Folk are asking about Hammy’s nozzle (thank you for your interest).

Well, he is much better and it is healing up very nicely.  

Beautifully clean and dry (I am sure this cold weather has helped)

And it won’t be long before he is back to normal.  Well, when I say normal, I mean Hammy normal which is completely different from any other normal you or I might recognise.

(Hammy is a bit speshul like that!)

On another note.  This the yesterday’s stallion fashion.

Yes, I did feel sick because if there is one thing I hate, and my kids will tell you, it is liars, wet cotton wool, trotting downhill and sand.

But today was better.  An overnight gale and torrential rain have done a lovely job for me.

The equivalent of a Shetland power-wash.  He scrubbed up very well!

How many people leave their horses out overnight to clean them?

You know how some folk have this poster or a mug in their place of work?  I think I need one.

Today is a dark grey day, with intermittent rain and wind.

I am still riding daily to exercise my back.  Daisy has gone back to St Andrew’s so Iacs is not being ridden.  I really do not think I now have the strength to do this for her so Jeanette kindly volunteered. She lost her horse a few months back and is missing riding so this could be a match made in heaven. Jeanette wanted to potter around the school (bad back too) this morning and BeAnne was very insistent that she had her go too.I don’t think Jeanette quite believed me when I said that BeAnne would stay up there for the whole ride (except if she trots).

BeAnne has three riding styles, two more successful than the other.  The first is the forward approach, so you can turn around and talk to her, or tickle her chin.

The second is looking backwards, which she tends to favour as it is more secure and she can lean into the curve of your spine too.

And then there is the standing up and wobbling, which is just plain hopeless and usually the precursor for her jumping gracefully off.

Please watch the video and you will see BeAnne’s bottom bounce (it makes me smile every time)!

So, again, welcome to my mad world!

So, now it is Vitamin (or Minnie’s) turn. Splendid Wells breedlines combined with a very generous and kind personality.

She is the lovely mother of our stud Stallion, Millhouse Independant

(or IndyPingPong to his fan club).

Vitamin has had rather a tough time these past few years.  When we first met her, we recognised her as being Indy’s mum.  She then sadly lost her foal though we were never sure of the circumstances. (She is heavily pregnant in this photo.)

Thinking the death of her foal was just “one of those things”, we ran her with Zain of Berry and she had another foal.  Dead again and Vitamin died a little bit inside too.  It was truly awful and we found no reason for the 2nd death.

The next year she didn’t take and last year, she was in foal again (by Zain).  We watched her 24/7 for a whole month.  I did the night duty and Jo did the days.  There was no way she was going to have a foal without us and we would do everything in our power to keep it alive.  Folk kept saying “Oh, she will have it when your backs are turned” but we never did and her beautiful Lyra was born alive.

Vitamin spent last summer with her own little girl bebbie to love.  Her whole life changed and she was happy and alive again.Lyra is, of course, utterly delicious, funny and a huge character.

Obviously, we adore her and she adores Daisy, my eldest daughter.So that is Vitamin.  We won’t be running her with a stallion again.  She has her Lyra (now weaned but still loved) and that is all she wants.

Although, not a worker, she has been lightly backed.

She and Fivla are the best of friends (Fivla was in her field while she was recovering from the death of her foal) and given her lovely personality, she seemed the obvious choice for the photoshoot.   She never put a hoof wrong and had exemplary manners, just following Fivvie around.

So why did we choose Fivla for the photoshoot, I hear you ask?  Well, mainly because she is such a dear sweet lovely little pony.

I bought Fivla from her breeder (Irene Rutherford of Finnister Stud) back in 1996.  I swapped her for a complete nightmare of a pony I had stupidly purchased at the sales.  Irene said she would do a swap and give me in return “this lovely super-tame filly foal”.  She was about 6 months old and completely black bar one white eyelash.

She has exemplary parentage with Chatsworth, Mousa and Berry breedlines – all highly prized.

Fivla lived with my other ponies as a family pet.  She has always been quiet, easy to work and live with.  Never a nasty word. My daughters have ridden her and we trained her to harness when the girls had grown out of her – in about ten minutes (seriously).  Fivla has always been 100% reliable.

Over the years, we have used her for any pony-related necessity, including carrying hay up with a traditional Shetland klibber (available from Thordale – shameless plug) to the fields for other ponies, ….

taming down recently purchased wild nervous ponies and

trying our antique basket saddle.

She has even brought wild ponies down from the open hill that needed urgent treatment by request of the SSPCA, our RSPCA.  Basically, if there is a crisis, get Fivla because she will always help.

Fivla has had two foals – Thordale Noggin the Nog

(or Snoggin as he is known)

and Thordale Olympus (Lumpy to his friends)

Both have been enchanting and Snoggin is driven too (so proud, sniff).  Fivvie loved her bebbies. She always brought them up beautifully and was a good mother.

So that is why we chose Fivla for the job.  We know her very well and we know she would never mind wearing her cardie because she the right Shetland pony for the job.

(Tomorrow I will tell you all about Vitamin)

Ok, these are the last of my photos.  I finally sat down last night and went through them all.

Day 1, ie the Saturday, this was our first photoshoot and we took the photographer, Rob McDougall, to Sandness beach.  The afternoon winter light was superb and the sea looked like mercury.

We found out what worked and what didn’t and quickly discovered our models’ motivation – a bucket of conditioning nuts that I am feeding to my Icelandic stallion.  They are nice and rattly as well as being invisible on the ground.  Fivla and Vitamin could not eat them fast enough.

 

There was also the bag-on-a-stick (an old tried and tested method) which we rustled and waved about when we wanted the girls to raise their heads and look interested.  Other methods used were yelling, whistling and playing mobile phone tunes.

Day 2, Sunday, we were up early and off to Lunga Water, just outside Sandness. The light was perfect.  Shetland at its very best.

To say it was freezing seems an understatement. We perfected our skills such as dressing and undressing Fivla and Vitamin.  All those buttons underneath their bellies and freezing cold fingers was not a good combination.

After Lunga Water, we drove about a bit trying to find good locations.  The mode of communication was if anyone saw a potential place, to flash their lights at the car in front to signal it to stop.  Mobile phones are sporadic with their signals up here.  An old boat was mentioned but it was quickly rejected.

So we drove up to The Black Ward (top of a hill with the old water works) and Rob decided he liked the view over Stennestwatt and beyond.

Lunch, defrosting and boats were mentioned again so back to Sandness and down to Bousta, which is a charming horse-shoe shaped inlet with views over Ronas Hill, the other side of the sea.  By this stage we had it all down to a fine art.  We knew what to do and when.  Each person had a specific role and we were an efficient team.  Surprisingly, for us, there was no shouting, no panic and we all got on very well, having a laugh as we went.

The light was now fading and Rob was hoping for a spectacular sunset so we headed down to Dale Beach.  This lovely quiet spot has Foula in the background.  Magical.  No sunset but there were some good photos taken.

With that, we packed up and went home, exhausted but happy with the knowledge of a job well done!

And I promise never to talk about this again.  Tomorrow it will be back to the usual Shetland pony and/or Icelandic horsery stuff interrupted by an occasional whinge!

I like to think my photos were not too bad either.