Arrowhead

Here we are about halfway through summer already! It's been a hot, sunny one here so far. I'm not complaining, since we have a shady backyard and an effective AC system in the house. (So effective Mom often walks around in sweatshirts when it's like 90 degrees outside, since the other humans like it colder than she does. XD She's totally going to be one of those little old ladies who's always wearing a sweater someday.)

On HI3, Pepsi continues to keep busy delivering letters, exploring, and lassoing wild equines. As usual, I will share with you the wilds we thought were most noteworthy.

First up is this handsome silver pony stallion:

His genetic stats and personality were pretty great, but his performance metrics were not. What a bummer! He was one nice looking pony!

I believe this is our third wild equine with lacing - they seem to be as uncommon as they are cool.

She had a decent stats and metrics, but sadly also had an ornery personality. No lacy horse for us. Yet, anyway. Again, big bummer!

This interesting dun stallion sort of looks like a cross between a draft horse and warmblood to me:

His huge size, over 900 genetic stat total, and high endurance stat immediately caught our attention.

His performance metrics weren't great, though, and he was extremely ornery besides. No cool dun draft/warmblood for us either.

This silver mesa wild looks pretty normal... until you view her face from the front. She has an incredibly narrow muzzle!

High-stat bay silver wilds seem to like us! First Fireside, then Pizza, and now this one! Maybe it's our lucky color.

Goofy facial profile aside (we've taken to calling her Arrowhead), she's quite a nice horse. It was such a pleasant surprise to scroll down to that persona and see that she's not skittish, ornery, or lazy! 

I'm pretty sure she's staying! <3 The expert deemed her a Grade North American Stock Horse. That's a new one!

The last horse of note is a cool pinto mare. It was getting dark when Pepsi spotted her up in some rocky hills.

We loved her coloring and her jaunty little tail!

Her stats, performance metrics, and personality were okay too. 

We found her oddly shaped/set neck and super long head rather distracting, though, and Lily convinced us to part with her. Sorry, Tux!

Also, we happened to come online once after a game update that had gone wrong. Some horses, for us our greys and pintos, lost all the white in their manes and tails.

Calacatta's mane and tail turned orange-gold!

Escher lost the white sections of his mane:

Our light grey Highland suddenly was sporting a dark grey mane and tail:

Taurus's mane and tail turned fully flaxen:

And our new appaloosa lost her checkerboard tail and white mane streaks:

The biggest issue, other players warned, was that if you tried to view a maneless horse, your game would crash. Once we'd groomed everybody but Eagle, of course we had to try it. Sure enough, the game booted us the instant we tried to place her. She never got groomed that day!

The issue was quickly fixed, though. All the hair is back to normal, and Eagle can be viewed, placed, and ridden. Even more encouraging, HI3 polled players about future horsey hairstyle modification. Would we only want to be able to choose from styles of the same length or shorter than a horse's natural hair, or should all styles be available to all horses? We voted for the latter, and it ended up with the majority. So, I guess there's still hope that Eagle won't have to be a baldie forever.

Snowflakes in June

Happy 4th of July! June and my birthday have come and gone, but not before 4 wilds with stat totals over 900 showed up.

First was Essence, one of six Mediterranean wilds that were clustered near each other.

Talk about a cutie!

Unfortunately, her performance metrics were less than stellar, and she was also extremely skittish, antisocial, and ornery.

We dared have Pepsi ride her long enough to get some screenshots, and she was quite quickly bucked off. Sorry, Pepsi. Good thing she's indestructible.

Next up was Daddy's Overdraft, a mare with a unique facial structure:

None of her performance metrics were that impressive, though her personality was much nicer than Essence's. Her little, oddly-shaped head took her out of the running.

The third was Denni, a pony who was not nearly as speedy as that genetic speed stat would lead one to hope:

She was skittish and ornery, so she had no chance at staying either. Those are some lovely sabino markings, though.

The final 900+ was Trooper, yet another mare:

Wow, so pretty! I especially like the little streak of white in her mane and the odd checkerboard white pattern in her tail.

While most of her performance metrics are nothing special, she does have a shorter-than-usual reaction time. (All those brains count for something - yay!) Her personality isn't great either, but at least she is playful rather than ornery. 

We're facing an interesting dilemma now. We sold Ballpark, due to his teeny hooves and the fact that he weighed even less than little Pizza. That leaves 3 contenders:

All For Naught (now Clorox) is still hanging around:

So is Viking, our other June find with the same original stat total of 846:

They are both faster, stronger, and turn more quickly than Trooper, so it would seem rather unfair to pass either of them up for her.

Then again, Trooper has that quick reaction time, a lower stamina drop, and is quite pretty. It would also seem wrong to pass up a green-eyed appaloosa who bears a striking resemblance to Felicity's horse, Talia. Especially one who has such a high genetic stat total. Felicity has made sure we all know this.

However, we are really starting to question how much genetic stat total should even matter to us. Case in point: two other horses we've recently found.

Here's the first one, who we found on my birthday:

He (yes, the name is very unfortunate) has pretty respectable performance metrics and a better personality than all 3 horses we were considering, yet his genetic stat total is only in the +600's.

An even more extreme example is this mare:

Her genetic stat total is only in the 400's, yet she also has pretty solid performance metrics. She also has rather large hooves. (The game was like, oh, you didn't like Ballpark's tiny hooves? Then here you go!)

We'd already accepted that just like in real life, superior genes do not necessarily equal superior performance on this game. But this is the first time we've thought much about the reverse, that horses with below-average genes can still have unexpectedly high performance metrics. 

In this particular case, I think I still prefer Viking. Despite Viking's larger size, she has an elegance about her that Sophie and Shampoo don't really match. I guess we'll have to wait and see what my sisters think.

In other news, we found 7 pacing wilds in June! (Sadly, still no amblers.) Here they are!

Isn't it cool how different they all are from each other? Which is your favorite? I was partial to #3, the black one with the Standardbred-like stride.