Breaking in the young horse into the harness

Since I was very young I was in love with everything about horses and ponies, and still I love them very much. I was 4 years old when I first ride on a little Shetland pony, Ronny, was his name. He was owned of friends of my parents. When I grew up I cycled 6 days a week to care for him and ride on him. He was a really old fashioned Shetland pony. About a 1m tall, large head and strong legs. He was so sweet but also frolicsome, just like a shetty should be.

Ronny a year before he died

When we get married we get him of them, and we also take him (and the other horses) with us when we moved to Sweden. But in September 2014 my little friend died 35years old…

Our welsh pony became very lonely when he died, so after a while we decided to look for some new Shetland ponies, not only for I fell in love with that breed but also are they just exactly what we need on the homestead. They are strong enough to pull a little hay wagon or a little plough but they don’t eat so much and they are easy to handle.

So came these two little fellows to our homestead in 2015. Brommy, the youngest one was only 8 months old and Berry 1 ½  years old. Our welsh fell in love with Brommy on the first sight! So lovely!

Brommy and Berry, just arrived

The last years they have been on the meadow just to grow, but every day we get them in the stable on the evening and lead them out every morning. So we checked them every day and every day they learned a little better to being lead on the head collar. This year is Berry celebrate his 4^th birthday and Brommy his 3 ^th . Last year I learned Berry the commands I use. Like, walk on, stand, back etc. etc. and also lunging him a view times. But now he is old enough for the real job!

Yesterday it was nice weather and a perfect day to get started. The first thing I want to learn him is to wear the back band with the girth and the crupper beneath his tail. Just after a view times get it on and off he was really relax, so I fasten the girth and the crupper and we just go for a walk. He was so relax and he did it very fine, like he have done it for a live time! I’m so proud of him! Now we do this for a lot more days before we move on to the next step!

Maybe you have noticed on the pictures that I don’t use a bit. I have a some reasons for it, I find there mounth to little for fitting in such a large bit, they understand a bitless bridle much better and I don’t need it J

Planning the kitchen garden, part II

Last Friday I received my seeds! I love to get post and I love even more to get a large package! Even if I ordered it myself J.

Almost all the seeds I use come from the same shop. It is a post order shop, which sell a lot of organic seeds and have a good service and a quick deliverance. Most of the seeds they sell have they tried on there own garden first so you’ll know that the seeds can grow in Sweden.

Only a view seeds where not available there and them I ordered somewhere else.

This year I will change the plan in my garden. The last 4 years my garden has grown every year a bit.  I had the garden divided in 5 parts and every part had 4 seedbeds of 120cm wide. At one long side a had a small long bed 1x6m with strawberries.    

And so we have the second kitchen garden, that we made last year. It’s there I have my small poly tunnel also.

It worked fine with 5 beds but a lot of the area is used for paths between them. I also decided that I will use our work pony to hoe between the rows and that goes a lot better with seedbeds some are only 60-120cm wide and go over the hole length. So I will have a lot more area for my seeds and as an additional benefit al the beds will be in the north-south direction. All crops will get same quantity sunlight and hopefully grow even better.

For a couple day’s ago I measured both pieces of land and noted where the berry bushes and other fixed elements are. Yesterday I make a drawing of each piece of land and made plans where to grow which crop. Only a couple of square meters have not been planned yet, we’ll see what we can plant there, maybe some extra lettuce or maybe some herbs….

I will explain my drawing, I hope you can read the figures in the drawing.

 1. The well                                                         2. red and blackberries

 3. strawberries                                                   4. cabbage

 5. carrot and union                                             6. beetroot and union

 7. beans and peas                                              8. lettuce

 9. herbs and flowers                                          10. plum tree

1. summer and winters quash                              2. pumpkins

3. corn and broad beans                                    4. pickle plants

5. potatoes                                                        6. poly tunnel

7. herbs and flowers                                          8. red and black berries

9. apple tree