Continuing on with the theme of visiting equine professionals, today our farrier came to trim those that needed a trim. This is Pepper’s favourite day – she loves it when the farrier visits.  Obviously, he adores here and then there is the supply of endless hooves to eat as well as getting in the way.  The perfect combination. Haakon was dismissed as being fine, but Iacs and Kolka were trimemd.   Then it was time for the little ones.  I had herded them all into a small paddock so I could easily catch and bring them out one at a time. Albie was done. One scruffy Newt next ..read more

This afternoon found us back in the recording studio for Part the Two of our stab at making a cd for Mandy’s Dad (because he wanted to hear us – I am reluctant to say “Oh, the fool”, but honestly “why, just why?”) Of course, Monster was hugely involved but unceremoniously picked up and carried outside again. We did plead with our record producer to let him stay but it was not to be. This was our half time break and all the animals piled onto Mandy. And so, after playing and recording all afternoon, I went outside for a breath of fresh air and also fed the ducks and chickens their tea. The ..read more

Today was our visiting equine dentist’s day (it’s all go here, I can tell you). Stuart was mostly here to see Vitamin because of her no-eating misery scare a few months’ back and I added Fivla onto the list as well, just because it could do no harm. As I had Fivla’s rope in my hands, when Stuart arrived, he saw her first.  I don’t think he did anything and said her teeth weren’t bad for her age (28yo). Then it was Vitamin’s turn and again, he did very little saying he could find no evidence of infection/toothrot or anything that would’ve made her stop eating.  So that episode will ..read more

While we have a general veterinary practice on the islands, I was thrilled to hear that an equine vet from Ardene House Vet Practice was coming up to Shetland.  These are the folk who operated on Iacs’ penile squamous cell carcinomas last year, so I booked a visit. Iacs started with a thorough examination and then light let-down sedation. Pepper was official Moral Support Officer. And Iacs “let down” allowing the vet to see what was going on. She washed everything thoroughly and found, while there were no more obvious growths around inside, there was one small one on the tip. For that ..read more

There is nothing worse than a tyre on a trailer that goes backwards fine but won’t go forwards. We tried everything. OH hit it with a hammer, jacked up the horsebox, took the wheel off, more hitting with a hammer, greased bits, put the wheel back, and yay, it worked briefly forwards and then jammed again.  It does reverse ok, though.  Most odd. Anywho, a mechanic friend is popping by tomorrow and we’ll see if he can hit the wheel more correctly with his hammer.  Failing that, to the garage with three wheels on my wagon. After messing around for too long with the trailer, with ..read more

I thought this blog should be about Ted, just in case you’re wondering if he’s vanished. He’s fine, thank you for asking. Ted’s days are spent trying to be “a proper dog”. He goes out in the morning with us to feed all the animals and is a good boy, staying within the boundaries doing his own thing.  Occasionally, he will shut himself in a shed and then say nothing when anyone goes to look for him, but that is pretty rare. Pepper is of course his best friend, Nemesis and leader into all things terrible.  As she doesn’t suffer from any anxiety at all, she doesn’t tolerate it in Ted ..read more

There had been a request from my flute duet partner, Mandy, that we record a few flute pieces together for her father, who wanted to hear us play. Now, we first thought we could just do it on our phones but then, as there is a recording studio in the house, plus a pretty expert sound engineer/record producer, it seemed silly not to put it all to use. And then there are the fans to think of….. Monster under the piano. Ted, who whinged incessantly.  He was quickly banished. And Pepper, who annoyed intermittently. Once we started, Monster left his bed to give us his judgement. You can p ..read more

I had a day out in town today.  A scheduled eye check-up first and then I wandered about just enjoying time away from my usual home routine. I did a spot of shopping…. And I even bought myself some new shoes.  I am very pleased with them and the first thing I noticed was just how comfortable and supportive of my feet they were.  So, like a very proud child,  I wore them all day, putting my old boots (which suddenly looked grubby and old) in the box! New shooooooooooes! I checked on the shop sheep in their field and was told they didn’t need anymore, for the time being.&nb ..read more

I’m feeling a bit low after the sad Baby Bunny news.  I wanted it to live so much but this was not to be. I know it was just one little baby bunny and the whole world is littered with them, but even so. I do mind.  It’s a loss. So I went to have some sheep therapy this afternoon. These two were hanging around.  Lambie and ‘Bert, the original BFF’s. You guys, those faces! And fo course ‘Ster.  The others were mooching around outwith the field hoping I would feed them treats at the front door. Sorry for the short blog.  Just not feeling it really ..read more

A lovely morning so rugs off and everyone said they wanted to go back to living on the track again. This is Silver – he is revolting. I am not going to brush anyone yet.  Winter coats are beginning to fall out but it is not all that warm yet. The rest of my morning was spent adding more green plastic poles to my electric fence or Anti-Waffle devices, as I like to call them. As my reward for lugging bags of poles around the track, I sat on a rock and had a little chat with Albie. And Newt-the-Incredibly-Cute! Late afternoon, and I went down with my two rugs as heavy rain is forecast l ..read more