Elding
Meet Elding aka The Minkey. No, she is not named after the Minke Whale - although both are pale in colour and quite rotund at times - but from the Clouseau lines at the opening of the film - The Return of The Pink Panther:
Clouseau:
Have you got a lassanse for theese minkey?
Fiona: A lassance?
Clouseau: Yes that is what I said - a lassance.
Fiona: No, but she has got an IHSGB passport. (Hurrah)
Elding is, as you may have gathered, a bit of a cheeky
puppy. She was just aged two when SWMBO bought her from Mic so, as a result,
she got to hang around the place for a few years playing the joker before
the time came to back her. In this period she learned many, interesting
party tricks usually involving tearing up or stomping on things - the
dog, my jacket, Húni - anything except Gæla in fact.
)
When
not pummeling puppy into the pink mud that passed for soil in the part of Devon where we lived, she could usually be found wallowing in the stuff in a vain attempt
to change her pale palomino colouring to pink.
When her full sister - Drift - appeared on the scene we found that we had two Minkeys around the place - nothing was safe from their naughty behaviour and thus we ended up with a Pinkey Minkey and a Stinky Minkey.
In 2004 the time came for Elding to start doing some work and she was gently started by Fiona - Elding took everything in her stride and proved to be a quite unflappable horse. She also began to lose her puppy fat and grow into a good looking, young mare - in October 2004 she came along with us to a Magnus Larusson course in Verwood and, under the gentle hands, light seat and soft leg aids of SWMBO she was a little star (they also have the same effect on me -ahem! As this is a family page, I'll skip right along to the next horsey bit).
)
2005
saw
Elding being ridden out in company with one of the older horses
)
and,
as her strength under rider improved, she began to carry herself
properly and offer tölt - well she did when Fiona asked, not
so sure what she'd do for me as I was verboten from tampering with
the Minkey y'see - when it comes to horses I have the Inverse Midas
Touch - nothing seems to turn to gold if you get the drift. We also moved from the red coloured soil of Torquay to the gray colours of Dartmoor - where we we had Elding's shoes taken off and she was 'turned away' until the Spring - transformed overnight from a Pinkey Minkey to the Chunky Monkey.
2006 saw Elding being reshod and ridden out in the rather hilly countryside around here - her tölt began to improve, getting regular and established and her unflappable temperament was still to the fore - in July we took her along to the Have a Go Show at Oakfield where she impressed Smári so much that there then followed a round of Hestakaup involving Edling and Stjarna and a chicken 
. After four years of having Elding around the place she will be missed 
a more pleasant character you could not wish to meet .
