June and a Jeju

Welcome to June! We're loving the sunshine, greenness, and all the extra daylight!

Last weekend while it was still May, we lassoed our 4th lucky find! That's right, 2 in the same month! Like when we caught our Highland on the 8th, we were again in the stone forest, but this time the equine did stick out a bit more: he was quite small and not grey.

What a handsome color, and look at that strength stat! 

Sadly, he is too small for Pepsi to ride, so we knew right away we weren't going to keep him. (He's 11.3 hands tall, one inch too short, and only weighs 624 lbs. For comparison, little Pizza is almost 760 lbs, about 136 lbs heavier.)

His stubborn leader personality combo should have meant some spinning around in circles when we got out the pony cart, but he actually didn't do any of that for us. Maybe he was on his best behavior in hopes we'd change our minds about selling him?

We did think about it, that's for sure. We also had to at least find out what breed he was, because we were utterly stumped. The expert deemed him a Jeju, which is a hardy South Korean breed we'd never even heard of before. No wonder we were clueless. XD What a shame he wasn't a bit bigger!

If we hadn't already caught so many other great equines in May, it would've been much harder to part with him. But, part with him we did. He's the first equine we ever attempted to auction, just on the off chance there were players out there looking for the rare breed. He got three bids! Low bids, but enough to cover the auction fee. Best of luck to you, little guy!

Even without the Jeju, by June 1 we still had amassed quite a few potential additions to the herd. 

2 were still hanging around from April:

- Pizza: highest stats ever for us but so very small

- Ivory (now Corelli): big, handsome, and speedy with a great persona

Then there were a whopping 6 from May: 

- Breman (now Eagle): high genetic stats, fairly quick, and a decent jumper, but maneless and on the skittish side

- Ray of Light: best persona ever for us and a pacer, but her genetic stats, metrics, and appearance are not nearly as impressive

- Evergreen: our third lucky find, a cute but pokey and lazy Highland Pony

- Bumpy: a very maneuverable stallion, thanks to his impressive rear end. He accelerate, decelerates, and turns more quickly than our other horses

- Cast No Shadow (now Taurus): a stubborn, lazy pinto with 1000+ genetic stats and a powerful jump

- Loch Ness (now Nessie): pretty, skittish, and our fastest wild ever

How interesting. 8 horses. 4 sisters. You can guess what I'm pushing for. No official decision has been made yet, but if by some miracle Lily did let us keep them all, here's how I'd arrange them:

Felicity:

Taurus (because Felicity loves spots the most)

Nessie (because Felicity likes to go fast)

Julie: 
Ray of Light (because Teatime wants a pacing buddy)
Evergreen (because Julie clearly has a thing for cute ponies. Also, Lily needs to stop hogging lucky finds. ;^)

Lily:

Corelli (because they can bond over having pale hair)

Eagle (because she easily blends in with Lily's herd's athletic horse look)

Me (Bethany):

Pizza (because I love pizza and it's about time I broke my big horse pattern)

Bumpy (because he is Starfleet's look-alike and his name starts with the same letter as mine)

Fingers crossed! We'll see if I'm right!

And now for a few fun recent screenshots for your viewing pleasure:

another flashy pacing wild from wonderland country

Wow. I didn't know wilds dared go on ice.

Yes, it really is only those 2 little jumps. XD

grizzly bear shape shift

this is rather disturbing

the most fun section of jumping course ever

1000+ Wilds!

Here is our 1000th (recorded) wild! 

(There have been a couple wilds we accidentally sold before recording, so he's probably more like # 1005, but close enough!)

Quite a cool Alpine wild! I especially liked how his flaxen mane and tail turn red at the bottom. Lily did not let us keep him, but we had fun riding him around for a while. 

We were mildly disappointed when nothing happened when we logged in on Mom's birthday. But about a minute in, cheery music started playing, and colorful sparkles and birthday-themed greetings popped on the screen.

We didn't get a virtual birthday cake like we did on HI2 (we still have several sitting in our inventory there, ha ha), but we did get some other goodies!

Aw, thank you, HI3! We have not used the wishing well coins yet, but I think we should each get to throw one and see what happens.

To celebrate both these achievements (1000 wilds captured and Mom making it another year), enjoy these screenshots of our top 20 most amusing auto-generated wild names.

I think this is my favorite. XD

As we mentioned before, she really was gaited!

Appropriately, this one was ornery.

We also recently found a "Butter."

Our newest HI3 news is that we found yet another May contender for joining the herd! She was hanging out with 4 other wilds when Cloud and Pepsi happened upon them - that blob in the way back center is her. 

Interestingly, Pepsi wouldn't have been riding anywhere near here if I hadn't forgotten about a mail mission I never completed the day before. You're welcome, everybody.

Any guesses from a quick look what it is that makes her so special?

It's her speed! She squeaked by Topi by .1 mph to become the fastest wild we've ever caught! Her sprint boost is also quite impressive: in our top 5.

For comparison, here are Topi's original screenshots:

Don't worry, Topi. Bethany's not letting you go anywhere, and you're still our tall-fence-jumping king!

While our fastest wilds have all been horses, not ponies, which makes sense, I find it cool how different they've all been from each other. They've ranged in height from 15.2 hands (3rd fastest):

to 19 hands (4th fastest):

Here's our 5th fastest, who's about Windfall's height but is built way differently:

I like that gender doesn't seem to matter - 3 of our 5 fastest have been mares! =^) Biome seems to play a part (3 of our 5 came from savanna), but they can clearly crop up elsewhere too, like in the desert and fall forest.

Here is what Loch Ness looks like under saddle:

She looks a bit like Topi crossed with an Arabian to me. XD