Purple Pony Pal

Well, here we are almost at the end of the Equestrian Festival without any new horse to show for it. Am I a little sad? Yes. I think we all are. However, every single equine in the herd had its own day to experience the festival, which was really cool. It's the last year we'll be able to say that, since the herd will for sure continue to grow.

Jolly's day in the spotlight

Artie and Panda got to be Clara's mounts for the final stages of the Sabine quest line. 

 

They weren't exactly well camouflaged, but somehow they made it past the GED guards with the box of "decorations" on the first attempt this go-around.

Panda made a valiant effort, but we had to redo the "escape from Sabine with the box" race several times. 

my favorite line of the whole quest

It's been fun, Sabine. 

Even after the quest line was finished, we could do the "chase Sabine" race daily. Fortunately, we had no issues with sinking into the stone ramp this year.

We went all out on "dress like Sabine" day.

Group races with a fellow black and white spotted Appaloosa! =)

It took us until almost the end of week 3 to finish our championship ranks: after competing fairly hardcore the first two Saturdays, we relaxed into doing just one or two a day. 

Note the beautiful palomino Hanoverian taunting us. It seemed to be a more popular choice than the dapple gray festival-exclusive Hanoverian.

Here is that rather underwhelming final ribbon and our much more exciting final festival reward, a purple bouncy pony pet!

He either shrinks down to fit in the saddle bag (similar to the yeti) or bounces along at your side in full size. 

We love him so much! <3

The final weeks of the festival brought even more new activities! 

A new showjumping course with pretty, spring-themed fences:

A race where we chased a chaotically-running HorseyMcHorse around the festival grounds:

They were amazingly fast!

A 4-question horse knowledge quiz, complete with horse models for each question:

Brief riding lessons, which reminded me of dressage but more chill:

It's too bad the actual dressage on the game hasn't taken off more. I steer clear because it is so off-puttingly difficult on the mastery level (circles without guiding arrows? No thank you!), and the shillings reward at the training level isn't worth the effort. I so wish we could do lots of different routines, but WITH the guiding arrows, and make decent shillings doing it. Also, how cool would it be if we could do extended vs collected gaits, leg yields, etc. by pushing specific key combinations? That kind of stuff has been so entertaining in other horse games we've played in the past.

One final new activity: following a trail of fruit carnage to find George the Fjord, who then makes his own merry way back to Ferdinand.

Whew, all that sure has been keeping us busy! We've had a blast at the festival and will miss the celebratory atmosphere. Got to say, as fun as all of the new stuff was this year, I think the ridiculous bouncy ponies were my favorite addition.  

Until next time!

Equestrian Festival 2026

Bethany was right to be concerned about Star Stable's March bazaar. It featured three familiar breeds: the Belgian Warmblood, Paso Fino, and Lipizzaner,  along with the mule for the first time!

 

Oh, the Belgian Warmblood. It's a fan favorite, since they come in quite a few interesting colors and look great in motion. We'd have purchased one several bazaars ago if only they didn't throw their heads and air chomp so much while idling.

We were "safe" on the Paso Fino front: we love our Riverrock dearly.

Same goes for the Lipizzaner: we jumped at the chance to take home our beloved Snowsecret quite some time ago.

Finally, the goofy, lovable mule. Had I not strongly suggested we be patient and wait for their second bazaar appearance to save a few star coins, we'd probably own one right now. Someday, dude. Someday.

It was a closer call with the sleek Belgian. We have several possible names brainstormed for the dapple gray in particular. What kept us from committing: our next horse (#27) will get a prominent spot in round 2 of filling the stalls, and I convinced everyone that we really didn't want to see an air chomper first thing when entering our stable.

Onyxsaga, on the other hand, is a fantastic "look at me" horse, an appropriate choice for one of the most visible stalls. We're so happy to have him! <3 He was our mount for the lead up to the Equestrian Festival.

He took us around in style for a few quests, like this one where we had to assist with getting this car and trailer out of the briny deep.

Thank goodness for friends with heavy machinery!

Once hauled to its new location at Goldspur farm, it was (unsurprisingly) in-operational. Clara "fixed" it by banging on it in multiple places, ha ha. 

