Mud – mud is all around us, it’s everywhere we go.  I am very bored of it now and yet, compared to south, we have got off lightly.  At least we are not underwater.

Despite this, we are all still managing to ride but mostly in the indoor school.  I have started to ride Haakon again and Flossie is getting along magnificently with Klaengur.

Everyone is bearing up well, if stickily because they tend to wear their daily soaked sugarbeet feed rather than eat it nicely.  Waffle and Storm are positively crunchy and despite being regularly brushed, they look like guttersnipes (that is what my mother would call them).

Meanwhile Silver is making plans…..

You can almost see the light bulb that lives in his brain light up and the cogs start to whirr….

He wants to see if he can fit a whole Tiddles in his mouth.

And Tiddles, being Tiddles, thinks it is a fun sport because he knows Silver is not doing out of malice but more out of fun and experimentation.  They are very good friends.  In fact all The Minions are.

I put out hay for everyone but only Hetja and Hjalti were keen on it – more out of politeness than anything else.  I think Hetja was teaching her son that it is rude not to always make a clean plate even if you don’t like it (ie me and brussel sprouts)

He is a well brought up little boy and anyway there are always plenty of “vultures” around to help tidy up.

Lambie has sort-of horns.  Nothing to write home about horns, but horns nonetheless and he is quite proud of them.

Being Lambie, of course, they are not normal horns that grow like they should.  No, that would be too easy.  Lambie’s horns are different and turn a corner growing straight into his skull, if allowed.  As a good Muzzah, I don’t want this to happen so I usually trim them with the dog’s nail-clipping scissors.

On Monday, however, I decided to rasp down one errant horn but I made little, if any, progress.  Looking around me for a better tool, I found a pair of hoof clippers and tried with that.

Horreur des horreurs!  His horn fell off in my hand.  I felt sick with guilt and Lambie looked surprised, but luckily not too bothered.  Where his horn had been was a nasty little bloody stumpette.   I immediately reached for my purple spray (“the default foot treatment and sanitizing spray of the sheep farmer”).

We all agreed that Lambie quite suited purple.  I was speaking to the vet nurse about another matter and happened to mention my mutilation of Lambie, and the nurse suggested using Turquoise spray – Terramycin Spray (local antibiotic).   Lambie, however, was less keen on this (maybe it was colder) and my aim wandered.  As you can see he now looks like someone putting on their makeup on in a taxi (wait for second sketch – hilarious)!

Anyway, luckily Ster (as in Lambster) still loves his BFF.  Note too that Ster’s running is much better.  He bounces all over the place with happiness and he is slightly showing off that his horns are fine!

Anywho, if I take Lambie’s photo in black and white, you can’t really tell he is actually turquoise and purple as well!

I need this tattooed on my forehead to keep reminding me. I looked at the Minions today and they are fatty fat fat.

So……

If you are fat and hairy, then you do not need to live in a stable with extra hay at night in winter.

Even little Hjalti is not so little anymore.  He is looking well and his physical development will only work properly if he is outside being an Icelandic horse.  This is what he is designed for as are the Shetland ponies.

Yes, it is windy and cold but no one is shivering or looking miserable.  They all have a good hard feed in the morning according to their needs – this place is like a restaurant with the different dishes I have to create for varying dietary needs and I think their “central heating” should be allowed to work.

There is also grass, of sorts, and shelter that they have easy access to.

When I can feel a rib or if someone is shivering or struggling, then I will reconsider.  I make different decisions every day as it comes weather-wise – nothing is written in stone.

But I need to keep telling myself this otherwise I will pile them all into the shed with bales of hay and they will only get fatter and fatter.  Then, in Spring, they will have to go to a hill park to lose weight.

Of course none of this applies to Les Grandes Dames.  They can come and go as they please.

(though Vitamin maybe heading for the hill this spring – she is portly).

After Daisy’s lesson, Flossie had her first riding lesson on my Icelandic horse, Klængur.

I love this – Flossie catches her horse, tacks him up and then gets herself ready.  You have no idea how long I have waited for this moment.

Anywho, Flossie had to want and ask to learn to ride without my input.  I think it is important that my daughters learn to ride because THEY want to and not because it would make me happy.

Bjørn, our FEIF Level 3 Instructor, decided that Flossie, having learned the basics on Haakon and Iacs, should now try a good tölt horse to get the feeling of what it is all about.

Klængur is not a straightforward ride in the indoor school by any means.  It took me the best part of a year, when he first arrived, just to steer him round in a circle, while he had other independent thoughts!  We did very weird circles for many months while we got the measure of each other.

Flossie and Klængur are good together and it was lovely to watch Flossie getting the feeling of a proper tölt.  Despite her very serious riding face (let’s not call it Bitchy Resting), afterwards she said Klængur’s tölt was great fun (huzzah, another convert).  She even went outside the cones that mark the corners and that is no mean feat.

Bjørn was wonderful with Flossie too.  He helped, instructed and showed her how to achieve good riding practice – the important things such as hands, legs, half halts, outline, flexion, etc.

This is all during a storm too – the wind was howling outside but indoors Flossie was listening and learning.

I apologise for all the tölt photos but I am so proud of Flossie and Klængur.  They make an awesome team!

*** blowing my nose now ***

Daisy has changed.  She is all growed up and her riding is amazing.

She came home for two weeks for Christmas and Kappi and Iacs (her riding horses) saw a different type of riding – that of someone who is paid to train young Icelandic horses and to ride anything that she is presented with.  Daisy works at Kise Islandshestgård, an Icelandic horse training and breeding farm in Norway.  Dammit, she is even learning Norwegian!

Gulp, poor Iacs – he is now in therapy for shock and actually having to do some work (no photos – it would be cruel).

But, lots of photos of Daisy riding Kappi.  Remember, she was given this horse by her trainer, Bjørn Roar Larsen, after the British Championships in West Tarf, Edinburgh, in 2015.

Kappi fra Frøberg is an 11 year old gelding by Jarl frá Miðkrika and out of Hetja frá Hofsstöðum.  He has a BLUP of 107 and is 4 (ish) gaited!

Daisy, and she did say this herself, has missed him dreadfully but is happy he is here, at Thordale, bringing the herd up to eat as he hears the rattle of a feed bucket from about 5 miles away.

Food is very important to Kappi (as you might be able to see).

But, for an Icelandic horse that has not been ridden regularly since June, he still tries his best for Daisy and is her safe reliable friend.

He also looks beautiful when Daisy rides him.

Daisy goes back tomorrow at a crack of sparrows flight to Oslo.  We will miss her dreadfully.  It has been wonderful riding out with her this holidays.

Travel safely, Daisy.  Bring us back Norwegian chocolate (just sayin’!)