August 2022 ~ Player of the Month

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August 2022 ~ Player of the Month

🐈~BV~Keep Staring At The Stars⭐🎵
August 6th, 2022 8:49:02pm
8,092 Posts

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It's not too late to do so!

August's Player of the Month!

A Huge Congratulations to Utakata!

Utakata (#28582) has been chosen to be in this month's spotlight! Her personality shines just like her pretty graphics!

Community Chatter
"I LOVE LOVE LOVE Uta! She is so sweet, so fun to chat with, and the ARTWORK?! Literally so stunning, I cannot scream enough about it!!"
"Always super sweet in chat, and willing to help out!"

The Interview Questions!
Anyone who wins P.o.t.M. can answer as many or all of the questions as they feel comfortable answering!

......HP Questions......
1. How did you first learn about us?
Via HL, of course!

2. What is your favorite thing about HP?
The community can be so amazing and supportive, and I love the fact that we have players from all over contributing and sharing their own little corner of the world.

3. How long have you been playing for?
According to my account, 2012, though in truth this wasn't my first HP account (4815, RIP). I was also inactive between 2014-spring 2021, so realistically speaking I guess it's been about 3 years total?

4. How did you come up with your player name?
I actually used to go by 'Karma' on HP (amongst others that I can no longer recall). 'Utakata' is a) a song name (hey, 10 years ago I was 18 okay, we all make those decisions) and has a dual meaning of 'ephemeral/sea foam or bubbles'. It's also a tattoo that I have on the back of my neck from That Phase.

5. What is your favorite breed of horse or dog to train?
Oooh I can't choose between Dutchies and Lusitanos! Obviously I adore Lusitanos as I'm the breed ambassador, but I like to think that I essentially have 2 main breeds.

6. What caused you to pick the breed(s) you train and breed?
I have around 15 breeds currently, so I'll just pick my 2 mains, otherwise I'll be rambling on forever!
DWBs - as a dressage rider, I've worked with a lot of WBs in recent years, and my dear Callie was a Dutch Warmblood, so I had to pick them on here.
Lusos – lifelong obsession with fairytale horses that blossomed into full on love-affair when I worked with Lusitanos in Portugal.

7. How do you come up with names for your animals?
Oh it's completely all over the place. Some are names from nature (i.e. floral or celestial themes), others inspired by my favourite Books/TV Series/Films/Music, etc.

8. What are your current goals on HP?
Desperately attempt to keep up with my Private Show obsession. It's a real problem. XD
Also attempt to save for a Top Secret project! (which is being rather hindered by the aforementioned private show obsession, it has to be said...)

9. Do you have a favorite animal? (It can be your own or another player’s you admire!)
I'm constantly blown away by the dedication shown by players on this game. 'Perfect in Every Way' definitely deserves a mention because just daaaamnn! And I can't not mention City of Angels' 'Outlaw' because not only is she hella impressive but I was also lucky enough to be given one of her babies.
Of my own, of course Calypso (354225) holds a special place in my heart as she was inspired by my real-life horse and remains the highest-pointed horse that I've ever trained. And Gil-Estel, for being the no tickets/shows mascot champion of 2022, entered by Jaya and myself.

10. Who’s your go-to graphic artist or coder? Are there any services you offer?
Ooh this is a tricky one because there are so many talented artists on this game. I'm an absolute sucker for any images that Mako makes though, always know I'm gonna be a little bit poorer when she posts stuff in the auctions!
Coding-wise, I love working with Aeon (who has the patience of a saint with all my annoying little requests!) and snag spots from Mango whenever I have the opportunity.
And I offer graphics services here; which is something that I have really enjoyed getting back into over the last year and a bit after 8 years away from photoshop.

11. What is your favorite Site-Wide yearly event?
I really enjoyed taking part in the Mascot contest with Jaya this year (for the first time), and also love the '24 Days of Christmas' events. Recently I've been a bit busy with real-life stuff so have had less time for HP events, but hope to be able to get more involved again over the remainder of the summer.

12. What other contests or activities do you usually participate in?
City has somehow managed to get me into doing puzzles, and even though I'm absolutely awful at them, they are strangely addictive! Also bingo, which I had never done before coming back to HP.

13. Do you have any training or breeding tips to share?
Remember to breed on the right day?! Honestly, I'm awful for forgetting when my horses are due to breed. I'm also a serious private show addict which my HP bank account hates me for, but the points really do add up.

14. Which seasonal layout art is your favorite?
I'm so forgetful that I can't actually recall what the others look like, so I'll go with Summer!

15. If you could change one thing about HP, what would it be and why?
I feel like one of HPs biggest strengths is that it knows exactly what kind of game it is, if that makes sense? I love that suggestions from the players are actively considered, but also that nothing is ever implemented that would over-complicate or change the nature of how the game works. We all saw what happened to HL...

16. What do you spend most of your time on HP doing?
Private shows, private shows, and more private shows... though realistically, the HP-related activity that takes up most of my time would be playing in Photoshop.

17. What is your favorite Club?
Probably the Sport Horse Club – Kury, Nad and I ran it for a while last year, and it's most closely related to the part of the Equestrian industry that I've worked within.

