For crying out loud.  Haakon is now lame.

This was last Friday – we were mucking around testing out a new emergency braking system.  Haakon was a joy to ride.  Fast, funny and with a huge sense of humour.  We were both smiling and happy.

So today, I brought him in (he follows behind me so I don’t see him walk).  I planned to do a little pottering and perfect our tölt.  I tacked up and got on.  Instantly I knew something was wrong.  Haakon’s head nodded when he walked – that I-am-lame kind of head nodding.

I instantly dismounted, untacked and walked him round trying to decide which leg it was.  His front feet smelled badly when I picked them out.  The front left was worst and I could see what I thought was an exit hole on the hoof wall with a sinus from the sole.  I think the abscess has burst or is in the process of draining as Haakon is not hopping lame like Iacs was – to the point I thought he had broken his back or leg!

So a hot soak and a poultice.  Haakon is sporting a purple bandage and taken up residence in the stable with Klængur, who always enjoys a Duvet Day.

I am not happy.  I have poured another free sample vial of Floris over myself to take the filthy smell away.  It does linger.

The boys are still in their filled rugs and they refuse to go out without them.

Certain small ponies are quite determined that their rug is their’s and it can be changed when wet but that is it.

This is Storm’s second best rug.

If I make the executive decision to remove all rugs, Storm and Tiddles take to their shed in a joint huff and refuse to budge until another rug of acceptable standard is put on.

Both Tiddles and Storm are very stubborn little characters and, although they both very much enjoy being outside during winter, this is only acceptable with a rug.

I would love to say “No Rugs” – I am not a rugging person but these rugs have probably saved Tiddles and Storm’s lives this winter.

Tiddles is doing much better than Storm, weight-wise.  He is a healthy weight – a furry round ball of single-minded attitude.  Storm remains ribby, thin and not very steady on his feet.

His real fur coat underneath is made of sub-standard nylon and he has not filled out like the others.  I suck my teeth when I look at him.  Hopefully he will pick up in Spring.

As well as their huge field, the Minions have ad lib hay/silage as well as a daily hard feed.

But they are still my little bebbies!

Piles of photos for you to peruse, wince and look at.  Scuse our faces – that is pure concentration rather than the glamorous photoshoot face.

First, I let my friend Carole have a shot on Klængur.  Carole has her own perfect Icelandic horse, Hakki, but it is always nice to try another.

Bless him, Klængur went superbly.  He was listening to Carole and giving her his very best.  I had explained to him previously that I expected this.  Funny boy, that he is, when I was in the school, Klængur would veer inwards to tell me just how well he was doing!

It is good for me to see photos of him going well for someone else.  I never see this as there is never anyone around to photograph me.

Next it was my turn.  Bjørn asked me to ride Taktur – something I rarely do these days as it is Bjørn who is training Taktur.

Riding Taktur is awesome – it is very different from either Klængur or Haakon.  Taktur is much thinner to start with so it all feels very odd to me.  I am used to a good substantial old-style Icelandic horse.

Carole was on camera, the light was failing and she did her best with my “bitchy resting face”.

Taktur takes your breath away.  He offers everything from your slightest thought and I know I didn’t do him justice but he gave me the world anyway.

I even managed trot, which is unheard of.

It is all good practice and Bjørn said he asked me to ride Taktur so I could see just how bloody difficult it is.

And he is right.  I was a sweaty mess afterwards with very achey legs.  Bloody hard work!

I am not happy with Iacs.  Methinks he has got very used to his life of luxury and does not like being down-graded back to normality again.

His hoof is better now and everyone is over at Clothie because that is a relatively mud-free field, while the weather is behaving.  However, I still go over daily to feed Taktur his Handsome Prince food.

(and yes, he has no headcollar, and yes it is the scattald (open hill) and yes, he could potentially roam for miles as he is a young stallion – but no, he won’t go anywhere, and yes I do trust him and yes I do know you should never trust a stallion, and no, it is not madness because the only place he would go is home!)

I could see the others liked having a little something too so I lugged over 5 square buckets with a smidgen too.  Yesterday they loved it and spent hours with their own bucket getting every last bit.

Today, Iacs was incensed.  This was not enough. He wanted more.  So he systematically went round to each horse and their bucket throwing it and the contents around the field.  This resulted in nobody having anything.

The sensible ones looked at the ground and started finding morsels to eat.

The others made their feelings known.

They even gazed jealously at Taktur eating his grub undisturbed by Iacs.

And poor Charlie was very depressed until I gave him his own private leftovers in the corner (see above photo of Charles Buttons Esq).

Luckily, I had also brought a pile of carrot peelings and cauliflower leaves so I distributed them to those that deserved them rather than those that were rude.

Yes Iacs, I know where you live and next time I am tying you up!

I have spent the best part of my day looking at this – OH’s computer and its internal problems.  The grey spinning thing went on forever, not helping while I surfed the inter-super-highway looking for solutions.

After many hours, a headache and swear words, I went outside to clear my head.  I definitely needed some kind of therapy.

Obviously, I turned to the experts.

They are always on hand with their computer advice and support.

Their fluffy noseys are wonderful to help you take a step back, take stock of the situation and decide what to do next.

I was sorely tempted to go straight to the computer’s major data banks with a very large axe and give it a reprogramming it would never forget.

But, remembering I was the adult in this situation, I decided to erase the whole hard disk instead.

And I felt a huge sense of relief.

(Storm was not very helpful as he wanted to eat grass but managed to lift his head once to look hopeless!)

My poor OH is now not happy.  He had backed-up apparently a few weeks’ ago and is now sitting on the sofa tutting and sighing to himself while he tries to remember what was on his computer that was important.

Now he needs one (or four) of these!