Honeyhollow Racks it Up

We have thoroughly enjoyed Camp Western! It was great motivation to play every day for an extended period, and all of the horses got to experience it at least once. Even after attaining all of the free stuff we were after (this happened by early week 4), we continued to amass shillings, gold, and tokens, because why not? 

For your enjoyment and ours, here are some fun screenshots to illustrate our Western adventures.

One crowded summit! 

This chest was a real pain to open, since it's also a picnicking location. We spent a good couple of minutes trying to get at an angle where we could click it rather than getting the "find picnic basket" message, only to eventually realize we needed to hit E. The poor wandering animals waited patiently in various degrees of awkwardness.

Check out the levitating saddle bag on that Belgian Warmblood!

(Also, we apologize for Clara's poor posture. She was rolling her shoulders in this shot.)

This red bucket has been back in all its levitating glory.

Great minds think alike!

Doing another champ with a big clunky box along for the ride

Behold, the cowboy mule ribbon! 

We made it with plenty of time to spare. Good job, everybody! =)

Thanks to YouTube, we had no trouble finding, satisfying, and taking home this year's wandering pets. 

This is Reuben in his cute green vest, who was hanging out by the wolf-infested abandoned mine.

And here is Ginger in her grass green bandana, who was hanging out by the bull.

Riverrock and Clara didn't have to face Daisy Coyoteclover or anyone else in this Jorvik Stable championship! Even though their performance was lackluster (ran into a horse/rider in the paddock and cheese, as I recall), they happily accepted the gold ribbon.

Ah, the satisfying glow and creaking noise that come with opening a chest. We will miss them.

The wandering horses stick to Clara like glue. Those horse lures must really be tasty!

Artie-Tombhoof overlap after doing the hammer swing. Oof.

Two for one wandering animal return. (We have also tried it with two cows. Would not recommend.)

A wolf about to get sprayed with beast repellent. XD 

For week 3 of Camp Western, an August horse bazaar rolled out, featuring the American Saddlebred (629 star coins), the Appaloosa (449 star coins), and the American Paint Horse (469 star coins). 

This would have been an ideal time to buy an Appy or a Paint, but happily, we already own one of each from past bazaars. Our eyes immediately zeroed in on the Saddlebreds, who made their first bazaar appearance...

We quite liked these two...

...but eventually, we narrowed it down to either the palomino or the chimera pinto.

On the day fateful last day of the bazaar, we saw somebody else riding their new palomino. This tipped the scale firmly on the side of the pinto, though it was already leaning that way anyway. The palomino is gorgeous, but a chimera pinto with a green eye? How could we pass that up when it's the same price?

As you can see, we couldn't quite give up on the alliteration yet. We think we'll keep it going through horse #20.

Hello, Honeyhollow!

Our buddy Yvonne tagged along to witness the momentous first ride. 

Her first 3 gaits are "the usual," but instead of galloping, she speed racks!

She does still gallop if you ask her to go even faster. 

So, so cool! I'm not a huge fan of Saddlebreds in real life, but I love Star Stable's! <3

Thanks to a very small pool of competitors, Honey managed to win a silver ribbon in her first-ever championship! Wow!

She sparkled her way through her experience levels at lightning speed! By the final weekend of Camp Western, she'd already made it to level 15.

One of our favorite parts about her: the proud way she flicks her tail. <3

I think she especially enjoyed this ranch task, where a little pinto foal follows her adoringly around a paddock. :)

She also enjoyed leading the wandering adult horses, of course. This one was in a particularly awkward way...

She's happy to pose pretty much anywhere, really.

And yes, we did save up enough gold nuggets to take home both Savanna the cat and Eggatha the chicken. 

The stage you saw above eventually became the site of the pumpkin competition. It was all up to Clara to transport both enormous pumpkins there. We really should've gotten out Magic the Shire for this, but Honey somehow managed.

Probably because we helped them equally, both Dorith's and Jasper's pumpkins looked... identical.

I saw that one coming! Fine by us, we didn't want either NPC to be disappointed.

Jasper was disappointed anyway, but oh well.

It's Lisa! Clara isn't technically supposed to know her yet (not far enough in the storyline), but she at least knows of her. And is a fan of her music, clearly. (Good day to have selected that t-shirt.)

These random western NPC's danced, Jasper danced, and even Honey danced. Clara and Dorith did not. =)

We're sorry to see Camp Western go, but we know it must to keep it special. Will we continue rotating in the Western gear from time to time? Maybe, since we have so much of it now. The new pets - my favorite part of all this - will for sure continue to make appearances year-round. =)

Alas, no more taking a wandering horse along to championships for moral support.

