A brilliant day.

We took the boys (Iacs and Haakon) over to Sandness.  Haakon was shod as his feet were appalling.  I was worried his tölt would be affected, as we are going very nicely at the moment, but my fears were allayed.  Jo shod him perfectly and he continued to go like a dream.

After the shoeing, Daisy caught Hetja – my beautiful mare from Iceland.

And then we tacked up.  I love Icelandic horses.  They can be complete strangers and will just line up and shut up rather than have any altercation with each other.

And so we set off.  I was at the back with my camera-phone – sorry about the pics.

And onto the sandy beach we went.

Bliss.  It was all ours’.

Sadly, the sand was very deep so we didn’t dare gallop.

To be fair, though, none of the horses wanted to either.  Icelandics horses have a huge amount of self-preservation and were very happy to potter along in walk.

The sea was gorgeous.  Greenie blue and calm.

And the beach was magical.

After the beach, we went round the village.   Hetja was very interested in three “caddy” lambs – orphan lambs.

Iacs remained bemused while Haakon was completely disinterested.  He knows all about caddies.

Onwards to Huxter Mills where Hetja had a good stretch in trot and then tölt.  We stayed at the back.

Admiring the scenery until they returned.

A fab ride.  We left the boys at Sandness and hopefully tomorrow we can do this again.

Utter bliss.  All our cobwebs are blown out and my horse’s tölt is still amazing.