Last night I lay in bed and listened, for what felt like all night, to the wind and rain howling and crashing down outside. All I could think was that the horses would be suffering horribly as it sounded so violent. By the time it was morning, I was convinced we would be met with dead horses everywhere.
I told the troops (aka Daisy and Flossie) that we would bring whoever was left alive inside to rest and eat their hay. The boys went into the stable (Daisy’s problem) and the old men and girls into the indoor school.
Of course, they were all absolutely fine and wondering what all the fuss was about. Being Icelandic horses, they probably thought it was a normal Icelandic summer!
My lot had their breakfast – everyone gets the barest nothing apart from Haakon and Iacs who have their TurmerAid.
Haakon had been wearing his new no-fill waterproof rug last night and was, incredibly, absolutely dry. This is the most amazing rug. It works! The first one ever that is properly waterproof.
And then, because they were in the sand school, everyone finished their food and decided to roll. Iacs started it. The school is large but yet he had to roll behind Haakon and preferably under his back legs too.
I mean who does this? Iacs does. That’s who.
Haakon politely stepped to one side to let the idiot finish and we agreed that Iacs stands for “I Am Completely Stupid”.
The others chose more sensible places to roll. So we tied up five haynets, put out lots of buckets of water and left them all to eat and rest while they wondered why we had brought them inside.
Dirt Baths are best when one can make everyone else move. All the better to roll in. As for why they came inside – you love them. End of story.
I did wonder about bringing the fatties in but decided to be strong and leave them out…..they survived.
I saw a horse nearby my house, standing out in the rain, with no cover, and so I called Animal Rescue. The person I spoke with laughed gently and said horses are fine in almost any weather. I had no idea…
Anyway, seeing Iacs rolling around is hilarious!
hope the littlies were all equally resiliant. Hate it when my little Shetland gets soaked right through – takes him ages to dry out.I
So glad to see that all your beautiful horses made it through the storm in good order. Whew. I always love the pictures and your stories. I try to never miss your blog, Frances. It is so awesome. Hope your weather gets better!!!
So glad that everyone was ok during that awful weather. It seemed to be you Frances that suffered the most with your sleepless night and worry. I was just wondering the other day, do you ever feel overwhelmed with the responsibility of all your animals? I am the queen of worry and always worry about my chickens and cats even when everyone is OK. You have so many to care for each with their own different needs, but you and your team (aka Daisy and Flossie) seem to have got everything down to a fine art and are doing a marvellous job in what sometimes must be very challenging winter conditions.