We have tried every name for a day that we could possibly think of for this new cat.

Leopold?

Napoleon?

Ulysses?

Titus?

Gus-Gus

Despot (though he is a lot better with Her Maj).  The attacks have stopped.  There is the odd bit of hissing but he is mostly realised BeAnne is no threat.

Pol Pot

Mac

But we have settled on Mons, short for Monster.

He is a very nice boy. I am glad we have found his name. It took a while but we think Monster is his name.

Edit:  Just to say that Monster is registered with our vet as “White Panther” – this was before we came up with his name.

As we arrived on Sunday morning, we met Esja and her owner coming up the track.  Esja used to belong to us and it was lovely to see her again and looking so well too.

There was a diligent group of spectators perched on the side of the arena, now possibly suffering from hypothermia.

Daisy went in with Kappi.

Kappi’s has lovely hair.

They both worked very hard.

Midway through the lesson, someone brought their sheep up to meet and greet the on-lookers, as you do.  It’s a Shetland thing.

BeAnne also did her best to entertain the troops.

Straight after her lesson on Kappi, Daisy rode Taktur.  Luckily she is used to this kind of set-up at home so just tacked up and got on with it.

Taktur tried his best but the Lady-Girls kept distracting him.

Flossie was on Kappi duty while he cooled down and had a bit of grass to eat.

Taktur, I think, won the Best Hairdo of the Day Award but he is always very handsome.  It’s his job.

Icelandic horses were coming and going all the time.

The fog also came down but, as usual, we all just got on with whatever the weather threw at us.

After the day of lessons, there was a bit of a break, then a Chinese takeaway in the hall.  Elisabeth Jansen, our trainer, gave an interesting lecture on the bio-mechanics of the Icelandic horse.

It was a very long day, but a good one.

(BeAnne slept through the lecture – I brought her “travel” bed in for her.  I always keep it in the back of the car.)

We loaded up first thing Sunday morning, having fed everyone and done our chores.  Daisy had spent the prevoius day packing our van with everything but the kitchen sink for herself, Kappi and Taktur.

Lessons were already in progress when we arrived.

The weather was not helpful.  Foggy, cold, wet and windy but we are tough.

Because PolPot (today’s name for our ginormous cat/panther) was planning World Domination, we took BeAnne with us to duly enchant the spectators.

Upon our arrival, Daisy and Flossie led the horses to their new onsite accommodation.

Taktur happily moved into his stable and spent most of his day, when he was not in training, shouting to let every the Lady-Girls know he had arrived.

Kappi lifted his head briefly from his very own pile of silage when I said his name.  He probably thought I had brought more food – his main motivation.

Daisy’s first lesson was on Kappi.

BeAnne, and her followers, were watching avidly, taking it all in.

Photo by Jean Sinclair

Between horses, Baa-rry, the resident tame sheep showed off his show-jumping skills, which were very impressive.

Photo by Jean Sinclair

I am exhausted.  It has been a long two days but definitely worth it.  We learned so much.  More photos tomorrow when I have gone through my big camera’s memory cards.   I need to sleep for a week.

Photo by Elisabeth Jansen of Hólar University College

We are attending a two day training session in Burra, another island in Shetland about 45 minutes away.  Our trainer is Elisabeth Jansen of Hólar University College, Sauðárkrókur, Iceland.

Daisy is having lessons on Taktur and Kappi on both days.  As well as riding, we are attending a lecture on Icelandic horse bio-mechanics after a Chinese takeaway!  I will write the blog properly tomorrow when I have looked at my photos.  This is a photo from yesterday afternoon when the weather was lovely.  Today has been not as nice.

More tomorrow, I promise with a possible overload of photos.  I left OH with Cattie and BeAnne is with us, having a bit of a break and enjoying the attention.  She is still not herself.

My back is not good today.  I woke up tired (I hate that) so I decided the best thing to do would be to have a rest this afternoon.

While I slept, Flossie went out in my stead to take photos of everyone enjoying the Spring sunshine. – a new weather phenomenon.   We had all been for a ride earlier in the morning, which had been lovely.

Here is Mr Bibble and his spectacular silly-frilly.

Floss went over to Clothie – the derelict house you can see behind Bibble which is situate in a 5 acre field.

Taktur generously greeted his new field guest.

And then she was spied by the others.

And was duly mugged.

These two maybe small but they are consummate in the art of mugging.

But in the nicest possible way.

(Taktur is a kind and patient baby-sitter)

Floss sat on one of the many rumbling drystone walls in the field,

Even Kappi came up for a chat.

So while I slept trying to regroup and get my back under control, Floss enjoyed the sunshine with her small, if slightly unusual, little herd.

There could be worse jobs in life.