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.