A Northern Journal

There is nothing like the sound of galloping hooves coming towards you in the dark. I love it (when I am the other side of the fence to them) as Thorfinn lets out a hurrumphing whinny as he realises I have called him and will be taking him in to his stable and supper. The hooves thunder and squelch in the ground and he skids to a halt at the gate still ’speaking’ and snorting after his ‘exercise’. In the light of a fading LED head torch all I can see is a white apparition coming towards me… well a disembodied head, neck and legs below the knees - he wears a dark green rug! I am realistic in that this show of affection is really a “Please give me my dinner, NOW” display, yet he ’speaks’ to me or anyone actually, any time we go outside after he has come in. His head pops out over the stable door and a gentle ‘hello’ (in horse language) greets you. Umm! He wants more food or a carrot!

So, I am leading Thorf up the short stretch up road from his paddock and the Hobbit Cavalry are nowhere to be seen. “HOBBITSES” I call (or “Peedie ponies” or “Ponies” or “Sig, Sig, Jem, Jem”). In the starry silence of a clear and still night I hear the tiny pattering ‘thunder’ of little hooves… all eight of them. It is rather cute they way they come running to a call too… its that food issue again. Now the grass has well and truly lost its goodness, even the good doers of Shetland Ponies need extra feed and hay. I digress… I can’t see them in my head torchlight, but I can sure can hear them and can just imagine them doing some synchronised turning into the gateway where they get fed. The first sight of them is the reflecting pinprick of their eyes, echoing the stars above. Sooo cute! Then their fluffy little bodies come into view, as they too skid to a halt at the gate. Now Jem has the cutest little whicker you have ever heard. It just melts your heart. Oh, and their whinnies / neighs are small but piercing, especially peedie chaps.

This display of cupboard affection reminds you that these amazing animals totally rely on you for all their needs. I really do need to spend more time with them… something I will be able to do once the lighter nights come in.

I am so lucky to be living in a rural community where we have the opportunity of doing heaps of things. There are good sporting facilities, lots of clubs, groups and classes to join. I bring this point up as my mother lives (somewhere) on the West Coast of Scotland and she is struggling to find activities to do in her retirement. She can’t believe how much stuff goes on up here. I would have thought that with, the community halls and such like over there, there would be things for the folk that live there could do. My parents are one of only 3 or so permanent residents in their wee village, 10 miles from the nearest village and 25 miles from the nearest petrol station (I think). There is just nothing going on out there! Once again, I am so lucky! Mum has discovered the internet but there is only so much time one can occupy oneself on a computer! (Well actually… in my case not enough time!)

Every second weekend or thereabouts, I play the role playing game, Dungeons and Dragons with friends which enables me to be creative, writing the adventures. Next time we meet, though, I get a chance to play a character… looking forward to it. This is a great social activity and helps to stop you getting too isolated from folk. We have a great laugh… usually until the ribs hurt from laughing so much, catch up on whats going on in the world, and of course do some gaming.

Nearly every Monday, as part of my work I visit the Orkney Archive, then pop in to see a friend. Tuesdays is another friend visit. My dose of exercise happens on Thursday when I go to a fabulous class, Body Balance in Kirkwall. It is Yoga, Thai Chi and Pilates based and leaves one feeling stretched, exercised and relaxed. Of course, I have my ponies to look after and dressage, lessons and competitions will take up a few weekends over the spring and summer.

Then of course there are the evening classes, although not running at the moment, I often do Yoga down in the local school anad have done art and language classes in the past. Most recently, though I signed up for a Sci-Fi & Fantasy illustration class at the local college… but it unfortunately was cancelled due to lack of enrolments. I can’t tell you how disappointed I was especially as I was only told about 4 hours before it was due to start. I used to do loads of drawing and painting but have lost the motivation over the last few years. I had really hoped this would have got me backon track… and illustrating my DnD adventures. I now sit and stare at my pile of sketch pads, box of paints and books of illustrtion I borrowed from the library and I procrastinate… now there’s another topic in itself!

