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...)
Now on to the new aspects of the festival!
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.
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.
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!
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