Saturday, 4 April 2009

4th April 2009




We took Charlot's winter rug off yesterday - he was easy to catch whilst calm and happy for one of us to undo the straps under his belly, legs and chest, whilst another held his head-collar. What a change!

Charlot is not looking too bad after a fairly harsh Shetland winter having lived out 24/7 on only grass and silage if it snowed. Settled in the herd with friends, I let them into a newer pasture, which everyone was very enthusiastic about. We removed 2 Icelandics and 2 Shetlands and he doesn't seem to miss them or look for them at all. It is nice to see him take things in his stride.

So what next? I suppose when the grass really starts to grow, we will move Charlot up to the fields nearer the indoor school and restart his training. That should be interesting. I wonder if he will remember how it all deteriorated last year. He has been with us a whole year now and I can see a difference in his attitude, his take on life and his whole demeanour - he is far less nervous and has adopted the curious calm attitude of the Icelandics, which is a good way to go. Long may it last!

So......here we go again!

3 comments:

Tommyhothead said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Tommyhothead said...

Yay! Onward!
For Frances too!
I guess that a fairly harsh Shetland winter having lived out 24/7 on only grass and silage would give me a calm Shetland demeanor too!

Ours wasn't too bad, and spring came early. Glad to see things being unwrapped out your way.

Anonymous said...

I like this first picture of Charlot a lot. He looks like he knows exactly where he is going, and why!
Also, it's just a great shot with the great big culvert below - for some reason it makes me smile ;-)