Everyone has been moved around again…… and this, I hope, is the last ruddy time.

Lambie and Lambster live in a small back garden.

Lambie spends his day shouting at me about how much he hates it and how cruel I am to make him live there where there is only lovely long grass.   Call the RSPCA now.

This is to prevent them pissing off into the hill.  Twice I have had to walk miles to bring them home.

How they both suffer.

Meanwhile, yesterday afternoon, I found Taktur and all the geldings had managed to get into the adjacent field to the girls and were running up and down screaming while the girls waved their bottoms.

I dragged him and Kappi over to Clothie where they can stay for the rest of their lives.  My fury with Taktur is the fact that he nearly ripped up all the fencing when he put his foot through (how he still has shoes on is a mystery) plus he ripped up the whole front out of his lovely rug.

Taktur now hangs about the gate waiting for glimpses of girls.

Kappi is happy in a supportive role.

The girls and the rest of the geldings live together.

Little Hjalti is very happy and plans to hang onto Nuncle Niacs’ every word of wisdom.  He may have a long wait then.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Les Grandes Dames are living around the house during the day, with access to shelter if they want.

At night, they stay indoors and I take off the rug.

   

Delia is a bit stiff so I have started her on turmeric, black pepper and coconut oil to see if that helps.

We have a couple of days of good weather ahead so that will be blissful.

❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤

AND JUST BECAUSE I CAN (& SOMEONE ACTUALLY ASKED – WU PANTS!)

I have some friends who have always helped when I needed it most – ie when The Minions went through their first winter, they came rushing round with rugs.

So, when they asked if I could help by transporting one of their ponies to the boat (Lerwick), I didn’t hesitate.

And, with that, my new horse-van was christened.

I will admit I did stop once just to take a photo of the sky which was extraordinary beautiful this morning.

The pony to be transported was a lovely Shetland pony gelding called Casper who was going to his new home south.

We drove to Lerwick and Casper christened the van!  He travelled very well and the van was easy to drive.

Casper loaded and unloaded without a second thought.

I took a photo while his mum was brushing him.

It is always sad (for me) to send a pony south and Casper’s owner said her goodbyes and told him to always be a good boy.

The freight staff walked Casper through their office, because I suppose that was the most direct route and Casper dutifully followed (what a darling pony).

This is the freight “cassette” or container that he will travel on and I could see there was a full haynet waiting.  There is also a water trough in each section.

So that is my Horse Van officially christined and in use.  I love it and can thoroughly recommend Burley Horseboxes who found me the van and converted it to the most useful horsevan ever.

Mine is converted to take 2 Icelandic horses plus, instead of a groom space, there is a section at the back for a Minion.  It seats three and also has a tow-bar fitted so I can also tow a trailer too.

Look our world, here we come!

❤️ 🍏 ❤️ 🍏❤️ 🍏❤️ 🍏❤️ 🍏❤️ 🍏❤️ 🍏❤️ 🍏❤️ 🍏❤️ 🍏❤️

The wind is blowing, the rain is lashing and we are all very bored, bored, bored of it.

I have been trying to encourage the horses and ponies to stay outside but they are fed up and tired.   Despite having hard feed, shelter and grass, they want a break from the non-stop wind and rain.

The girls are with The Minions, though Tiddles somehow is living with the big boys.  I forget how that happened but he happy enough pretending he is a 14hh Icelandic horse and they “mother” him.  Esja is getting to know The Minions.  She is Hetja’s No 2 and is a lovely kind mare who, like Hetja, doesn’t like trouble in the herd.

Floss and I gave everyone who would stand still long enough a good mane and tail brush.  From the state and length of The Minions’ manes, I think there is a Nibbler in our midst.  It all looks a bit chopped.  I am sure I remember Silver having a better mane than that.

I have made a concerted effort not to rug Storm just because he says so.  He is looking good and has a nice bottom/weight to him even though he says he melts a little every time it rains.

In each shed is a toy.  One for the boys and one for the girls.

Buckets of water are placed around the shed so there is no hogging.

The old girls are finding this winter very difficult.  I am going to keep them in more, if that is what they want.

Hjalti is still nursing from Hetja so important and necessary food is going in.  He tends to play with his hard feed.

  

They are a peaceful happy little bunch and Hetja is a good leader.  She rules very well.

  

☔️ ☁️ 💦 ☔️ ☁️ 💦 ☔️ ☁️ 💦 ☔️ ☁️ 💦 ☔️ ☁️ 💦 ☔️ ☁️ 💦 ☔️ ☁️ 💦 ☔️ ☁️ 💦 ☔️ ☁️ 💦 ☔️ ☁️ 💦

I pulled my sleigh round Lerwick for the last time before Christmas (I write hopefully).  I filled it up with bags of horse food and various things I deemed a necessity rather than a luxury, like Chinese ingredients for Floss’ immense cookathons – she is very good.

With my camera slung round my neck, I wandered the deserted streets of Lerwick looking for Christmas inspiration.

I doubt any high street in Britain looks like this two and a half weeks before Christmas.  It is very depressing.

  

The shops had made a Christmassy effort, which was lovely.

Lunch was spent sitting in the car, eating fish and chips (with extra vinegar, please) looking at the waves crashing down in front of us.  There is nothing better, in my opinion.

The very definition of awesome.

I am not very good at shopping these days. I get bored easily, talk myself out of whatever it was I wanted and then give up and go home.  Which is exactly what I did today.

The horses are all happily outside and although it is very windy, it is also quite warm (10 degrees celsius) so they can stay out tonight.

However, my best surprise today was this…..

Yay.  Get me!  A huge thank you to everyone who voted for me.  I appreciate it hugely and winning means a great deal (it is not just the taking part, you know – never believe that!)

🎂 🎀 🎂 🎀  🎂 🎀 🎂 🎀 🎂 🎀 🎂 🎀 🎂 🎀 🎂 🎀 🎂 🎀 🎂 🎀

Floss came home a few days ago and today I found her mucking out the big shed while I played rookie and had gone out for a ride hoping no one would notice.

I will admit to feeling guilty so, to make up for my disappearance, I offered to give Floss a riding lesson on Bimble.

She caught and tacked Bimble up and I could see he was very happy to finally be doing something.  He loves being ridden and has spent many weeks with his head hung over the gate waiting to see if it will ever be his turn.  I am not a huge fan of riding Bimble as he trots and that hurts my back.

Bimble was a very good boy.  He enjoyed himself and I hope Flossie did too.  She remembered everything and the pair of them happily bimbled around the school.

There were even moments of controlled speed with added steering and control!

I think they look very good together and I sincerely hope Floss goes on with this riding thing as I think she has good hands and a lovely seat (though I might take her stirrups up one).

Bimble, of course, after all his hard work, was exhausted and adopted his nose-wheel gait.

I love seeing my daughters ride.  It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

And is this, could it possibly be, dare I say it?  Tölt?  Maybe, almost. There must be a full moon.

👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