The New Foal (Teddy Bear?)

Our one shetland mare, Tanja, gave birth to a colt on 18 February. We'd moved her into the box in the horse shed the Sunday before he was born, so she would have a warm dry place to foal.

Although these two were taken several hours after we think he was born, he was still wet. He was so curly! But DH didn't think Curly was a good name for him.

We're calling him Teddy Bear for now, but it isn't definite that that's his name yet.

The rest of the pictures were taken today.

Tanja is a very good mother and quite content to have us in the box with them. She was already encouraging him to talk to us the first day.

A Few Pics from Yesterday

This is what DH's cake ended up looking like.



Here is the foal:



This can give you an idea of how big it is:


Queenie is obviously the one with the foal. The background horse on the left is the new mare Tanja. Mann, the stallion, is to the right in the back. Both Mann and Tanja are much larger than Queenie.

DH says this foal is more like the size they are at 2 weeks than one on its first day.

DH's Birthday Present from Queenie

Well, I was right. She was waiting for his birthday. He woke up this morning to see a large and beautiful Shetland foal running around the pony pasture with her mother. We're more than 75% certain it is a filly. Queenie is a very protective mother, so it isn't like we've been able to go up and examine it. It is red, of course, and has a small white star on its forehead. It's legs seem pretty white at this point, so maybe a sock? No time to get pictures now. I will try later.


In other good news, the package from my mother arrived yesterday. So DH got his bday presents on time. We were up well past midnight alst night, so he opened the two from me then. A book on horse hoof care and an IOU for the remaining needed tools. Also a specially made paperweight with a picture of him getting ride to ride Daisy. It is one of his favorite pictures.

I got some great things from my mother too. Some leather tools that I've already started using, a neat book on stitching and lacing, a warm shawl she knitted for me herself and some of the yarn has a history to make it a little more special, and a book filled with bread recipes.

DH opened his presents from the package this morning. He is so happy because he got two jars of Skippy peanut butter. HE also got a bag of minimarshmallows (he started on those last night and has Shawnee now as addicted to marshmallows as he and Molly are). Then there is another leather tool.

We are off in a few to DH's work for a short visit and his parents for the noon meal and afternoon coffee. All I did was assemble the cake, which is very colorful. OOPS! I need to remember the whipped cream and optionally whip it here too.

I cut DH's hair already this morning and he took a shower. Shawnee wanted into the bathroom with him while he showered. Molly doesn't usually want to because she is afraid she will end up in a bath, but in honor of the day, she also eagerly joined him in the bathroom.

A Little of This, a Little of That, and a Lot of Pain

There is definitely plenty going on over here. DH has been off work since before Easter. I had some trouble the first few days with him wanting me to start my days earlier that my body was ready but we seem to have worked that out. Sorry it's been so long since I last posted. With everything going on is really hard to find the time and energy to blog.

I am riding approximately every other day. Where I ride depends on the weather and my mood. When it is windy, especially if the wind is towards the coast from the sea, I ride in the woods. We have had a few days that were still enough for me to ride along the coast. Those days I get Ria out in the water. I wanted to blog a lot about that but I just never seem to manage when I get in. Ria is afraid of water. She always has been fortunately, it's getting better. When we first got her she was totally paranoid to be the coast and getting her the water was impossible. She also wouldn't walk through puddles. It is something we have been working on and working on and working on. I am now able to get into the sea by myself without using my spurs. Last time we rode that direction, we crossed the stream twice and rode extensively in the water. It was a bit of a struggle because she was a little mad at me. The time before that we wrote in the woods and I made her take a path along the stream. The entire ride she was afraid I'd make her go in the water. She also been startled earlier on the ride by a duck that flew up out of the stream. She didn't do anything wrong, but she was jumpy. So when we approached the stream along the coast. She was about ready to jump out of her skin. But I let her sniff and take it easy and she crossed without problem.

I am due for a ride today, but I'm not sure I will get there.

Another project I'm working on is my secret leather project. I had to delay that for several days because of the migraine. I finally got working on it again last night and it looks great so far. But it's going to take me a lot of time to get it finished and I'm running out of time. I realized last night that this is the largest leather project I have undertaken to date. I hope my recipient will like it. Unfortunately, I think I need at least one more tool to finish it. The beveler I have is too large for some of the areas I need to work in. We'll try to get the leather store tomorrow to pick one up. I just hope that is not one of the items my mother had decided to give me for my birthday.

You see, my poor mother and I are cursed when it comes to United States postal system. Things sent from Denmark to the US generally do fine but that's the Danish postal system. Things coming to Denmark from the United States. To find unless my mother has sent them. I don't think the problem is my mother. I think we are cursed. Either that or the local post offices mom sends from totally sucks. According to the tracking information on the most recent package, it has taken a side trip to Brazil. This package contains my birthday presents from my parents, probably DH's presents from my parents, and DH's birthday present from me. This upcoming Tuesday is DH's 60th birthday.

Fortunately, I have a small item for him that I ordered from net friend in United States that actually got here. The rest will just have to wait. I really do feel bad for my mom because she is so upset about this package's side trip.

Preparing for this upcoming birthday is another thing to be keeping me busy. We're not doing anything much about it. Just going up to his parents for lunch, but I want to do a cake. A typical Danish cake is three cake layers with some kind of pudding-like cream in the middle. For my past birthday, we ended up using homemade chocolate pudding instead of the usual cake cream. So I've been speculating over what I would be making this time. I let him pick, so it turns out, we are going to have American instant pistachio pudding between one place, and American French vanilla instant pudding and other place. We'll probably have the usual crushed cookies and whiskey or cognac. I need to mix the pudding today and let sit. Then I need to build a cake tomorrow. That way we'll only need to add the whipped cream on Tuesday. The whipped cream is best fresh and everything is else is best if it's gotten to sit for a day. So I need to work on that today.

I may not have mentioned this before, but I have friends coming from Germany the end of month. I am really looking forward to the visit, but I want to get the house cleaned up a bit more before they arrive. So I've been trying to work on that what I've been able to find the energy and be up to it from the pain.

Our weather has been gorgeous. I just want to be outside all the time, but I have to accept the fact that I'm not up to it. The ground is still too cold for me to lie down on the ground. I've been trying to do some gardening, but it is very hard on my body. Yesterday I over did it once again and ended up having to crawl to something I could get up with after I fell a few times. I have been digging bulbs up that we no longer want in our main flower bed. Several of them have been spreading like mad. One we don't particularly like the flowers of. Others are just too copious and in the way. The ugly ones were not a problem because they were very shallow. The others were unfortunately about a foot deep. In the course of digging those up with a fork I ended up falling down. I spent some time on the ground digging them up the rest of the way by hand. And then managed to get back on my feet using the fork. I had stiffened up so much for my time on the ground that when I started walking in I fell. I was than without anything to use to get up. So I crawled through the recently tilled vegetable garden. We should finally be done with frost, so today I cut back the roses, lavender, and butterfly bush.

My stone bed was great a while ago but last season was wasted with my health. It is now pretty thoroughly overtaken by grass and I am not sure I will be able to reclaim it.

We are still waiting for our Shetland mare, Queenie, to foal. DH had been sure she would've had her foal this past Thursday, but there's still no sign of it. I think she's waiting for his birthday. He think she's waiting for to get warmer.