Dipsy and MicroMini

Star and Gryff's slow but steady training continues, as have our many letter deliveries. We haven't had to cross any vast bodies of water to deliver any lately, which is fortunate. (Swimming is mind-numbingly slow and boring, and we have not invested in a kayak yet.)

We have stumbled upon quite a few more wild horses too, and two of them are definitely worth mentioning.

First, here is "Dipsy," a Grade Pleasure Horse stallion we found in the savanna:

Don't let the dorky name throw you. He is huge, and he easily surpasses Windfall and Mountain as the fastest horse we have ever caught.

His back legs may be set back a bit farther back than normal, but this guy sure can gallop! 

As much as we like him, the rest of his stats aren't so great (especially intelligence - yikes!), and his personality is just ok. So, we tried to resign ourselves to resisting his charms.

Horse #2 is "MicroMini," a Grade European Hotblood stallion from the rainforest:

Predictably, he is nowhere near as big and fast as a savanna horse. He's not exactly micro-mini, but he is mini in comparison: only 13.2 hands and less than half Dipsy's weight.

His genetic stats are 900 exactly, and he's a grulla (I'd call him grullo since he's a he, but whatever, HI3) with a two-tone mane and tail. Sound familiar?

Gabriella may have been bigger and fancier, but MicroMini has a more likable personality and is way smarter. XD

As you can see, he isn't so tiny compared to Pepsi that riding him is out of the question.

Whew, he doesn't have a weird head carriage like Gabriella. However, Pepsi is a bit big for him. If you view them from the front or back, there's an awkward space between his sides and Pepsi's legs too, which is disappointing.

So, now you see our dilemma. We all love duns, and this particular one is very cute with a solid personality. It would seem ungrateful not to keep him after HI3 gave us a second shot at a fairly high-statted grulla, one of the rarer types of dun, just because he's small. However, if you compare his metrics to Dipsy's, Dipsy is superior in most categories despite his lower genetic stats, plus Pepsi doesn't look awkward riding him. But then again, maybe MicroMini would be a great pony cart puller... if we ever get one. 

You know what Lily's saying already, right? That we shouldn't even be entertaining thoughts of keeping either one, since we already are keeping Talvi as our January horse and tentatively have Teatime on deck for February. She's all for only adding one horse a month unless we'd happen to find multiple amazing ones. I know that's smart, though I personally think lucky finds should be bonuses and not necessarily count as a horse of the month. It's just hard being patient, since it's becoming more and more clear that Talvi is going to be Lily's and Fireside is going to be Felicity's. I am fond of Teatime, but if we do keep her, she would probably go to Julie, since I already have an awesome brown buckskin. *Goes to pet Starfleet.*

I will leave you with a few fun screenshots from our travels over the last few weeks.

In honor of Valentine's Day coming up, here is Cloudburst chilling in a pink stream.

Very punny.

It's a long way down! We did manage to navigate our way both to the pony down below and the pot of gold in the upper right.

Whenever we come across ranches that have horses out on display, it's fun to go in for a closer look. So far no ranch owners have showed up while we're trespassing. XD This particular pony was quite cute... and made Fireside look like he's all legs.

Aw, a mountain lion cub! You can also see the unfortunate leg-side gap between Pepsi and MicroMini pretty well here.

We've finally seen a panda! They don't seem to be nearly as common as some of the other non-equine wildlife.