The end of Hurricane Gonzalo, and we are having a “severe gale”. Enjoy this Revised Shetland Edition of the Beaufort Scale. It makes me smile smugly every time it does the rounds on Facebook.

Anyway, I have moved the horses and ponies to a field with shelter and long grass as it is a northerly and we all hate northerlies.  Cold bitter weather. Instead, I am looking at back at old photos of past glory.

Once upon a time we were a riding, driving and trekking school.

This is Haakon teaching Hannah how to jump.  First you show him the jump.

And then he refuses!  Mwhahaha!

We had horses and ponies of all sizes for our clients.

As well as lessons, we encouraged the sport of horse football.

If we were going out, we took everyone on either a one or two hour trek into the hill.

You can see Daisy (aged11) at the back who rode Andy as we had “sold” her horse to a punter. I remember her being furious with us for this.  Someone might’ve glibly said “well, ride Andy then”, so she stomped off, caught and tacked him up and did.  She still rides him!

This is a very young Flossie driving Andy.  She must’ve been just 9 years old here.  Andy is still going strong. He is loaned out to a family and enjoys wearing children.

Obviously all our horses were rewarded for their constant hard work.  This is Haakon having his 11th birthday cupcake.  Note the lit candle for him to blow out.

Sadly he hated the taste (minus candle) but luckily Celt, who is lurking on the right, hoovered it up on his his behalf.  Celt was good like that!

I could watch the horses play all day.  It is an essential part of their life in the herd.  This how horses and ponies learn to be just that, horses and ponies.

They don’t learn this from living on their own or with a sheep for company or being visited once a day by a person.  That teaches nothing useful.  The ability to play is the foundation for everything else in my opinion.  It is very important and very natural and very necessary.

AND NO THEY ARE NOT FIGHTING AND NO I AM NOT GOING TO SEPARATE THEM!

(just don’t start me on telling the difference – I can tell the difference.  Can’t you hear them giggling from here?)

Even the older big boys play – in the foreground is Haakon face-biting with Taktur.  Haakon is the herd leader and he loves playing still aged 20.  He will instigate this game too.

Waffle was not in the mood for games and I like the way no one hassles him.

But these two little people were determined to chase each other, trying to bite bottoms.

Practising their show-jumping.

The unexpected Jungle Book Elephant March pile-up!

Don’t think little Storm is being victimised.

He gives as good as he gets,

and some!

And then it is his turn to torment his friend.

They never stop and they are very happy.

The bird table has always been a source of great interest in our family.

It is placed just outside the kitchen window and we get all sorts visiting.

Our pets over the years have used their skills to steal the food from it, even to the point of being a full-time job to some.  This is Willyum’s tried and tested modus operandi.

As you can see, he is using the Subtle-as-a-Brick Method.  You can barely see him.  Scary stuff.

Loki is now on site and don’t let this innocent face fool you.  Lurchers were bred to steal small game from the Royal forests (apparently).

Ok, so we have no Royal forests around, but we do have The Bird Table!

Smaller dogs like BeAnne and Jack can also take full advantage from the crumbs that fall.

It can have disastrous results too.  Jack, in his youth ate a whole cake of lamb fat and grain.   You can imagine the results and yes, it was that bad.

Anyway, today the starlings were on great form, arguing and shouting at each other.

I want to feed the little birds too.  I briefly saw a robin this morning (no pic) and we always have sparrows (is that Mr and Mrs?) and blackbirds (Mrs?).

Oh yes, the horses.  Well I gave in this morning.  We are about to have some vile weather and I hate watching Kappi and Klaengur in their miserable muddy park.  So I opened the gate and hope The Minions will annoy them sufficiently not to let them get fat again!

So while Kappi and Klaengur did not lift their heads from the grass for 6 hours solidly, others had a nice time killing each other for fun!

I didn’t want to get out of bed this morning.

Her Maj had jumped into bed at about 05:00 when the weather sounded fierce and noisy outside so we woke up while she went quickly to sleep!

My back was crunching, clicking and hurting while my right foot is becoming increasingly numb. I have odd sensations all the time now. .  Sometimes I am convinced that I am walking in a puddle but there is nothing.

This was definitely a two co-codamol day.

I do have one chore that must be done –  to give Taktur his daily hard feed.

This is not Taktur, obviously, this is the little person who squirted through the gate with him and refused point blank to go back.

Being the nice person I am, I let him stay and gave him the empty bowl (to transfer the feed) to lick out.

And yes, he did sit in it afterwards…..

And roll like he always has to.

Iacs was very unimpressed with this obvious favouritism.

Using his Jedi Mind Trick, he tried to convince me that he needed feeding.  I am immune to this battle of wills.

Sorry Iacs.

I am feeling terrible.

Two of The Minions had escaped into the next door field (mine – and they had gone under the fence via the stream).

So, Jo very kindly was trying to put them back into the right field. I think her precise words were “it is like herding cats”.  Anywho, I thought I would help as The Minions are basically my responsibility (read problem).

I climbed over the fence into the field of errant Minions who were running unhelpfully backwards and forwards through the open gate.  To keep others from joining the runaways, I threw a headcollar at them and it hit Waffle squarely in the face.

I saw the look he gave me.  Oh God, what had I done?

So once everyone was finally where they were supposed to be, I went to talk to Waffle.  He turned his back and walked away.  With that my heart broke.  I knew what I had to do.

I filled my pockets with carrots and went to sit in the field.

Instantly, as if by magic, I was forgiven and I am very lucky that Waffle is being nice to me now.

As a reward for his generous character, I let him eat my camera.

I will continue to feel awful.  I let my Waffle down and he never expected it from anyone, let alone me.

Guilt is a terrible thing.  I have a place set aside for me in Hell now (if not already).