After being away for quite some time, we of course went to check our horses at Haga. First, they weren't too keen on having a look at us, but the promising sound of a ball full of bread convinced them. Fönix was first, followed by Kóngur and then Snerpa. Vordís and Rögnir more or less just rushed by. Snerpa still has an afro haircut, no idea when this will change. At least all of them were happy and healthy.

 

 

 

As Iðunn, Bjarni's daughter, was going to compete at Landsmót, she couldn't finish the ridingtour she was on and therefore Bjarni needed someone to jump in and help with the herd. We did so gladly and took 3 horses with us. Skuggi was already in the herd, List, Ögn and Ösp came with us. 
The weather was good, Hildur and Anna Guðný, the other guides really nice, and there were a lot of happy riders from all over the world,too. The first day was quite calm, except for List and Ögn trying to leave the herd and then meeting Bjarni and his herd going the opposite direction. And of course going over the bridge in front of the herd is always good for some adrenaline. 
We decided to sleep at home during the tour, so we went back after dinner. 
Day 2 started in perfect weather with a broken cook's hand and a horse that tried again and again going back looking for his friend. Took some time to make Skuggi go the right direction, but he finally did. Was happy to be on List, which is very safe and fast on bumpy area. Unfortunately Skuggi wasn't the only horse trying to escape. After quite some ride a chestnut mare with blaze and socks suddenly decided she was too far away from home and it would be the last chance to turn around and go back. She was so determined that it was impossible to turn or reach her. I kept following her, but gave up when we reached the fence at the road and she started to head east. I just went off List and started walking her back to the place where the horses stayed overnight. Changed between walking and riding her, taking breaks inbetween. Finally Anna Guðný came with a fresh horse for me. Changed horses and took List as a handhorse. She was quite happy about that I think. Back at the farm we had to drive some horses into another fence, which turned out to be not as easy as we thought. When we finally had them where they belonged, we watched them rushing out on the other side of the fence as the gate there was open... Well, it was easier to get them in there again.
Day 3 I started behind the herd with a mare I got to know many years ago, when riding with Lóla. Gná is a very good herding horse, always willing and very strong. Unfortunately her brakes downhill behind the herd are not working too well, which is not so good on wet ground. But we managed.
At the next stop I changed to Ösp, which I start to like more and more. And last but not least I grabbed List to finish the tour. I thought she would be tired after the day before, but far from that. Her brakes do infact work a bit better than those in Gná. She wasn't happy about going downhill slower than the herd, but I couldn't just let her go with all the tourist behind me. Soon we arrived in Saltvík with a lot of happy riders looking forward to a hot pot and nice dinner. 
It was a nice change to be in a ridingtour again, but you also see how different it is when you just go with your handhorse, can stop wherever you want and so on. 
After sorting our stuff out, we left for Landsmót, which was this time in Hólar in Skagafjörður. We already bought our tickets in the presale, when they were on a really good price. Camping was, like always, included and so we found ourselves a nice, calm spot on the family camping area. We were surprised how close everything was. Just a few minutes walk and you were at the tracks. I really liked the way how everything was organised. The ridinghalls were used for gastronomy, in the older one they put a lot of sofas and made a very nice café there. In both places you were able to watch what was going on at the track on big screens, which came in especially handy when the weather wasn't perfect. 
I was a bit disappointed that so many big companies boycotted this Landsmót and didn't come with their goods. So in fact if you wanted to shop horserelated stuff, you had little chance to do so. But on the other hand it's their miss.
There were soooo many good horses, it's hard to remember, which was THE best. But it was good to see some of the very high juged stallions, which got huge marks for conformation and ridden abilities, live and get your own impression. A good conformation is no guarantee for good looks under the rider.
Well, in my opinion it was a very good Landsmót and I would be more than ready to have it at Hólar soon again. 

