Don't Leap Into Cacti

Happy leap day! It's been anticlimactic on HI3, mainly because our internet is having trouble today. While we were briefly on this morning, both wild horses we encountered were super sensitive to the lasso. We gave up on the first one, since we were on hilly rainforest terrain. We got booted off as we were trying to lasso the second one, another rainforest wild. *Sighs*

We did get back on for about an hour this afternoon and successfully caught 2 wilds, delivered a few letters, and completed a quest, so at least it wasn't a total wash.

Also, since the last game update, there is a glitch where a horse's name doesn't disappear when mounted. Oops!

 

Last Saturday was really fun, though. The brindle wild horses were out in force. We found 4 of them on our travels! 

Our clear favorite was the 4th:

He has quite the extreme personality, but contrary to his name, he is far from bold. He is yet another pacer! (This probably explains why he's not especially fast despite being from the savanna.) Take a look!

He holds his head awkwardly high, but it's cute how much his tail billows out.

Because of his only-in-the-700's stat total and his extreme laziness and skittishness, I don't think he'll be joining the herd. We felt we'd better keep him around for a little while though, because we (okay, I) accidentally rode him into a cactus. Sorry, buddy! Note to self: do not use the rotate camera feature while riding anywhere near cacti! We had to take him to the vet to get the spines removed. I guess he has good reason to be skittish.

Here's another interesting wild horse we found last Saturday:

It's a heart!

It's a shame we didn't find her on Valentine's Day... though if we had, Bethany and/or Julie would likely have wanted to keep her. As cute as she was, she was extremely ornery and didn't have great stats, so it's probably for the best that the timing was off.

I much prefer "Hogan," who has now been re-named Ginkgo after Ginkgo biloba trees, which originated in China. (Even though we found her in the rainbow eucalyptus forest, in appearance, she reminds us of the Datong, a Chinese breed.) Ginkgo trees have really cool, unique-looking leaves, so we think it's a fitting name for such a unique looking horse.

We have also finally decided on names for the other newest horses and pony. We're not "officially" keeping any of them yet, but as you know, it's a lot harder for us to say goodbye once we've named a horse, so I think they all like their prospects.

"Teatime" will remain Teatime. Now that we have that image in our heads of Pepsi sipping tea while riding an enthusiastically pacing Teatime, there's no changing it. XD

"Blitzen" will also remain Blitzen because her coloring and huge hooves remind us of a reindeer. 

"Dipsy" and "MicroMini" have shed their somewhat embarrassing, non-manly names, to their great relief.

"Dipsy" is now "Topi" because his speediness and short, angled neck remind us of an antelope, plus he is from the savanna biome. The topi, a subspecies of the tsessebe from sub-Saharan Africa, is also brown and black like him, so it seemed like a fitting name. We may need to get him some golden polos though.

"MicroMini" is now Ossagon. It's the name of a creek and a trail in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. Since we found him in the sequoia rainforest, and since Mom has been to this park with giant trees in Northern California, we thought it was perfect. 

Whew, glad to have that done! You wouldn't believe how much time my sisters spend deliberating on names.

I will leave you with these two fun screenshots of our horses posing with other players' purebreds.

Here is Windfall next to a Thoroughbred:

I love the expression on her face in this shot. =) She's not a great match, though there is some resemblance. And, as we already knew, she has a short neck and tiny head, which makes grazing awkward for her. XD

Here is Teatime saying hi to Hot Cocoa, a Tennessee Walker:

Mmm, I could really go for a hot beverage right now.