I have been experimenting with black and white photography recently.

Today has been spent doing boring paperwork and paying bills…. yawn.  My reward was a lovely bendy schooling session on Klængur and, afterwards, I went outside with my little camera (not the Darth Vader one) and sat with the boys taking random occasional photos of everyone.  Perfect.  Utter bliss.

I love being with the herd.  They just potter about me, some requesting nose kisses, some wanting hugs, some wanting their bottoms scratched.  No one is rude and everyone behaves.  I never feel threatened or worried.  Would I do this with the mares?  I have done, but I am far more wary and am always reading their body language between each other.  Bust-ups happen more quickly with mares, than geldings or stallions even.

Daisy came to join me – she had been riding Haakon to the beach with Anna on Fakur and they had just returned the horses to the field.  She plonked herself down and immediately Silver, who had been on the edge, came up and draped himself around her.

I think I will go on with the black and white thing.  It gives a different mood to my photos.  Sometimes the colour hides the real emotions and feelings.

It was a nice day, though and I am feeling very virtuous.  I even almost did my tax return.

Today was a momentous day for Klængur and me.

These past few months, I have spent many hours retraining him from scratch.  I started him again as if he knew nothing and could forget everything.

Today was our first time out in the scattald (open hill) and it was trust issue for both him and me.

The more I ride Klængur, the more I get to know his funny little ways.  Today he suffered from both Haakon’s and Iacs’ diseases.

Haakon always, if allowed, will go and stand in any gateway and look wistfully into the distance – for what, I am not sure.  Klængur went and stood in two gateways.  Huh?

Iacs’ disease is far worse.  He likes to gently turn around in a circle and take his rider home when no one is taking any notice, i.e. we are chatting and wandering along on a loose rein.  So, with Klængur we were tacking gently across the road.  As my neighbour would say, when he watched me ride Iacs out many years ago “never a straight line”.   It didn’t matter – I just kept Klængur going forward and ignored his little ideas.

Klængur was wonderful to ride.  Cars can now go past him without a flicker and he is relaxed almost all of the time.  Today, for the first time, I took him into the scattald – the open hill.  I would not go on a nervous horse as you have to trust each other without question especially if they are new to this kind of ground.

Klængur listened to me.  He went where I said to go and let me tell him where the safe path was.

He did his very best and I was so proud of him.

Finally, it has come together.  We are a team and my little orange horse is very special.

Today seemed the right day to try on The Minions’ very special bespoke hats.

What can I say?  They looked fab and wore them very well.  Some horses suit hats and some don’t.  The Minions do, definitely.

We tried a variety of styles with Daisy favouring the jaunty angle for her boy.

Personally, I favoured the entire ear cover for mine.

Waffle and Storm were very happy to wear their wonderful hats.

And if you are thinking we are cruel, mean and horrid – these ponies did not mind one bit and were happy to continue playing and eating without a care in their world.

Shetland ponies will always let you know if they hate what you are doing.

Silver was less keen so, rather than force the issue, Daisy wore his hat for him.

She waited for him to come and talk to her, which he duly did.

He did not feel like wearing his, which was fine.  No pressure.  No pressure at all.

Secretly I think everyone was rather jealous and hankered for their own personalised hats.

So, here are a few pictures from today’s hat wearing adventure.

Enjoy x

Last week Jo went south to collect her tweetie pie, Freja, a Harris Hawk.  She was born in April (I think).

I have been dying to see her (Freja, not Jo) but we have been well-behaved and waited until we were officially asked as Jo and Freja have to become accustomed to each other.  So, today, when I popped round with some visitors to meet the ponies, afterwards she offered to show Freja to me.

Holy crap on a cracker.  What a bird.  I was in awe and just sat on the ground clicking away with my camera for ages learning about a new animal with my breath blown away.

Look at Freja’s talons – they are incredible….

… and the back ones mean business too.  Scary stuff.

Her feather are beautiful.  Totally hypnotic and laid out perfectly.  Nature is an incredible designer.

She even has a bell placed carefully above her tail feathers and between her wings.

They eyes – the hypnotic eyes are watching everything.  So prehistoric.

Jo is already working hard at this all-important stage to develop a relationship with Freya.  It was an education watching them together.  This sport is something I know absolutely nothing about.

Anyway, for those who have forgotten what a Shetland pony looks like, here is one I saw today.  She followed me round all afternoon, while I was taking some photos for a friend.

Personally, I think I prefer ponies to birds but that is just me.  It is all that flapping – I’m not good with that but I am enjoying taking photos (I secretly can’t wait until she starts working).

Apologies for lack of decent/edited photos. The card stopped working…and we can’t work technology.

Frances and her OH are away at a party today. The costume theme was the 1940s in Brazil. These were our reactions to their outfits.

We’ll let your imaginations run wild.

This left Anna and me (Daisy) in charge of the blog and the dogs.

Jo turned up with her snazzy new van, complete with mobile blacksmith station.

She very kindly replaced shoes on Hákon, Iacs and Klaengur. And then had a ride on him to see how much he had changed.

He is so chilled out and loves going round the school. He is so much more responsive now and truly enjoys being ridden.

I had a quick go, while Anna was getting Hammy ready for his big day.

He was started out by being long-reined round the school. You must constantly remind Hammy every time that he has done this before. It sinks in pretty quickly though.

The next step was to attach a block of wood to his traces, that he would then pull round the school. He barely batted an eyelid and took it all in his stride (This is a very big deal for Hammy).

Last, but not least, was the introduction of the cart. After a little bit of hesitation, we made it around the ring twice calmly with the cart on him and Jo holding on to it just in case. We called it a day after that.

We are so proud of Hammy for reacting so well today. He has truly grown up this year and is turning out to be a lovely pony with huge potential and willingness to learn.

We have to say though, it has been exhausting sometimes…