Goodbye, Camp Western! Hope to see you again next year!

Camp Western 2025

Camp Western is in full swing out in Starshine Ranch and its surrounding areas! It's been hectic at times, since we have such a strong drive to participate in all of it every day, but mostly it's been great fun! 

The regular ranch activities, like the tumbleweed-themed races, lunging, leading or herding lost animals back to Mary, and western-themed arena races, are all still there.

We don't bother with most of that during Camp Western, but we can never resist returning the lost animals.

Our focus, naturally, is on the limited-time Camp Western activities. Most of the stuff from previous Camp Westerns is back again too. The wolves, bears, and bull are on the prowl.

Nearly all of the wolves are the usual gray, but we have also spotted a white one and a black one this year! Interestingly, both turn the usual gray when they move in to attack. 

Before we got too close:

And after:

The big ore boulders and floating gold nuggets are all over the place again as well - much more welcome additions than the beasties!

We've only seen one glitchy ore spawn so far, but it was an entertaining one!

The ranch chore board has returned, and - knock on wood - so far we haven't had to find that elusive shovel. (That was our least favorite chore.)

the lovely chore board, and a chuckle-worthy AQH placement.

Many of the tasks involve picking up or delivering items, which perch amusingly on the horse's rump for transport.

Our favorite chore, herding 3 ranch horses to the beach, is back too!

And of course, we still have the chance to track down multiple renegade chests and wandering equines every day. Many thanks to the players who post the daily chest and horses locations - you have made ranch life so much easier!

As expected, there's always a chest somewhere in the wolf den area, and frequently one in or by the bear cave as well.

We love the pinpoint location feature on the game! It makes riding to a specific spot so much easier.

They're hidden all over the place - sometimes in spots I never would've thought to check on my own.

The same 4 equines from last year wander off daily, but this year they have been joined by a new mule!

Come along, everybody! 

Occasionally, we'll go collect all 5 at once, leading to some unfortunate mule-Chincoteague overlaps.

Now for some of the brand new Camp Western features!

Some special color variations of existing breeds (mule, Saddlebred, and Mustang) are available for purchase and will leave when Camp Western does.

I especially like this new Mustang!

The Renegades have introduced two new races that include lots of slippery mud. They are made extra exciting by the roaming beasties. Thank goodness for beast repellent! 

Any time you land a jump in the mud, it splashes quite pleasingly. 

All that would've kept us busy enough, but Star Stable went even farther this year and introduced another round of the champion ranks, this time with a western-themed collection of ribbons to earn.

They're cute, but none will be as special to me as that flying pig! I'm eager to see what the cowboy mule looks like. We haven't seen anybody wearing it yet, surprisingly, but we're bound to soon.

We love how most other players are embracing the western gear, which we have time to admire before championships.

Invisible Daisy Coyoteclover has been joining the party sometimes when champs are not that full. 

*Sighs* Lady would've gotten the gold in this one if it wasn't for Daisy's ghostly participation.

Jasper and Dorith are having a fierce pumpkin-growing contest on the ranch grounds. We could've chosen to help just Jasper or just Dorith grow theirs, but we're helping both. So far, every day they have us ride out to a spooked mule, approach it carefully on foot to calm it, bring a bucket of water back to the pumpkin patch, and water the respective pumpkins. The pumpkins have grown only slightly since Wed. when the activity began, and both by about the same amount. We'll see what happens by the end!

The other brand-new task: Conrad the blacksmith's hammer challenge. Various strength levels include Fripp, Sabine, Conrad, and Garnok... and you have to keep swinging until you achieve Garnok to get the daily reward. XD

We get there eventually, but so far just by luck.

All of this effort... and we don't even care much for either of the exclusive new sets you can buy with the tokens this year. (The brown and light blue are the new ones, while the salmon is a repeat from last year.)

We don't love the color scheme of the first set, and while we like the color scheme of the second, it isn't our style. We wish there were some new bitless bridles, fun camp-themed t-shirts, or jeans that fit inside boots, but I guess we're in the minority with our preferences. Oh well, we'll gladly take the free stuff anyway. 

The new pets this year are less disappointing: Sahara the brown tabby cat and Eggatha the spotted chicken. We're happily saving up our nuggets for them! Buying lots of chest keys and horse lures has meant the nuggets don't pile up without significant mining effort, but we're confident we'll gather enough for them both by the end of camp!

Well done, Star Stable! Bring on the second half of the festival!