“Pick me, pick me” said Efstur.

“Please, pick me. I want to do something.”, he continued.

“Ok”, said Daisy and she put a headcollar on her young horse and lead him into the school.

And so I caught young Dreki Dragon as well.

And followed Efstur and Daisy into the school.

It was Dreki’s forelock that was needing attention.

I gave him a jolly good brush, removing the nasty bits that I had noticed previously.

I could also see that Dreki has grown considerably.  My ugly duckling is now very tall and filled out.  He is probably taller than Taktur, his father and is possibly at least 18hh (ok, more like 14hh but I am useless at measuring horses by eye alone).

Efstur watched on.

Daisy was busy transforming her ugly duckling too.

When I took a step back from my work, I could see Dreki was perfect.

He has lovely eyes and now a brushed forelock, mane and tail.  So very very handsome.

Daisy did her best with Efstur.

It was nice to do a little work with the youngsters today.

For some reason, when I look at these photos from yesterday this song came to mind…..

♬ Love hurts ♬

♬ Love scars ♬

♬ Love wounds and marks ♬

♬ Any heart not tough or strong enough ♬

♬ To take a lot of pain, take a lot of pain ♬

♬ Love is like a cloud, it holds a lot of rain ♬

♬ Love hurts ♬

♬ Ooh love hurts…. ♬

And here are the rest of the photos from the morning.

Fivla also started mutually grooming Floss.

Albie helped.

And Floss said Fivla was much more gentle than Newt!

The two “donkeys” watched on.

Meanwhile Waffle was looking beautiful in the purple flowers.

Anywho, enjoy your earworm courtesy of Newt.

I went out yesterday with my camera as I wanted to take photos of the colours of the heather that is out all over the hills at the moment. Shetland is stunning.

I didn’t do very well and was disappointed with the results.  I just hadn’t “captured” it and I wish I could bottle the smell too. It is heavenly.

So I went home and took a photo of the cat instead.  We can all play “Let’s count the chins!”

So, today, armed with my camera, a different lens, a tripod (this could make the difference), a remote thingy and then back into the house for a memory card (duh), I went back out to have another shot. I also Googled “how to take photos like National Geographic” and jotted down the settings required for landscapes.

Armed with information and now possibly dangerous, I took these photos.

I was now bored of heather and diversified.

Not exactly National Geographic standard, but I tried and the midges came out, so I ran away home!

I was walking to the car this morning, only to see my two horses flat out looking rather dead!  As we had been on two very fast rides earlier, I guess it was inevitable.

Feeling slightly concerned that I had killed them both, I went over to check.  A bijoux “chattering” of starlings flew past and that woke the two snoozers up.

I think they were exhausted though and they have no one to blame but themselves.

Haakon has now worn through his (rear) hoofboots with his enthusiastic piggy-pacing. There is no stopping him.  He won’t be told and bounces on the spot if I try to slow him down.  OH is trying to mend the boots with fibreglass to see if we can get a bit more use from them. The house stinks.  In the back of my mind there is a memory from my childhood.

Haakon refuses to act his grand old age – 26.

Klængur, on the other hoof, went out with Taktur and the pair of them wound each other up trying to be slightly in front.  It was never-ending and only when we had turned for home, and fast-tölt raced they both gave up for a while, probably out of exhaustion.

But they deserve their sleep and I crept away.  I don’t like being “in their space” while they are lying down.

While I was clambering elegantly back over the fence, Klængur got up.

He asked Haakon if he was getting up.  The reply was a resounding “no”.

I am sure I could hear the laughing as I left!

On our way out of the door to go and “do veg”, I saw Dreki sitting in the grass like Ferdinand, the Bull –  the book, never the film.  Don’t ever mention the film.

A few hours later, Daisy moved the boys into their night-time field and I quickly walked down to the bottom of the hill to take action shots of them all galloping downhill.  It is such an impressive sight.

So they didn’t.  They all stood there, at the top, and watched me.

Eventually they started to move off and I was ready.

It was a half-arsed attempt.

But, with some encouragement, Kappi did a bit of a canter.

Swiftly followed by Efstur.

Dreki (who is sporting a very strange forelock – I will investigate tomorrow and it could be a result of the unforgiving bastard midges last night) did his little descent.

And then Taktur took a deep breath and galloped.

Oh wow!

Man on a mission.

Taktur really does put his heart and soul into it.

Such a wonderful stallion (*** swoon ***) ❤️