Yesterday and today the more experienced kids of our local ridingclub went for a long trailride from Húsavík to the farm Kjölur in Aðaldalur and back. Iris, Siffi and Ingólfur accompanied them on Thursday and Jón Óli and Sigrún joined them the day after. 
Ingólfur took 2 handhorses with him, one to change and the other one just for some training. I on the other hand just brought my camera as I wanted to take some nice pics when they cross the little creek. Well, I got some quite spectacular pics when Ingólfur tried to go over the creek with his handhorses. Kósi wasn't very fond of getting wet and tried to get a ride over on Ösp's back. Nearly managed to, but just nearly. The rest of the ride went very well.
After driving Ingólfur to todays startingplace and helping to catch the horses I went back to Saltvík and rode towards the group. Met them just before the rivercrossing, which meant that me and List had to cross it twice. Today all the horses went into the water without trouble. Think all the kids enjoyed the trip and are hoping to go on another one as soon as possible.

 

 

 

 

 

is a young, very promising first prize stallion, owned by our vet and his wife. 
Today they planned to take pictures of him and we were so lucky to just arrive at the right moment and joined them.
I think I'll just let the pics talk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a difficult morning for Kóngur (he was gelded), chipping him, Rögnir and Snerpa and deworming all of them, we first put Vordís, Rögnir and Fönix in the trailer and went to Haga. The day before we had fixed the fence there, so everything was ready for the horses. Vordís recognised the place at one and off she went with Rögnir, not even saying goodbye to us. Fönix was a bit confused by his mum running away so fast, but followed her and Rögnir after a few moments.
We thought it would be more difficult to load the two yearlings, but that went just fine and they behaved very well in the trailer. At Haga they were very happy to meet their grandma and cousins again.
On our way back we stopped at Bjössi's and Rakel's place and visited them, Berta, Píla and the 2 remaining pups. The dogs were very active, playing with Hjördís but fancying a good scratch, too. We just managed to not take one of the pups back home. Hjördís would have loved that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sometimes you have to do something else than the regular stuff, change your routine a bit. That's what we did tonight. We invited Hjördís and Jón for a surprisetrip and went to Ásbyrgi, one condition was, that Hjördís would bring her camera. She doesn't like trips with unknown destination, but we managed to talk her into it. It wasn't that difficult to get Jón with us. He's always ready for something new. 
At Ásbyrgi we took a walk down to the little lake at the very bottom of the canyon. During the walk we had to adjust Hjördís camera a bit, but then we could start photographing. We were lucky and there were quite some ducks posing for us at the pond and we even saw some arctic charrs there. Never seen them this size there. 
On our way back to Húsavík we stopped at Tjörnes and visited the puffins there. They didn't let us trouble their busy lives so we could watch them come and go, hurrying around and much more. 
Hjördís got very nice shots I think and now it's time to transfer all her pics to the computer and go through them. I'll do the same with mine. Enough to do!

 

 

 

 

 

In the afternoon Aldís and Gjöf were fetched by their new owners and started their trip to Lake Mývatn.
Our annual clubcompetition took place this evening. This year we had for the first time a ladies class, which was supposed to get more women into the competition. That worked out fine, even I took part. 
First the kids attending riding school and the youngest riders in the club showed us a few rounds on the ovaltrack and everybody got a medal for taking part. There were many happy faces!
The older kids got up to 3 rings to show the best side of their horses, just like we grown ups. Think it was a bit a problem that it wasn't clear how many rings you had to show everything. Some riders wanted to ride a program, preparing to show maybe pace in the 3rd ring, but they just got 2 rings. We have to think about this better next year. 3 rings for everybody would be fine.
Afterwards everybody was invited to join a trailride, which went well, eventhough it was longer than expected.

