HGG Community Forums

For horses that were bred or created before the the newer images came into the game, the thumbnail image in the search will be the original appearance of that horse. When you open the page of one of these horses, its portrait will be automatically updated to the new look, but the thumbnail will not be instantly updated; it will keep the old appearance of the horse. If you refresh the search results, then the thumbnail will update to the new look.

I have not deliberately checked out what happens to the thumbnail when you close the search page and then do a new search that contains one of these horses in its results. Usually, I refresh the search page that contains these newly updated horses before I shut it down, so that both images will match.

Horses also retain their foal image in the thumbnail, even when they have turned two (or even older if you have as many horses as I do), until you open their page up again and they automatically refresh to the adult image.

I think this is part of Ammit's strategy to save server space and working time. Images and especially the thumbnails are not automatically updated to the current status of the horse or the image generation programming unless you look at the horse. This way the server doesn't have to utilize its resources updating thousands and thousands and thousands of horses every time Ammit adjusts how a color or pattern works or when the year changes and thousands and thousands of foals age up to adult status.

That sounds like the usual thing that happens when you check out a foal that has since grown up. It's not nearly so alarming when you expect it to happen, though.