Tag Archives: Shetland ponies

Ebay or Jumble?

2 Replies

I spent my morning sorting and pricing my Lovely Things using Google on my phone saying “Ebay or jumble?” and then asking the price.  It is actually a very easy method and hopefully one that will reap rewards on Sunday, the day of the local Jumble Sale where I have a table.

So of course now I am going around saying “Ebay or jumble?” to absolutely everyone I meet.  Pepper says she is jumble because Google AI got very prissy about live animals for sale on Ebay and has never heard of a joke.  So jumble it is for the little Pepperpot.

I was also tasked with the dog-walk in sleet, hail and freezing rain plus the end of a vicious northerly gale.  It was truly horrible and no one enjoyed it.  The boys were around.

Note how the only one with a rug on, aka Tiddles, has ownership of the wee shed.

Anyway, Albie the question is are you Ebay or jumble?  Probably Ebay.

And Newt, what are you –  Ebay or jumble?

Yup, jumble.

Silver?  Ebay.  He is a better class of pony obviously.

Tiddles?  Debatable.  Either really. I think Ebay because of his posh rug.

And I found Waffle found behind a dry-stone wall quietly eating long grass that no one had found. Definitely jumble.

I have a lot of rubbish to get rid of. I wonder if the house will look any emptier for my efforts?

Temperatures Going Down

3 Replies

The forecast is not looking good – rain tomorrow, the temperature dropping and then sleety snow. Ugh.  Not my favourite.

I am not looking forward to this but hopefully it will all be over by next week some time.

But every weather forecast says something different so I don’t know who to believe.

Erring on the side of caution, I went out with all the rugs and gave Tiddles his while he ate some little carrots that I had scattered to lure everyone down so I didn’t have to walk miles. It worked. They came, they saw, they ate. I rugged and left.

As ever, Tiddles was my very good boy and just stood there while I put his brand new 100g rug on.  He has Equine Metabolic Syndrome so finds regulating his body temperature difficult.  I hate seeing him struggle in bad weather.  He gets very miserable.

Tiddles’ new rug, fresh out of it’s packet, fitted like a dream (a huge thank you to my friend who brought it over from USA – it was the last one in the whole world (I know, I checked) and they don’t make this type anymore).

Then I loaded up the Eggbox with the other rugs and Pepper and drove over to Clothie – my 5 acre croft that is over the hill (open grazing).

This lot behaved beautifully and I quickly threw on the rugs (it was raining by now and ok, not ideal, but they will dry underneath before the low temperatures and snow arrive).

That was everyone except for Iacs who made a point of running (ok, walking fast, there was no actual running) away from me.  I shouted at him to “stand still” so he did and I got his rug on him too.  He will thank me later when the next few days descend into a F10, windchill factor of -10, and sleety snow.

Shetland Ponies and the Mirrie Dancers

8 Replies

The “Mirrie Dancers” were out last night and I managed to capture a few glimpses by precariously hanging my camera out of the upstairs bathroom window – our only good northerly view!

It was stunning, so I consider my strenous efforts worth it.

And then this morning, OH and I mucked out the sheep shed (10 barrowfuls) and afterwards I filled up the pony’s water in their field.  Although there is a stream running through the entire field, I like everyone to be able to have easy access to water rather than forget.

I realise I am probably making extra work for myself but I worry, especially when the older horses and ponies are in this field and the fact that everyone drinks from here after breakfast also makes me think that they need it.

So while the water was filling up, I had a little chat with the little chaps.

Newt


Tiddles

Waffle

Silver

Albie

These two – Tiddles and Newt – are not the greatest of friends and I would even go so far as to say that Tiddles can be a bit of a bully while Newt has a Napoleon complex.

This is not a great combination.

Albie and Silver tend to stay away from any trouble.

And Waffle is actually the herd leader, if there has to be one, I think.

Being with the chaps made me wonder if the Shetland ponies look up at night and see the “Mirrie Dancers” or whether to them this is just a normal night sky.  We’ll never know.

A Magical Morning

3 Replies

This was the view from my front door this morning.  Not too shabby, is it?

It was such a beautiful light and so calm.  Perfect for taking photos of five grubby little Shetland ponies scarfing their breakfast.

Here’s a little known fact – there are five rubber feed-skips all with a large scoop of breakfast in them.

So that’s one each and no one needs to share.

Not that anyone would ever share with Newt.  He does not do sharing. It’s not his thing.

Silver is in a very precarious position but for the moment Newt decided to behave himself – his back end has a nasty little weapon (he kicks out with both barrels).  It hurts. I know.

And Waffle is a ruddy saint while Albie is the thorn in his side.  He refuses to eat by himself so   Waffle has a bit extra in his bowl.

Poor Waffle has no choice in this matter. Albie told him it was non-optional.  It’s like this every single morning and Waffle never objects or says anything.

But the morning mist coming off the sea was magical.  I could’ve stared at it forever but I wanted my breakfast too, so I went inside.

A Second Breakfast

1 Reply

I had to take a friend quickly to hospital at 6 a.m. so I left the morning chores to OH, shouting as I ran out the door clutching the car keys “Please feed everyone but don’t worry about pills, etc, I will deal with all of that when I’m back!”

So OH kindly gave the horses, ponies, and sheep their breakfast (which is usually my job) just minus the necessary pills, powders and potions.

Upon my return much later in the morning, I took a second breakfast over to the oldies.

Haakon needs his daily boswellia otherwise he becomes a giraffe!

The two little old ladies got a token gesture because I knew they would put in complaints to the management.

Ditto Kolka.  She would never allow anyone to eat a second breakfast if she wasn’t included. That’s probably The Law.

Bibble aka Iacs also needed his food because he has his daily four anti-cancer pills and I would worry that everything nasty would start sprouting again even if one day was missed.  His bucket is the most important.

Anyway, I told the horses and ponies that it was a one-off and they shouldn’t get used to it or shout “but we’re in a routine” after one day of a second breakfast.

I know everyone likes a second breakfast.

But it is not something I encourage for obvious reasons.