 

 

After deworming we loaded Þyrnirós and Fjördís and went to Helluland, where they are going to spend their summer with Kiddi's youngsters on a huge field. But before we could put them there, we had to help Kiddi loading and moving his youngsters. When we arrived and unloaded the mares, the rest of the bunch was already at the other end of the field and didn't even notice the new arrivals. Well, didn't take too long until they did and then they rushed at them, greeting them nosily, finally taking them away in a rush. 
Whilst the horses got to know each other, we helped Kiddi repairing the shelter, which partly broke during a winterstorm. Now it's stronger than before.
Last but not least, we went to Hólmavað, where Ella and Bensi have been working hard to get everything ready to open a small guesthouse on their farm. If you are looking for a very nice place to stay close to Húsavík from where you can easily reach Lake Mývatn, Goðafoss, Akureyri, Dettifoss and so on, you might want to check them out on Airbnb here and here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

... move the yearlings without catching them. That's a good question and we thought quite some time about what to do.
Gjöf, Aldís, Þyrnirós, Embla, Snerpa and Kóngur were supposed to move up to the stable, Vordís, Þrá, Sæla, Fönix and Rögnir should stay in the field. Tómmi was so nice to help us, otherwise it would have been even more difficult to perfom this. 
We managed to get the horses we wanted to take into the other field, following Þyrnirós, which was led by Tómmi. Snerpa decided she couldn't walk through the gate and just jumped over the fence to the next field, running crazy there. Þyrnirós on the other hand behaved like a fully tamed horse, staying with Tómmi eventhough the rest took a stroke back to the middlefence. When we finally managed to get a halter on all the mares and wanted to leave the fence, when Snerpa, who had joined the group again by running under the fence this time, decided it was still impossible to walk through a gate and rushed alone back to her granny and the rest. Not so easy to get her back where she was supposed to be... But we finally managed and managed to get her through the gate, too. Then things were really easy walking them to the stable, crossing the road, no problem, walking past strange vehicles, no problem and it wasn't even a problem getting them into the paddock! Last but not least the yearlings followed the rest into the stable and we could manouver them into their boxes. Unfortunately Kóngur decided it wasn't the right place for him to stay and jumped out of his box. Well, he just had won a stay in the stallionbox. No way for him to escape from there.
Kóngur and Snerpa are gonna get their basics now before leaving with Vordís, Fönix and Rögnir to the summerpasture at Hagi. Gjöf and Aldís are waiting for their new owners to fetch them as they are going to move to a farm at Lake Mývatn, where they are going to be working horses for the sheeproundup. Embla is going to start her training again and Þýrnirós will accompany Fjördís to the summerpasture at Helluland.
In the evening we opened the middlefence again and the horses were really eager to get the big field back. They were literally running crazy!

 

 

 

 

and future geldings it was we helped catching and putting on the horsetrailer at Helluland. Kiddi asked us for help and of course we stopped by and gave him a hand. But not only us, there were more helping hands. We used the shelter and parts of Kiddi's roundpen to make an enclosure on the pasture and from there we managed to lure them into the trailer. There were so many, he had to go twice.
Once at home, we of course wanted to see all of them move and discuss Kiddi's decision about which ones would be gelded and which ones not. Nearly all of them have at least a first prize father, so it wasn't easy to decide.
Here they are:

Mjölnir frá Hellulandi IS2011166420 - gonna stay stallion
F: Hófur frá Varmalæk
M: Röst frá Hellulandi

Sörli frá Hellulandi IS2014166420 - future gelding
F: Hágangur frá Narfastöðum
M: Skotta frá Hellulandi

Prímus frá Hlíðarenda IS2014166330 - stallionprospect
F: Pan frá Breiðstöðum
M: Sunna frá Reykjum 

Krummi frá Hellulandi IS2013166421 - future gelding
F: Dimmir frá Hellulandi
M: Hanna Valdís frá Grímshúsum

Sólfaxi frá Hellulandi IS2014166421 - stallionprospect
F: Gangster frá Árgerði
M: Röst frá Hellulandi

Faxi frá Hellulandi IS2013166420 - stallionprospect
F: Hágangur frá Narfastöðum
M: Myrká frá Hellulandi

Skýfaxi frá Hellulandi IS2014166423 - future gelding
F: Mjölnir frá Hellulandi
M: Lukka frá Hellulandi

Svipur frá Hellulandi IS2014166422 - future gelding
F: Hágangur frá Narfastöðum
M: Myrká frá Hellulandi


