Tag Archives: Icelandic horses

The Circle of Life (or Pepper’s Tummy)

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You left us yesterday with no power but thankfully it came back on in time for OH to watch the World Cup Quarter-Finals. I went to bed as I was exhausted and didn’t really care.

I woke up to the sun shining and it has been lovely and warm, if breezy – a good drying day.

My dog-walk consisted of me mostly trying to urge the sheep to follow me and the dogs out into a field.  The sheep were not particularly helpful this morning and they needed to go out to graze.

The sheep are not fans of the horses and, as they were loitering around the gate, I think that is what put them off.

But I managed to get them all out in the field after some enthusiastic shouting but I failed on the dog walking front. Pepper wasn’t feeling well (again) and had a sit down strike. I ended up sitting on a rock for a while chatting to any passing sheep.

Pepper looked very miserable at me too.

I do feel very sorry for my little wee dog but she there really is nothing much I can do that helps.

Our vet knows about Pepper’s tummy but has no advice or treatment to give either.  I think if you live in these parts this is what happens to quite a few “hunting” dogs.  Monster is no use either. He is the killer in the family and brings the carcasses home at night, which Pepper quickly finds in the daytime.

Anyway, after a good afternoon’s sleep while I made another hand felted sheep, Pepper felt much better and ate her supper without refusal, complaint or after-effects.  She is asleep now again and will be back to her normal self by tomorrow when she will find another carcass and we will, no doubt start all over again.

Thanks Monster.

Looking So Much Better

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I went with my usual buckets at breakfast-time and found no one waiting by the gate so I had to shout, hoping I wasn’t in for a long walk looking for everyone.

The horses and ponies duly appeared – I think they had been sheltering in the valley part of their field.  The weather was closing in fast.

While I waited for the horses and ponies to eat up, I walked around thinking to myself that actually everyone looked spot on. Just right.  A good weight now.

Iacs looks lovely. I am very pleased with him.

 

Kolka again looks nice.

Vitamin is perfect.

Fivla might be a wee bit on the fat side, but she gets nothing in her bucket (a scant scoop of soaked beet plus her vitamins).

I think she knows this.

And Haakon at last is looking just right.

The summer grass is working it’s magic.  30 acres of this mixture of plants plus lots of exercise wandering around looking for it.

So they all chose to stand in the paddock and look miserable about the rain.  Fivla and Vitamin made a bee-line for the little shed and quickly took up occupancy.

They refused to let Kolka inside.  Nope, she had to stay outside in the rain.

A little later on, I took this photo when I was trying to take the dogs out for their walk.  I love Kolka’s face.  She is resigned to the knowledge that she will never get in the shed.  And how the rain poured.  The dogs refused to come with me and took themselves straight back to the house so I gave up and went back inside with them.

Fog, No Fog, Then Fog

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We woke up to Shetland covered in thick fog.  I know no flights got in or out this morning.

But, still, the horses, ponies, sheep, etc managed to find me.

There is no escape.

I’m sorry, but I don’t have much to say mostly because absolutely nothing has happened all day.

And, at the risk of boring everyone including myself, here are a few photos of my nothing day…..

The baby bunny I saw from the door of my shed – Pepper was on a dogwalk with OH so this little sweetheart made the most of the absence.

It was very cute, like one of those Chinese toy adverts that nothing like the real thing that arrives in the post.

These three Muscovy Ducks have taken to sitting on the outside table.  They meet me at the front door and waddle behind in the hope I will lead them to food.  I think they are Mum (on far right), son (middle) and daughter (left). They were the ducklings from last year.

So that’s me really. Not very enthusiastic at the moment.  Fog does that to me – mentally. It just sits and I lose all inspiration and thought.  But the wind is coming back in force tomorrow so that should liven things up.

Ted is on good form, though.

Farrier Today

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We had Jay, our farrier, coming today so, after their breakfast, I put everyone where they could be easily caught.  The old horses and ponies were grazing the green grass around the outside of the house while the little Shetland ponies were in their paddock with a haynet to stave off the boredom from waiting.

First up was Haakon and Pepper duly got in the way.

Then clutching my same cob-size headcollar, I caught Fivla….

And lastly Vitamoobag.  Again, note Pepper.  I did ask Jay if he wanted me to put her in the house but he said he didn’t mind. Honest.

The old ones all done (those that needed), and we headed to the  Shetland pony paddock avec le petit chien who dutifully got in the way.  It was a full time job for her.

At least I managed to find a smaller headcollar – one that actually fitted.

Pepper “helped”.  She also recruited a friend – Newt.

Looking at this photo of Albie, I have to ask myself how is Pepper still alive?

I mean, seriously?

But no one kicked her, she didn’t get her nose cut off and she remained unscathed.  A ruddy miracle if you ask me.

And once finished with the horses and ponies, Pepper was ready to annoy another victim!  Poor Monster – he was chased into the house but don’t worry he will get his revenge. He always does.

Congratulations to Daisy!

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I’ve been on tenterhooks all morning looking at my phone waiting for a text or a call….

Daisy was having her viva (short for viva voce – a spoken oral examination, typically used to defend a doctoral thesis (PhD) or other advanced academic qualification).

And, at 13.30, just as I was typing into Google, “how long is a viva?”, I received the phone call informing me that we must all now refer to Daisy as Dr Daisy!

Apparently, and I wrote it down, she has a PhD is Veterinary Research and Equine Nutrition.

I can’t even begin to tell you just how proud I am of Dr Daisy.  This is a huge achievement for her.

It has not been an easy path but she has succeeded due to all her own hard work.

The bit that really tickles me is that Daisy is the first female Doctor in our family, ever, which is bloody amazing.  I am incredibly proud of her.

(and am obviously wearing my proud Mum t-shirt).

And I hope Daisy is now celebrating her socks off!  Well done Dr. Taylor PhD, MSc, BSc.