It will be convenient to have a trailer there now, since Goldspur farm is a decent hike from Jarlaheim. 

One other noteworthy quest is a new addition, where we solved some puzzles made up by Isebell, Ydris's assistant.

Clara (horse-less, sadly) worked her way into previously-inaccessible depths of the Demascus Mine for this, which was exciting. The first round of puzzles involved determining which box Diggory (the monkey) was in from clues.

We felt proud of ourselves for getting these right on our first try!

The second round was just answering multiple choice questions about Jorvik correctly, which we did too. Go us! The third round was to mirror the path Diggory made across squares on the floor. We made it through the first two floors flawlessly, then had some issues with the final one. (Fortunately, the stakes were low - no falling into a bottomless pit or anything. We just had to redo.)

Clara made it to level 24 in the midst of the puzzling! Whoo hoo!

Onyxsaga got to see lots of Marcheghast and its beasts...

...and lots of Valedale: both its gardens and the surrounding (much milder) forest.

He reached level 15 just a day or two before the festival!

Life's been so busy for us that we were a day late to the Equestrian Festival party, but we have had time to enjoy it since then.

Many of the things we've seen in previous years, like group and individual races, festival-exclusive horses, pets, and tack/clothing sets, a new series of championship ribbons, and the "Sabine causes trouble" quest line are back again. 

Alas, this is the final year for the Sabine quest line. I hope there will be something to replace it (with new rewards) next year!

There has been the usual bump in championship participation, making it more of a challenge to earn the ribbons. Here is Frosty getting ready to for the Jorvik Stables championship, one of our weaker events. (Maybe someday we'll learn how to handle the oil slide... and consistently avoid the paddock riders and rolling cheese...)

The ribbons this year are rather boring in my opinion: all in the same color scheme, just fancier as you progress. At least it's a nice color scheme.

Now on to the new aspects of the festival!

a classy gazebo/photo op spot

Representatives from different SSO groups (Cavalry, Bobcats, Jorvik Rangers, etc.) performed a quadrille together. We get to pick which group parades around Jarlaheim each day.

one rather ridiculous group: pairs who dress up in horsey costumes. The bay version, McHorse, is sort of this year's festival mascot and hangs out by the task board.

Clara gets to do a short "race" while bouncing along on a bouncy horse in a color of her choice. 

The saddle bag and pet still show up. XD

We're all on board with this year's token sets. Two thumbs up on the style and color choices, Star Stable.

I'm especially excited for the saddle, bridle, helmet, and boots from the first set. They'll go with nearly everything. The only thing I'm a little sad about is that there's no saddle bag for that set.

With the festival come some new festival-exclusive horses. So far, it's a pretty but rather basic chestnut Andalusian and a more flashy black tobiano Friesian Sporthorse.

The two special English Thoroughbreds are back as well. If we were to get a Thoroughbred, we'd pick one of these. The price is good, only 467 star coins. With their bowlegged look from the back and mildly creepy near-constant chewing animation while idling, we just aren't that into them.

The special Hanoverians from last year have returned as well. As beautiful as these guys are, we don't love them while idling either. So much lip-curling. 

If all that wasn't enough, week 2 of the festival brought - you guessed it - another bazaar! This one features all warmbloods, which is highly appropriate.

Since we're not interested in the cartoony Trakehner (375 star coins) and already have a Selle Francais (495 star coins) and Dutch Warmblood (475 star coins), that just leaves the rest of the non-festival Hanoverians to tempt us.

This one is stunning, combining both fleabitten and dapple gray, though I also love the palomino, of course. I'm not sold, though, and I'm doing my best to convince the others we should wait. Similar argument as with the Belgian: do we really want to see a lip-curling fest every time we enter the stable? I'd rather not. 

Speaking of entering the stable, we were pleasantly surprised to see festival decorations appear on week 2! Apparently they were already available on week 1, but the default was toggled off. Now default is toggled on. We're loving it, random periwinkle rugs and all. Who will end up "sharing" Panda's stall (AKA occupying it while she is in the pasture)? Only time will tell!