This morning was busy because we were burying Storm so I had to move all the horses and ponies to give the digger-man clear access to where we bury everyone – down the bottom field.  Klaengur and every cat and dog are there.

After breakfast buckets, I led Haakon and Iacs, with Kolka following into the hill park but once Storm was in his final resting place, I decided to move them back again as the weather is going to be bad and they will need all the shelter they can find.

To do this, I of course was totaly ill-prepared and so resorted to leading Iacs by his chin-hairs, with Kolka following and Haakon wondering what all the fuss was about.

Once back in their old field, I gave them all a carrot to say thank you for being easy and straight-foward.  It does make life so much easier when everyone cooperates.

Then, in my gloom, I went on with my walk. Ted had long since gone home for some reason only known to himself so it was just myself and Pepper.  I was quickly seen by Dahlia and Gussie who came running over, which was lovely.

I found a cold bum-shaped rock and sat on it so that Gus-Gus could come and tell me just how much he loved and appreciated his new life.

Perfect teefs.

Dahlia had other things on her mind.  She said her hello’s but left me with her son.

Tomorrow does not bode well for the weather so I wanted to get everything done today.

You’ve gotta love this little face.  Gussie is a delight. I cannot love him more and he did his best job of cheering me up.

(And I love how these two still get on very well.)

A few photos from  yesterday.

Lambie chanelling his inner Elvis sneer.  He has been doing his very best to try and cheer me up. This is a face only a mother could love.

On Thursday, I was given a box of weird carrots for the sheep.  So, after handing them out one at a time to Lambie who was busy asking himself whether he could remember if he ate carrots or not, I thought the easiest thing would be to just put the whole box on the ground.

They all piled in and Lambie remembered he did like carrots. Phew!

Barrel came up for air.

It’s lucky that everyone was in a sharing mood.  Unusual for some *** cough Lambie, who always has to be different ***.

Even Pepper managed to steal a few too.  She does love raw carrots – Ted taught her this as Mum used to feed him raw veg when she was preparing her food.

And a little thank you smile from Lambie.

This morning and the scenery had drastically changed.

I think we are all glad the snow has gone.  It’s been tough.

These days every morning, without fail, the Icelandic horses are the wrong side of the burn (stream).

And every morning, without fail, I shout for them to come over because I am not struggling down there with three big buckets of food when they have perfectly good legs and could walk.

And, yes, I do shout all of this while I watch them dither trying to chose who will make the first move.  It’s not going to be me.

Today, it was Iacs.  His single pea-like brain cell kicked in and he crossed the burn, quickly followed by Kolka and Haakon who know full well I would actually feed all their breakfasts to any horse that turned up.

Breakfast in my colour-coded buckets.

(L-R)
Pink – Iacs with his cancer drugs
Blue – Kolka – same as Iacs’ minus the drugs
Yellow – Haakon who doesn’t like normal boswellia that is added and has to have the world’s most expensive arthritis supplement but, to be fair, has been his game-changer in quality of life.

Iacs was first up.

And this is the face of an old lady on a mission.

So the horses got their respective buckets and after this photo, I clambered over the fence to keep Kolka away from Iacs.

I had, of course, my little assistant helper who suddenly rushed off after a rabbit she saw.

I had a quick prod to see if there were any ribs.  Luckily, none. Phew!

I am always fascinated by their ability to stay warm.  You can see how their outer winter coat goes into points so the rain will drip off, while remaining dry underneath.

And the belly is lovely and floofy too.

I am glad this herd are managing without rugs so far.  That is a slippery slope I don’t want to go down unless I really, really have to.

I can’t dwell on Storm’s death.  I have to move on. My animals need me and it is certainly not the time to sit and do nothing (I can hear my mother’s voice in my head very loud saying this).

And possibly Monster’s (even louder).

The Shetland ponies are still on their never-ending diet.  I tell myself it is for their own good and I must be firm.

Every two days, they get a bit more field to eat which will eventually become the winter track.  Today, I opened a new bit for them and they were very pleased.

The snow is not helpful and the ponies have to work hard to find their grass but only during daylight hours.

But dig and find food, they do and they don’t seem to be suffering on this meagre amount of forage.  They get haynets at night to keep them going.

I spent my afternoon in my shed making a sheep to hopefully sell one day.  It is always good to have stock, I tell myself.  Someone will give him a home eventually.

It feels like I am just going through the motions now, trying hard not to live in the what-ifs, and where-did-I-go-wrong scenarios that won’t stop playing through my head.  I wish they would stop.  I can’t turn back time.

And I miss Storm more than words.  I miss his sense of humour.  Who is going to make me laugh now?

The snow is still here.  It thaws during the day, then freezes at night so the roads are perilous and everything takes forever to do.

Despite this, we are all coping pretty well.

Yesterday, I put out some haynets for the Icelandic horses.  Just in case they were still hungry.

They politely tried them and then walked away so I know they are not struggling.  Sometimes I see someone having a little.

The little ones are all outside now, but Fivla and Vitamin come inside at night as they can’t manage haynets – not got the teeth for them.  They get buckets instead, which they think are great.  Two old ladies trot, yes, trot into the shed as the sun is setting.  It is sweet to see.

Dahlia and Guss turn up for food, and I like to think to say hello.

But, it is mostly food.  I am a realist.

Hay for all and it is always finished.  Again, sheep can dig for the grass and it is perfectly visible in places.

As I was going inside after doing the afternoon chores, I played a quick game of “Spot the horses”.  It took a while for me to find the third.

So, we’re doing ok (raw and emotional if I think about it) and thank you for your kind words.  They were appreciated.