6/6 Wild Stallions, Where Are You?

Well, January is more than half over, and we haven't found any 6/6 wild horses yet on HI2. In fact, we haven't caught any since Anya the Don back on October 5. It's been even longer since we caught a 6/6 stallion - that hasn't happened since Vaquero the AQH back on June 14! We haven't been searching out wilds quite as much as we used to, so I guess it's taking its toll. Still, we do have the flute to summon us a daily wild. Strange...

We have caught a few noteworthy wild horses lately, though. Here they are for your viewing pleasure.

Felicity says if she'd caught this Fjord herself, she'd have had a hard time parting with him. Umber and I (Bethany) were the ones who found him, though, and I put him in the livery. Here's hoping somebody decided they needed this adorable investigator.

Groovy and I caught this blue-eyed Quarter Horse mare. I love the screenshot of her burying her face in the dog's fur. As pretty as she is, I bet she didn't last long in the livery. 

Groovy and I caught this mare only a minute or two after the palomino Quarter Horse. She is gorgeous, isn't she? I haven't been able to give her up yet even though I know I shouldn't keep her... 

Infrared and I caught this Friesian. I have included him in my list because of his goofy screenshot and his fairly rare personality, Isolationist. And I thought Umber the Misanthrope was difficult...

Finally, Julie and Napoleon caught this maximum height Spotted Draft Horse mare this morning. She's beautiful and has a great personality, but wow... what an unfortunate set of stats! XD

That's all of them for now. =)

So anyway, our 6/6 wild stallion dry spell is bound to break soon, right? Maybe my sisters and I should all take a stab at guessing when. Whoever makes the closest guess would be declared the winner. The losers could each have to buy the winner a companion animal for one of her horses or something. Just throwing the idea out there...

Grace Thomas

Meet Grace Thomas, the 2015 Girl of the Year doll from American Girl. As we did last year with Isabelle, we will now report back on how our conversation went when we looked her up online for the first time on January 1. As always, Bethany writes in purple, Felicity in green, Julie in teal, and Lily in blue.

Grace, huh?
Pretty name. 
But yikes, those are some unfortunate bangs.
Oh no, it's Lanie in brunette.

Wasn't once enough?
Waaaaaaaaaaaaay more than enough.
C'mon, you guys. They're not that bad.
*Makes gagging noises.*
If it wasn't for the bangs, she would look a lot like our cousin, Jessica.

Jessica, mom's sister's My American Girl doll

Grace

Wow, I think Grace's hair is a shade darker, but otherwise...
They could be twins!
It looks like their eyebrows are different, and possibly the face mold? Otherwise AG could've gotten away with using the same head and just sticking a different wig on it.
Speaking of the wig, it's going to be a bummer when you finally take the braid out - how will you ever get rid of the kinks?
It won't be easy. 
AG's not exactly going out on a limb, is it?
Nope.
Still no African American.
And brown hair again paired with blue eyes - remember Lindsey and Chrissa?
Oh yeah. Both had dark brown hair and blue eyes, you're right.
I'm confused. Isn't the American girl of the year supposed to be... um... American?
Read the page, Felicity. She takes a trip to Paris.
Oh. So her books take place in France, but she is American?
Just the first of the books, apparently. I read the blurbs about them on the site.
And they involve Grace opening a French baking business. That much I've gathered.
So what do you think of her outfit?
Mmm, it's fine as long as she's not wearing the goofy pink beret. 
I'm sick of pink, myself. 
I like the skirt. I think that black bow is cute.
I don't. It reminds me of Professor Umbridge in Harry Potter. 
Professor Umbridge? How?
This is how:

Ew. 
She has a point there.
Yeah, I'll never look at little black bows the same way again.
Well, I still think it's cute on a doll. 
I agree. I like her gray boots too - I'd totally wear those.
The Paris design on the shirt and the charm bracelet aren't my style - 
I know, right? They scream tourist.
But everything at least goes together.
Much more nicely than some of Isabelle's... one-of-a-kind creations.
For sure. I'm not sorry to see those go!

We will leave you on that... well... sort of happy note. It was about then that somebody changed the subject back to Professor Umbridge, and the conversation only deteriorated from there...

A White New Year

Happy 2015! Wow, that's going to take some getting used to! I typed "2014" back there and had to correct it.

The snow kicked in just in time to give us a white New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. *Sighs* You're a week late, snow, and I am not amused.

Let me take you back to 2014 one last time. As you may recall, we already had decided to add these 3 equines to the herd throughout December:

Airbrush: Bethany's

Tinsel: mine (Julie's)

Mongolian mare: Lily's

We assumed when we caught the Mongolian mare that HI2 was done dishing out tempting wild horses for the year. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

On New Year's Eve, guess who the flute summoned to Petra and me near the Crystal Isle dock house?

Aw, dapples! <3

Oh, goodness. Is he ever cute!

I've already named him "Jolly." It seemed perfect, since he's roly poly, it looks like he's smiling, and his personality is "Agreeable." Maybe I can get my sisters to count him as our January horse so that I can keep him? We'll have to wait and see what the month holds.

Here's another look at his avatar. It's similar to the avatars of the twin white gray New Forest Pony mares, Jess and Dash, and to my cremello leopard Nez stallion, Herbie, but there are some clear differences.

Jolly: white dapples and black hooves

Jessamine: no dapples and brown hooves

Herbie: darker dapples

Pepsi's Blue Christmas

Our avatar, PepsiSummer, had a fantastic Christmas aboard Wintergreen, her affectionate Highland Pony stallion. Even though he is mine, all 4 of us sisters took turns at the computer riding him. He seemed like the perfect pony to ride on what was a green Christmas here.

