January's Big Red

Is it just me, or has January seemed to drag on for an exceptionally long time? New Year's Day already feels like it was such a long time ago...

We're back to snow again here after an unusually long snowless spell. On HI3, though, we can avoid the snow all we want, which I've been doing when it's my turn to play.

We almost made it through the whole month without any herd contenders, but one finally cropped up yesterday.

Before we get to her, though, here are a few other neat wilds from the past few weeks:

you rock those feathers, dark draftie!

a fancy pintaloosa who was hanging out by our lavender pool

such a classy sooty buckskin

we couldn't totally avoid snowflakes, but this kind I do not mind!

Meet Cheerful, who is anything but...

...and Mind Your Own Business, who really did want to be left alone!

We thought we might finally have a herd hopeful in this markingless, twinkle-toed "Demeter."

Her genetic stat total is quite high for a wild, and she's very cute despite her common coat color and lack of markings.

Alas, stubborn leader.

Sure enough, she began circling under saddle almost immediately.

Too bad, it's fun to see horses with high-flung tails pace. 

Also, HI3 recently changed equines' walk and trot animations, and I can't help but comment.

I'm getting used to the new walk. It's probably more realistic - looks better in screenshots, anyway - though my first impression was that the equines are kind of sashaying more in the back end than necessary, ha ha.

Here's Merlin demonstrating the new trot. I can't tell much difference between the old and the new in screenshots, but I was pretty disappointed with this change in real time. With the old trot animation, there seemed to be a difference in slow trot versus fast trot: the equine seemed to extend its legs more as speed increased. Now, the equine is stuck in a more collected trot all the time, and the only thing that changes is leg speed. Not an improvement at all in my personal opinion. 

We got busy the first half of January and were late to the party to notice the gait updates, so we missed out on other players' comments. I thought there would be all kinds of opinions posted in the forums, but so far I've only seen one comment, and it got shot dead in the water for being posted in the wrong section. *Shrugs* I'm hoping that the trot is a work in progress and we won't be stuck with the current animation forever.

Fortunately, for now, at least, canter and gallop animations have not changed, and we spend most of our time in those gaits.

Okay, enough of that sidetrack. On to the star of this post, our one and only January herd hopeful. She's yet another big, speedy bay from the savanna. (She doesn't look much like Topi or Bandwagon, though.)

I love those ears and her solo stocking.

She's skittish, as most savanna wilds are, but other than that she's fun to ride.

...and Pepsi is a good size for her. We plan to change her name, but inspiration hasn't struck yet. We're also considering giving her a longer mane but aren't sure yet. Here's what she'd look like with the various silky manes:

It's quite something how much a mane changes the look of a horse! I think my favorite for her is the medium one.

At any rate, I sure am glad we found her! It would've been sad to slog through all of this long, dreary January without finding a single wild we wanted to keep.

Hello, 2023 (and full barns)!

Happy New Year!

Here we are in our New Year's Eve party attire. (We do have shoes, ha ha. They just didn't make the photo.)

Pepsi and Erglu also enjoyed a party on New Year's Eve: one last essence anomaly party

Here is our first wild equine of 2023!

Cute, right? I think this bodes well. 

Not that we're suffering from any lack of interesting wilds. In fact, we have so many wild equines from the past two months vying for our precious horse slots that it's just ridiculous.

You remember "Dandy Suitor" and "Twilight" from early November. 

They are staying put for sure:

They were only half of the November vy-ers. Back while we were still riding through desert on our southern explorations, we found another nice desert horse named "Cowboy Joe."

More like Cowgirl Jo.

She doesn't look anything like Arabian-esque Dandy, but she does have fun ascending-in-height socks on her extra long legs and great stamina.

On 11/28, we happened upon this dun sabino pony:

My sisters really like this one too. It's been over a month and I still haven't convinced them to part with her. *Sighs*

December was just as bad. In addition to our pinto pony jumping bean:

...and the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day equines:

...back on 12/17, we caught a wonderland sausage:

Her tobiano spotting and height are quite limited, but she has a surprisingly high genetic stat total.

We thought from looking at her personality that she would be a stubborn leader, but so far she hasn't expressed it? Pepsi has yet to take her on a long ride, but we're kind of confused - we thought stubborn leaders spin you in circles straight off.

At any rate, she's not exactly the most elegant, well-mannered wonderland wild in the HI3 world. My sisters already seem quite fond of her anyway and have renamed her "Salami." Unless she starts circling, she's yet another strong herd contender. 

Yikes, how about a new year's resolution to one non-lucky find addition a month, guys? "Infinite Wilds" may be in the game's title, but in case you've forgotten, this does not apply to our horse slots!

Holiday Horses

Wow, did it ever snow here in the days leading up to Christmas! We received just shy of 2 feet of it, thanks to the storm and then lake effect afterwards. We're enjoying a slower-paced week now, and since Christmas on Sunday, it's been getting progressively warmer. Between the warmth and the rain, all that snow is melting quickly! Alarming thumping from the roof interspersed our movie-watching marathon yesterday - heavy snow clumps and icicles succumbing to melting and gravity.

HI3 gifted us with many fun wilds on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. 

Christmas Eve was the day of great personality wilds - we found two of them!

#1 had the most impressive personality... but also a very short neck.

We feel a bit guilty for not keeping this one - such a nice boy - but he handled like a bus, and we just couldn't get over the neck.

#2 is not exciting to look at: small, common color, no markings, and a short, pony-ish face, but there's nothing we find incredibly distracting conformation-wise either. She has a long mane and lovely light blue eyes, at least, which add some interest.

Pepsi's a bit big for her, but it's not comical. If we did keep her, I think we should call her Gingerbread, because how could we not when she's that color?

Bracken was Pepsi's lucky mount on Christmas morning.

We enjoyed lassoing wilds in the savanna (nice change of pace from all the snow and cold)

and then the festive red and green tundra.

A cute, leggy silver pinto

Ooh, snowflake on brindle!

Yay, a Christmas curly!

Our first really tempting wild was this manchado mare:

Her personality can't hold a candle to those Christmas Eve fall forest wilds, but at least she's not ornery enough to cause trouble. 

She's so adorably clunky, and I love what the manchado did to her mane. I think she may be one of those rare horses who get to stay just because of their looks. =) It was Christmas, after all.

We also think this one was super cute.

If she wasn't lazy, we'd be as tempted by her as Kali. We have wanted a grease spotted horse for quite some time, but so far there's always been something about the grease-spotted wilds we've found that rule out keeping them. 

Hmm, she's a good size for Pepsi. If only she wasn't lazy!

And now for a few real-life Christmas photos!

Santa and Mrs. Claus visited the neighborhood earlier in December. Charlie the horse pulled their carriage again! He's fleabitten gray up close - and very fluffy. <3

An SUV full of huskies (there were 3) loving the weather

The view on Christmas morning

Probably the whitest Christmas we will ever experience! 

The intense snow was over by this point, but it was still snow globe snowing for most of the day.

Oh, the anticipation!

Poor Nala was sick on Christmas and spent the whole morning resting quietly on the couch. (Not like her at all!) She's now being treated for doggie pneumonia and is slowly improving.

Prettiest present award

Mom's gifts! <3

Felicity in one of our new solid-colored t-shirts.

Lily modeling our new, very cozy nightgown. 

We have enough now for all of us to wear nightgowns at once.

Wishing everybody a wonderful end to the holiday season!