I decided to mix things up today.

Given any opportunity, the Icelandic horses bully the Shetland ponies off their food. It’s not nice. So today I parked Vitamin in a small crö (sheep-pen) that is off the side of the paddock so no one could see her eating.

Cunning, eh?

Fivla said she didn’t want to move from her very visible spot, but I picked up her bucket and grabbed a piece of her mane and towed her in too.

She stayed there for a bit happily eating.  Both of them hidden, I thought to myself.

But Fivla must’ve had a fit of pique and moved out of the crö leaving some of her food behind.  I gave Vitamin her bucket  and she quickly polished it off.  Fivla didn’t like being in a confined space.

Meanwhile the big ones were oblivious of all this and finished their breakfast, forgetting to look for the Shetland ponies.  Out of sight, out of mind.

You can tell by the tail swishing that Fivla was not in a good mood.

And of course Iacs spied the buckets…..

He pretended he didn’t really want them. I wasn’t fooled.

I know Iacs too well.  Of course he did.

After I had rinsed out Vitamin’s mouth with water to stop food accumulating (I do this daily), I was just putting everything back, when I noticed Fivla had returned and was now mooching around the empty buckets looking for her full ration.

I felt bad for her. I had given it to Vitamin to finish off thinking she didn’t want it anymore.

Apparently I was wrong and now I feel awful for Fivla.  Not awful enough to go and get her some more food because WW3 would break out, but enough to not let it happen again.