Now the Minions are home, I had this, albeit brief, stupid idea that it would be nice to have all the horses and ponies together in one field.  This was entirely based on Kolka who quite likes the little ones and spends much of her time at the fence talking to them in a friendly way.

I asked Haakon what he thought of this plan.

And he duly discussed it with Iacs.

And they came to the conclustion that it would be a very bad idea.  A very bad idea indeed.

Yes, Kolka probably likes the Minions very much but I doubt she could eat a whole one! (joke).

Before Kolka came to us, she used to live with Shetland ponies so she understands their little ways.  Haakon and Iacs are not the greatest fans but they will tolerate them.

So I told the Minions that they could just get on with their life in their field (until the track is ready and then they’re going to live there) and the Ancients were staying where they were.

And anyway, OH reminded me that eleven breakfast time buckets in the same field would be a nightmare and I quickly realised my great idea was actually a terrible one.

We all had a quiet day today. The weather was unhelpful (gusting F10 at times) while we were feeding everyone their breakfast and I have things to do anyway.

I spent the morning finding and editing photos to have on mini business cards that will accompany the hand-felted sheep when, or if, folk buy them.

Question:  is it better to have the more expensive business cards or just go bog-standard?  I am using Moo.com – https://www.moo.com/uk/business-cards/minicards – Original (9p/card) or Luxe (17p/card)?  I am thinking the original (9p) will be fine.  It is just an attempt to increase traffic for the blog, not auditioning to rule the world by handing out a fabularse card.

Here are a few of my designs.  There will be 100 in total – all different.

Obviously there will be more sheep ones, possibly even a series devoted to Lambie’s Winning Smile, though when I asked for a few photos today, he went all huffy and unhelpful.  Ever the prima donna is Lambie.

Edna and ‘Ster tried their very best for me, which was kind.

So back to sorting through my photos.  I take lots of breaks because I am very easily distracted.

And this afternoon, I popped into my shed to do something completely different.  I need to get ahead making them in case there is a rush and someone buys one!  Cruise ship season

The dog walk started ominously but luckily the rain shower missed us.

I wanted to walk round the new field track that is currently under construction.

My fencer has been hard at work putting fence posts everywhere parallel to the perimeter of the field to make a track system.

This will be for the Minions in the summer.  I will start by just giving them a line to eat down, ie a section and then hopefully they can use the whole track to find food.

There are wider bits at the burn (stream) so they can find an easy point to drink from and cross.

There are two watering points so no more lugging fresh water every day – yay!

I cannot tell you how pleased I am with this progress. Next to invest in poly-wire, insulators, a couple of spring gates and possibly the mother of all solar energisers and we are good to go.

I might put The Ancients inside the field inside the track though as there is good shelter and grass but I am not optimistic they won’t get stuck in the fence or something equally stupid.  Everyone seems to be doitin’ these days.

Hey ho – progress on the track and this makes me happy.

Another storm is on its way and this one is going to last for days *** sigh *** but it remains relatively warm so that’s a plus.

After all our breakfasts and armed with a bucket of useful things including 12 pieces of carrot and my essential list of individual weights (thank you to Sandness Equine Services), I went out to catch each and every horse and pony.

Once caught, I cut tails short so they don’t drag or touch the ground (I may have been a bit over-enthusiastic with one or two, sorry), brushed everyone’s backs to make them floofy again for better rain protection and then gave each pony the required amount of wormer according to their weight.  The old ones also got a dose of probiotic.  Then they were released only to stand around and annoy each other or me.  Storm and Cousin Newt had designs on my bucket.

There was a lot of “help”, possibly a bit too much at times.

As well as getting in the way.

But I achieved everything fairly successsfully, though I am not convinced I wormed Waffle but as I couldn’t see any evidence of wormer on the ground, I remain hopeful.

Waffle was the last one to be done, so once I had finished, I led him out of the wee paddock. The others all followed and they went on their merry little way.

Then it was time to do the same with the Ancients.

That also went pretty smoothly except Haakon refused to be caught. Once I wormed him, etc, he refused to eat anything ever again, refusing even his piece of carrot.

So now I spent the day convinced he has colic.  I went down later and gave him a horse treat which he managed to swallow down.  Phew!

It’s been an ambient (read ferocious) Force 8, gusting 10 all day.  When the F10 (55–63 mph) hit, it really hit hard but I was beginning to get cabin fever so I needed out.  I drove to our village  to get some local messages and then went to find some good waves to photograph.

This is at our local beach – Dale.

“Very high waves with long overhanging crests; resulting foam in great patches is blown in dense white streaks along the direction of the wind; on the whole the surface of the sea takes on a white appearance; rolling of the sea becomes heavy; visibility affected.” – Wikipedia

And then I drove home feeling glad I had been out but even gladder I was going home.