Hiya, all!
Well...
SL17B has just passed (don't worry, this year I got *ALL* the gifties and will be doing an unboxing post soon) ...but guess who gave discounts on their stunning creatures?
For the very helpful and friendly inworld * Teegle * group (full of creators too), copy/paste this into nearby chat
---> secondlife:///app/group/068d6c36-96f2-7fc5-af58-a7b99704f8d4/about
Yup!
Teegle horses can be pets or avatars. You can find 3rd party Teegle modifications on the
MP (search for "Teegle avatar" if you want the avatar parts, or "Teegle pet" if you want the rideable version modifications). ...And there are also ranches with
rezzers (which can be bought in the Acres region), so that guests may be provided with a Teegle horse to enjoy riding while visiting.
To buy your own, however, you'll first have to look the horse straight in the mouth and acquire it inworld,
here --->
At the Teegle region, they have a rather large store that's divided mainly into the pet section and the avatar section. Outside is also a large mall with the 3rd party creators of modifications (do check their profiles for their main stores that may be much larger, offering more, and do note that some creators choose not to advertise on MP because of the 10% cut
LL takes for providing the MP site). You will also find a sandbox here, so that you
can immediately set up your new pet and ride it, or unpack your avatar stuffs. ...............................................................................
You can buy
copy or no copy versions of the pet (do not worry about accidentally losing a no copy version, the management
HUD easily helps you get an immediate redelivery). Copy is a bit more expensive, but you have to weigh your personal preferences and see what works best for you.
You can add the pet from your inventory to ride it, or rez it and ride it like a vehicle. If you make an outfit with it, I suggest
Tapple's idea of altering your shape's hover height (as that will affect whether or not the horse stands on the ground properly, or sinks into it a bit). If you rez the horse, and especially if yours is no copy, make sure that you are able to rez
first, as chancing finding it in your inventory's lost and found
after relogging is indeed scary! ...However, I do like riding the rez version better because even with your AO turned off, some riding animations go a bit wonky (like you end up riding the air next to your horse sometimes for no reason ... it's in beta stages). Also, if you find some things hard to walk around on (bridges, rocks, invisible mesh prims, etc.) or are running into things (trees, statues, buildings, etc.), I like
Lav's trick of turning your horse "phantom" in the build menu.
Now, especially when you are purchasing 3rd party modifications, it's important to make sure that the item you want is made for whichever type of Teegle you are seeking, either the "pet" or "avatar" version. It is also important to make sure you are buying for your specific breed. This is because all things are
rigged, and some things may not look right on the different skeletons (for example, a
Shetland Pony is much smaller than a
Clydesdale, so those skeletons are, of course, way different).
My story is this...
Back in the day (February of 2015), I got an
AKK horse (the "
AKK XL09 Black Pegasus 3A," to be exact, also animated and mainly rideable from inventory because it's at 105 prims), which was the best of the best as far as horses go in
SL.
Amaretto horses are pretty cool too (and breedable), but I had my AKK custom made (and am still a fan of
flexi, even tho it's technically uncool now because it skyrockets
complexity) ... It's a black
alicorn with blue eyes, a long flexi mane + tail + leg feathers. I bought it as a pegasus, and
Kristivon Kolache was kind enough to give me a modifiable silver horn to put on it.
I absolutely l♥ve it, and have for years.
Now in November of 2018,
animesh came out. An exciting feature that makes
mesh objects look more realistic via animation (kind of like how
bento makes avatars look more realistic). ...I made an animesh teddy bear at one of
Toady's classes (seems really easy), but until I can replace my really old laptop, I don't really want to delve into making things in
Blender or
Avastar just yet ...I'm happy simply writing these blog posts and playing L$ earning games for now. ;)
Since I came from fantasy territory, I have a lot of friends also involved in that kind of fancy. Shortly after animesh came out, they all seemed to be recommending Teegle horses. I tucked that useful information away, somewhere in the cabinets of my mind.
Then I decided to go to SL17B and collect all the gifties. In the Tinseled region, I stumbled upon Teegle and noticed they were doing 20% off on all horses, 25% off all
Bellisseria Linden Home addons, 30% off select accessories and skins, and 50% off select barn decor! ...Needless to say, it got my wheels spinning.
It had been long enough since animesh came out, that I trusted the Teegle brand, and thought some research could be done into the best addons for my AKK alicorn upgrade ...Practically the last day of SL17B, LOL!
I spent all night going thru the Teegle catalog and the MP, bookmarking things I thought would look stunning. I joined the Teegle group and chomped at the bit for morning to come (yeah, I'm a graveyard shift nut), so that any knowledgable person would help fulfill my intense desire to understand just
how to make this alicorn upgrade happen --in time for the SL17B discount! ...I was trying to figure out the order of buying triage: did I
have to buy a Pegasus in order for my alicorn to have wings (in exchange for foregoing some things), was it harder to just buy the breed I wanted and get 3rd party wings to work/fit, or what in the world was the best way to go about upgrading/replacing everything I need for my new alicorn?
The first person to take me under their wing was
Devras of
Valkyrie Designed. She showed me some 3rd party winged horses she was working on and answered all my questions with kindness, professionalism, and even remembered scenarios with others who were also working with 3rd party wings. I l♥ve her textures, I later bought her fabulous
Silver Viking hooves design. :) She encouraged me to not give up or get frustrated, as the reason why she started making things was because she also couldn't find what she wanted.
I kinda got the idea to talk to Tapple. I had no idea who she was when I first IMed her, but I saw that she was a part of the Cherrywood Falls group, and I think Devras might've mentioned her. Tapple is really cool. I didn't know it then, but she's actually the
scriptor for Teegle!
