I spent the morning with Taktur, my newly trained Icelandic stallion.

He likes to have time away from the herd and he saw me trying to take photos of the beautiful orchids in his field, so walked up for a chat.

While I was bending over to capture the orchids, he nuzzled my neck, so I straightened myself up to give him some old chopped up broccoli stalk that I had in my pocket.  I would not put myself in such a potentially dangerous position if the rest of the herd were there.

Taktur stayed around, while I was taking my photos.  Occasionally, he would take an interest and ask for another piece of stalk but mostly he was just watching the world around him.  He is a very gentle soul who is incredibly honest.  He communicates all the time and so is very easy to talk to.

I have always been used to Indy and his “little ways” but Taktur is just black and white.  He takes it all in, assesses it and makes his decision based on those around him and their reactions.  He has a very mature head on such young shoulders.  He is only 4 years old.  Most 4 year old entire horses are thinking with other parts of their anatomy.

So I pottered about and he pottered about and we enjoyed each other’s company for a while.  Ours is an uncomplicated relationship at the moment.  I suppose when he meets girls and goes out more, we will hit the Kevin Years.  It always happens.

After the pottering, Taktur looked up and decided to re-join his herd again.

They had been on the horizon eating, not bothering that he had gone somewhere else.

Taktur does remind me of Ferdinand the Bull – a character in a story by Hector Munro, (with gorgeous illustrations by Robert Lawson).  Taktur, too, would like to just sit and smell the flowers in the ladies’ hair.

When he got to the middle of the ring he saw the flowers in all the 
lovely ladies' hair and he just sat down quietly and smelled.