Pepsi started her day by heading out to Snowflake Isle to flute a Christmas wild horse. But before she reached the forest, where she was going to use the flute, she discovered this cutie, a flaxen chestnut Icelandic.

Thanks to the Mongolian mare and those two November 5/6 mares who are still hanging around, Pepsi only had room for one wild. So, back she went to Glacier Isle to auction her off. 

Approximately 10 minutes later, Pepsi traveled to Crystal Isle. There, she quickly found this duo hanging out by a yeti cave.

We had her catch the one on the left first, since it was a Fjord. He didn't turn out to be the fabulous high-stat stallion Felicity was hoping for, but he was pretty cute.

Out of slots once again, Pepsi had to leave the second wild. She returned to Glacier, hastily surrendered the Fjord to the humane society (surrendering instantly frees up a horse slot, while auctioning takes at least 10 minutes), and returned to the yeti cave.

The pinto wild was still there. He was busy working up the nerve to approach the cave while Pepsi was gone. 

He turned out to be another good looking horse with unimpressive stats.

Back they went to Glacier Isle again to auction him off. Wintergreen sure was getting his exercise! While waiting for the auction to end, Pepsi and Wintergreen cantered around Glacier Isle. They found 2 meteorites steaming in the snow!

Next up: Blizzard Isle! There, Pepsi finally used the flute to summon a Christmas wild. It was a brave little Przewalski!

Wintergreen got a few hours of rest after that. Then in the evening, we logged on again. While Pepsi and Wintergreen were just standing around on Glacier Isle (we were petting the new horses so that they will bond faster with Pepsi), a random player rode up and said hi. Pepsi wished her a merry Christmas, and before long they were deep in conversation concerning earth-shattering matters such as favorite colors, Kinskys, birthstones, and polka-dotted jets. It was pretty awesome.

I think Wintergreen may have a crush on BlueOcean's Kinsky mare

Pepsi and Blue headed out to White Isle together to look around for wilds, but they found this first:

Then they discovered this gorgeous Finnhorse wild:

Wow, good thing she didn't have better stats or she wouldn't have left! What a lucky day for meteorites and snowy-terrain wilds!

On the way back to the dock house, Pepsi and Blue decided to explore a yeti cave.

Blue proceeded to walk fearlessly all the way to the back of the cave. Pepsi did not have such success. Try as we might, we could not direct her in the correct path to get there without being scared back to the entrance. Following Blue, she got close once, though.

Blue was starting to turn into an icicle in her short sleeves, so it was time to return to civilization and its warmth.

It's hard to think of a better Christmas present than making a new friend! As it always seems to do on Christmas, the hours flew by way too quickly, our time on HI2 included. It was bittersweet to say goodbye to Blue and to Christmas and to go to bed. 

Merry Christmas!

Felicity, Julie, Lily, and I hope everybody had a very merry Christmas! It was a mild, snowless, gray skied one here, but we made sure that Pepsi's was cold and white: we never had her leave HI2's snowy isles.

We had a great day, but it's getting late - no time to go into its details now.  They will be coming soon. Instead, here is a quick preview of yet another mare we lassoed who has decided that she does not want to leave.

Esker and I found her back on Monday the 22nd while looking for a good spot to use the magic flute. 

Wouldn't you know it, another 5/6 mare with loads of personality and a rocking hairdo. First Lofty the Przewalski, and now this girl... HI2 sure is generous with its mares of Asian origin lately. 

I think it's safe to say that she's staying, since she's +84 and only 2 measly stat points short of being 6/6.  Thanks for the 2nd bonus December horse, HI2! Time to build another barn...

So... name? So far, Poinsettia, Mistletoe, Merry, and Jolly are all under consideration. Hmm... I guess you'll have to check back later to see which one wins out.

Whew, time for bed. Merry Christmas and good night! 

We'll Have a Blue Christmas

When I visited the humane society horses on Tuesday, this gentle giant refused to be passed by. He was captured and surrendered on the same day I found him, and I was lucky enough to adopt him before anyone else - even with a good 15 minutes or so of debating with myself whether I was going to adopt him or not.

I think it was meant to be. Like Airbrush (yes, Bethany decided to name her new Gypsy Vanner stallion Airbrush), he is a really appropriate horse to bring home in December. Airbrush was supposed to be our only December horse, but just look at this handsome boy! Impressive size, great stats, awesome personality, and gorgeous coloring... wow! Since I was the only sister who didn't yet have a 15th horse, I decided to risk Lily's wrath and take him home anyway. 

At 19.1 hands and 2406 pounds, this Shire is by far the tallest, heaviest horse ever to join our herd. He is even big for a Shire: just 1 inch and 32 pounds short of the Horse Isle 2 maximums. 

Here is his avatar: fitting, though I wish he had white dapples to represent the patchy roaning pattern he has in his profile. Like Icing and Airbrush, he has those starkly white hooves that make him extra fun to ride on snowy terrain.

Lily was not happy when she first heard I'd adopted "another 5/6 livery horse!" (her words), but when she saw him, she gave in. We're hoping that he and Icing, Lily's "exclusive-circle only" Shire mare, end up becoming pals. So far Icing is not on board with the idea. ;^)

I'm not sure what I will name him yet. Since the Gypsy Vanner didn't end up with a particularly Christmasy name, it would be nice if this guy did. So far the best I've come up with is Tinsel, and I'm not sure it's manly enough.