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.

I am sitting here, not wanting to write this…

Rest in peace, Storm.  Sleep well.  I am so sorry – I feel like I failed you horribly.

(I left him last night, inside, nibbling on a haynet, considering a bucket but he died overnight).

❤️ Storm  (2013 to 2024) ❤️
Forever in our hearts.
Run free, and don’t forget to buck a lot while you create chaos.