The light at the end of the tunnel, though was the other class I had signed up to was a Gregorian Chant class at a local tearoom… a neighbour persuded me to go. I have listened to chant for a lot of years now and love the spiritual nature of it. I am not a singer, tend not to be able to hold a tune for long but braved the class - it is chant NOT singing! For me it was difficult as a number of ‘proper’ singers were there which put me off using my voice but once I focussed on myself things got better. I came away from that class feeling chilled and in touch with something other than our materialistic world. Now, the lady that owns the tea room has been very entrepreneurial this winter and is hosting a number of courses during both week days and at the weekends… how lucky are we as it is only 10 inutes drive away. How cool is that?

So, I thank my lucky stars that I live in an area that has so much on offer, whether formally organised courses, concerts, writing groups, reading groups, clubs, etc or just the visitor attratctions and wonderful landscape available to us and have to remember that I should NEVER be stuck for something to do (once I get over the procrastination!).

Now, I haven’t exactly been very outsidy this winter, infact I have positively been hibernating but this weekend I actually spent some time outside sorting Thorf’s fencing and sitting with the ponies. The sun even shone!

I got to see the ponies all together in the daylight this weekend.  It was great! I felt really proud of my three ponies as they grazed and played peacefully together. Jem wasn’t being so protective of Sig anymore and Thorf, I think, was just glad to be in the same field for a wee while. Sig has quite taken to the big chap and appears to be following him around and nibbling at him. I just hope he dosn’t chew Thorf’s tail which is a possibility. It is quite funny watching Sig try to grab hold of Thorf’s headcollar (playfully). T just gives a disdainful shake of his head and gets on with grazing the very sparse grass. The fact that Thorf tolerates the wee man means that when the time comes (very soon) to wean Sig it will hopefully be less traumatic when Jem goes on a short holiday.

As the weather was nice, I went and just sat down in the field with them all. T ignored me but the hobbits came up to me to sniff and nibble. Now Jem isn’t keen on being caught so this tactic is quite good. You can sit or kneel down and let them come to you. TIckle them, stroke their nose, scratch their neck (Sig adores his bum being scratched and he will lean into and probably sit on you, to get more pressure) and so on, then just get up and walk away. This will hopefully mean she doesn’t always associate me being in the field to catch her… which often ends up in the wee ponies cantering off with the tails in the air. It is a risk sitting on the ground as you can’t get out of the way in a hurry if they decide to kick or bite, but I tend to have an inate trust of horses. Call it intuition or whatever, but I trust my ponies, whilst always remembering that there is just a wee bit in their brains that is wild as the day man first caught horses and domesticated them.

Thorfinn is making a habit of exploring his surroundings.  Last Wednesday evening there was no sign of him at the gate. Not again! I thought. Thankfully, he had only gone into the other half of the field. I should have listened to him the week before when he got out. He was in search of more grass since he had eaten most of his paddock but I spent most of last weekend inside being lazy and thriftless which I often get like in the winter.

So, back to the escapee… instead of bringing him in directly, I thought I would try him on the same, much better fenced, field as the peedie ponies. Now he hadn’t shared the field with Jem since before Sigurd was born, so this was a risk. I had to take this action as I didn’t want him back on his field until I had done a proper (electric) fence walk in the daylight. I decided that as it was dark and the ground was frosty hard (he has no shoes on at the moment make his feet a little tender on the hard), then he couldn’t really get up to much mischief. Umm! I was a little wrong on that one. He was absolutely delighted to be sharing with the the littl’ uns and proceeded to ‘chase’ them around the field for 10 minutes or so. I wish it had been daylight as it would have made great pics or videos. Anyway, no harm was done because I think the hobbits were giving as good as they got. Jem was fairly protective, not letting Sig near Thorf even though Sig wanted to play. There were a handful of high pitched squeals and that was that… they all settled down to grazing peacecfully. When I went to fetch T in later, they all came to the gate and everything was peaceful. No-one had been injured which is a big relief when you introduce ponies for the first time. Having said that, Jem already kew Thorf, but having a baby around has made her very maternal.

