Another glorious sunrise this morning.   Red sky in the morning….. shepherd’s warning.

Daisy and I set off  a little later for town, Lerwick.  First a flute lesson and then onwards to get supplies for the horses mainly.

On the list was:

A replacement car battery to zap Hammy’s nosey
3 bags of feed – 2 for Taktur and 1 for everyone (we are going to worm them, mix the wormer into the feed and dish out individual buckets)
Wormer – I failed to find the one I want so it is on order
Tesco – ugh – but a necessity.

We had a quick lunch in the usual spot looking at the wild waves which I totally failed to capture  on my camera despite being the sea being fairly impressive at times, though nothing like they are having down south.  Now those are scary waves by comparison.  The noise of the sea was huge – it was a continuous rumbling.

Everything is back to normal now.  I must admit to being glad the Christmas/New Year period is over.  It goes on too long here and everything closes for the whole duration – almost two weeks.

First thing, ok 10.00-ish (it was Sunday morning, after all), I drove over to Jo’s to help with the bit of electric fencing that needed to be sorted before we moved the lads over to their new field.

Everyone was ready and waiting.  Indy PingPong stopped leaning against the fence once BeAnne had attempted to bite his nose!  Disgraceful leaning.  I am ashamed.

We walked the length of the fence, tweaking, adding more posts and mending.  There wasn’t too much to do, just a fence post to relocate and wire to reattach and tighten.

Once completed, the boys all had head collars put on and were led sedately into the new field.

The neighbours watched on.

Eating commenced.

Exploring too.

And then Hammy saw the neighbours.  He was very keen to introduce himself.

He was magically transformed into an Arab stallion and showed off beautifully.  He is lovely to watch.

He moves rather differently to the Shetland ponies.

The boys went on with their exploring and we watched them looking a gap in the fence.  There was none and we saw Hammy shooting off into the middle of the field having been satisfactorily zapped. That will learn him.

Job done, I made my way home.  The light was beautiful.  No wind today either.  A rare Shetland Winter’s day.

A friend asked after Hammy and the boys (that is Andy, Charlie and Indy PingPong too) so I popped over today with my camera to see them.

We had a very rough night, last night, (howling wind and rain) and I could see they were resting using an old stone wall for shelter.  Nevertheless, it is warm outside and they appeared in good spirits.  I didn’t want to disturb the ponies if they were tired so just took a few photos and left them to their zizz.

Hammy is doing particularly well this winter. He has not worn a rug once and is now a seasoned acclimatised token “Shetland” pony.

Indy wasn’t interested in saying hello at all.

And Charlie did his mad face.

Tomorrow we are going to tweak this electric fence, attach it to a battery and move the boys into this huge nearby field.  Hopefully that will do them for the rest of the winter.  There is shelter and a stream runs through the middle.

I hope they don’t explode with all that grass.  I think Hammy is ready to burst anyway and the others are not far behind.

We have to electrify this fence as in the opposite field are some equine neighbours.  They don’t belong to us.

I think the boys will be too busy stuffing their faces to notice or want to meet them but better to have everyone where they should be.

I caught them.  I saw it with my own two eyes.  I could not believe it.  I am scarred.  We are all scarred.

Back Story:
Last night I was going upstairs to bed taking BeAnne with me (she sleeps beside my bed).  The staircase goes straight into the bedroom.

And there in wait was Wuss.

Waiting.

Waiting for BeAnne.

He buffed her with his nose (we call it a nose kissey when he does it to  us) and then licked her!

Poor BeAnne was in shock.  She didn’t know what to do. This had never happened before.  Well, not with a cat.

Wuss then collapsed on purpose in a fat heap and blocked BeAnne’s path to her own bed.

BeAnne was stuck so she sat down and looked pathetically at Wuss.  I told her to jump over him but she refused knowing full well that he would spike her as she went over.  He had a glint in his eye.

To end this torment, I picked Wuss up and BeAnne breathed a sigh of relief and ran to her bed.

I will be booking her into therapy next.  She has not been the same today at all.

Meanwhile, I was howling with laughter.  I have never seen Wuss do that before.   It was very funny, though.

We have mud….

… and water everywhere.

There is grass as well.  Yay for grass.

But I am feeling sorry for the lads and have started giving them extra hay.  They don’t get much, just enough to get them up near the school so we can catch and ride them without having to wade through all the mud.  An incentive, if you will.  They come when they are called now which is most gratifying.  Cupboard love, though.  Not anything else.

The best thing about this herd is that they are all very good friends.  There is no barging, getting cross or bullying.  They patiently stand in a row and share without any fights.  It makes life much easier if they are all friends.

No one is soaked through or shivering.   You can see the dry coat underneath and we have had some quantity of rain recently.

Their long winter fur is doing its job well.  I am glad we don’t clip or rug.  The horses need this for the weather ahead.  This is their protection, along with all the dirt and grease in their coats too.  We are not very keen on bathing then either even in the summer months except for the show ring.

The chickens are around, offering to clean up any stray bits.  We had our first egg in ages yesterday.

The winter skies have been worthy of Michelangelo today.  My 2 mile daily walk with BeAnne was transformed.