Daisy is due to go away on Friday (boo, hiss), back to St Snotters for her last semester and her final exam.  She has been invaluable to us all these past few weeks, especially to me, and she wanted to see Lyra Lyra Pants-on-Fyra before she went.

Lyra, who only loves Daisy, was of course thrilled to see her.

While they were having their hug-in, I went for a wander around the rest of the field.  Vitamin never took her eyes off her beloved daughter all the time.

Vitamin approves of Lyra’s relationship with Daisy but she is still very attached to her much-wanted baby.

Delia has wintered much better than we expected.  She remains a bit saggy but that is her age, more than anything.  She was pleased to see me and I gave her a scratch and a kiss.

Back to Daisy and Lyra.  Daisy will tell you she is not a huge mare/filly fan but Lyra is very special to her.  This is a relationship Lyra has with no one else.  Daisy is her everything and always has been since she was a little foal.

BeAnne does not like any attention taken away from herself.  She is always the Queen Bee but even she can see that she cannot take on Lyra in Daisy’s affections.

It is just always Lyra and Daisy.  That’s the way it goes.

For those of you who are interested, Lyra is half Berry and half Wells bloodlines.  She is Indy’s half sister.

A lovely sunny afternoon means Spring is in the air and The Minions want to play.

I was just popping into the house, from the indoor school, when I noticed Waffle’s little bunched up bottom while chasing Silver up and down a flat field they had escaped under the fence to.  They were having a lovely time and there was much giggling.

Meanwhile, in the next door field (these two had been good little boys), surprise of surprises, Tiddles was playing with Storm.

He was chasing him and trying to get him to play with him.  I have never seen Tiddles do this before.

He has always been such a serious little foal who never laughed at anything, just determinedly staying out of the way of everyone.

So this is a first for little Tids.

At last he has found someone to play with.  I trust Storm not to be too rough.  He hates really rough games himself.

Tomorrow is another nice day, and slightly warmer, so I will take their rugs off and I hope they play some more.

At last Tiddles is coming out of his shell and it has taken quite a while.

I think we are going to see his character grow and grow now.

Spring is most definitely in the air and I saw my first wild primrose too.

Look, look, look – a whole day of empty stall.

Two lovely ladies spending the day in my neighbour’s backyard.  They were very happy, despite the weather – rain but still warm by Shetland standards.

So we left them to it with no humans, no interference and they could eat and eat and eat.

So, with less to do on our hands, we rode our horses.  I rode Klængur and he said he would not go around the cones in the corner.  Therefore, I told him that he did and, just because he hadn’t been ridden in the school recently, it did not mean he could forget completely.

Daisy rode Kappi beautifully.  He goes so well for her and it is lovely to watch.

I had a quick Minion Moment and let the starving make a clean plate of the leftover hay.  I also gave them a pile of food too as they are very speshul and thinner than everybody else (as a mother, I worry).

The always do “lovely sharing”.  Dear little boys and the best of friends. Tiddles looks up to Storm (no one has dared say this is a bit of a mistake!)

Bjørn trained Taktur and it was incredible to watch.  For a five, rising six, year old stallion, he is doing incredibly well.

So we are back to normal and I am happy.

I took out the mare’s iv cannula as she is now drinking well.  I hope that was the right decision.

A much better day today. The sun shone and the mare was stronger.

She remains on 5 meals of 600 calories (total 3000 daily) and this is helping her hugely.

I can also tell that she is fed up.  She is tipping her food buckets over and when I gave her the antibiotic injection in her rump, she was hugely offended.  I had to apologise by washing her face and massaging her muzzle, which she loved.

What this mare needs most is grass, nice green grass so we took her and her friend up to my neighbour’s field to eat for as long as she wanted.

Heads down and eat, eat, eat.  Perfect.

Don’t cross the streams, Daisy!   (It would be bad… Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light – Ghostbusters.)

Staff Nurse Soufflé was in constant attendance too.  She is taking this job very seriously.

After an hour, we put them into our neighbour’s back yard and left them there for 3 hours.  I really wanted the mare to enjoy the sun on her back and to lie down if she wanted (she did).

They were brought home later in the afternoon and she looked so much happier.

I think the mare is filling back out now and is looking far less bony and ill.

All good.  She is still attached to her drip at night and still on antibiotics.  This was her first day without painkillers.  I bet she sleeps well tonight.

Not our best day today.  The mare was very down this morning.  She had a raised temperature and was not eating.

Luckily the vet happened to be passing and dropped in to see our progress. I told him what I had found and we decided to give her more painkiller and antibiotic injections.

We left her while we had lunch – I wanted the painkiller to take effect before we went up to the green grass.

She was keen to go and we took a friend to keep her company.

I put the mare on a long lunge line so that she could have space from me and could roll if she wanted to.

It was a windy afternoon with occasional showers and I think she enjoyed the feel of the wind in her fur.

She wasn’t as enthusiastic about eating as she had been yesterday but still she managed to eat for an hour before she looked tired.

When we put her back into a clean stall, she had a bit to eat and then we left her to rest.  I will attach her to the drip later as she is still not drinking enough.  The hi-cal goop goes down her 6 times a day and she enjoys the strawberry flavour the most.

I have been missing my Minions and I think they are feeling a little neglected of hugging.

So we popped in and were instantly mugged.

I can only help this mare because all my horses and ponies are so good to work with.  They are in an easy feeding and mucking out routine and no one seems to be suffering from my neglect (though I miss my kisses).