Daisy and I mucked out the bebbies’ original stable.  At the time we had gone down the deep litter route..  It needed doing, they had moved out and Jo/Fiona were working on the trailer ramp.  So Daisy and I rolled up our sleeves, shovelled and moved the festering contents of the stable floor.  No more deep litter ever.  I refuse to discuss it as an option.  Just a pile of shit mounting up every day.  Loathesome and very hard work.  There is no avoiding the work and my back suffered.

Two co-codamol later, you could eat your supper off that stable floor and I was dead.  So I grabbed my coat, my camera and went into the Icelandic horses’  field. Everyone was having a snooze so I thought I would join them.

I walked a wide circle around the snoozers, found a dry(ish) spot, put my coat on the ground and lay down to catch some rays and Vitamin D.

One by one, Hetja, Esja and Klængur stood up and walked up to my prone body.  They investigated me very carefully.  I was sniffed and breathed on.  My glasses were fogged up by Hetja who had never seen any human resting in her field.  It worried her, I think.

Klængur was very interesting – he stood in between Hetja and Esja and let them know what was acceptable behaviour and who was invading my space.   He would stop them and get in their way.

I felt very safe and relaxed.  Eventually, the girls were bored and walked away, but Klængur stayed, gently nudging me while I kissed his nosey. He is very orange.

I took a few “weird” photos from strange angles, i.e. lying on the ground.

Meanwhile, once the trailer ramp was mended, we took the bebbies back home to Thordale.

Life is good!

I feel exhausted.  I think it is from the release of the results of yesterday.

In an attempt to redeem myself and this blog, here are some recent photos of the bebbies, who are doing very well.

Storm (inaTeacup) likes to scratch his bum endlessly on the fence.  We have checked for “friends and relations” but there is nothing evident.  He is so small, he doesn’t damage the fence like some fat Shetland pony arses.

I will admit that he is my absolute favourite – the most loving, gentle and a real “cutie patootie”.  He is very wuffly.

TorBjørn is a darling too.  He is impossible because I can never get far away enough to take a photo.  My constant shadow who has a cheeky little sense of humour.

I have decided to keep both these ponies as they have wormed their way into my life.  They are each the size of a large (ish) dog and behave not dissimilarly too.

Silver will go back to his breeder in a few weeks/months, when he is ready to travel and when the sea is calm. He comes from another island.   Although a little more aloof, I am very fond of him but have not let him into my heart.

He is definitely one of the boys, though, and we will all be sad to see him go.

So, when my life has settled down (and we have mended the trailer ramp), I will bring my little family home.  When I write home, I do not mean they will live in the house even though Daisy has plans.

My biopsy results came back – NEGATIVE!

Yay. I am so relieved.  That was the longest 12 days of my life and I went through a gamut of emotions and scenarios in my head.

While I was waiting for the phone to ring, I busied myself by having a riding lesson with Bjørn.  I rode Haakon, who has been off-games for a few months due to various reasons (his and mine).  I want to get Haakon’s tölt back, maintain the regular beat and keep it going.  He does suffer from “kangaroo petrol” on occasions and falls out of tölt into pace.  I know it is my fault, I just needed some pointers on what to do from Bjørn.

Apparently it is all about the half-halts, doing stuff in a working walk, cornering properly (half halt, then leg yield round) and a combination of everything.  Once I learned what to do, we were tölting round  and round the school, never falling into pace.

Happy, happy.

I appear to suffer from “bitchy concentrating face”.  Anyway, I don’t care, I love my horse.

Daisy had a lesson on Taktur, her stallion.  She will ride him most days until she goes back to uni.  We all decided that Taktur had put on weight and was going well apart from testing Daisy a bit.  She did, he learned and they went like demons round and round.

Bjørn had a shot too so he could feel what Taktur was doing and how best to help Daisy when she was riding.

One more go for Daisy.  Taktur was tired and had achieved and learned.  I love that horse, too.

Meanwhile, BeAnne, as usual, spent hours taking notes and an interest.

Previously, she had been very busy working as Iacs’ brain!

Sunday afternoon.  I had ridden Haakon in the school, fed Iacs his Danilon (lame again, why?), and Taktur his special grub, so I went for a drive around the westside to see what I could see with my camera, of course.

First I went down to Dale Beach to look at the waves.  Not brilliant but still impressive.  The sun shone in patches and the rain appeared briefly too.  Still, it was pretty and atmospheric.

Then follow the road round right into the hill where there are some hill ponies this winter.  With their straggly winter coats, they are doing well out there.  The ponies don’t actually roam far from home so someone is always keeping an eye on them.  I like seeing them as this is how I imagine Shetland always was.

Then back to Bousta to see what my seal fraternity were doing.

Nothing, as usual.  I took some more photos and watched them for a while – turn the sound down btw on the film – that is the wind blowing incessantly.

Funny little jelly blobs really.  I swear my piano teacher at school did not look dissimilar.  She had the same disapproving expression.

So, after another shower of rain, I wended my way home on the look out for the mountain hares in their white winter fur.   They “shine like a shilling in a sweep’s arse” on the brown heather.

Not exactly well camouflaged and very easy to spot in the hill.

This is the time of year when they pair up.  I shall keep a constant look out for them.  I love hares.

Rode my horse, had lunch and drove off to see the bebbies at Sandness.   Jo happened to remark that there were seals at Bousta (the bay at the end of her road).

BeAnne and I drove off to look and there was the harem.  Did you know that the collective noun for seals, amongst many others is HAREM? (tis true, says so here)

I have never seen so many just lazing on the beach in the sporadic sunshine.

I left BeAnne in the car, under pain of death if she uttered a noise or moved.

and then I slowly snuck up on four seals lying on a small jetty.

The two big ones swam away quickly but the other two stayed put.

The one on the right was very precariously balanced and reminded me of someone.

I didn’t want to scare them so I walked very slowly, taking small paces, stopping and avoiding eye contact.  I also sang because I remembered somewhere that you should sing to seals.  I sang softly and the seals didn’t seem perturbed by my presence.  They just lay there and watched me, intrigued.

After getting very close (about 12 foot away before they calmly slid off their jetty into the sea), I got back into the car and drove slowly down the track on the side of the beach using the car as my hide.  The seals, again, just lay there.  I suppose they are used to cars as the track leads to a house.  I poked my camera lens out of the window and snapped away quietly without scaring them.

I have a very soft spot for seals but I am well aware that they are not the cuddly-wuddlies we want them to be.  They can kill dogs so I do not encourage my dogs to swim in the sea, ever.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-19882985