We had a go at trimming Hetja’s hooves.  It wasn’t easy.  She’s a big girl by our standards and was fairly unhelpful too. It made us realise that Shetland ponies are much easier to trim and also much more co-operative.  Well, mine are.  Having said that, we haven’t trimmed Newt yet so we may change our minds on that score. The night is still young.

Again, Daisy was on clippers and I was on rasp duties and we did our best, despite some severe leaning and snatching back of her hinds.  And yes, I did bollock her for this.

However, I think we did a good job. Like I said, Hetja was not helpful and we climbed back into the car feeling like we had been in a rugby match.  It jolly nearly killed us both.  Only another billion to trim (well, that’s what it feels like anyway).

I have renamed Hetja the Heffalump Cowbag!

I think we all agree that everyone has splendiferous hair today.

(even with a turquoise splotch).

A dignified old lady.

And, for some strange reason, everyone was looking remarkably clean.

Even Storm.

Albie is such a handsome chap.

Sóley and her silly-foalie-frilly!

One engimatic Waffle served with a side order of handsomeness!

And to think folk cut, trim, pull (and even dye to take away the natural wind bleached look) a Shetland ponies’ manes in some countries is quite beyond my comprehension.  Why would anyone do that?  They are truly beautiful as they are.

BeAnne has always been a water dog so, as it was such a nice afternoon, we all went down to the burn in the field.  We even took some bits of wood to throw in.

Which she duly brought back.

She had a little swim and then a lovely roll.

Two of the Muscovy ducks had finally found the burn, which is quite an achievement in itself as it is a long walk down the hill and back.  They were very happy splashing around.

We heard some shouting and turned around to see who was following.

Monster is a very strange cat.

He did a lot of this sort of thing.

And we all laughed with him, not at him.

Monster and BeAnne are good friends, sometimes.

We asked Monster to sit in the daffodils and look pretty, so he did!

And then he looked weird again.

We asked BeAnne too.

So she just looked like not herself really.

Still, it was nice to sit on a rock in the Spring sunshine with our strange little family.

Today Daisy and I tackled the Minions the hooves.  I gave myself a break from rasping them down all winter as my back and I couldn’t face the endless mud and weather. I had decided to save up and get the farrier in when it was Spring to give the Shetlands one professional trim a year, and I would keep them tidy for the rest of the year.

Well, that was the plan until this – no farrier visiting until maybe next month.  It keeps being put off.

So armed with Daisy, some hoof clippers, a rasp and the axle stand, we went to work on Tiddles.  The photos don’t show how badly he needed trimming.

We went by the theory that we both know what we want a hoof to look like, so between us we would achieve it.  Daisy was on clippers while I did the rasping afterwards.  Then we would stand back, look at our handywork and decide if we needed to do any more.

Of course there was an audience.

We did backs and fronts.

Here are Tiddles’ fronts after our work.

And here is the boy himself appreciating our work.

Feeling we could do another, I went and chased after Silver and eventually caught him.  He was not in a helpful frame of mind.

One front done and you can see the difference.

Both fronts done.

The backs untrimmed.  Far too long and toey.

Backs afterwards.  We were pleased with our work.

Hair up!

Hair down!

Just another 17 horses/ponies to go…… then.