Unicorns in the mist

You never know what to expect living here. Its one of the joys of smallholding and our location only adds to the mix. So today as I went around the Bonsai Mountain I expected to see Mad Keith, sheep, gorse bushes, more sheep, dead bracken, dead sheep and a motley crew of canines charging around. As it was pouring with rain, the heavy get you wet really quickly type rain that drags the clouds down to ground level I didn't expect to see much else. As the dogs and I reached Five Ways Crossing I could just make out two Unicorns in the mist watching our every move.

Now I know Unicorns are very shy and disappear as soon as they have been spotted but these two stayed put. Very strange. The equine wild beasts in these parts scarper as soon as you veer towards them and should you accidentaly surprise them they have an immense capacity for violence and think nothing of turning your head into a red smudge on the grass. Wild ponies should have approach with extreme caution signs painted on them, especially as these two looked as if they were about to give birth. So fat in fact, and so unusual to see them on our hill I decided it was worthy of investigation. The chances of getting near them with a pack of dogs was absolute zero, the two pictures above are taken at full zoom on the camera.

Faith spotted them and immediately assumed the whats this vicious animal in front of me pose, a bit late really as we were all by now on a collision course.

Amazingly the ponies stood their ground and didn't trample the dogs into mush.

In fact they were quite cordial for wild beast. The one closer to the camera was giving a convincing I am about to give birth act, so much so I phoned home to see what my oh so patient wife had to say on the subject. I don't think my description of events as I saw them were convincing Tracey of anything other than she was talking to a mental patient. I established pregnant horses do breathe funny and scrape the ground as this one was. She even let me stroke her and attempt to feed her a bonio. Eventually the smaller of the two remembered the script and began to act like she should when faced by a fat man and a pack of dogs and chased the confused canines around the gorse bushes.

I continued to make friends with the nice quiet one while Tracey told me I couldn't keep it even if it did follow me home.

Luckily the pony had more sense than I did and stayed put as I set off down the trail home, much to every ones relief, especially the dogs.