Hello, Pinto Mares

Even though the leaves were slow to change this year (the colors are just peaking now), Michigan knows it's November. The first snowflakes of the year flew here this week, and Mom experienced her first icy drive of the season. Mom's sweaters are happy to be back in her closet. Our favorite AG sweater (red with polar bears) has been making its rounds already too. =)

We had a slow start in finding cool wilds in October, but by Halloween, three mares were all vying for spots in the herd.

The first showed up three days after my birthday, on October 18.

She's cute, but I confess this one did not get my vote. 

Bethany and Julie are her biggest fans. They love her coloring, that luxurious two-tone mane, and her winning personality. Pepsi looks rather huge on her, but we've seen way worse, ha ha.

That spot by her withers is the only non-leg pinto spotting she has.

The next one made her appearance on October 23.

My sisters all loved this one from first sight. She's one of those rare wild horses (I think Showtunes is the only other one?) who may get to stay based on beauty alone. 

As lovely as she is, she did not get my vote either.

Also lassoed on October 23, mare #3 hails from the stone forest. 

Even though I'm not that into ponies, she's my favorite of the three. I think she's quietly pretty in a chunky stock horse kind of way, and she has the turning and sprinting ability to match. It would also be cool to have a stone forest representative in the herd, because up until now the only ones we've kept from there are not native - they've been "lost" lucky finds.

Depending on how November goes, and if Mom decides to fund some infinitum amulets, we'll see who in this spotted trio gets to stay. My guess is all of them, because have you met my sisters? 

In addition to all that excitement, there was an HI3 update this week that has given Pepsi the ability to let whatever horse she has out temporarily "run free." So much time spent watching our horses run around our ranch and play in our lavender pool...

Each horse also has a randomly-assigned mystery affinity now. It can be discovered by letting your horse search for its affinity in various locations. We found out Windfall's, Cloudburst's, and Gryffindor's quite quickly. 

Amusingly, skittish Windfall led us straight to a tiger - turns out she loves critters. 

Cloudburst made a beeline for floating rainforest essence. That's my boy, so practical! 

When we released Gryffindor to search, it was hilarious because he ran around super erratically, his graphics jerking like crazy. We thought maybe it was the uneven rainforest terrain or that something was glitching (maybe it was?), but eventually he ran up to Pepsi and the "affinity found" message popped up. Turns out he loves people! =) 

Our first horse, Starfleet, is still a mystery. Whatever her affinity is, it's not found anywhere we've been so far.