......Real Life & Random Questions......
1. Where are you from?
The UK!

2. Does your place of residence have any sort of quirky history fact or legend/tradition, and if so, what is it?
-is the least patriotic human in the history of mankind- uhh... tea? King Arthur...? The monarchy?!

3. What do you do for work?
I'm currently a full-time student on a Veterinary Physiotherapy degree course, but previously was a groom/rider for the best part of a decade.

4. Do you own any horses or dogs?
No ponies currently, but we have 2 dogs: Willow, a little red and white collie who I adore far too much; and Odin, a very neurotic but very sweet GSD.

5. Do you have any other types of pets at home?
One very badass chicken who has somehow managed to survive every hurdle life has thrown at her.

6. What are your favorite breeds of horse and dog?
Favourite breeds of horse are def Lusitano and Warmbloods; dogs are Collies, though I'm also a bit in love with any kinda sighthound!

7. Do you have any hobbies? If so, what are they?
Riding (surprise surprise), both reading and writing fiction, going for good long hikes with the puppers (we're lucky enough to live in a very beautiful part of the UK), PC gaming (RPGs for the most part).

8. What’s your favorite color?
Deep purple.

9. What’s your favorite Holiday or Month?
Anything where it's warm (as in, upwards of 25c) and sunny! Sadly we're not so big on dedicated Holidays in the UK, but Halloween would 100% take top spot. Gimme all the dark, spooky, creepiness.

10. Do you have a favorite vacation spot? If so, what or where is it?
Torn between Spain and Portugal. City-wise, definitely Barcelona. But I have sentimental ties to Portugal from the time I spent living over there.

11. Do you have any special talents? If so, what are they?
Heavens, no!

12. If you could own any breed of horse, what would it be and why?
Lusitano, because they are the BEST xD

13. If you could own any breed of dog, what would it be and why?
I would just choose Willow, because she really is the perfect dog for us.

14. If you could meet any celebrity, who would it be and why?
There are so many people who would be so interesting to meet for a wide variety of reasons, it's impossible to single one specific person out, and I'm such a hermit that I'm just not that big on celebrities?! But Stephen Fry would probably be a fun dinner guest; and I'd love to set up a play date between Henry Cavill and my boyfriend and watch them nerd out about warhammer together.

15. If you could travel anywhere, where would you go and why?
I want to go pretty much everywhere so it's hard to choose, but I'd have to go with New Zealand. We're hoping to go once I graduate, but 2 years feels like a long time away.

16. What would be your dream job?
Honestly, riding beautiful horses in the sun every day and dipping in the pool at lunchtimes was pretty great? Wouldn't complain about being able to do that every day were money not an issue!
Realistically speaking, I would love to be able to run my own Equine Rehabilitation yard – it's a bit of a costly and ambitious dream, but you never know!

17. What would be your dream meal of choice?
Really good Greek OR Japanese food. Not hugely fussy on the specific dish.

18. What is the top thing on your Bucket List?
In terms of something that I can actually tick off of a list rather than like... broader lifetime accomplishments... I want to ride a Grand-Prix Freestyle dressage test one day. Might not happen until I'm ancient, but I can wait. I have too many music ideas! Also just travelling and riding all over the world...

19. What talent do you wish you had?
A reliable immune system? Mine is thoroughly lacking in ability and is most disappointing in performance.

20. What is your favorite ice cream flavor?
Less ice cream, more Mango Sorbet

21. What is something you fear?
Shallow version = spiders; deep version = never being consistently healthy enough to achieve all that I want to in life.

22. What’s the funniest joke you heard recently?
Honestly no clue; I'm more of an anecdote person than one-liners, I guess? But Eddie Izzard's Glorious will forever be, well... glorious.

23. What Meme do you currently relate to? (please provide the pic link)
Clicky

24. Any good books or comics that you’ve read recently?
My 'comfort' reads will always be Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett.
But I'm also a big fan of Joe Abercrombie's books (primarily The First Law/Age of Madness and all the standalones set in the verse), Scott Lynch's 'Gentlemen Bastards' series, and Samanatha Shannon's 'The Mime Order' series.

25. Any good movies or shows you’ve seen lately?
Seriously late to the party, but just watched the recent 'Emma' (with Anya Taylor-Joy and Johnny Flynn) and thought it was delightful. Also went to see the latest Thor film with City which was crazy good fun.

26. What is your go-to show to stream? (Via Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, etc.)
The Expanse for quality, Farscape for nostalgia (both on Amazon Prime currently, I believe)

27. If you could transport yourself to any decade of past history, what would it be and why?
As a complete and utter history nerd, this is a difficult one... though I'd probably want to be able to visit past times without necessarily having to be actively involved! One of my favourite places in the world is Delphi, in Greece; my mother is Greek and I was raised on Greek legends and myths, so have always been fascinated by the classical world. I'd love to be able to go back in time and see all the temples as they would have been.

28. What is your favorite kind of pizza?
I'm really not fussy, just gimme the pizza (and try to make sure there are olives on it)

New Nominations Open Now Through August 23rd!

VOTING FORM: Clicky Here!

All Requirements, Information, and New Nominations can be found here: Player of the Month Thread

:D
~Broken Vow (#22700)