“Every breath you take
And every move you make
Every bond you break
Every step you take
Ill be watching you”

That would be Zoot’ theme tune if she had one.  She “helps” with everything.  She is always there.

Poor Melinda spends her life running after her bebbie trying to collect her up and take her away to safety.

Sadly, Errant Daughter doesn’t give a damn however and spends most of her life trying to lose her mother or help others.

Today was no exception.  We wanted to tidy up Melinda’s feet.  They were long and we don’t like trimming heavily pregnant mares as it is difficult for them to stand on 3 legs.  Now Melinda has had her foal and she is relatively relaxed about things, we went into the field to trim her feet.  We needed “help”.

So we sacrificed Daisy as per usual to babysitting.  She is good at this and highly trained. Many years of being eaten by foals has created a “foal whisperer”.  At least if she fails university, never gets a job, we can employ her once a year to snog the bebbies.

Zoot showed her obviously inherited speshul skills – so like her father it is uncanny.

We then had a go at doing her feet.  Daisy did the initial training.

Zoot acquiesced without a second thought.

I think Madame is a very smart little girl.

She has Indy’s yummy bum and stands beautifully.  A solid little person too.

Her trot is very eye-catching and she is just like her brothers in character – ie first up to introduce herself.  Always “here to help”.

The orchids are good this year too!

Guess who was next?

Yup, t’was the Bozz-Bozz, who was not exactly excited at the prospect of losing his winter woollies.  In fact, I would go as far as to say, he got in a bit of a strop and annoyed everyone by walking round and round the garden, not dissimilar to a teddy bear.

So we cross-tied him to make our lives easier.  A nice Concert A (twang) on that rope!

It worked for while but Bozz-Bozz stopped cooperating and dramatically threw his teddy out of the cot.

The Moral Support Team were unhelpful to say the least.  They hid in case it was their turn next.

But there are some jobs that have to be done and this would be one of them.  The tats have to go as he is going on a long trip south soon where he doesn’t need his winter coat, if ever.  

So, taking no prisoners, Fiona worked her magic, brushed and pulled while Daisy collected – Yes Bozz-Bozz fur/wool will be for sale if you are interested – email me – frances@fstaylor.co.uk.

You try explaining this to him.  He would have none of it and the bottom-lip sulky face came out.

While Fiona persevered, Jo resorted to the nose-in-a-bunch or nose-twitch.  Needs must when the Devil vomits in your kettle and we were fed up of his behaviour.  It was boring and we needed to get on.  We ask little of him and 15 minutes of his time is not a big deal considering we were turning him into a Handsome Prince.

The endorphins were released and the Bozz-Bozz contained. He lowered his head and the job was finished easily and quickly.  Why he could not do this to start with is beyond me.  We even unclipped the cross-tie.

Taktur was intrigued.  Here was a subdued Bozzer so now was his time to strike but being Taktur he didn’t.  He just came up to laugh and point.

We let Bozzer go after we had finished and he stomped off with his only friend, a chicken, refusing to talk to us again.

But Taktur still wanted revenge and followed him for a bit more pointing and maybe laughing.

To regain his composure, Bozz-Bozz stood in the muck-heap for a more dignified height advantage….

….. whereupon they took up their games again!

I think they will miss each other.

Klængur – pronounced Klan-gur (hard g).

What can I say? Well, my surgeon didn’t say no long-reining, he just said no riding and I want Klængur to learn to chill, relax and be ridden buckle-end everywhere.  That is very important.  He must trust me so I am working with him on the ground….

….while Daisy is doing the riding bit.

I don’t want energy, I want relaxation and teamwork.  There is something about Klængur – he has so much to give and we are still learning about each other.  He listens to me. I say stand and he does (on the ground).  I click walk on and off we go, stretching but that is all in the school which is a false sheltered environment.

There is definitely a relationship with us.  He enjoys my company.

He is learning about Daisy, his new rider and handler, for a while and that is good.  They have an honest relationship and Daisy can stick on most things these days if they decide to piss off home.

