Little Miss Fivla was already waiting for us when we drove over to Leradale this morning.  She wanted her bucket and she wanted it NOW!

Vitamin was waiting for us in her “house”.

She stuck her head out of the front door when I called her!  It was so sweet.

I like to feed Vitamin in here because she can eat her food peacefully without interruptions.

Interruptions are not encouraged.  My job for the summer is to clear the “house” out so it can be safely used as a shelter for those that want it.  We will have a huge bonfire and burn the old roof and wood.  I just need to move the ponies first.  The thought of Storm next to a bonfire is not one I want to think about.

After her food, I brought Vitamin out to clean her mouth.  I thought she looked thinner and a bit gaunt.

I am worried about her.  For the first time, she is looking her age – 28.

So, I’ve organised for the equine dentist to visit (when he is next up, hopefully April) her and Fivla.

And then I drove into town and bought all the fattening horse-feed I could find (barley rings which are high in protein and oil) as well as a large bag of micronised linseed, which should hopefully do the trick.  It is easy to eat and full of oil.  The difficulty is that everyone else doesn’t need the calories.  They could do with losing weight.  I might bring Vitamin and Fivla home.  They will be easier to manage there. Oh, the worry.

Every day, we bring Lilja and Sóley into the stable.  They have work to do.

And sometimes we even brush them!

Brushed and beautiful.  As you know, I am not a keen brushing person.

And then we bring them through to do practising.  They have to load, without a fuss, while the middle section is put across, and then they get a handful of mix in a bucket to say well done!

Obviously there is help.

“No, Lambie, you don’t have to load.  No one is taking you anywhere!”

So that is one of the many things we do, every day.  And no, the girls didn’t go south today.  Force 6 southerly, gusting 9.  Not good travelling weather. But at least we know they load.  Oh yes!

A lovely day again but we had to keep the old men and the girls in the small paddock as we needed them for later.

The old men now have a daily fibre block each which I soak for 12 hours. It resembles green sludge. I know this because while lugging it to their field, I managed to spill the sludge bit down my trouser legs.  They get half for breakfast and half for supper as well as unlimited hay and a bucket of grub.

The old men love their green sludge and it has really helped Haakon post colic.  His pee is a lovely pale Chardonnay now and the blood results are back.  All normal except for a few that indicated colic.  So phew.  No kidney problems.  I am so relieved.

I also gave Klængur a bucket of sludge too and he liked it.

The girls hate this food so we gave them a couple of haynets to keep them entertained.  Yes, we have muchos mud.

And we (ok, Flossie) hung haynets everywhere.

There was a weird thing in the sky today. We have no idea what it was.  Still, the horses liked it and everyone rested.

Who knows, the bright thing in the sky might dry up some of the wet paddocks as well as make the green stuff on the ground grow.  I am hopeful.  Stupid, but hopeful.

I think today was what is known in Shetland as a day “between weathers”.

After feeding haynets, carrots, checking Minions, doing buckets, filling more haynets, etc and even tidying up the feedshed (I know, who am I?), I saw the sheep all soaking up the sunshine out of the wind so I sat down beside Harrel-the-Barrel to enjoy it too.

I told him to budge up as I didn’t want to sit in the dirt.

He duly budged and Maggie came to chat, which was lovely. We had some real quality time together.

Always before, Maggie has been a bit nervous and on her guard.  Today was different. We had progress.  This is definitely the way forward. No more the scared hill sheep who just wanted food. A different sheep now. My girl.

And the unknown bright thing in the sky left us quite late in the afternoon.  The days are getting longer.  Yes!

Today we practiced with Lilja and Sóley, loading them into the horsevan, ready for the off, whenever….

We set up the horsevan first in the indoor school with lovely enticing and easy to eat haynets while filling our pockets up with bite-size carrots.

Sóley marched straight in and we put the partition across for the first time.  She was happy to stay there and munch her haynet.

Lilja was a bit more cautious but, with lots of praise and carrots, she did load and I think Floss and I are going to practice this speshul skill every day.  We took her in and out a few times rewarding her massively while Sóley continued her munching.

Sóley would live in there if she could.  The haynet was her friend.

But we succeeded, which is an achievement.  Flossie was very good with Lilja.

So practise, practise, practise and more practise until they sail.