Ladyluck

Spring has officially sprung! The first of the crocuses and daffodils have appeared in our neighborhood this past week too, right on time to welcome in April. 

We're not retiring the coats and sweaters from Clara's wardrobe quite yet, but it's been fun adding the other long-sleeved options back into the rotation. No special events to report, but we have been doing some questing. Read on for some highlights!

Clara got to shoot a message in a bottle from a Fort Pinta cannon! (I thought they were off-limits artifacts, but apparently not!)

Clara also got to assist NPC Emma (the "wiii" girl) in a lengthy search to purchase a horse of her own. The first horse she tried was Clyde the Clydesdale out in Firgrove. He wasn't the one: too much horse for her.

She didn't even want to try candidate #2 out at Birk's Grange, an unimpressive Chincoteague Pony rescue they were calling "Mudskipper." (There was a bit of a mix up - she thought she was going to see a Mustang.)

Emma was most excited to try out the final horse on her list, Silvermane Seraphim, at Silverglade Manor.

No go here either. The horse excels at dressage, while Emma's passion is for jumping. With help from her friend Sonya (owner of a very cute Fjord), she realizes she wrote off Mudskipper way too quickly. They all raced back to Birk's Grange, where another potential buyer had already showed up...

Fortunately, the sale wasn't yet complete, and the seller preferred the pony go to Emma. They cleaned the pony up...

...and what a difference it made!

It may have been a bit early to call it, but happily, this was the best test ride yet: the pony loved to jump!

Clara and Emma rode out to ask a vet and a farrier to check Muddy over. She had worms, and her hooves will take a lot of work, but Emma decided she was ready to commit to a project pony after all.

I hope they will be very happy together!

Switching gears back to the main quest line, we finally got to the point where we could enter the formerly impenetrable cave and meet the mysterious Spymaster!

Our first task was to recruit chipmunks from Steve's Farm to assist as messengers/spies.

That went swimmingly.

Our second task was to go find Meteor, Linda's missing horse, out in Goldenleaf Forest. He was not hard to find...

...and he talks! I was not expecting that!

Since Meteor has already been back for some of the special events (Halloween, Equestrian Festival), we figured he'd turn up eventually in the main story line. We're so glad he finally has! So was Linda.

Next, the Spymaster sent us after another partial copy of the Light Ceremony book, hidden in a secret chamber of Jon Jarl's tomb!

Of course, Linda was not with us, requiring a ride out to Silverglade Manor and back. But soon enough, she worked some impressive magic on the Moon Chamber door to allow entry.

Book retrieved! I wonder where the next one will be?

That's it for the questing news. Our other big piece of news: another bazaar set up shop in the grassy expanse near Moorland. Only 3 breeds were featured this time: the Dutch Warmblood, the Thoroughbred, and the Lippizaner.

Aw, it's a Snowsecret look-alike!

We aren't really into the current Star Stable Thoroughbred. They're okay, but they don't have the more realistic wow factor that many of the newer horses do. 

Their slightly bowlegged back legs lessen their appeal further.

The Dutch Warmbloods were back on sale once before, at the 2024 Black Friday bazaar. They were discounted to 649 star coins that time. We passed them over to take home Garnetgazer the Finnhorse instead.

They're on sale for 569 star coins this time, 80 more than last time. My sisters and I do quite like this breed. Felicity was hoping for one of the two pinto ones that only are available during the Equestrian Festival. Those two are gorgeous. However, we have no idea how much they will cost this year, and there's a good chance it will be more than 569 star coins. Hence, our dilemma. 

My vote was actually for a Dutchie in a solid color, since our first warmblood, Frosty, is a pinto, and since most real-life Dutchies are solid colors anyway. Wouldn't you know it, Julie and Bethany were okay with that, and even Felicity eventually got on board. So, for once, I guess you can blame me for being the reason we spent star coins rather than saving. 

Our top three: cremello, dapple gray, and chestnut. 

After a days-long struggle, we eventually settled on this one:

We were quite pressed for time on the final day of that bazaar, April Fool's Day, but we made time to log on to buy her and ride her home. <3

All of her gaits are so lovely!

She's been zooming through her experience levels.

She even won her first championship ribbon already at level 7, a silver at Fort Pinta!

Way to go, Ladyluck! We're so proud to have an elegant warmblood of our own at long last! =)

Why so much lip, Hanoverians?

St. Patrick's Day falling on a Monday this year has meant most celebrating is going on this weekend. Warmth and wind had been the story here in West Michigan over the last few days: our first of multiple "false springs," probably. It's now dreary and back in the 30's. *Sighs* We don't do much to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, but our big, shiny shamrock did make its way out of storage to hang in prominence this year, at least.

On Star Stable, we've put in a bit more effort: cycling through our green tack and apparel and even sometimes riding a green dragon. On the big day itself, our Irish Cob, Pandapie, will be the horse of the day, of course! Sir Meowstache, a matching kitty with green eyes, will ride proudly in the saddlebag.

But going back to the green dragon, our awesome Jollyjoust made his way to level 15 quickly, spending about equal time in his dragon and horse forms. 

On his way there, he even won two ribbons!

Jollyjoust also had the honor of being Clara's mount when she tried out dressage training with her club. Only the instructor and one other club mate showed up for the first session, but they didn't let that stop them.

We decided to join last minute, hence no chance to deliberately dress for the occasion. Wichapi and Copper looked fantastic, though, must say! So elegant and realistic!

We had a great time and learned a lot. The instructor was positive, encouraging, and patient, which we really appreciated.

She even recorded a short video of the best sequence of the night. We could then see what it looked like to an observer in real time - so helpful! Fingers crossed this will continue to be a weekly event, and that more club mates will join us.

The game-wide excitement this week: Star Stable unveiled its new Hanoverian!

The first sale barn area in Jorvik Stables now proudly displays all 7 variations of the Hanoverian, available for the usual "fancy new horse" price of 950 star coins. The relatively new Friesians are squeezed in with the Lipizzaners in the second sale barn over.

As you can see, Star Stable didn't do anything crazy here: no dilutes or pintos, just real-life acceptable Hanoverian colors. 

They have two special moves: a bounce jump animation...

...and a bucking animation.

Not sure why the bucking had to be a thing, but it will add new possibilities for role plays, etc., I suppose.

Alas, just like the Dartmoor Pony and the Mustang, they do the Flehmen response every few seconds when idling. We find this unappealing, even more so than the snoozing or excessive head tossing Star Stable also seems very fond of. Hence, we don't see any Hanoverians in our future. It's a shame, because I think they are beautiful otherwise. Oh well, it makes us even more sure we want a Dutch Warmblood or Selle Francais in the herd someday.

Some far more disappointing news to us personally: this alert that came up the same day the Hanoverians were introduced.

Sadly, Milton, Mom's faithful 2015 Macbook, isn't capable of upgrading to 13. So, come April 23, our days of playing Star Stable from wherever we want on our personal laptop will be over. *Sighs* The end of a very happy era. We're lucky we'll still have the option of playing on the family desktop computer, at least. For any players out there on older devices without any other options, we feel for you. It really bites.

It's the price we pay for liking fancy graphics, I guess. Maybe it's time to start exploring other games? Or get back into HI3?

To end this on a more positive note, the "stable screen of doom" bug, as we took to calling it, seems to have been squashed. This makes playing much more enjoyable: we can click away to our hearts' content.

Next time we post, it will officially be spring! Until then!