 

 

Using the perfecty still weather I visited our horses in the field by the sea hoping to get some nice shots of them. I took my fisheyelens with me and our youngsters did me the favour of checking it out very closely, putting their noses straight into it. Nosy gang!
Rögnir already leaves his mum alone quite often (or is it the other way round?) and inquires his surroundings. He's very nosy and selfconfident, playing a lot with his sibblings and older cousins. Snerpa is still following Vordís closely whereas Kóngur is getting into the nerves of the mares trying to charm them. Fönix and Þyrnirós were actually very much interested in me and the camera and kept following me around.
Afterwards I tried to get a good shot of the Artic skua, which had attacked me earlier today when I was passing by on horseback. It has it's nest very close to the riding track and the male attacks fiercly when you come close. Unfortunately the male wasn't there when I came and the female was more about trying to lure me away than attacking. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, at least his relatives moved from Hólmavað to a bigger field at a different farm today, before they will go to the highlands at the end of June/start of July. The lambs are looking fine and there are a few lambs in a colour, which hasn't been present at Hólmavað before now. They are badgerfaced, which means they have a light coat, but a black belly and black markings in the face. The lamb Bensi holds has this colour. Of course Lukka, the Border Collie had to keep a close eye on the things we were doing. At least it's her herd, isn't it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's sailors' weekend in Iceland! Tomorrow will be Sailors' Day and there's usually a lot going on around harbourvillages and towns, like rowing competitions, relay races and trips on the sea. We were invited by Hulda and Jói to join them on Jói's boat Sóley ÞH28. Just after we departed, Hulda's phone rang and Jói took a u-turn back to the pier as we forgot to take Benedikt on board. Now complete we headed out on Skjálfandaflót into the fog. It was mystical to see the Schooner Haukur and other ships appearing from the fog. The guys from the rescue team definitely had fun on their zodiac boat rushing back and front, stopping to get some chocolate bars at Sóley and then keeping on.
After the trip we went to visit Hjördís at the bakery as she got herself a summerjob there. She was very busy and had hardly time to talk to us. That's the way it should be.
And then we already could hear the helicopter of the Icelandic Coastguard, which was paying a visit, showing searescue in collaboration with our local rescueteam Garðar. It was very impressive to watch the helicopter TF-GNA so close and get some nice shots.
Hjördís and her cousin Thelma joined us to check out the horses and were definitely the most interesting humans when we arrived as they had a big bag of bread.
In the evening we were invited to the Sailors's Dinner and Show. Lára Sóley and Hjalti were responsible for the entertainment and did a really good job, eventhough some guests didn't pay attention at all and indeed did disturb the show massively. 
Takk fyrir okkur, it was a wonderful day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just eight days after his birth our little stallion got his name. We hope it will be a lucky one for him. His name is "Rögnir", which is another name for Óðinn and means king in the old poetric language, too. At the moment, he's behaving more like a chester, but he'll grow into it.
We took some pics of Sæla frá Hellulandi, which is owned by Jörg from Austria. She's a daughter of Geisli frá Sælukoti, therefore halfsister of Magnús, Sigtýr and Rögnir, a promising, easy going lady, waiting for her owner to chose a mate for her. Will be a very interesting choice. She's supposed to leave Iceland in autumn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last days we had beautiful weather, which means that the snow is finally melting in the highlands and the glacial rivers are very high at the moment. We took a drive to get a glimpse at Goðafoss and get a few pics from there. It was rather crowded, but possible to get good shots, eventhough it was nearly too bright weather for it. When walking down to the bridge I saw a ptarmigan just close by, searching for food, not being aware of me spotting it. Was nice to watch it a bit before continuing my walk. 
We drove by the powerplant at Laxáriver, too, where they are changing the dam a bit and therefore river Laxá flows down it's natural bed at the moment. I've rarely seen that much water in the river. Amazing view!
Coming closer to Húsavík it got foggy, but we spotted a herd of horses moving in the distance and stopped to get some pics. 
Hope you enjoy them.