Moose (Right) is very helpful, just like her Dad, Indy PingPong (aka Millhouse Independant, and yes it is spelled that way and yes we do know it is wrong and no it was not us that named him).

She is probably bomb-proof.

….. back-end

….. front end.

Moose is a chunky lass considering she is only a yearling filly.

She likes people very much.

Very, very much.

Very, very, very much.

Very, very, very, very much.

Very, very, very, very, very much.

Although she couldn’t eat a whole one (human, that is!)

Moose will follow you anywhere and all the time.

Always there is The Moose. Never far away, just in case you need her services. She will always offer to assist in any way with leading or rope holding.   She is good like that.

She has been lightly backed.

And is not phased by other ponies.

She will always be by your side.

And she will always be waiting for you.

Our own dear little Moose or Zoot as she was formerly known!

The day off for everyone at Thordale so off we went to see Les Girls in Sandness – the fillies and mares.

No day with Les Girls is complete without a huge Zoot-ing (or Moose as she was renamed today).  She was everywhere, determined to barge past or get in the way – she is very good at that particular skill.  I used her as a sofa to rest my bum on.  She didn’t mind.  She is a substantial little girl.

The youngsters (Zoot, Carina, Lyra and Gwendolinda)  were into everything.

We were perpetually loved whether we wanted to be or not.

Lyra still loves her Daisy and takes huge liberties with her.  She would never do this to anyone else.  Very sweet.  It was lovely watching them together.  I wish Daisy would take her away to St Snotworts University.  It would be something different at any rate.

This is an easy herd of mares/fillies.  You just go in, pick who you want to work with and then talk to them.  A great place for sitting and being surrounded by beautiful Shetland ponies.

But Lyra will always love her Daisy.  No one else.

The Minions are enjoying the summer at Thordale (before their knackers come off – shhhh, don’t tell them!)  Their day can be summed up with Eat, Play or Love (with occasional sleeps).

So there is the eating part.  The boys take this very seriously.  It could almost be a full-time job.

Then there is the playing.  They love playing and cannot walk anywhere without having fun.

And lastly, they love.  They love me, obviously, and they love Daisy who spends much time scratching and hugging them.

BeAnne is making friends too.  She is being surprisingly tolerant for her.

It is lovely seeing them like this.

So cuddly.

Silver is still a bit shy of us but I make sure we have one-on-one time together and he is learning to trust us. I think all the pulling of the fur has upset him and he has convinced himself that we only want to talk to him to do this.  Poor love.  Soon all the tats will be gone and hopefully he will, as we say in Shetland, “come out”, i.e. come out of himself.

Still, he has his friends and the summer is long.

It can take time to learn to smile again.

When Iacs and Haakon go out together, they have a little private conversation about when they want turn round to go home.  We always ignore this conversation and make them go on.

Apparently, though, I am only a passenger on my own horse – so I have heard.

Today, Daisy and I decided to conduct an experiment to show the extent of our passive riding abilities.

Look – no hands!

Yup, and me too!

Daisy re-arranged Iacs’ mane so we could see his ear transmitters.  It all works through the ears.

We will be going along perfectly happily when Iacs will flick his ear back, whereupon Haakon will reply.  If we ignore it, both Haakon and Iacs will make a circle/pirouette and suddenly we are facing the opposite direction going home very fast.

Usually we stop this stunt before it happens but today, fuelled by the passenger remark, we wanted to see when the independent thought would occur.

If you watch the film, you will see it happens twice.  The first is because there was a car which meant the horses wanted to ambulance-chase – total apologies to the driver who must’ve thought he being pursued by the Nazgûl.  And then there was a bolt for home at the end of the ride.

Ok, we can do this because there are very few cars about and once the horses turn for home  we turn them back and make them go on, albeit grumbling.

We came to the conclusion that if we rode as passengers, we wouldn’t actually get anywhere.  I think not.  To ride our horses, you have to have input and to anyone who thinks we are sacks of potatoes on horseback, I invite you to come and ride Haakon or Iacs.

Take your pick.