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!

Daisy and I took the van to fill up with emergency hay for foaling – because you never know and I like to be prepared.  Ok, ok, I panic and worry. I admit it.

Anyway, once we had our hay, we went into “centre ville” and I dropped off my felted creations.  First the sheeple went to Jamieson’s Knitwear on the street.

I felt very proud seeing my work in the shop and hope they quickly fly off the shelves.  I worked very hard making them.

Then ten puffins went to the Peerie Shop to be priced up and quickly put on the shelves.  The street was deserted mainly because it was ruddy freezing.

There was, however, a Norwegian cruise ship in harbour – the beautifully restored MS Nordstjernen.  We did see a few visitors huddling in doorways looking very cold.

The freezing black clouds were not helping.

Daisy and I dodged in and out of the shops trying to avoid the hail, sleet and, at one stage, snow.

So that’s all my sheep and puffins gone.  Flown the nest.  I am now working on curly-wurly sheep.

I love the Wensleydale curly “locks” and am waiting on some shiny black ones to arrive from England.

I think curly-wurly sheep may be the way forward!

The sun was shining, yes it was a tad blowy but nothing too miserable so I thought Haakon, BeAnne and I could go out for a walk.

(yes, that’s BeAnne’s grumbly face)

I put Her Maj on a lead before we reached the road as there are little lambs about now.

Lambing season has just begun and even though BeAnne would not chase a lamb or ewe, I would not be popular for walking a dog off a lead in the scattald (open hill or common grazing).  It is not the done thing.

So I “knitted” with my extending dog lead and the non-extending horse rope and both animals behaved very well.  BeAnne has often walked with Haakon and he knows she would take a very dim view on being trodden on.  So she walked in front of me and I cursed her for trying to trip me up instead!

After a while I grew bored of the endless “knitting” and tripping and let Haakon do his own thing.  He is used to this set-up and happily walked beside me.

I love this photo.  Me and my best friend just pottering together enjoying each other’s company.

On my walk, I did noticed that Haakon has another hoof abscess (his third).  It was draining nicely, no lameness or misery and actually the gentle walk increased the drainage nicely.  A small part of me is not surprised.  At the back of my mind I was thinking something else might be lurking.  Ho hum…… better out than in.

I think if this weather holds up, these gentle ambles are good for Haakon both mentally and physically. I push him onto the grass verge when I can and he happily potters alongside.