Little Tiddles always looks all innocent, delicious and cuddly-wuddly.  Not a bad thought, never a bad word, always a sweetheart.

Oh yes.

He is darling little boy with a lovely hair-do.

He moves beautifully, in a lovely outline and pointing toe-toes, giving Totilas a run for his money.

He would make a superb jousting pony, if we could find a jockey small enough!  Why am I suddenly thinking of Sir Didymus and Ambrosius?  I can see BeAnne doing this….

https://youtu.be/Jm29QHaRyuY

And what is the buzz-word at the moment in the horse world? – ah, yes, scopey! (bleugh)  

Tiddles is scopey.

“The word can be used in relation to movement or conformation. If a horse moves fluidly,lightly and with good reach and suspension that can mean “scopey””.

As one of the boys, Tiddles gives as good as he gets now.  Silver was in the field with Kappi being a grown-up.

Tiddles’ BFF (best friend forever) is still Storm.

Storm puts up with a great deal of aggro from this little midge and he is very nice about the endless torment.

Tiddles just has this wicked side that appears occasionally, ok most days!

Mwahahahaha!

Lambie went to see veterinary (Herriot speak) this morning.  Whilst trying his very best (he is such a little trooper), Lambie remains lame and grinding his teeth when he lies in my arms at night.  This means he is in pain and I hate that.

He was given more of antibiotics and painkillers and has put on 200g of weight (1.8kg now).  The vet reckoned his prognosis was good and although he might have an odd gait, he should make a good recovery and have a happy pain-free life ahead of him.

When we got home, he was already feeling better.  Ok, he is not gambolling quite yet but he is trip-trapping as well as running after BeAnne trying to follow her everywhere at quite some speed even when she is trying to escape.

Afterwards, I managed a nice ride on Haakon who was on happy tölting form.  Riding is the only time I can forget my spine so I like to have a potter whenever I can.

It has been a peaceful day and, leaving BeAnne with her charge, I went into the field to take photos of the Minions, etc.

Everyone is still hanging onto their winter-woollies and I don’t blame them as it can be cold, especially at night.

I think we will clip Tiddles when he is castrated later, like we did with the Minions last year.

Tiddles is getting a bit much for Storm and bounces up and down all over him.  Poor Storm is still at the bottom.  Maybe Lambie will be his new best friend when he is slightly bigger.

Oh yes, and I had a poached egg for lunch.  That is the true colour of our eggs.  Aren’t they beautiful?

It was delicious. Sometimes nothing beats a poached egg on toast.

I seemed to be the only person with any diesel in a four-wheel drive today (the local shop has run out which results in a 20 minute drive to find any).  So, as it was the day my neighbour wanted to put his stallions out with his mares, I volunteered to help, leaving Lambie with my neighbour.  She had very kindly offered to look after him when I was stealing rhubarb from her garden!

The handsome Alex was looking forward to meeting his mares and has been shouting his mouth off at the stallion/mare combo in the opposite field for a few days.  He was ready for his girls.

So we gave Alex three beautiful mares to entertain.

So he said he couldn’t get over the stream and he was stuck.

This is a very small stream that Alex has crossed to and fro happily for the past few weeks with his friends.  Today, he couldn’t.  So we left him to work it out for himself, confident that by the time we returned, he would’ve had it sussed and gone over to introduce himself.

The next trip involved taking two mares to Lyra’s beautiful dad, Zain of Berry.  Lyra is Vitamin’s daughter and Indy’s half sister.

That visit went well.  Zain was very happy to see ladies and rushed over.

The mares were suitably impressed to see Zain and we left them to it.

Zain is a lovely boy and such a gorgeous colour.

But, when we returned home, Alex will still by himself and still had not worked out how to jump the teensy-weensy stream.

*** sigh *** – he might work it out one day.

The lovely Hetja yesterday.  She is pregnant and could be due in June, though I am still sucking my teeth and wondering whether it might not be July.  She just doesn’t look like a mare who will be giving birth next month.

It will be her first foal so I might be very wrong.

Hetja is our only mare who will foal this year and I can’t wait to meet her baby.

I know one horse who is going to miss her desperately when she is away for her maternity confinement and that is Esja.  She adores Hetja.  When they travelled together from Iceland, Hetja took on the role of her mother.

I am not sure how we will manage to split them up, to be honest.  Esja has been known to jump over fences to get to Hetja.

Esja is a very determined girl and I don’t think it would be a good idea for her to be with Hetja when she foaled.

She could be very jealous of Hetja’s new foal.

Hopefully we can take Esja’s mind off losing her best friend by starting her training.

She is ready now and it will be interesting to see how she progresses.

While I was in Sandness taking photos of the girls, there was a flock of shalders (oystercatchers) arguing between themselves.

BeAnne is not a huge fan of the field with Esja and Hetja as she tends to be chased so she opted to stay outwith (and sulk, and refuse to get back into the car).  Yes, that is BeAnne, the dot by the brown painted fence in the far distance.  Can you feel the waves of resentment eminating?

BeAnne gives a good resent – she has had much practice!

Just because I can, Lambie had his first photoshoot today.

Spring is here and tomorrow is a day of shite so I wanted to make the most of what colour there is in the garden before it is all blown away or drowned.

Lambie was very professional, a natural, of course.

I think I might be doing this a few more times.  Well, you know me!

In the outside world, there are foals everywhere.  I am very jealous and still nip down looking for any opportunity to talk to them and take photos.

I had a long chat with this little lady, Vida Rose.  She is enchanting….

and very smart ….

and we luffs each other.

If I didn’t have all my boys and Minions, she might go missing in the middle of the night – just sayin’. I suspect I will be fighting Daisy off her too when she comes home.

This time of year everyone (including me) looks scruffy.  This is because it can get very cold and it would be wrong to strip the winter coat from a pony that lives outside.  We had a nasty monsoon-style downpour of rain this afternoon.

Anyway, the grass is growing and everyone looks exhausted from lambing and foaling.  The National Sport in Shetland, this time of year.