Floss went back to school today.  I will miss her company and now we can’t sing the theme song to Monkey together forgetting the words.  We managed to watch 15 consecutive episodes in the space of 8 days.  Rockin’ !

After writing this, I am going to pack so I am ready first thing tomorrow. I am not sure whether to pack enough for one night or more.  In theory, I am only staying the one night and probably won’t even see a doctor, but I just don’t know and would hate to be in a position where they said I had to stay but only had one nightie and pair of knickers.  The control freak that is me, says pack more, just in case, so I will.

I have left out Taktur’s bridle and saddle ready for his new training regime.  He is all ready to go onwards and hopefully not upwards.

I have instructed OH to feed little hairy nozzles a carrot every day.

I think you will agree that Hammy’s nose has healed beautifully and sometimes doing nothing is the only answer.  You would never know that he did such ghastly damage to himself.  Idiot pony.  The jury is still out.

Jo is in charge of keeping the bale topped up and I am sure there will  be reminders from the Committee if standards drop.

Leaning over the gate this afternoon, while Taktur ate his grub, each and every one of the lads came up on their own for a chat with me.  It was perfect and I feel I have got to know their little ways this winter and like them very much too as chaps.

A certain person is sulking….

…. and I wonder if anyone would notice if I popped an extra “cuddly toy” into my travel bag?

Anyway, I know Haakon will be waiting for me. He always is.

Every day, in every way, I lose something I could do.

Today, I lost my legs.  They stopped co-operating.

Yesterday, I lost the ability to put my socks on.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring. (BeAnne and me this morning)

But the plan is that on Monday at some unknown time an ambulance will arrive and take me on a stretcher to the airport (Tingwall – 30 minutes drive or Sumburgh (1hr 1/4 drive) where I will be air-amubulanced to Aberdeen and taken, again, in an ambulance on a stretcher to Woodend Hospital, where I will be admitted, stay one night, have an MRI scan and be transported back to Shetland and home again on Tuesday.  I won’t see a doctor but hopefully my surgeon will see my MRI scan and then be able to offer me some kind of future.

Yes, it will cost a huge amount of money and yes, it could’ve all been saved if the Powers That Be had agreed to my request of an MRI scan in November when I could walk and could’ve taken myself to Aberdeen for it.  I knew and I have been saying to anyone who will listen, “something is not right” for the last six months.  But that is the NHS for you.

So I am sorry to “waste” all that money, but I can’t walk now, I can’t sit and I the only thing I can do is lie a little on my back but mostly on my right side and take 4 different types of painkillers to achieve this.

Pants.

Today, to lift my downward spiralling spirits, Joy came over with a shopping bag full of pink champagne, Gu puddings, Kettle crisps (the plain ones, my favourite), some bacon (for homemade bagels that OH made earlier) and various other essentials for my hospital stay.

Although life is fairly shitty at the moment, lying on my bed with her two beautiful cockerpoo dogs (Otto and Cocoa) plus a sulky BeAnne, I cheered up immensely and we had a great afternoon. Thank you Joy.

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So bring on Monday and Tuesday.  I need strength for this.

And does anyone know anything about this…….?  Come on, fess us, be brave!  I won’t bite!

Taktur hasn’t done much this last month apart from stuff his face and look gorgeous.

As Bjørn and Jo were both at Thordale, the weather wasn’t bad and the omens looked good, I put it to them that Bjørn should ride Taktur out on a short hack while Jo and I rode shotgun on Iacs and Haakon.

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My theory was that Iacs and Haakon are 100% safe out and about so Taktur would have no one to copy if shit happened.  Horses seem to learn best from other horses. It worked fine.  I had been taking Taktur on a few walks, just him and me, up the track and along the road so he was used to leaving Thordale and the herd.

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We didn’t go very far, probably a mile or so and Taktur was very happy and relaxed.  Bjørn asked him to stand and wait while Haakon and Iacs walked on and he did, totally unpeturbed.  So that was all a huge success. Taktur will be shod on his back feet probably this Sunday and Jo and Bjørn can go start the next stage of his training.

Once home, the Fat Boys were put back into their field and I fed Taktur his daily grub.

The Fat Boys were not impressed with this.  I could sense resentment and disappointment but my argument is that we don’t have any more wider saddles.

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So all in all a good morning.  Taktur is doing very well.

(apologies for the crappy pictures – taken with my iPod and most of them had my arm, coat, were upsidedown or of some unknown field I had taken by mistake)

I felt terrible for the horses and ponies yesterday.  They spent most of their day and night sheltering behind a dry stone wall trying get out of the horrendous weather.  So today, to make up for it, Jo brought them a bale of silage (unchopped big-bale grass silage from our own hay meadows).

In the wee small hours, I reckon, there had been some escapology from Arcturus as he was the wrong side of the fence by himself.

Jo placed and unwrapped the bale carefully on the hard-standing by the gateway and drove off ….

..only to discover that the gate would not close! It was all my fault as I was the one in charge of saying “back a bit, left a bit, fine!”  Ooops.

So we got the Land Rover and pushed the bale further into the field ….

and the gate closed beautifully. Ta da!

Jo opened the horses’ field gate and they made a mad dash for the bale….

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and dived in occasionally coming up for air.

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Damage from the storm was restricted to the horse trailer being pushed, despite being extensively chocked, into the nearby container.  We decided to leave it there as it couldn’t go any further and hadn’t made a hole.

So now I have stopped feeling guilty.  The horses are stuffing their faces and silage can even make a fashion statement if you wear it, as seen being modelled by IndyPingPong!

Totally vile weather.  Rain and wind, gusting 50mph.  The horses are sheltering and I can’t go outside.

That would be unwise but I know they will be fine and the grass is beginning to show again, so that’s a positive.

So of course OH decided he must walk the dogs.  To be fair, they do go stir crazy at 6pm if they haven’t been out, even for a little while.  They enjoyed it apparently but when they came in, Celt was a shivering wreck and he was bleeding.

My first priority was to get him dry and warm him up. We towelled him dry and put him in one of my foaling space blankets.  We sat him in BeAnne’s bed, which is the nicest, of course, though they swap all the time.

Jack decided that body warmth was the way forward and selflessly offered his support and body for this sole purpose.

I gave Floss a large cushion on the floor and asked her to sit beside Celt so that she could keep him settled as he is prone to wandering about in a daze (he is 16yo and a bit you-know).  I hmm’ed and ahh’ed about how a space blanket actually works and what it does if you are wet so I removed it after a while and added the hot water bottle onto the outside of the blanket instead.

Floss read her Kindle and Celt cleaned himself up.  The bleeding is, I think, from a torn old papilloma – he has them on his face and we have always left them well alone.  It soon stopped and I will clean him up properly when he is more settled.

For good measure, I gave him a swig of Rescue Remedy and one for myself.

Poor old Celt.  He hates the car so a trip to the vet is out of the question.  I think, after a rest in his warm tent, he will pull through.  

Obviously Jack will give him his full support and God help anyone who tries to move him!