I need this tattooed on my forehead to keep reminding me. I looked at the Minions today and they are fatty fat fat.

So……

If you are fat and hairy, then you do not need to live in a stable with extra hay at night in winter.

Even little Hjalti is not so little anymore.  He is looking well and his physical development will only work properly if he is outside being an Icelandic horse.  This is what he is designed for as are the Shetland ponies.

Yes, it is windy and cold but no one is shivering or looking miserable.  They all have a good hard feed in the morning according to their needs – this place is like a restaurant with the different dishes I have to create for varying dietary needs and I think their “central heating” should be allowed to work.

There is also grass, of sorts, and shelter that they have easy access to.

When I can feel a rib or if someone is shivering or struggling, then I will reconsider.  I make different decisions every day as it comes weather-wise – nothing is written in stone.

But I need to keep telling myself this otherwise I will pile them all into the shed with bales of hay and they will only get fatter and fatter.  Then, in Spring, they will have to go to a hill park to lose weight.

Of course none of this applies to Les Grandes Dames.  They can come and go as they please.

(though Vitamin maybe heading for the hill this spring – she is portly).

After Daisy’s lesson, Flossie had her first riding lesson on my Icelandic horse, Klængur.

I love this – Flossie catches her horse, tacks him up and then gets herself ready.  You have no idea how long I have waited for this moment.

Anywho, Flossie had to want and ask to learn to ride without my input.  I think it is important that my daughters learn to ride because THEY want to and not because it would make me happy.

Bjørn, our FEIF Level 3 Instructor, decided that Flossie, having learned the basics on Haakon and Iacs, should now try a good tölt horse to get the feeling of what it is all about.

Klængur is not a straightforward ride in the indoor school by any means.  It took me the best part of a year, when he first arrived, just to steer him round in a circle, while he had other independent thoughts!  We did very weird circles for many months while we got the measure of each other.

Flossie and Klængur are good together and it was lovely to watch Flossie getting the feeling of a proper tölt.  Despite her very serious riding face (let’s not call it Bitchy Resting), afterwards she said Klængur’s tölt was great fun (huzzah, another convert).  She even went outside the cones that mark the corners and that is no mean feat.

Bjørn was wonderful with Flossie too.  He helped, instructed and showed her how to achieve good riding practice – the important things such as hands, legs, half halts, outline, flexion, etc.

This is all during a storm too – the wind was howling outside but indoors Flossie was listening and learning.

I apologise for all the tölt photos but I am so proud of Flossie and Klængur.  They make an awesome team!

*** blowing my nose now ***

Daisy has changed.  She is all growed up and her riding is amazing.

She came home for two weeks for Christmas and Kappi and Iacs (her riding horses) saw a different type of riding – that of someone who is paid to train young Icelandic horses and to ride anything that she is presented with.  Daisy works at Kise Islandshestgård, an Icelandic horse training and breeding farm in Norway.  Dammit, she is even learning Norwegian!

Gulp, poor Iacs – he is now in therapy for shock and actually having to do some work (no photos – it would be cruel).

But, lots of photos of Daisy riding Kappi.  Remember, she was given this horse by her trainer, Bjørn Roar Larsen, after the British Championships in West Tarf, Edinburgh, in 2015.

Kappi fra Frøberg is an 11 year old gelding by Jarl frá Miðkrika and out of Hetja frá Hofsstöðum.  He has a BLUP of 107 and is 4 (ish) gaited!

Daisy, and she did say this herself, has missed him dreadfully but is happy he is here, at Thordale, bringing the herd up to eat as he hears the rattle of a feed bucket from about 5 miles away.

Food is very important to Kappi (as you might be able to see).

But, for an Icelandic horse that has not been ridden regularly since June, he still tries his best for Daisy and is her safe reliable friend.

He also looks beautiful when Daisy rides him.

Daisy goes back tomorrow at a crack of sparrows flight to Oslo.  We will miss her dreadfully.  It has been wonderful riding out with her this holidays.

Travel safely, Daisy.  Bring us back Norwegian chocolate (just sayin’!)

The wind never stops blowing, consistently at gale force, and, as Floss and OH had made a bid for freedom (Lerwick or The Big L, as it is known in our house) saying something about cabin fever and hair dye, I knew the task of dog-walking befell to me.

Meanwhile, Lambie and Lambster had learned how to escape from their daytime field and were contentedly eating the grass around the house, while I left to walk the dogs to Watsness.

We were going at a good speed, with the wind behind us, when I looked behind me.  There was Lambie running up the track yelling “Muzzah” .  How he had squeezed through the gate, I do not know, but he did and he left behind him a fretting Lambster without a backward glance.

I had no lead and I was not going back, so Lambie came too.

Lambie was victorious (silly sideways galloping and bouncing) but surprisingly very obedient and well behaved.

Afterwards, I went to talk to Vitamin.  She is a very photogenic mare.  Always has been.

She is also wintering very well, perhaps a tad too well but it doesn’t matter – I can slim her down in the spring.  For the time being, her job is to be Delia’s constant companion.

Delia is very happy with her thick rug.  She is in at night, with a lovely quilted stable rug and is  pleased with her life of luxury.

Her arthritis has good and bad days (I know that feeling) but ,for as long as she comes running for a carrot, barges everyone else out of the way with her ears flat back and a dragonlike gleam in her eyes, then I know she is enjoying her life.

We take every day as it comes, though.

Hetja is a Queen.  She is majestic.  That is the word that best describes her.  Hetja means Hero and it suits her.  When we went to buy her in Iceland, Hetja was described as NN – which means No Name.  We named her Hetja.

Hetja adores her son, Hjalti.  She was made for this and she is a natural mother.

Hjalti is still nursing from his mother.

It doesn’t matter.  He was a late foal and I am pleased about that because it is a horrid winter and Hjalti needs a bit of a top-up for growing.

If Hetja minded, she would tell Hjalti but she is not trying to stop him and so he grows bigger and taller this winter.

He looks wonderful – really healthy and vibrant.

Hjalti is also learning to become one of the herd.  His “Tante Esja” is happy to engage him in grooming her when she asks.  It is all part of his education.  Foals learn nothing if there are not sensible herd members to teach them.

Meanwhile, my two boys, Haakon and Klaengur look on.

This winter, we have a happy little Icelandic herd – no worries, no stress and no fights.  I like this.  It makes for content Icelandic horses that grow up being horses in a social group rather than endlessly fighting for attention or climbing the social ladder.

Boss Mare = Hetja
2nd Boss Mare = Esja
3rd Boss Mare = Vitamin

Boss Gelding = Haakon
2nd Boss Gelding = Klaengur

There is the odd bum-to-bum fight and screaming but that is all part of the politics.