Oh yes! Thorf has now been described as longshanks although I think that ‘not very longshanks’ is more apt as he has short legs in reality. They do describe Highland Ponies as horses on short legs! (A 14hh Highland can weigh as much as a 16-17hh horse.)

Driving home from work today looking at Greeny Hill 10 miles (by road) away, I was yet again amazed at how far you can see in Orkney, especially on really crispy days like today. We have unblocked panoramas that can be breathtaking, but you don’t ever feel particularly isolated as there are few places where you can’t see a house or farm unless you head up into the hills and find a hollow where you can imagine you are in a very remote area.

It feels like you are on view all the time and many Orcadian households have the ubiqetous pair of binoculars in the window… even I am guilty of ’spying’ on what is going on in the neighbourhood. Of course, my good eyesight is partiularly adept at spying out any horse movement within at least 2 or more miles of the house and out come the binoculars to see who it is. (For those that don’t know where I am - we are situated on the slopes of a gentle hill with a view across to the Hoy hills. On a good day you can see beyond Dounby, the Harray loch and the loch of Stenness…and on occasions a thin ribbon of sea between Hoy and the Mainland.)

Having grown up in the Highlands, I was used to hills and mountains surrounding me, and TREES! I miss trees dreadfully and my 2 to 6 foot trees in my garden are a somewhat poor substitute. Trees keep you from the view of prying eyes, they shelter you from the wind and add form and structure (in my eyes) to the landscape. Wherever I lived when I was growing up, the trees were there. There is nothing better than the smell of moss and leaf mould in a glade or under the trees. Once you were in a wood or forest you were cut off from the rest of the world, not like in Orkney where the open vistas can be somewhat overwhelming for a woodland lover like me.

As a teenager I used to love going for walks in the rain in the woods. The damp ground would be earthy, musty and the rains drops, having first passed through the leafy canopy would drip gently on my head. I liked the security of woodland and best of all galloping along sandy forest tracks on a horse was a reality and not a dream. Now that is what I really do miss - the forest rides.

From Blackrock Gorge, Nr Evanton

But, there is a counter to my love of trees …

A few years ago I was staying with a friend near to where I used to live as we were going to go to a school reunion. The night before the reunion, we headed to Evanton to the pub owned by an old school friend. Driving home, quite late on, we passed the lane down to where I used to live… lots of trees, and drove into a ‘tunnel’ of trees. I got the most horrendous shiver down my spine and my fear of the dark re-emerged… well I wasn’t scared as such, but the memory of being terrified of the dark jumped at me with a vengence. I had alost forgotten my fear of the dark. It was then that I realised, I hadn’t had a problem with the dark in Orkney. Why? The open vistas and skies meant no dark menacing shadows with monsters waiting to jump out at me.

This was a revelation indeed, as I love trees… in the daylight, but bring on dusk and dark and somewhere in my subconcious mind, fear would set in, a fear I had rarely had since moving to Orkney. Of course, even on the darkest night in Orkney where I live, there are no trees to hide the monsters of my mind. Mind you, the small elder trees and ruined cottage next to Thorf’s field occasionally sets the imagination going.

I went out to get Thorfinn in for the night. No sign of him at the gate where he usually greets me with a hurumphing whinny. Gave a call. No sight nor sound of him. Gave a louder call which echoed around the neighbourhood. Still no sign of him. A few surprisinlgy calm swear words later, went up to the house to get a more powerful torch and enlist hubby’s help. By the time we headed back down to see which part of the electric fence he had got through, he had returned from his travels and was standing the wrong side of the electric tape and poly wire and ancient barbed fence… which the tape usually keeps him off. The tape had broken, but the poly wire hadn’t. Did he go over or under? I have no idea! In the (head) torchlight and half-light of a cloud covered half moon he appeared to be unscathed just awaiting to be taken in to the stable for his supper looking as though butter wouldn’t melt.

