Yesterday evening, Bjørn came over to train Taktur, my Icelandic stallion and Kappi, his Icelandic gelding.

While he was opening the school, turning on the lights, finding Taktur in the pitch dark, I thought I would take some more hay over to the Minions’ shed for some night-time snacking.

I could have sworn I shut the gate properly but apparently not and while the others tucked into their hay, Silver planned and made his escape.

He refused to be caught, and attracted by the lights in the school, ran in there.

I didn’t care.  I encourage the Minions to not rely on each other all the time and Silver has a good friendship with Kappi.  I assumed they would stand together and eat hay, while Taktur was being trained.

How wrong I was.  Silver was intrigued by Taktur being ridden round the school and decided to catch up and investigate further.  He refused to be caught by me and I did apologise for the little irritation who I thought would only get in the way.

To be fair Bjørn thought it was funny and Taktur didn’t mind one bit.  Notice how Silver tries to keep step.  Although he can’t tölt, Silver matched Taktur as much as he could.

Silver loved it.  He got a bit tired at the end but could see him shining with happiness at doing something fun.  While Kappi had his training, Silver and Taktur sweetly shared a haynet together.

Haakon is brewing an abscess in his left front hoof and we are playing the usual waiting game.  The hoof testers and poking about abit have come up with nothing.  My money is on the coronet band (the top where the fur joins).  With daily Danilon and inspections, nothing has appeared so far.  He is living on an unmuddy surface while he is hopping lame.  The first night Haakon was with Iacs in the indoor school.  The next night Haakon was in with Taktur, who loves a shed and happily stands in any he can find.  I trusted them and they behaved impeccably, even down to pooing in three neat little piles.

Last night, having thought I had it sussed, Taktur and Haakon happily went into the indoor school.  They had hay nets and buckets of water.

Just before bed, I suddenly remembered that I hadn’t checked them, so I put a survival suit over my pyjamas and went to look.  Taktur had been helping himself to my winter hay.  As the haynets were empty, I could see why he had done it and gave them the bale anyway.

This morning, however, when I went to let them out, there was hay everywhere.  Taktur, bored of the guilt-free hay, had decided to raid the rest of the pile and managed to pile two more bales on top of himself.

So I recovered as much precious hay as I could from the floor and put it into haynets for later.  I moved all the carts around so that there is now a huge barrier between Taktur and the haystack.

I expected more and I know it wasn’t Haakon because he is not that kind of chap.  Now Iacs, on the other hand……

He may be perfection, but Taktur’s halo has slipped.

So how is Wu, I hear you ask? (thank you for your concern, and all your get-well messages;  they are hugely appreciated).

Wu refuses to come out from under the bed.  All conversations take place with me lying on the floor trying to coax him out with food, love and companionship.

I did manage briefly with some chopped wafer thin ham and took this photo of the injury.  Nasty.

Poor boy. No wonder he isn’t talking to anyone.

I thought BeAnne was being supportive only to find she had snaffled Wu’s special tempting food.  She managed a cursory get-well-soon glance at her friend.

Outside is harsh.  I mucked out and fed everyone.

The upside, though, is that I discovered it is a good idea to stable a has-been stallion and a stallion together as they will poo in the same place!  I only had three lovely neat piles to clear up as opposed to the thousand dotted everywhere when it was two geldings together.

The Minions are all sharing nicely in their little shed.  I am pleased about that and would be very cross if someone was having to live outside due to any dog-in-manger behaviour.  But no, everyone has access to hay and no one is hassling.

There was a brief weather window and I shot outside with Loki and BeAnne for their long walk.

(someone needs to shiver or run off some of the cat’s dinner)

After that, Jack went out for his short potter before it got dark again.

He’s still got it and he’s still with us.  Weather does not put our little Jack off.

(I lie – it does, sometimes)

I had today all planned out nicely in my head.  Some riding, mucking out, feeding, walking the dogs, etc….

That went straight in the bin.

My back gave a ginormous warning twinge in the shower of things to come, with pain enough for me swear.  I am standing on the edge of the cliff now.

Feeling weak, I went to get dressed, etc, only to find Wu lying on the bed which he always does this time of day.  I stroked his side found a bit of something on his fur. I was picking it off, thinking it was abnormal, he is such a clean boy when suddenly, I saw his flank was ripped open down to the muscle.

Shit.  Quickly dressing, phoning the vet to make an appointment, rushing to shed to find cat box, lining cat box with washable vetbed, all the while praying to all the Gods that Wu would be co-operative.

I snuck up on him, piled him into the box and shut it.  Phew!  Drove like a mad thing to the vet who sedated him and stitched the inside bits.

Surprisingly, Wu was very good.  I did mention to the vet that Wu might bite but he just shoved his head into my armpit and said nothing (Wu, not vet).

Wu is home now and in a vile mood.  He is growling to himself upstairs and  I have left a bowl of lightly poached white fish for him and turned the heating on.

Oh, and meanwhile, Haakon and Iacs, who were mooching round outside the house as Haakon has a hoof abscess (bugger it), ran out of the gate when I opened it to drive home.  I managed to bribe Iacs back by rattling a bucket of barley rings but Haakon just stood in the hill looking sullen, so I thought sod it, and left him.

He came home eventually looking a little embarrassed.  So he is only lame when he walks but can bugger off at full speed into the hill when it suits him.

Meh!

Healing vibes for Wu please.

(and that is why, dear Readers, I was late putting up the Advent Calendar photo for today)

I have, as usual, been worrying about Stardust.  Under all that fluff, he is very thin and scrawny with a backbone sticking out and nasty little jagged hipbones too.  Ugh.

Having jumped wholeheartedly onto the rugging bandwagon with Storm. I perused Fleabay and found a very nice little 2′ 9″ outdoor rug for little Stardust.

It fits him a treat and I hope he will embrace his new rug wearing status rather than try and lose it like the goat coat (still not found).

Words have been had with the others about not laughing and pointing and, as usual, Storm was hovering about like a mosquito on a summer’s day trying to irritate.

He’s probably jealous that there is someone more needy than him.

I am very impressed with the fit of this rug.  I think I might buy another one so in his wardrobe Stardust will have a spare.

Suddenly I find you can’t have too many rugs because you just never know!

OMG, what am I turning into?  I am not this kind of person.  I tell myself, this is purely for health reasons, not any other.  He is not clipped or bathed endlessly or being kept clean for my convenience, Stardust is thin and he needs an extra layer to get through our rough unforgiving Shetland winter.

Phew!  I feel slightly better now.