A beautiful sunny day so I opened the gate to let the three little furry mischiefs out. I had decided to work with them a bit.  My back was behaving so I thought I would “run the gauntlet”.

Question: Why does Storm need to climb onto the top of the muck heap?

Answer:  Because he can!

The usual shenanigans involving teethes.  It wouldn’t be normal without them but they love each other and there is no malice so I am not worried.  No bullying.

Waffle was determined to annoy Taktur at any cost.  Taktur is obsessed with the bebbies but they will not meet while they all have their grapenuts (testicles).

I did the usual catching, brushing and leading nicely but this time outside as it was such a hot day.   Jo arrived and offered to pick up their feet to save my back – it is a very long way down to their level.  Then she copped a feel, i.e. was grappling grapenuts, as it is known by those of a certain age.

Nothing on Silver but something soon.

Nope, nothing with Storm for a while.  Ever Peter Pan.

But definitely a yes with Waffle.  Those are coming off pretty pronto, I can tell you. I will wait until we have all three pairs and then t’vet will be booked for a visit.

So my three little boys were good little boys.  There is a huge improvement in their general attitude towards me.  There is trust and wanting to be good.  Silver likes me far more and is amiable about being caught now.  Waffle is very boisterous for obvious reasons and Storm is just plain cheeky.  They all know how to work the system and I know how to make it work for me!

Maybe I am the one with the cajones! 

Today I was floored by cleaning my teeth.  Obviously that is something only the strong can achieve so I hauled my sorry arse back to bed and took some valium to recover. FFS. I am very bored of this.  Phone calls on Monday, I think. I can’t go on like this forever.  Happily doing nothing and then crunch, pop and completely decked.

Anywho, a few hours later, I went outside to find the meaning of life which is obviously this little lad and his friends.  Waffle came up for a scratch and a hug but poor boy he was feeling the unexpected Shetland heat and I could hear his breathing.  By tomorrow it will be winter again.

They were all mooching (and yes, I know but I refuse to photoshop for the sake of prettiness.)

The boys were not in the mood to cuddle – they just wanted to stuff their faces with the newly appearing spring grass.  I am stopping their feeds now, slowly trickling it down to nothing exciting but I still want to keep them tame so lots of visiting and the vague “training”.

Making the most of the beautiful spring day, I photographed some bumble bees which, on closer inspection, look very infested.  I am not sure if this is a good thing or what is doing them in as a species.  Poor little buggers – they work so hard and I enjoy hearing them in the garden.

BeAnne rolled in something unspeakable (Eau d’Otter by Channel) when I went out riding.  I could smell her from my horse and my eyes watered.  She knew this so went swimming in our burn.

My exotic life!

I had plans this morning when I got up.  My back seemed to be behaving and all was good.

That was until I did the hugely strenuous task (not) of pouffing up a sofa cushion.  With that, I heard a pop and couldn’t walk.  I managed to get to my office chair to catch my breath.

I made the decision to see if gentle mobilisation would solve the problem rather than drugs.  It didn’t.

So I resorted to putting all my plans on hold and going back to bed to lie on a hot water bottle.  My OH came up to see if I needed anything and it was then I realised I couldn’t actually move anything. I couldn’t roll over onto my side or get up.

Contemplating my next move of dialling 999 or taking drugs, my OH put together a rattling cocktail of analgesia, antispasmodics and anti-inflammatories.

BeAnne and I went to sleep waking briefly for Marmite on toast in bed (no crumbs, I promise) and then we went back to sleep again.

We emerged at 17.00 to find that the day had passed us by.  I managed to hobble outside and feed the bebbies and Taktur (separately).

Now, I feel very sore.  Luckily I am in the queue for an MRI, the results to be given to both the spinal team and the gynae lot – 4 to 6 weeks.

So, a day of grot today and I didn’t even get a snog off my boys.

Here are some photos of my lovely little persons – I missed playing with.  It was their day today for training (ride Haakon one day, train the bebbies the other).  I dream of lying down with them to sleep together but somehow reality kicks in (or their hooves) and it is never going to happen.

Every other day we try to do “training” and I mean that in the loosest of terms.  The bebbies are led into the school (well, one is caught and led, while the others follow).  Then they all have headcollars put on and are tied to string around the school.

One at a time, they are brushed, have their feet picked up and taken for a walk around the school.  I give them a “toy” to play with as they get bored very easily and start eating the ropes or each other’s headcollars.

We have now reached the stage where the bebbies are individually led on both reins around the outside track of the school and weave down the centre line, preferably without the use of teeth or attitude.  Rewards for all good behaviour is a small piece of carrot.  The bebbies are very keen on this part of the training.  We reward the good and ignore the bad (behaviour).

But as we all know, carrots come in larger sizes and I wondered what the bebbies would think if I threw whole ones into their field.

To start with they were very suspicious and distrustful.  It was sweet to watch as they worked out just what these things were.

Then they became braver, urging each other on.

They reminded me of the Marx Brothers.

I have noticed that my OH is now buying large bags of carrots.  For someone who does not share my love of all things equine, when I said the bebbies were staying, he said “I never thought that they wouldn’t”.  I have even seen him secretly talk to them.  This speaks volumes.

I expect we won’t be running out of carrots, ever.

So you know…..

These three will stay together and remain at Thordale.

I hadn’t ever reckoned on keeping them.  That was not the plan.  The bebbies were only meant to come here as a stop-gap (I was the one with the shed and the time) as they were too weak to go to the originally arranged hill park.  Their condition score from the vet of 0 meant they needed to put on weight before we considered the next plan.  They were offered to their original breeders or to find new homes, but somehow the bebbies wormed their way into my stone-cold heart and there they will stay.

I have now reached the point where I can’t imagine splitting them up as they are a very tight-knit little group of friends.

So, there we are.  We are not blessed with foals this year what with Velvereta and her foal’s unexpected death and Verona not being pregnant.  Maybe the bebbies were meant to be here instead to keep me busy and give me a purpose while my health is a bit crap.  Little someones to make me smile.