Thoughts on the first week of the 2026 Equestrian Festival (from an irl equestrian):
This is my third Equestrian Festival and something about it feels… off. I can’t put my finger on in yet, but I‘ll try to collect my thoughts below.
1. Overall Vibe: When I think of the equestrian festival I think of prestige, neat hairstyles, expensive horse breeds, serious competetion, and everything being perfectly in order. Something about this year feels messy. Idk if it‘s the overall set up or the silly bouncy horses + the mascot. I understand and support the idea to add a little silliness to the seriousness, BUT with the mascot kinda leading the whole quest line it seems a little too much for me. I also really miss the baroness, it all tied together so perfectly. There‘s also small things like the sand color changing with races that make it feel messy?
In their blog they mentioned that they want to loosen the reins on the concept a bit, which I STRONGLY disagree with. One of SSO‘s main problems has been that it doesn‘t know where to go, what their core content should be, etc. and this decision kinda mirrors that imo. They argued that they don’t want to limit the Equestrian Event to only english riding which I don’t understand, because it seems perfectly reasonable to me to have one event per year for the two most popular riding styles respectively (English & Western). This way both would have a clear identity…
2. Sabine. We HAVE to talk about her, because let‘s be honest: For many of us (especially queers!) she‘s the highlight of the event, maybe even the year in SSO. I understand that they don’t want to keep repeating the same quests over and over again, but entirely taking them out next year makes even less sense imo, considering how loved she is by the fandom. What I find especially weird is how heavily she was advertised these past years and how now they comprimised her quests to two weeks, didn‘t advertise her at all and didn‘t give us a final quest. If you‘re going to take her out, AT LEAST give her a respectful, spectacular last year…
3. This ties back to the other two points: WHY is there not a singular familiar character except for Sabine and the Soul Riders? This is an issue I have adressed often, and it’s called wasted potential. They have SO many interesting, memorable characters which make Jorvik feel like home and who could use more lore. We even have the parade, which in itsself is a great idea(!) but WHY are the parties not led by their actual leaders? Where is Loretta? Where is Ginny? Where is the Baroness? Where is Herman? Where are any of the Medieval Camp characters? This is such a blatantly stupid decision and it bothers me because they keep adding new characters who are nothing but hallow shells, thrown away, while we are desperate for some substance in the game.
On a brighter note: I love the c*nty leopard set, it‘s so camp. In summary I hope that they move the silly parts of this year‘s Equestrian Festival to a different event, like Rainbow Event, it would fit the mood much better and remember to have core values with their events. Remembering the core of their game, characters, events, quests, etc. is my general advice rn.
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annaxmalina
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