I was telling Tapple about my conundrum with trying to make an alicorn to replace/upgrade my AKK horse ...that I wasn't sure what needed to be bought first, and that since the Pegasus is so new, there aren't a lot of 3rd party creations out there yet --as someone in chat also informed me that the Pegasus mane isn't long enough to take any texture applier replacements for the long, gorgeous hair I wanted --so I would have to find a rigged replacement for the Pegasus breed, which is yet to exist (for what I wanted, anyway) ...and on and on and impossibly on, in a nauseating laundry list I tried to mostly spare her from! :p
...Tapple actually took me to the sandbox and rezzed out the
Friesian (that I l♥ve, since it mostly looks like my old AKK alicorn, considering the long mane, tail, AND leg feathers) and the
Pegasus, to see if they would merge! ...And well, they
did!!! --I told her I needed to buy it, or I would die (LOL)! So she gave me (and a few other maybe listeners in nearby chat) the secret for doing so, and left the Friesian Pegasus there
in the sandbox for everyone to admire for the day.
I immediately went back to Tinseled and bought both the Friesian and the Pegasus. Then I went to my sandbox and merged them! It was quite simple, really. Most of my time was spent reading the manual for the first time.
Then I went to
Cinnamon's store and picked up the coat and wings applier I drooled over at
Fantasy Faire. But I couldn't stop. This was
finally happening, and it's the BEST thing since sliced bread, because I got to design
exactly how my personal alicorn would look! ...From my earlier bookmarks, I bought eyes from
Tutto è Vanità & SharkBox. The Deluxe Cho tail from
Abaddon Arts.
The Double Spiral Unicorn Horn from
The Silver Unicorn.
REIN's
Cloven Hooves (upon Devras recommending their store), and even tho they were made for the Unicorn, I got lucky because they worked and look so beautiful on my Friesian hybrid. ...I tinted and messed with things until the cows came home, wondering why they weren't branded by Teegle as well! xD
...All in all, 51 prims. That's a pretty great start, you know, just in case I find anything super-spectacular-crazy I just NEED to add or swap out! No saddles or bridles, tho (unless maybe, for some reason,
Monstaar re-releases the purple RFL
chantilly rose drape). ...My alicorn is a bit feral, and I encourage it. Haven't quite decided on the name yet, either. Started with "Swift" and for now it's "Luna Noire." :p ...BTW, it might be wise to keep a notecard of every complicated adjustment you make to a no copy horse, so you can easily recreate it, should a redelivery need to occur. ;)
There were only 2 things I bought that didn't work. Some horseshoes that were made for the Unicorn breed, but you know, I got the cloven hooves that worked and were supposedly for Unicorns, so... :p ...guess I gave those L$ up to the universe. Well, actually, Tapple says if I ever buy the Unicorn, I'm ready with shoes, so... :) And then I also bought a different kind of unicorn horn, which technically
does work (as in, it goes on the Friesian correctly), but I ended up liking the double-spiral one much better. *shrug*
Teegles are pretty hard to screw up building, because everything is rigged... So even if you link your new mane while it may look like it's set up to be the tail (or worse), once it's linked, it automatically moves to the correct spot on the horse's body.
...However, I had to have my 2 no copy Frankenstein horses redelivered 4 times (yes, you have to re-customize them each time they're redelivered, because they come fresh + your old horse vanishes ...Unless you remember to unlink the parts you already customized, before requesting a redelivery)... because while building, I came to understand that the eyes, gender (which I changed to female, so that specific part goes transparent/alpha), AND hooves are all ONE piece, referred to as "the body" ...As when I was messing around with the cloven hooves and shoes, I was un/linking / replacing the old parts, and then left wondering WTF happened to my alicorn's eyes, LOL!
And then when I kept the original hooves on (just making them transparent via select face), and added the cloven hooves ... their
alpha transparencies began to conflict with each other and I felt like my horse was wearing long mesh hair, with a mesh dress, all on top of a BoM body, OMG! xD ...So I reinforced the learned idea that "alpha masking" is always the best thing to do (not "alpha blending")! ...And yeah, I also kinda have plans to make a blog entry on my mesh hair adventures, especially including the alpha transparency disasters and fixes, for you all too (as, yes, even mesh hair still has alpha transparencies, apparently). :p 
The first person to take me under their wing was Devras of Valkyrie Designed. She showed me some 3rd party winged horses she was working on and answered all my questions with kindness, professionalism, and even remembered scenarios with others who were also working with 3rd party wings. I l♥ve her textures, I later bought her fabulous Silver Viking hooves design. :) She encouraged me to not give up or get frustrated, as the reason why she started making things was because she also couldn't find what she wanted.
Then I went to Cinnamon's store and picked up the coat and wings applier I drooled over at Fantasy Faire. But I couldn't stop. This was finally happening, and it's the BEST thing since sliced bread, because I got to design exactly how my personal alicorn would look! ...From my earlier bookmarks, I bought eyes from Tutto è Vanità & SharkBox. The Deluxe Cho tail from Abaddon Arts. The Double Spiral Unicorn Horn from The Silver Unicorn. REIN's Cloven Hooves (upon Devras recommending their store), and even tho they were made for the Unicorn, I got lucky because they worked and look so beautiful on my Friesian hybrid. ...I tinted and messed with things until the cows came home, wondering why they weren't branded by Teegle as well! xD
The best part of all this, is that not only do you get to show off your horse ...but you become a part of an outstanding community. They all seem very cool. Creators and enthusiasts, willing to help you in chat (so no need to overwhelm creators with NCs). Plus a lot of ppl take pride in their ranches too! There's all kinds of trails you can ride your horse on. And you can even participate in scheduled riding events. Just check the Teegle group notices or ask someone to pass you that NC. :)