After just one week of living together with us the ponies have made an amazing change, from very wary and suspicious, impossible to catch, to very friendly furry people who trot up to the gate to meet us, accept their halters and lead ropes without a complaint, and listen patiently to my monologues: that feels so good! Carrots and endless sweetness were the keys to gaining their trust.
They are both somewhat fat and out of shape (honestly, they are not the only ones in this condition), so much work must be done, by all of us, before we hit the road. But it feels a lot less daunting now that they are so much more social and cooperative!

The endless task of building our very special kitchen box and sourcing the various pieces of equipment we still need, proceeds between walking the ponies, feeding the ponies (a thankless chore, since, despite their roundness, they are costantly convinced of being starved, so that no feed is ever - ever - enough), talking to the ponies, cuddling the ponies. First things first.

Haflingers are known as a breed of friendly, intelligent and very stubborn horses: I can confirm all of that. They are sweet, they are smart and they are mules: they have their moments of getting stuck on their feet in the middle of a path and saying "No further, thanks." Since none of us can outpull such a tank built barrel of fat, muscles and fur, only infinite patience can get them going again. TomBoy is the worse of the two in this sense. When he walks he is a steam engine with blonde hair, and none of us could really keep up with him if he were not polite enough to slow down his pace and waith for us miserable crawling bipeds. Then he will suddenly decide that it is enough and just stop in his tracks until a mixture of pleading, pulling and various tactful hints at carrots, hay and eternal damnation get him going again. Definitely an authority problem here. Something else to work upon, sigh.

Kaylee is very attached to TomBoy, always getting a bit panicky when he is out of sight for even a minute, an endearing trait, but also a bit exhasperating. I hope she soon realizes that all of us are her herd now, and she needs not be too upset if they are separated for more than a few seconds.

The cats are taking to the ponies very easily, especially Muffin, who is quite fearless and enterprising. This is very curious, since her first contact with horses, years ago, in Italy, sent her into a fit of spookiness that lasted three days. But I guess living so close to cows of every size for several months put everything into a different perspective. I hope her daredevil attitude towards the big furries doesn't get her into trouble. Luckily they are only mildly curious and quite tolerant toward her.