Horses in SL?

Who can predicts what happens during your life? Who would think ever to be tempted to buy a horse? Indeed, who could have imagined ever dreaming of a virtual horse?
Well, of course it is not me, Five, who is dreaming about horses, oh no!

It is Nugget Kidd, the man of the desert, always searching gold, where everybody has long left any hope. He was looking at some horses, which were roaming free in the desert of Virgin Island. Actually you can walk right through these horses, but be careful: they sometimes leave some droppings, no: quite a few!

But then came horses with people riding them, happy to have a whole sim to take their horses for a ride. And indeed these are beautiful animals. It is not only fun to look at, the animals have a wonderful structure. If you are looking through the right glasses, you can see that they have not four but even eight, yes eight legs. Miraculous how many legs you need to wonder about on horseback in a virtual world. Strange feature also is that the people riding the horses are really having a lot of fun, are relaxed and take their time to have a chat. (Of course they want to show off too, but well, who wouldn't?)

Five, always inquisitive, went on a tour to see other horses. You even can find a horse to do a rodeo act with. But really in town the horses are a bit strange. Then Five asked, do the horses really belong to this world? This Second Life world is a showcase of design, clean, clear cut, bright and shiny, fast moving Futuristic helicopters and spaceships are around every corner, so are smart sport cars. Even though we don’t need any transportation, being able to teleport and fly around. And may be even more important: never becoming tired of carrying the inventory with thousands of articles contained in it! A world of: no eating, no illness no hunger, ok now Five has found another one: no carrying things on your back, no hauling of suitcases. Brilliant!

Back to the horses. The horses a bit weird in the city, really transform the desert to nature, even more than trees and grasses, which always look a bit funny, a bit like the plants of quite a few hundredmillion years ago, the ferns, for instance. The vegetation of Second Life really is a bit prehistorical.

The horses whinny, they make dust, they make clattering sounds characteristic of westerns about horses. Five wouldn't even know if these sounds are realistic, but they are indeed like the ones you hear in the movies. It is a pity you cannot try one out. Not that the owners are refusing it. You cannot lend one because of the permissions: only the owner can ride them. Permissions rule the Second Life world! The owner would have to give them away to lend them for a ride, and who would give his horse away? “A kingdom for a horse!” wasn’t it?

Well Five bets that if Nugget finds gold somewhere that he also will soon be able to ride a horse. Although it is becoming dangerous out there in the sim, because there is settlement of some tribes of Indians, and quite a few fierce amazons are riding around too!