Thank you, Solaris! Actually, yes, we are proud about Puika - he had come such a loooong way to be nearly as good as we would like him to be.
The other day farrier was here and he said that Puika now looks and behaves much much better. And tha'ts right - If at the beginning farrier needed to tie his right back leg up to do the job and we both with Peter were helping, then another day Puika was holding that leg nearly right - old owners said that he had never done it in such a nice way all his life. So this was the first time.
Also it was impossible to make Puika canter at the beginning - now he canters nicely and is happy to do that. So yes, a lot positive changes. And he lost so much weight and has some muscles now!
He is still colicing without a logical reason again and again - OK, in January it was understable - no movements at all, but now, when he had been in pastures 24/7 from the beginning of May, and is getting regular mild excercises - it is strange. He is dewormed, never had any not-natural food, so it is a bit of mystery for us and our horse vet.
My niece... yes, she has no fears at all and she wants to become Lorenzo, the Flying French man (trace on internet, you will see what she means). Tomorrow we shall probably take her to the local horse show.
She is doing everything with horses - good job that Shella is childproof angel, but even then accidents happen she stepped on niece's foot - niece was not even crying in fears that I will ban her from horses. :) She was walking Shella after riding to cool her, and tried to feed some grass, so both of them lost attention, and accident happened - good job that nothing is broken as Shella has all 4 shoes on. Puika, in turn, took niece's hand in his moth - very gently for him, but still - skin was bruised. But again - niece explained me that it all is only because she is just starting to learn and when she will become a good horseperson, no accidents... :D
She is just horse crazy. And so happy when you put her on horse's back - at the beginning it was no reins, only sit and hold on with your legs, learn to balance yourself, but now she gets reins as well - she earned that as her balance is very vell and she is not holding on horse's mouth. Of course, with smaller horses she would move faster, but she is happy with things even now.
Look at her hapiness when she first got the reins
TRYING TO TURN
and here they walk
Shella really loves her and obey carefully
And the best part of her orse love is that it is not only pink pony blanket - we are into hay now, and she is all the time keeping up in jobs with adults. The other day we were in field, hand turning hay with hay rakes, and she had her own, adult size rake, and she was working very very hard - I was really impressed. And like everybody else - until midnight, without a complint or everything - her explanations for me were: "Horses will need hay at winter, so if I love horses and want them to carry me, I must take care now so they will have plenty of food in winter!"
And yes, the latest news - Shella went for registered breeding - we took her to the Latvian breed stallion that was approved for her by gov pedigree thing, so if we are lucky, we shall have a foal next spring. I know, many of you do not think that it is a good idea, but she is registered broadmare, had a foal few years ago and he is very good (already some good archievements into jumping) and the stallion is great. Such breeding is supported by gov.here, if done right, and all the paperwork was prepared before and after. We will know if it took within 2 weeks or so. So keeping fingers crossed.
Here they are together
I was taking mare to the stallion first in my life, and was quite worried how it will be, but our vet was there as well to control everything. It was very poverful and I would say - beautiful event. Stallion was gentle and so sweet to her - and she liked him a lot.
Stallion was only 2 miles from us, so each afternoon we went for a nice walk to the boy and then walked home again so Puika did not feel lost.
About dogs: In that picture is one St.Bernard dog and 6 different GSD - mostly East European lines. (There was aslo a Griffon, but she was too small to be noticed between all big babies)