I wasn’t going to move the Shetland ponies yet until I received a text yesterday evening from a friend saying that one of her ponies had come in “a bit footy”.

Footiness means their hooves are tender and it is often the first sign of laminitis from newly arriving spring grass.  I didn’t need telling twice.

The ponies had to be moved.

So after their breakfast, I called them all up.

And they were such good boys, leaving their field without question or argument or even a headcollar.

The boys immediately went off to investigate their old paddock and I had opened up their containers too.

OH and I set up the electric fence energisers (one for each side) and I let the ponies out to go down to their track, where they will now stay until winter.

There’s not much grass on the track but there seems to be enough at the moment.  This time of year what is growing is “rocket fuel” and I just can’t take the risk.

The fields have greened up over night, literally (or is that figuratively?)

And everyone has done very well over winter, so there if they lost weight, I wouldn’t be too upset.  If they need it, I will also supplement with hay, but I widened the track (to avoid a muddy corner) and they’re not interested in eating this new grass, which I will take as proof that they don’t actually need hay at the moment.

I wish I could make the boys understand that this is for their own good and rocket fuel is always dangerous to fat little ponies.