Wild Overload

Here comes our last post from total quarantine! Mom's workplace wants her back in the office on Monday, which is, unfortunately, her birthday. Sorry, Mom. :( These last few months sure have been a wild ride! 

Speaking of wild rides, (sorry, couldn't resist) we've been finding loads of them lately on HI3. We'll likely hit 1000 total wilds captured yet this weekend!

We caught a taller wild than any we've caught before, a 21-hand stallion with Bend-Or spots: 

We regrettably did not take any shots of Pepsi riding him or standing near him before selling him.

We also caught a shorter, lighter wild than we ever have before: a 7 hand, 114.2 pound stallion.

So tiny!

He could barely move the cart! Sorry for making you try, little guy!

I thought this little mare (but not nearly that little) deserved mentioning in this post also. She's a lovely purple roan (roan on seal brown, I think?) with bold markings, she's brave, and she has a very powerful jump!

The expert deemed her a Grade Warm-blooded Horse, but she is lacking in the height department. 

I don't think she's a serious contender for joining the herd, but she sure is cute!

Here is our 25th wild with a genetic stat total of 900+. Sadly, she is also the first to have no mane/roached mane.

I wonder if HI3 will eventually add a mane-modification feature to the game? According to the forums, it's a possibility. Even if they did, this mare might still be out of luck, as there is virtually no mane there to modify. At least she has a nice tail, an eel stripe, and pretty sabino markings.

Of course this would be one to have an especially high genetic stat total (in our top 10.)

Her metrics aren't as impressive, but she is fairly speedy and has decent jump power. No extreme left-side personality traits either, though the skittishness will still cause her to balk more about water, ice, heights, dark forests, etc. than braver horses. 

The expert determined that she is a Grade Pleasure Horse. Here is Pepsi trying her out:

I feel like the lack of mane is especially disappointing on a mare. *Sighs* We have taken to calling her Eagle (not preceded by Bald, but we're all thinking it. XD)

Now check out this little chestnut:

You're probably wondering why in the world I'm showing you this one, right? Common color, unglamorous build, low genetic stats...

...and the only thing out of the norm metrics-wise is a pretty nice turning speed. Her personality is what caught our attention! If you add those 6 numbers up, they total 514. This probably doesn't seem that spectacular, considering all the player-bred horses out there with amazing personalities. However, we've never even had a wild's personality trait total total crack 475 before, so 514 was rather shocking for us.

As an added surprise, she also paces! Despite her pony size, the expert deemed her a Grade Gaited Saddle Horse.

No ambling, but I definitely did notice how quickly she turns compared to most horses.

Next on the list is our 5th wild with a genetic stat total that cracks 1000. She's a beautiful ebony black mare with a long mane and dapples.

We were quite excited up until this point.

Oh no, that persona! Not a single trait on the right side of the chart. Though she isn't quite ornery enough to buck, her laziness and extreme skittishness make riding her much less fun. None of her performance metrics stand out either, but she looks quite pretty!

Our disappointment over Into The Moonlight did not last long. Later the same day, Bethany and Topi found some grey wilds while riding through Stone Forest. The first was a typical grey Stone Forest wild. 

The second was a bit rounder and shorter than your typical Stone Forest wild,  but because he was grey, Bethany was totally not expecting the Lucky Find messages that flashed across the screen. =)

Yay, our third lucky find is a really cute pony-sized stallion!

Even though he's only 5.3 years old, he has already gone quite grey - you can't even tell he was once grullo. What a difference from Cloudburst, who did not get his infinitum amulet until he was over 8 and still had not greyed that much. Evergreen's genetic stat total is not as impressive as our first two lucky finds' (Talvi's and Mariette's both topped 1000), but he sure is strong and sturdy for his size.

Make your breed guesses now! Bethany's initial thought was Connemara, since he looks like a large pony and doesn't have feathering. He seems a bit too short-legged and stocky to be a Connemara, though. Some of our other best guesses before consulting the BBB were Hucul Pony, Highland Pony, and New Forest Pony, but none of them seemed quite right. 

He's a Highland Pony! The non-shaggy mane and lack of any feathering threw us off, but yes, we can see it now. Our lucky finds have all been from Europe so far: Finland, the Netherlands, and now Scotland! His performance metrics are not spectacular, but he is strong for his size. He's slow and lazy but otherwise quite pleasant to be around and ride.

Yay for a big barrel! For once, Pepsi's on a pony where there isn't daylight between the bottom of the girth and the top of Pepsi's foot.

A few days later, we found Bumpy!

If you glance at him quickly, he looks a bit like Starfleet. Look more closely, and you'll notice he is sooty, less leggy, and has a really, um, bumpy back end.

His genetic stat total is not great, but that muscular rear has given him excellent turning speed, the second best of any wild we've captured so far.

He's not skittish or ornery, and his laziness isn't quite extreme enough to cause slowing under saddle. According to the expert, he is a Grade Pleasure Horse.

Finally, here is our 6th wild with 1000+ genetic stat total.

To our delight, he was another pinto!

He's tied for 3rd place with Talvi when it comes to genetic stat total.

