The old biddies, as they are officially known – Delia (Raw Deal) and Minnie (Vitamin) have been moved into a huge field with Lyra (PantsonFyra) and Moose (Zoot).

This field hasn’t been grazed since last winter and there is lots in there for them.  They are all looking very good.  Delia, though thin, is holding her weight and seems happy enough. This is a photo of Lyra’s backside.

Jo had bought them a bucket of mineral/feed lick which stunk of garlic.  Just taking the lid off in her car had resulted in marinading the interior.

Anyway, who cares, as long as the girls like it.

  

They all seemed fairly happy to share though Minnie swung her pants a few times to get first dibs.  She is the herd matriarch.

But she did allow others to have a go too.

She even told her daughter, Lyra, this.

Lyra is looking spectacular.   Half Berry and half Wells bloodlines – this seems to be a very good combination.

She is Indy’s little half-sister.

    

But mostly, Lyra is her mother’s little girl.  Minnie loves her more than anyone in the world.  She lost two foals before Lyra and all she wanted was a live foal more than anything.  It is wonderful to see them together and I would be loathe to separate them.

I am glad they are all wintering well and hopefully this field will last them a while – it is big enough!

Right, this is my new Regime.

The big boys go inside during the day or night (depending on which is the worst weather).

When they come in for 12 hours, they can dry off, have hay and go out round the house if they want.  They are also now being fed as all this rain is taking its toll.  OH has kindly offered (been requested) to poo-pick as well as this is one job too many for me and my back.

The Minions have their little shed, which they love.

It has masses of hay, a nice rubber matting floor and those that need get dry rugs every day.

(and yes, my house does resemble Widow Twankey’s laundrette with wet rugs draped over chairs trying to dry and the smell of horse has pervaded everything)

The Minions can come and go when they want. I encourage them to eat outside and to keep going outside to be proper Shetland ponies.

They have had some dry-ish days and we are back to rain again for the foreseeable.

Ugh.

I do think everyone gets very bored of being completely soaked through, never having any chance to dry out or to warm up.

     

At least if everyone has access to a shed for a while during the day or night, they can make their own choices as to where they want to live.

Sadly, Iacs will not be making any choices.  A new abscess has appeared so he is back in the shed with a poultice and Klaengur to keep him company.

Bugger.

Yesterday, as we listened to someone pouring buckets of water on the indoor school (or it could’ve been torrential rain outside), we were all very grateful that we had somewhere indoors to train our horses.

Tór is watching and learning all the time.

Although he has already been lightly backed and ridden in Iceland, Jo is taking things very slowly and quietly establishing a relationship based on trust before anything else.

He is a funny boy.  There are similarities in his character to his big half-brother in many ways.  I can definitely see Taktur there.

Fi and Hreyfing were practising “long and low” while relaxing.

It was a good training session and they enjoyed themselves.  It is always good to finish with a smile.

In the evening, after supper, as the lights were working, Bjørn came over to train Taktur. Taktur is 6 years old this summer, or 1st January depending on how you think.

I also had a lesson on Klængur (sadly there were no photos as no one was around to take them  *** cough ***!) and then Daisy rode Kappi.

I expect the lights will die again with all the rain – they don’t like rain so we must make the most of everything while it is working.

Lots of Icelandic horses in the indoor school today.  Jo with Tór, Fi with Hreyfing.  Haakon and Iacs were already in the school and we had forgotten that no one actually knew each other.

BeAnne was also nagging to ride so I popped her on Haakon and we left them all to it.

Haakon introduced himself to Tór and Tór squeaked as is right when you meet the head of the herd.

BeAnne just sat there.

She enjoys riding Haakon and he doesn’t mind one bit.

Iacs’ hoof is much better.  You wouldn’t know that yesterday he was telling us that death was his only friend.  He is much perkier now, tried to barge out of the stables this morning (we had words) and last night’s poultice stunk like nothing on this planet.

Jo put on another poultice (camouflage in case he needs to creep around in the dark).

So while Fiona rode Hreyfing round Haakon watched and BeAnne rested…..

…. and while Jo put out trotting poles out for Fiona and Hreyfing, Haakon watched and BeAnne didn’t move..

BeAnne knows Haakon would never ever do anything horrid.

They have been together all her life.

Once Haakon understands his responsibilities, he takes them very seriously – it could be me riding or BeAnne – he looks after us all.

This is not a horse that is stressed or worried about a predator resting on his back.

And this is not a dog who is worried that she is sleeping on nearly half a tonne of potentially explosive reaction.

Anyway, Icelandic horses are just the right shape for BeAnne.

Tór, on the other hoof, is not convinced this is anything he would like to participate in.

I love Icelandic horses.  They are all such cool dudes.

This morning Daisy and I decided to go for a ride.  She wanted to take Iacs and I would ride Klængur.  So we brought them both in.

Klængur was definitely keen to go out – I love his happy and enthusiastic face.

But Iacs was very definitely not alright.  I took this film for Jo to look at and for us to decide what  to do next.  Daisy and I were very worried.

He had a sachet of Danilon and we put Iacs into the stable.

For company we gave him his cousin, Haakon.

Daisy and I hot-soaked his left hind foot for 20 minutes but there was nothing to see.  I used the hoof testers with not much reaction.  We did notice, however, that Iacs seemed a bit more sound – perhaps the Danilon was working or the hot-soak had relieved the pain.  Who knows.

Meanwhile, we sucked our teeth and had to go out for our last flute trio lesson before Daisy goes back to St Snotters on Saturday.

While we were out, Jo came past and did the same thing, as well as testing his pelvis, spine, etc and listening for breaks, creaking, anything really.  She also poked about with the hoof-knife (she is a trained registered farrier) and the hoof testers but, like us, found nothing.

We re-grouped, discussed and decided to do two more hot-soaks this afternoon/tonight and another Danilon.  Iacs stood in his bucket again.

Afterwards, as I had my headtorch on, I had a good press round his hoof with my gloved hands and something revolting oozed out of the top of his hoof/heel.  It stunk.

Iacs is now not hopping lame.  Phew!  Another hot-soak tonight and then I will poultice with Animalintex and gaffer tape (no bandages).  He can stay in with Haakon until the morning.

Bloody hell – he had us worried.