A rainy morning, but I gathered the troops and we drove the horse-van over to work with Lilja and Sóley-the-Scruffy.

I especifically wanted Daisy to work with Lilja as the last time I led her it was very obvious her leading skills left a lot to be desired.

We had parked in a quiet place and put two bowls of carrots – one inside and one on the ramp.  Daisy and Lilja walked straight in.

While Sóley considered her options.

She could see Lilja eating her carrots and she could also see her own bowl of carrots but there was this ramp thing to be negotiated …….

Lilja quickly finished her own carrots and then started on Sóley’s bowl!

Oh, how rude!  Sóley could not bear this and worse, Lilja was really enjoying her bowl of carrots!

Oooh, she wanted her carrots and she couldn’t quite reach them and Lilja was going to nom the lot if she didn’t act quickly.

So Sóley took a deep breath and put her front hooves on the van ramp.

Heaps of praise and a top up of more carrots as a reward – and, then there was  even the hint of a back hoof too!

This was just what we wanted and we didn’t ask for anything more from Sóley.

Afterwards, Daisy and Flossie led the girls back to their field, where they live with the Minions (my rescue Shetland ponies).

All the way, Daisy worked with Lilja, asking her to walk nicely and not drag her down the road and field (like she had with me).

And to be fair, Lilja listened and learned to Daisy (and so did I so I can continue her training in the same way).

So that was all good. Mission accomplished.  I am pleased.

I have been asking myself, these past few days, what makes Missy so nice and sweet and loving.

Is it nature (ie her mother, Edna, is sweetheart and obviously a caddy) or nurture (I have spent most days going to talk and spend time with wee Missy).

A joy, never a chore and wee Missy is not so wee anymore. Almost a sheep size now.

I don’t know the answer. It goes round and round my head.  Madge, who may or may not be (I think she is) Edna’s daughter as they arrived as a pair, is still unapproachable and pretty crazy. She will only be caught by rugby tackle and no amount of being nice and biscuits will tame her.

And then Puzzah (Lambie’s dad), who came to us as a working entire ram, had always been a generous, kind soul – this photo was taken when he first arrived looking perhaps not his best.  He was never deliberately tamed down.  Just was like that because he was.  It was his nature to be calm.  And then Lambie, who was mine from Day 1, is a complete hysterical tit given any chance at all!

So, I don’t know.  Are some sheep born nice and accepting of folk or does regular handling them make them so?

Answers on a postcard, please x

A certain little Ginja-Ninja (aka Efstur) came in yesterday with a blood stripe down his front near fore (left leg to you and me) and yes, I had to look up the correct terminology so I could pretend I actually knew!

So we cleaned up the trail of seepage (a gross word on a par with “moist”!), could not find where it came from and sprayed the area with antibiotic spray in a hopeful fashion. We also felt each leg and decided the injured one was very slightly hotter than the other.

The treatment prescribed was TurmerAid from The Golden Paste Company as turmeric is an anti-inflammatory, an effective analgesia and has mild antimicrobial properties and this will obviously make everything right.

Efstur happily guzzled it all down.  You can actually feed this stuff without a mix – they love it.  Haakon eats his every morning in a handful.

And today?  Well the mild heat has gone, the wound is clean (still can’t find it) and Efstur is still sound and very happy to have another scoopful of TurmerAid in his daily feed.

I know I rave about TurmerAid but I sincerely believe in it and feed it daily to:-

Haakon (arthritis),
Klængur (stiff back end, now flying along),
Kappi (Daisy says he takes longer to warm-up)
and obviously Lambie with his bone-on-bone arthritis.
BeAnne has the dog version and trots along, a-buggering off happily and
I take the human version because I wake up barely being able to move.

You may have guessed. I am a huge fan.

Well, we’ve made up and are friends again, so that’s good.  I hate being angry with BeAnne. I feel awful and so does she.

She has also been forgiven by all of us.

Meanwhile back in horse world, Floss and I set out with the horse-van, bowls and visible bribery – aka carrots, chopped.

We easily caught Lilja and Sóley and led them up to their bowls.  Lilja dived straight in.

Sóley of course thought it was all very suspicious.

But she soon realised that Lilja would snaffle her’s if she didn’t get on and eat it.

Note Lilja standing on the ramp unlike her suspicious-Aloysius sister.

And so we put them back into their lush field telling ourselves that we had achieved and ok, it was small steps but an achievement none the less.

Said goodbye and left to see the Minions.

Our day was not over. Sóley, for some reason best known to herself, jumped over into a neighbour’s field and we ended up putting these two back with the Minions.  Grrrrr….. and now I am all cross again.

Not feeling the love. Not feeling the anything this evening. This afternoon, after a perfectly good dog-walk, BeAnne a-buggered off after her bunny rabbitses and I realise is playing me a like a violin.

So here are some nice Icelandic horses who are lovely and well behaved.

Meanwhile, the riding is going well. Klængur goes like a dream and we have, after how ever many years, finally got ourselves together.

I have my riding mojo back. I do not have my dog mojo at all.

(Sorry this is short but you have not had the late afternoon I have had driving up and down, getting the whole family out to shout for her).

Meh! Please send chocolate and/or gin!