But… having not broken the poly wire, and I didn’t want to cut it, the only option was to ride him across the unfenced stubble field in the near dark to meet back with the road and make our way home. I could have walked him a shorter distance but the ground was too rough and I don’t think my already aching back (injured) would cope with a walk on uncertain ground. Parking Thorf in a low hollow, I got on and heading across the field, relying on his sure footedness and good night eyesight. Thank goodness for head torches as at least I could see a little too.

The ground was thankfully hard due to an earlier frost in the evening so I didn’t have to worry about him going fetlock or knee deep in soft ground. He was very forward going and alert and snorting, thoroughly enjoying his night time galavant and I must admit I found it rather exhilerating and any worries and confidence issues I had after I fell off in the spring when I dislocated my shoulder, evaporated. Luckily he didn’t see any ‘ghosts’ in the side of the road and kept going straight with now shying or taking fright.

You have to bear in mind, I was bareback, and only had one lead rope for a rein, thankfully he neck reins reasonably well and is very responsive to voice commands. How many horse owners would risk a night time ride. Thorf just took it in his stride as he briskly walked the half mile or so home. I was soooooo tempted to have a canter, but the ground was just too hard, visibility limited and my confidence isn’t that strong yet. We did managed to trot up the road, and as long as I managed to keep my back relaxed and core muscles working, my back seems to be none the worse for wear.

Yes, riding on the road (albeit dead end single track) in the dark is fool hardly and the option wasn’t taken too lightly, but I had my head torch, was wearing a very flourescent / reflective workmen’s jacket (nice and warm in the frosty air) and Thorf is practically white (officially ‘grey’ in horsey terms) so visiblity for other road users wasn’t an issue. It must have looked a strange site to see this ghostly ‘apparition’ coming up the road in the dark with head torch bouncing as though it was on a bike with square wheels. As I neared home, the ‘Hobbit Cavalry’ cantered alongside the road in their field as I trotted into the yard.

I am priviliged and honoured to have owned this tractable, amenable, trusting, trustworthy, reliable pony for the last 13 years who just about will do anything for me, who has spirit and calmness when appropriate and is a soul mate.

So, it is now time to be back at work after nearly a fortnight off. How is it, though, I don’t feel particularly refreshed? Christmas hols, fun though they are, are not exactly the most relaxing of times with family, friends, cooking, eating, some drinking all requiring to be dealt with, oh and playing my new xBox game for more hours than I really ought to, and playing many many hours od Dungeons & Dragons with friends. Now need to get back to writing the DnD adventures, riding, training peedie ponies and, unfortunately, housework.

I now need a holiday from the holiday but was back to work with a bang, excited pupils chatting about their hols and not really settling to anything and me having to tidy up the last of the library decorations. Hopefully there won’t be too many interuptions this week, but the class bookings will soon come thick and fast.

The sitting room now looks empty now that the tree has been removed. I suspect a few needles from the tree that forgot it was a ‘no drop’ tree escaped the hoover. At least they might keep the cats amused for a very short time. The last chocolates (of which there were remarkably few) have been eaten and the extra food appears to have gone too. It is now back to normality.

PS. Malfoy - thief cat has now been christened ‘Sneak Cat’ as he really has developed his quiet stealing skills and, I think, is suffering from stealing 4 sausage rolls too many when one of my DnD guests left the kitchen door open. Yep… he really did get 4 before we noticed!

PPS. The peedie ponies have now been christened ‘The Hobbit Cavalry’ by a friend. Totally apt considering my love of ‘Lord of the Rings’ and fantasy in general!