We are going to do this “in-hand” to prevent damage to everyone involved and today, Hetja was much more receptive.  I think she appreciated the introduction and subsequent chatting up.

Note-to-self – do not stand downwind to a mare thinking about being in season!  Live and learn.

Although she was calmer, Hetja was not 100% receptive but it was an improvement on yesterday.  She would not stand still and did try to kick him again, but she was less panicky.

Tomorrow might be The Day.  We did not persevere and we let Hetja go back to her field and think about things.

And we took Taktur home and gave him his grub.  He was happy enough when we put him out with the geldings.

Meanwhile, as the horse trailer needed cleaning, I let The Minions out of their field to “help”.  They investigated everything and playing King of the Castle should take the fear out of loading as well.

It was lovely watching them wandering about playing with anything they could get their teeth on.

Darling boys.  The perfect therapy.

Hetja came out of her stable having glammed up for her date.

She wore a very fetching blue lippy, the Lady Gaga look (Terramycin wound spray from her leg).

And while her date was arriving, she settled down to delicately nibble some grass.

Next, out came Taktur who we had brought over in the trailer.  He was very happy.

Hetja looked up from her grass to meet her handsome prince.

And Taktur was straight over and with a cursory sniff he forgot all the niceties of a polite introduction.

Hetja was appalled at his lack of manners….

So she kicked him in the teeth.

They went on like this for a few hours with Taktur stalking Hetja round the field, never taking no for an answer, never settling and leaving her alone.

Poor Hetja became very distressed as well as exhausted.

She did try saying no nicely but Taktur was not listening to her.

After a few hours of this, we received a phone call from Jo who said she had split them up, Hetja had cuts and Taktur was still not backing down.

So first date failure.  We are very ashamed that we had to go and bring Taktur back home.

Rude boy.  He was brought up better than that.  We will try taking him to her on a daily basis and see if love blossoms.

The course of true love never did run smooth even if you are really, really, ridiculously good looking!

The potential bridegroom is:-

IS2009180242 – Taktur frá Velli II
my 4 or perhaps 5 gaited (let’s call him 4.5) black 5 year old stallion

Sire:  IS1991157345 – Hugi frá Hafsteinsstöðum
Dam:  IS2000225599 – Tíbrá frá Hafnarfirði

The bride is:-

Hetja frá Skeiðháholti IS2002287901
my 4 gaited 12 year old mare

Sire: IS1996187900 – Hrói frá Skeiðháholti
Dam: IS1991287901 – Fríða frá Skeiðháholti

Hetja injured her leg 2 weeks ago  (not good, but it is now dry so hopefully it will go on healing).

As Hetja is sound and happy in herself, we are happy she can run with Taktur so healing vibes that the cut does not open during the shenanigans.

Meanwhile, perching on Jo’s stable roof screaming it’s head off was a “shalder” or oyster-catcher.   It was probably reading the bans and pre-booking the stork.  Now we just have to grow a gooseberry bush and we will be ready.

Hopefully kick-off (not literally) tomorrow.  Yes, I will have my camera for when Taktur introduces himself.  I hope he looks as gorgeous as Indy always does.

We put the ladies into the hill park the other day when we were sorting everyone out.  I love the hill park.  It is huuuuuuge and the herd can roam about happily in a huge group, like wild ponies do.  There is not an immense abundance of grass, which is good this time of year and they have to hunt for it amongst the heather.

The perfect environment for Shetland ponies in the summer.

As usual, the welcoming committee were waiting for us.

While Daisy was being Zooted, I wandered amongst the girls taking photos.  Zoot and her three chums (Lyra, Gwendolinda and Carina) will come back to Thordale soon for ring-craft training and then we can attack Zoot’s fur to make her beautiful.

It was a lovely sunny, if breezy, day in Shetland today.  I don’t think there is much better than sitting on the bouncy heather being surrounded by beautiful animals.

These are some of my photos from today.

In there is a Daisy apparently.  It is hard to tell where Daisy ends and the girls begin!

The Minions were victimised against our Welsh Section A, Hammy.  All seemed well yesterday when we let them out into the field. Silver had identified with a mad kindred spirit, Charlie. Waffle was loving pretending to be a stallion in front of Andrew. Unfortunately, the next day  the hierarchy had changed and Hammy had the Minions cornered in a field away from the water.

We managed to get the Minions into the school to recover from their ordeal.

Cones are an endless source of entertainment, as are empty buckets.

They were unsettled yet grateful for getting away from that situation.

Toys make every situation better. This was learnt by us humans from trips to the doctors and dentist (with a quick stop at the toy shop afterwards).

We bought more toys for the minions, the most recent one being the Jollyball. Endless hours of entertainment for them. They love picking things up and putting them down whether it is cones or buckets or ropes.

We did not expect this behaviour from Hammy Hamster. He should know better, considering he has the IQ of a butterfly. Hammy has been bullied previously by our Shetland Pony stallion Indy. He just seems to be a social butterfly. His intelligence usually adapts depending on the herd. He is such a nice pony, but herd interactions can change so quickly.

It must be hard for Hammy to not be a Shetland Pony. Their language is so unique and Hammy must adapt to every situation, which cannot be easy for him.

Hopefully, the Minions will recover from this ordeal. They did have a good few hours playing with their new friends though, before hell broke loose.

We moved Andy, Charlie and Hammy into the other field so they can only gaze at each other over fences and Hammy cannot bully the Minions.

Sleeping was required.  They were exhausted.

We will tackle this issue another day. We learned from this experience and it gives us things to consider for the future.

(written by Daisy – Thordale’s potential Animal Behaviourist)