The expert calls him a Grade European Hotblood, but he is slow and lazy, not hotblood-like at all. At least he has a fairly powerful jump! Since he doesn't really strike us as the vampire type in any sense (and totally does cast a shadow), we have taken to calling him Taurus instead because of his stubbornness and bovine-esque coloring. 

It's going to be really tough to choose our May equines!

I'll leave you with a few random fun screenshots.

Mariette and Pepsi surveying a herd at dusk.
We did not successfully catch them all before it got too dark to see,
so a few had to wait until morning.

A wild impersonating an ostrich?

aerial view of another gorgeous manchado


More shapeshifting fun! Here is Pepsi as a white raccoon entertaining a coyote.


swimming in a geyser pool as a regular raccoon

solving a puzzle as a bunny

communing with Evergreen as a panda

making a tiger friend as a white tiger

happily chilling in a lavender pool as a moose

May the Horse Be With You

Welcome to May! The trees are coming to life, the grass is turning deep green, and flowers are sprouting! For everybody still stuck at home, at least there's tons of beauty to admire! 

We found two more equines with 900+ genetic stat totals since our last post! I guess they really are more common than we realized. Our spreadsheet doesn't lie: of the approximately 850 equines we've found since we started playing last September, 23 of them had a genetic stat total at or above 900. 12 have had stats over 950. 4 have had stats of 1000 or more. Only 3 have been ornery enough to buck, and only 1 has been under 12 hands tall. Here are numbers 22 and 23:

How funny that this one came so soon after Escher!

She's the 3rd equine on the "ornery enough to to buck" list. Her orneriness and lack of any outstanding performance metrics knocked her out of the running.

Two thumbs up for the typical tails on desert horses.

I'm pretty sure her back is even shorter than Fireside's! She didn't impress us either, so she didn't stick around long.

It was much harder parting with Peach Blossom and Kung Pao, but we made ourselves do it. They were both rather pokey and lazy besides, which made them the least practical to keep.

Mariette, Horsey McHorse Face, and Smokey (all caught in March) stayed. 

Horsey McHorse Face is, surprisingly, mine now, even though she was caught the same day as my Mariette. Her long mane, blue eyes, and swiftness won me over, even if she is lazy and a bit of a chunker. XD I renamed her Calacatta after a white type of marble - much more dignified. I gave her purplish polos and saddle pad so that hopefully people will know she's a she. The color is called "Trunk's Hair-ish," apparently after some male manga character with purple hair, so it's definitely not too girly. 

Julie claimed little Smokey, who she renamed Spruce. He's now sporting blue-green polos and saddle pad, which I think look amazing with his dark coat and light eyes. Pretty sure he and Ossagon are already best buddies.

By the end of April, the remaining equines in the running were Pizza, Stratus, and Escher.

We also had one late entry: Ivory.

Ivory's genetic stat total isn't over 900, but...

he is quite speedy and has a great personality. And my goodness, talk about tall and handsome! He is, like Starfleet, a Grade Baroque Horse, but he has much more substantial legs! All 4 of us really like him, so at this point we know he's staying, but we don't know with which sister!

Here he is under saddle:

Bethany really wants curly-coated Stratus. She's already renamed him Corduroy after the teddy bear in the children's book. He even has green polos and saddle pad to match the bear's green overalls. He's clearly staying. 

It goes without saying, but Escher is happily staying with Felicity. Felicity is still experimenting with dyes and is hoping to find a grayish one she likes.

That leaves Pizza, the 12.1 hand Grade Sport Pony with the top genetic stat total. 

We're still on the fence about her. While we think she's adorable and haven't been able to part with her yet, we all feel kind of bad actually riding her, as Pepsi just seems too big. (It didn't help that on Friday when we rode her, she happened to get heat exhaustion in the desert within the first 5 minutes... despite her thirst and stamina bars being full.) She is only slightly lighter than Ossagon, who we did decide to keep and ride without guilt - he and Spruce have great stamina! However, Pizza is 5 inches shorter, which definitely makes a difference in how Pepsi looks while mounted. When the camera is moved to a more straight-on view than the default, it doesn't seem quite so bad:

Still, Pepsi is so big for her! *Sighs*

If we do keep Pizza, that would mean adding a whopping 4 horses to our herd in April and bring our horse count up to 18! Whoa!

We've only been playing for 8 months, and here we are already approaching 20 horses. So much for one horse a month! My sisters are insisting on letting the rules slide a bit for the duration of quarantine, and I guess I see their point. Still, guys, seriously, we've got to start reining it in. 

I will conclude with a few fun shots of interesting horses we did not keep that we've come across on our travels.

Here is Talvi greeting the first Finnhorse besides Talvi we've ever seen in person. If I remember correctly, Mimosa Jam is actually a different sub-breed of the Finnhorse, a Work Finnhorse, while Talvi is a Riding Finnhorse. I don't honestly see much of a difference in build, but I'm no expert.

Here is a funky rainforest-dwelling wild that resembles this statue of Mom's:

Now for some wilds we've caught recently with cool patterns!

We were all quite bummed that none of these beautiful brindles had great stats or metrics. 

Ditto for these spectacularly spotted wilds!

Oh well, one of these days we'll get lucky!