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.

Today has not been brilliant.

Reasons:-

• There was a tissue in the wash.  I HATE TISSUES IN THE WASH. It went everywhere and yes, the clothes were black.  The worst type of colour for a tissue involvement.
• Then my lovely Rudall Carte flute broke while I was practising duets.  It was stuck playing B♭ instead of B.  This resulted in Daisy and I only playing F major or D minor music.  It makes practice limiting not that we were trying very hard.

So the big lads came round to cheer me up.

Yes, Daisy had left the front door open and let in a handsome one ….

… who was very curious.

BeAnne did her best to repel borders…..

….. until others were involved.

Mugshots of the intruders were taken for the police.

Being mugged by the boys makes me smile.  If they could beg, they would, so obviously carrots were dutifully dished out in large quantities.  Daisy and I even considered letting them into the sitting room but my OH would’ve seriously objected.

Visitors fully make up for the tissue/washing debacle as well as the stuck B♭ on my flute.

What do The Minions love to do best?

Yup, play….

Endlessly.

On a nice day, I like having them around the house (around, not in) so today their gate was opened.

They moseyed (sp?) about looking bored and I brought out “the toy box” – buckets, empty ice-cream and large yoghurt cartons.

Hours of fun, all in an old ice-cream carton

You can argue over it.

  

You can take it for a walk to show everyone that you can!

You can even trot with one and take it places.

And then look smug that you have it.

Storm is different.  He is not so enamoured by the toys.  He likes to stand and be scratched, hugged, kissed and told he is a good boy. Daisy is his slave.  Actually, we are all his slave.

How we all suffer.  It is very hard work.

Hello!

It’s Daisy here, having drawn the short straw of writing the blog. Mum has been reliving her nursing days by assisting our neighbour with transport to the hospital.  I wasn’t sure if I was up to the challenge of looking after the entire household/horsehold/doghold/cathold.

So it was up to me to walk the dogs today.

The search for rabbits ensued.

Loki prefers to jump across the burn rather than get his paws wet.

Meanwhile, BeAnne ponders life, gazing at her own reflection.

When Mum returned, we went to see the Bebbies.

There was constant competition for attention between the Bebbies and BeAnne.

I think we can agree who won.

Last but not least….

A photo of the author who deserves your appreciation for keeping this blog going everyday. Which is no easy task (believe me!).

 

What can you say when some amazing folk send you some amazing gifts from America.

It was better than Christmas and we had a great time opening our parcel.  Amongst the marvellous treasures were these.  Laugh? We howled.

So then it was obvious what we had to do next.  And we did.  Yup we did.

We had a bit of a forelock dilemma.  In or out?  I think out.

But, I hope you will agree, The Minions wore them better than any human, or mouse, could.

They loved their new wardrobe and didn’t object or mind at all.  And yes, playing in the background, was a great Disney CD.  Did we sing along?  Of course we did!

I think every Shetland pony should have one.

Mandatory uniform.

(I refuse to be stuffy about this!  Brilliant, utterly brilliant)