Summer was delivered to her new home over the weekend which means that Ailbhe's buddy duties are no longer required so we went and collected him this morning. Bless his heart, he walked straight into the trailer without blinking an eye, traveled so quietly you would not even have thought he was on board and then offloaded sensibly when we got home. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE this little horse?!
As the weather has deteriorated somewhat over recent weeks, I have gone soft and rugged most of the horses and it would be wrong to leave Ailbhe out, right? Of course it would! So I popped a cover on him before putting him in his paddock. Last winter I think I had him in a 3'9" cover - this winter he's gone up to a 4'9! I only covered him last winter because he came home looking a bit compromised and run down after his rather extensive travels (I generally don't cover foals/weanlings unless there is a good reason, like illness). I was expecting him to go into a 4'6" this winter but that was too small so he's wearing a 4'9"! He's 20 months old now and has grown an amazing amount in the last 12 months. I don't care - there is just more of him to love!
I wandered out this afternoon with Tempi's antibiotics dose (she is on Bromo TMPS for a lung infection - she was quite poorly earlier in the week but is already, thanks to my awesome friend and vet Louisa, much much better!) and took the camera with me to get some photos of him and his new/old paddock mates. I have him grazing with his mum Hooty and his sister/cousin (not as incestuous as it sounds!), Tempi. When I was taking photos of Tempi, Ailbhe was standing behind me with his chin on my shoulder, breathing down my neck. It was very cute (and rather warm). He's just such a smoochy wee man. Here are the resulting photos, including some of Tempi's eye (and her sporting her very first cover). Enjoy!
Ailbhe looking a lot like his Dad
But just a bit bigger, now filling out a 4'9" cover
Another of Ailbhe looking like his Dad
Sweet, soft Ailbhe
Ailbhe's vertical double whorls
Tempi's horizontal double whorls
Tempi modelling her first cover
Hooty standing over 'her' baby
Tempi's eye 110 days post injury
Thanks for tuning in, until next time, Au Revoir :)
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