More Flaxen Chestnuts

Ah, flaxen chestnuts. They are not quite the Malibu Barbies of the horse world that palominos are in my mind, but they still give off a fancy, summery vibe. Maybe that's why we've been encountering so many nice ones lately.

I have claimed the first one, Kite the Racking Horse. I haven't decided on her tack colors yet, but here's what she's currently wearing:

Flaxen chestnut #2 was Julie's birthday flute:

He didn't have a chance of joining the herd, but he sure is handsome!

Since I have claimed Kite, Bethany has claimed Widget, and Lily has claimed Sandstorm, it means the next addition to our herd should be Julie's. Little did she know that she'd soon have a doozy of a decision to make!

Altai and I recently fluted flaxen chestnut #3 among the blueberry bushes on Chilly Forest Isle. Check out that vivid avatar!

Her profile pic did not disappoint either! Deep blue eyes, lovely coloring, and picture-perfect markings:

Just look at that personality! It's a work of art! And she has +5/6 stats to boot! The air goes squeaking out of the balloon when you add up those stats, though. Only +21. Bummer!

Ever since I found her last Friday, Julie's been trying hard to resist her charms. Because of the +5/6 aspect of her stats, and because the one negative one is an amusing -13, it seems kind of a shame somehow to retire her to our Millennium Fields. (The stat chart disappears when you retire a horse.) Julie also happens to love AQH's, since she has one in real life. But would Lily ever agree to another low-stat horse so soon after Coquina? Highly doubtful.

Then, this morning, Bethany just happened to find this mare among the adoptable horse in the livery:

Wow, imagine that! Another flaxen chestnut mare with +5/6 stats!

However, this one is quite different. She is, dare I say it, not nearly as impressive to behold. As cool as Curlies are on HI2, they seem rather... unpolished in comparison to the sleek, perfectly-groomed AQH. She's pony-sized, the contrast of her body to her mane and tail is less dramatic, her markings are kind of awkward, and her personality is not nearly so charming. But don't write her off yet! Despite the -10, her stats add up to +88!

Now you see the dilemma, right? Which horse would Julie choose to fight for? Would breed, appearance, and personality trump stats? Or would stats and her desire to appease Lily/follow our unofficial rules win?

Bethany got impatient waiting for her to decide:

Can't you just imagine this scene, those curls bouncing around? XD

If you're curious, here is the Curly's avatar:

It's way more muted than the AQH's but quite nice in its own wet sand kind of way.

While we're waiting for Julie to decide, we're hanging on to both horses. I'm glad the call isn't up to me! I like the idea of a stubborn, unruly-haired little horse being chosen over one that seems more perfect. But I also think the AQH's -13 and her persona are pretty cool. We could call her "13 Below" or just "13" and have our third horse with a number name... Sorry, Julie, I know I'm not making this any easier. She has currently returned to her laptop and her story, probably to escape the pressure for a while.

In other news, our dun tobiano Waler did finally get retired to our Millennium Fields.

The rump art of a blue dragon inspired us to give him an Eragon-themed name. So, we chose Brisingr, the ancient word for "fire" in the series and also the name that Eragon (the rider of a blue dragon) gives to his blue sword.

Brisingr just happened to get quite a prominent spot on our ranch isle: he's to the right of our first row of hedges.

He'll be easy to find anytime we want to visit! =)

Summer Sizzle

Wow, here it is July 12 already and I still haven't posted about my birthday! I've been kind of... okay... really obsessed with a story I'm writing. Nearly everything else took a back seat for awhile. (Sorry sisters, Allegro, Bingo, and my HI2 horses...) 

But anyway, I did have a birthday back on Sunday, June 30. The insta-summer weather that Lily talked about in her last post hasn't gone anywhere. The high on my birthday was a toasty 86 degrees. I'm so glad we weren't trying to camp in the backyard!

I didn't play HI2 for long that day, but Ghirardelli and I did head out to Bend Isle to flute my birthday wild.

Felicity's Swedish Warmblood mare has some serious competition in the profile pic and avatar categories. This stallion is one handsome dude!

And here's the June horse on Mom's work calendar:

(Mom apologizes for how horribly un-centered this is.
She snapped this quickly around 7 am, so we're cutting her some slack.)

Well, their bodies match! The rest not so much. XD

As great as these both are, what really made my birthday was the June 29/30 dog on Mom's page-a-day calendar:

At first glance, I thought it was real too.
=^)

No other big HI2 happenings to report. Like I said, I've been ensconced in my story, and I don't think my sisters have been very active on the game lately either.

I did find an awkward screenshot Lily took of a recent flute, though:

Also, earlier today, Bethany and Volante found this pretty Standardbred dipping her toes in the water. (I guess it must be hot in HI2 too, at least on the non-snowy isles)

As much as we'd love a pinto Standardbred in the herd, this one didn't stand a chance with those stats. Oh well, this isn't my favorite tobiano spotting pattern anyway, though I do love the 2-tone mane and tail.

I will leave you with 3 random recent photos that Felicity found while perusing Mom's phone, sorted by increasing impressiveness.

a splat of bird poop that sort of looks like Squidward

a defective pop tart: nearly half crust!

an extraordinarily neon pink June sunset over Lake Michigan