I got home late last night – at 11 p.m. Just in time to celebrate Hrimmi’s first birthday. Amazing, she is now a yearling. It seemed to me that she even grew some in the week that I was away. And she no longer has a snub nose. Rather, she has the more lengthy nose of an adult horse.

Last year at this time, the front area of the horse shelter was ice free and dry. This year, it’s a mess. It is most certainly not conducive to a mare having a foal. This is a reminder of just how lucky we were. Had it been like this last year, we might have had to come up with other foaling accommodations.

How odd that we thought that most likely Signy had mated with Prudur, the one-time top ranked North American stallion. Instead, she mated with Skjor, an unknown stallion. We knew this immediately because she was quite clearly like the latter, pinto in color. We

were not at all disappointed. Rather, we were just glad she had all her hooves and teeth.

Hrimmi has, from the day of her birth, been a joy to have around. Like Signy, she’s very agreeable and easy to work with. She now ties, stands for the farrier, bathes, and leads fairly well, though she of course prefers to follow along on rides, off lead. She also gets along well with the other horses, all of whom let her eat with them.

Hrimmi is also, like most Icelandic horses, a big eater. She’s now weaned, but for a while she double dipped, going for hay and for milk both. This has now seemed to come to an end.

I promised Signy that we would not sell this foal – that Hrimmi would be her life-long companion. And I intend to keep this promise. The pair may be separated over the summer, but in the fall, at the conclusion of our trip, they’ll again be with one another.

We are not sure where Hrimmi will be this summer – plans are still up in the air. If we can’t find someone locally, we will take her with us and drop her off at the Icelandic horse farm. We’ll see. I’m not overly concerned about this yet. Ideally, I’d like to find her a place locally, one that has a large area for her to run around in, and might also offer her some companionship.

I have said this repeatedly, and will say it again. We got lucky. So much can go wrong after a mare conceives. But in this case, nothing did. Hrimfara, aka Frosty Traveler, is here to stay.

Next: 128: 5/8/13:Lost and Found