So today we took a deep breath and Daisy took him out on his own, with me and a friend following on foot. We had a buggy, small toddler and 2 dogs in tow and, to be fair, Klængur took it all in his stride.  We tested him out with the buggy first as he can be a bit unnecessary about cars sometimes.

And off they went.

The boy did good.  He pottered, asked questions, but never said no or spun.  He was part of our fairly odd-looking family and happy to be included.

So, when we caught up, we sent them home and continued with our walk on foot.  Apparently they met a car and not a flicker so I feel, slowly but surely, we are getting there.

Funny boy, Klængur – he has my heart….

…. and Daisy’s.

Icelandic horses just get into your soul when you least expect it.

Golly, I must go on a diet!

Taktur wanted to sleep.

I had let everyone out of their field to eat the long grass around the house and school.  Taktur had eaten all day and then decided to have a little kip next to us.

He was nodding off gently, while the others were milling about eating and it was lovely to see his trust in us all.

Sadly this trust was hugely abused by one little person who thought it might be more fun to play “annoy the sleeping stallion”.

Bozz-Bozz – I was ashamed.  Poor, poor Taktur did not deserve this from the little squirt.  He eventually gave in and got up.

He was much nicer to Bozz-Bozz than I would’ve been.  Haakon would’ve walloped him. I’ve seen him do it before.

So, Bozz-Bozz, who was not even slightly sorry, wandered off having achieved his goal and tried to pretend to be a traffic post.  This is his idea of camouflage.

Daisy was around and watched poor Taktur and his Nemesis so she kindly took the flak, so to speak.

In there, I am assured there is a Daisy…… probably being eaten!

Taktur dropped to the ground again to resume his kip.

This time, he prepared himself for a quick getaway by lying with his front legs out, ready to get up quick should Bozz-Bozz return.  I have never seen a horse go to sleep like that.

He was a determined sleeper, even managing a few quality minutes but Bozz-Bozz was an even more determined plague on his house.

I left them to it.  There was only so much I could do to protect poor Taktur from such irritations.  I had sacrificed Daisy after all.

A few hours later, once back in their field for the night, I saw them all asleep leaving Taktur to protect them from the potential marauding tigers.

He is such a gentleman.  None of them deserve him.  Too nice for his own good.

Eventually Taktur stopped being so generous with his time, joined the heap and went fast a bye-byes with them.

On Wednesday, we will let Taktur in while we are stripping Bozz-Bozz of his winter foal fur so he can point and laugh.

I spent the morning with Taktur, my newly trained Icelandic stallion.

He likes to have time away from the herd and he saw me trying to take photos of the beautiful orchids in his field, so walked up for a chat.

While I was bending over to capture the orchids, he nuzzled my neck, so I straightened myself up to give him some old chopped up broccoli stalk that I had in my pocket.  I would not put myself in such a potentially dangerous position if the rest of the herd were there.

Taktur stayed around, while I was taking my photos.  Occasionally, he would take an interest and ask for another piece of stalk but mostly he was just watching the world around him.  He is a very gentle soul who is incredibly honest.  He communicates all the time and so is very easy to talk to.

I have always been used to Indy and his “little ways” but Taktur is just black and white.  He takes it all in, assesses it and makes his decision based on those around him and their reactions.  He has a very mature head on such young shoulders.  He is only 4 years old.  Most 4 year old entire horses are thinking with other parts of their anatomy.

So I pottered about and he pottered about and we enjoyed each other’s company for a while.  Ours is an uncomplicated relationship at the moment.  I suppose when he meets girls and goes out more, we will hit the Kevin Years.  It always happens.

After the pottering, Taktur looked up and decided to re-join his herd again.

They had been on the horizon eating, not bothering that he had gone somewhere else.

Taktur does remind me of Ferdinand the Bull – a character in a story by Hector Munro, (with gorgeous illustrations by Robert Lawson).  Taktur, too, would like to just sit and smell the flowers in the ladies’ hair.

When he got to the middle of the ring he saw the flowers in all the 
lovely ladies' hair and he just sat down quietly and smelled.