Lambing is in full swing now.  Everywhere there are little lambs and they are all divine.

Now that the Minions are in their summer field, I drive over daily to check everyone is ok.  The field is a bit further away but at least I don’t have to lug water anymore, so that’s a plus.  Every cloud and all that.

Anyway, the drive is beautiful.  This is the longer route, but via the shop (for necessities *** cough *** wine)

Hardly a chore, though.

Everywhere there are little lambs with their Mums.

They lie in the sunshine while their mothers eat as much as possible.

The car makes an ideal “hide” and I drive slowly with the windows down, stopping everytime I see a very pretty little lamb.  I let other cars go past too.  It is a slow pastime and my secret treat.

It does worry me that the sheep are on the road but that is the way and we just have to be very careful.

I have this terrible urge to kidnap.

I have been told that I can’t (I can however make the special Lambie Mum bleat that makes all babies want to follow me home).

The lambies answer me!

To date, I have not done this.

As Lambie would take a very dim view if I brought someone home more cuter tham him (and I think my family might have something to say about it too as well as the crofter whose sheep they are!)

But they’re so darn cute!

Today, no matter what, was the day we moved the Minions to their Summer field.

The weather was exceedinly unhelpful.

We devised A Cunning Plan – first up would be Albie, Silver and Newt and yes, that is snow.

I had Newt – nuff said.

Silver’s excited face at the new field.

The new field all fresh and ready for the Minions.

And off they jolly well went.

Then we drove back to collect the next three.

Storm (another of my short straws), Waffle and Tiddles.

Delivered, dispatched and off they galloped to join the others.

Vitamin and Fivla were last.  We left them waiting at the gate when we departed with Waffle, et al.

And they were still there when we returned. Fivla whiffled with relief when she saw us.

Dodging the deluges we took the girls to rejoin everyone else.

I love how everyone is thrilled they are here too.

It was as if they had been parted forever.

So that’s that then.  The ponies can stay there for a while now and Leradale can grow again.

And through all the toing and froing we had lovely blue skies and sunshine, sleet, snow, hail and general filth thrown at us from the heavens.

But the ponies behaved impeccably – they were caught, led (even Newt), loaded and unloaded like little professionals.  It does save time and energy if no one is messing about.

(Each trip was 10 miles and the whole thing, to move 8 ponies, took 2 1/2 hours in total – D & F were brilliant xx)

Hjalti is coming along nicely.  Daisy rides him both in and outside.  Inside is for training and listening, outside is to get him used to The Big Bad World, as well as some more listening as he is easily distracted.  He has the mind of a butterfly when he is out and about.

So today was about working inside.  Hjalti has learned to wait nicely when tied up and is tacked up with no problems.  Fidgeting is not encouraged and he understands that nice things happen to good boys.

Before Daisy gets on, she walks Hjalti once round the school to show him that the boggarts have been evicted and all is well.  Then he will stand still while she mounts from the ground but expects a carrot as his reward. Fair do’s.

Once on, Daisy and Hjalti work on his listening skills, transitions between halt, walk and trot.

Hjalti has a lovely square halt and listens to Daisy’s seat as an important aid.  What a good chap.

Daisy doesn’t ask much and she doesn’t ride Hjalti for long either.  On both reins, Hjalti walks and trots with bending round the cones, figures of eight, turn on the forehand (which he has mastered beautifully but I manage to miss filming the best one) and stepping backwards.

I am really pleased with how his training is going.  Hjalti’s happy little face waiting at the gate ready to volunteer and the relationship he has with Daisy says it all really.

Here are a few films from today.

A large cardboard box arrived in the post yesterday addressed to…… Iacs c/o of me as I have the “disposable” thumbs, I guess.

As the parcel was not actually addressed to me and Iacs is Daisy’s horse, I left it outside her bedroom door as she was in a meeting over the internet and could not be disturbed.  Every so often I would pop back to the house to find out what was in the box but to no avail – it was a very long meeting that took all morning.

Daisy finished eventually and opened the box.  The suspense was high by now.  We were all desparate to know what Iacs had been sent.

It was the most perfect of presents.

Daisy showed him his treasure.

He investigated it thoroughly for any calorific riches.

(ever the optimist)

And then came Iacs’ coronation.

I think you will all agree that the crown is absolutely perfect and fits beautifully.

Iacs is the kind of royalty that suits a crown.

Iacs is a monarch, obviously.

So as it says in the description the “Perfect accessory to go to the conquest of the distant land.”  Go you, King Iacs of Bimble!  Get conquesting, just quietly and with minimal fuss.

And yes, we will obviously be trying the crown on every horse and possibly sheep that comes across our path when we are in a regal mood.  It would be foolish not to and opportunity not to be missed in my book.

I ❤️ this crown and thank you very much.  We know where you live! xx

(just sayin’)

Yesterday evening some folk visited the Minions with not much notice..  The ponies were very happy to meet and greet but they looked revolting.  Waffle had bathed in dirt and everyone was losing their coat in handfuls.  It is the time of year.  I don’t think the visitors were too impressed, to be honest and I realise now that everyone should not resemble a guttersnipe.

I managed to successfully recruit both Daisy and Flossie, my daughters.  So, armed with brushes, we went and had a good go at the Shetland ponies.

The ponies’ winter coat is thick with an inner and outer layer, both coming out in handfuls this time of year.

It is a fine line, though, as we don’t want to totally strip a pony of its coat if it lives out 24/7 because they will have nothing to help them if there is bad weather.  So we just brushed the bits that were falling out. Of course Albie had to be different – his coat was not budging.

I also attacked ears when no one was noticing.  The whole herd was also dosed with Spot-On – a ready to use topical ectoparasiticide that will treat any unwanted creepy-crawlies.

Tiddles found our spare headcollars to play with.

“What me?  What, what did I do?  I touched nothing, honest.”

So once we had extracted our belongings from being distributed around the field, caught, brushed and dosed everyone, we could see they were back to being beautiful again.  For how long this will last, I do not know.

Our reward was a sit-down whereupon the usual Minions flung themselves upon us for hugs and kisses.

They fairly and evenly distributed themselves.

They will always remember who was around right at the beginning when they needed help.  Shetland elephants never forget!