Some Fancy Winter Wilds

Well, we've made it over halfway through meteorological winter now. (Try telling that to winter come March though...) This slog from January through March is still my least favorite time of year, but so far we've had breaks in the snow and actually seen the sun occasionally. Nobody's wiped it on the ice or gotten stranded in a snowstorm or anything, so all-in-all I guess we're doing okay!

Starfleet discovered her affinity at long last. Anticlimactically, it's berries. (We thought we'd tried that already, but apparently not.) Bethany, her owner, is still quite pleased, because many berries are delicious, after all.

Now on to the fancy wilds promised in the title!

On first sight, we all liked this one and his fancy markings. He somewhat resembles my first pony Gryffindor, only bigger and bulkier.

Not too shabby... until you get to his personality. 

Wow, are we ever ornery magnets lately! Also, I'm having trouble picturing an extremely easygoing yet simultaneous extremely ornery horse... Is it chill and relaxed as it's launching you sky high? 

He did launch Pepsi soon after those screenshots were taken. No regrets about selling No Regrets.

The post-lasso screenshot on this next one is not the most flattering. Sorry about that, little dude.

His amusingly long coat color name ends with "frame." We checked him carefully, even at 0yo on his profile where there is no mane in the way, and we can't find any trace of frame overo type white markings on him, just a small stripe and tiny snip. He doesn't have blue eyes either. I guess we'll just have to trust HI3 that he carries the gene!

While cute, his genetic stats, metrics, and personality are not anything to get excited about. Why am I mentioning him, then? Because he is our second ever ambling wild!

He's also, unfortunately, only 12.2 hands and 558 lbs. We've seen worse, but Pepsi is clearly too big for him. *Sighs*

He looks really cute pulling the pony cart, though!

It's a shame he isn't really brave, because if so he would've made a fun ice-crossing pony. We haven't been able to part with the little guy yet, but we probably will in light of what happened this evening.

On to this evening's lasso, then. "Scooby Dooby Doo" is maybe not as fancy as the previous two - his tobiano patterning is minimal, he has no facial markings, and he doesn't gait - but he's my clear favorite. His long mane, big head, and upright neck made me think Grade Baroque, but according to HI3, he's a Grade European Hotblood. (He's also big and similar in color to to cartoon Scooby Doo, ha ha.)

At any rate, he doesn't look much like your typical alpine wild. Maybe he wandered over from the nearby rainforest?

His genetic stats aren't great, but he's speedy and turns pretty well for his size...

...and he's not skittish or ornery!

Pepsi looks much more comfortable on him.

His eyes are green! <3

I will leave you with a few screenshots of other fancy-looking wilds we've lassoed lately. Even though their stats, performance metrics, and personalities were not great, they are too cool not to be mentioned.

Another appropriately-named wild. =)

Ooh, curly and appaloosa!

An especially pretty (and more typical) alpine wild

Talk about wildly spotted socks!

We found her close to dusk, when her sapphire eyes really stood out. 

The biggest zebra we've caught so far: 14.2 hands and just shy of 1000 lbs. 

He (yes, it was a he) also had a weird bulge under his neck. Not sure what that was about.

A lovely curly cremello <3

One Last Pony

Happy New Year! Here's hoping for lots of happy memories to be made in the year ahead.

As you probably figured from the title, Peppermint the zebra was not, to my sisters' delight, the last equine to be added to the herd in 2021. Can you guess which of these ponies is the lucky last one?

Was it...

A. Our first ever badlands keeper?

B. This pinto cutie from the plains?

Or C. this silver pinto hanging out on a candy mountain?

It wasn't A.

This guy had decent genetic stats, ok metrics, and a great personality. Nothing about him wowed any of us, though, and I personally thought the combination of his short legs and long swan neck was rather awkward. 

It wasn't B either.

This mare had the highest genetic stats of the trio. Unfortunately,  though she may look cute and cuddly, she is ornery.

So, yeah, it was C. We never would have found this one had our buddy Gem not invited us to an essence anomaly, and had we not explored the area afterwards.

His performance metrics do not really stand out from the other two, but he is a little faster and has a great personality. These factors in combination with his fancy looks, which my sisters find adorable, sealed the deal. He reminds me a bit of Showtunes, I guess because they are both dark silver wonderland pintos, but he's definitely his own pony.

We aren't quite sure how it happened, but we realized while updating the HI3 Herd page that Julie and I both got behind Bethany and Felicity in our horse counts. To correct this, Julie and I each got to keep two horses in a row. I am now the happy owner of the two gray pintos: Liona and Tikal (formerly Pharaoh), and Julie happily took Peppermint and this guy, who still needs a new name. Everybody's now evened out with 22 equines. Crazy how quickly that happened, but it is what it is. At least I talked my sisters out of breeding hebras from Peppermint! (2 zebras and 4 zebra hybrids is more than enough!)

We've loved our time off over the holidays and are far from eager to get back to the regular routine. Quote from Felicity: "Happy New Year? Yeah, right. Maybe if you live on a warm beach somewhere or can go on vacations to warm beaches. There is nothing happy about 3 months of gloom, snow, and no foreseeable break from routine. Why are the only holidays in this already depressing stretch of time lame ones that don't get you any time off?"

I'm going to choose to be a bit more optimistic. It can't be all gloom, snow, and stressful drudgery ahead, right? Winter is beautiful in its own way, and at least we have weekends and HI3!

On that somewhat happier note, I will leave you with some screenshots illustrating some fun times we had on HI3 during our break.

So many mail runs...

Crossing shallow streams is so much easier on a brave horse like Waterspout!

Even more wild equines lassoed!

this wild had a secret hangout!

If Felicity were a wild horse, she'd probably hang out here too.

Or maybe here.

The one in the middle is Flying Trapeze, the ornery pony I talked about earlier. 

(Despite being ornery, she still has friends.)

Gem found a pale zebra too!

Hers is also a mare, but she is a "partial albino," which is a darker shade than our "blonde" Peppermint.

Essence anomaly gatherings! 

It was so cold you can see the horses' breaths! I love this feature of the game.

our banana kayak in all its yellow glory

Springboard and Ham have matching saddle pads!

Pepsi switched to Prosciutto while waiting at this one so he could visit with grandpa Ham

Blue is 15.2 hands tall, but he looks like a pony compared to Ham.

It was after this anomaly that we found "Mystic Dream." =)