know that's not practical when a horse is under harness, but why not here on HI2, where we typically just ride them around?

Russian Heavy Draft

My sisters and I all have a soft spot for the RHD artwork. They are pretty hard not to love, what with their round bodies, their thick, slightly messy manes and tails, and their happy expressions. 

Spotted Draft Horse

And finally, Bethany's favorite of the 10, the classy Spotted Draft! The artist makes the horses' manes, tails, and leg feathering look wonderfully soft and silky, plus there's the added interest of bold spotting patterns. Like with the Mulassier and the Irish Cob, the Spotted Draft blends power and elegance. Bethany also thinks their eyes are especially"glinty." I can only assume she means she thinks they look more spirited than many of the other drafts. XD

That's it for drafties! I hope you enjoyed! Now on to what's been happening with PepsiSummer on HI2 lately. The truth is... not a lot. In our very limited free time, we've frequently been choosing to veg out to the Nat Geo Wild channel, as it seems to have suddenly appeared in our satellite package. Hello, The Incredible Dr. Pol and various other vet shows. 

We do still enjoy visiting the HI2 world from time to time, of course: mostly on weekends when we have more energy. If only there were more hours in a day... or more days in a weekend. 

I will share with you the most interesting horses we came upon today. Remember how Felicity talked about how unlikely it is we'd ever find a nice, 12-hand Caspian for our herd?

Well, this stallion in the auction house this morning wasn't all that far off! The stats weren't there, but the height and the cuteness were. 

I also wanted you to see his interesting facial marking. This ragged ring of white is common on HI2's sabino Caspians. It can also be combined with other white facial markings:

with star

with stripe

with blaze

Cool, right?

And now to the livery, where Bethany did more of her usual browsing of the adoptable horses. Wouldn't you know it, she found yet another horse that was close to being her dream Florida Cracker mare, Coquina. Alas, the stats weren't there.

She was also tempted by several Haflingers that somebody had surrendered, and her favorite was this beautiful golden sorrel mare. 

Push all you want, little mare, but your stats just aren't quite there.

Later on, Felicity and Lumos found this mare on Harbor Isle. She was pretty bummed about that speed stat. She really wanted the bragging rights of being the first to catch a +6/6 horse this year. Nope. 

That's okay. We already have Quincy, and he is awesome. <3

Our Favorite Art: The Little Guys

Horse Isle 2 is home to an impressive number of different horse and pony breeds: 137 as of the addition of the Carolina Marsh Tacky. We've decided it would be fun to highlight the ones that - in our humble opinions - have the best profile artwork. It wasn't easy, but in the end, we narrowed it down to our top 40: 10 pony/small horse breeds, 10 draft breeds, and 20 horse breeds. This divides up nicely so that we'll each get to show you 10.

Many of these breeds are represented in our herd already, but we have chosen to use screenshots of random BBB horses in these posts instead. (This way there will be no distracting tack, companions, rump art, or background colors in the shots.)

I will go first with our 10 favorite "fun-sized" breeds. (We've decided to include both ponies and small horses.)

Abaco Barb

Their art reminds me a bit of the Kiger Mustangs in the Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron movie, only with more realistic faces. They look wild, sturdy, and well-proportioned. My personal favorites are the medicine hat pintos like this one. We're all glad that Abacos live on in HI2, because sadly the breed went extinct in real life in 2015.

Caspian

The artist did a great job of making these guys look how they're supposed to: not proportioned like a pony but instead like a desert horse that's scaled down in size. I love their picturesque manes and tails and their Arabian-like heads. Regrettably, Caspians are quite small for our adult avatar, PepsiSummer. Unless we get really lucky and find a maximum-height 12-hand one, we probably won't ever get to have one in our herd.

Dales Pony

These ponies' elegant, alert bearing in combination with their shaggy manes, tails, and feet make them pretty much irresistible. No wonder we immediately fell in love with our first equine on HI2, Ophelia the Dales Pony. <3

Datong

Datongs are probably my personal favorite small-sized equine breed on the game. Their expressions are alert and curious, they have stocky, round proportions, and then there are those awesome forehead nubs. <3

Estonian Native Horse

Hardy-looking yet not heavily built, these little horses have pleasing proportions, thick manes and tails, and gentle expressions. We are impressed by how much they resemble real-life ENH's we've seen via Google image searches.

Fell Pony

These ponies don't have the Dales Pony's elegance, but they're awfully cute all the same. Their long bodies, short legs, and foot shag make them a little awkward, but for us their alert, good-natured faces make up for it.

Kerry Bog Pony

Like with the Caspians, it's a shame for our avatar's sake that these guys don't get any taller than 12 hands. Despite their small size and pony-ish proportions, there is something kind of noble about their artwork. We're also huge fans of their thick, long manes and tails.

Mongolian Horse

Anybody else familiar with the children's book Fritz and the Beautiful Horses? It is one of our favorites. These shaggy little horses remind us of Fritz. <3

Spanish Mustang

Some Spanish Mustangs are tall enough to be considered horses, but many are not, hence their place here. They look happy and windswept and perhaps a bit more cartoony than many other horse breeds here, but that doesn't bother us a bit.

Welsh Mountain Pony

These super cute little guys sure look like the real thing! My favorite aspect of them is their Arabian-like heads. They also remind us of Merrylegs from the Black Beauty movie.

There, that was 10! Check back in the coming weeks for my sisters' posts about our favorite artwork of HI2's larger horse breeds. =)