Saturday, June 20, 2020

Hello, Summer

It's the first day of summer and the longest day of the year! It's felt like summer for a while here already, as is usually the case, but now it's official: the bunnies, lambs, and chicks have left Mom's window seat and have been replaced by savanna and jungle animals. (Also a few other random boldly-colored stuffies that would otherwise never get to come out, like an alien, a coke bottle wearing sunglasses, and a purple and green dino... Whatever, Mom.) 


I'm still trying to talk my sisters out of keeping the hoard of April and May horses we collected, but I fear I may be fighting a losing battle. 

We have not found any +900 genetic stat horses in June so far, probably due to our drastically reduced playing time. Even so, there are three new wild equines that definitely deserve mentioning. Appropriately, the first two are from the savanna, and the third is from the jungle!

First on the list is Viking.
She is a giant 19.1 hands tall and has big, flashy markings to match.
Her performance metrics are pretty solid, and she's very fast.
She will also energetically take Pepsi wherever she wants to go, as long as it's not anywhere too scary. This would make her a useful addition to the herd.


Our second horse of note is not as tall, athletically built, or potentially useful, but he is impressive nevertheless. Pepsi and Eagle found him hanging out with a few other savanna wilds, and he seemed a bit out of place in comparison. 
Yep, we're talking about that spotted and striped sausage.
His name is rather... depressingly fitting for a virtual horse.

He has exactly the same genetic stat total as Viking. Weird, right?
Despite his sausage-esque appearance, he is not a sloth-like clunker. He actually has a great sprint boost, is reasonably energetic, and has a quick turning speed. I guess we can thank that extremely muscular rear end! He is skittish and highly antisocial, but apparently he gets quite playful when around the select few he likes. XD

The third horse on the list is debatably even more odd-looking than All For Naught. 
Nothing is really that off until you get to the hooves, but once you notice them, you can't stop noticing them. They're newborn foalishly tiny!
That agility stat bodes well, though, and sure enough, he has the highest turning speed of any wild equine we've caught.
Aside from being a bit lazy (but not lazy enough to trigger the annoying slowing under saddle), he has the best personality of all 3 wilds too. It figures, right? 

We tried putting some polo wraps on him to see if they'd distract from the tiny hoof thing. Nope.
Now this is the pony that should've come with the name "Micro Mini," not Ossagon! Despite his awesome turning speed and handsome coat color, I think both Viking and All For Naught stand much better chances of staying. That said, who knows what the last 10 days of June may bring? Some horse or horses could still come along and blow them all out of the water.

Before I go, my sisters are insisting I also include my official entry into Horse Isle's recent art contest in this post. I drew and colored this, Drafty Middle Mesa, using a pencil and colored pencils:

It was based on this screenshot of Pepsi and Cloudburst:

My attempt both literally and figuratively pales in comparison to other players' amazing entries. If you haven't checked them out on the HI3 site, you sure should! I was especially blown away by the create-art-on-the-computer skills many fellow players showcased. 

I'm still hopelessly old-fashioned, but it was fun to have an excuse to draw something again - I haven't been inspired in ages. Luckily for me, everybody who entered received a reward, which was unexpectedly generous. Thanks, Horse Isle! For HI3 players, the reward was 500 mobia! We will no doubt spend it on 5 infinitum amulets to make 5 more lucky equines immortal. It had better not be for 5 equines all from June, though, guys!

Saturday, June 6, 2020

June and a Jeju

Welcome to June! We're loving the sunshine, greenness, and all the extra daylight!

Last weekend while it was still May, we lassoed our 4th lucky find! That's right, 2 in the same month! Like when we caught our Highland on the 8th, we were again in the stone forest, but this time the equine did stick out a bit more: he was quite small and not grey.

What a handsome color, and look at that strength stat! 

Sadly, he is too small for Pepsi to ride, so we knew right away we weren't going to keep him. (He's 11.3 hands tall, one inch too short, and only weighs 624 lbs. For comparison, little Pizza is almost 760 lbs, about 136 lbs heavier.)
His stubborn leader personality combo should have meant some spinning around in circles when we got out the pony cart, but he actually didn't do any of that for us. Maybe he was on his best behavior in hopes we'd change our minds about selling him?




We did think about it, that's for sure. We also had to at least find out what breed he was, because we were utterly stumped. The expert deemed him a Jeju, which is a hardy South Korean breed we'd never even heard of before. No wonder we were clueless. XD What a shame he wasn't a bit bigger!

If we hadn't already caught so many other great equines in May, it would've been much harder to part with him. But, part with him we did. He's the first equine we ever attempted to auction, just on the off chance there were players out there looking for the rare breed. He got three bids! Low bids, but enough to cover the auction fee. Best of luck to you, little guy!

Even without the Jeju, by June 1 we still had amassed quite a few potential additions to the herd. 
2 were still hanging around from April:
- Pizza: highest stats ever for us but so very small

- Ivory (now Corelli): big, handsome, and speedy with a great persona

Then there were a whopping 6 from May: 
- Breman (now Eagle): high genetic stats, fairly quick, and a decent jumper, but maneless and on the skittish side

- Ray of Light: best persona ever for us and a pacer, but her genetic stats, metrics, and appearance are not nearly as impressive

- Evergreen: our third lucky find, a cute but pokey and lazy Highland Pony

- Bumpy: a very maneuverable stallion, thanks to his impressive rear end. He accelerate, decelerates, and turns more quickly than our other horses

- Cast No Shadow (now Taurus): a stubborn, lazy pinto with 1000+ genetic stats and a powerful jump

- Loch Ness (now Nessie): pretty, skittish, and our fastest wild ever

How interesting. 8 horses. 4 sisters. You can guess what I'm pushing for. No official decision has been made yet, but if by some miracle Lily did let us keep them all, here's how I'd arrange them:

Felicity:
Taurus (because Felicity loves spots the most)
Nessie (because Felicity likes to go fast)

Julie: 
Ray of Light (because Teatime wants a pacing buddy)
Evergreen (because Julie clearly has a thing for cute ponies. Also, Lily needs to stop hogging lucky finds. ;^)

Lily:
Corelli (because they can bond over having pale hair)
Eagle (because she easily blends in with Lily's herd's athletic horse look)

Me (Bethany):
Pizza (because I love pizza and it's about time I broke my big horse pattern)
Bumpy (because he is Starfleet's look-alike and his name starts with the same letter as mine)

Fingers crossed! We'll see if I'm right!

And now for a few fun recent screenshots for your viewing pleasure:

another flashy pacing wild from wonderland country
Wow. I didn't know wilds dared go on ice.
Yes, it really is only those 2 little jumps. XD
grizzly bear shape shift
this is rather disturbing
the most fun section of jumping course ever