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20.06.2013 08:55

Embla, Prins, ...

...Þokki and Þyrnirós are those of Farsæll's offspring that are inside at the moment. Embla is getting 3 on 15th of August, but when you look at her you'd think she's a lot older. Sooooo big.
The other 3 are just yearlings, but rather big too. Yesterday we measured their hight on withers and here comes the result: 

Þokki - 125 cm
Prins - 127 cm
Þyrnirós - 130 cm

So all of them already as tall as breeding mares just a few centuries ago... Will be interesting how big they'll be after 3 years! As Ársæl, Guðrún's foal, and Mánahringur, Bensi's foal, are rather big, too, it looks like Farsæll made quite big foals with strong legs.
I attach a picture of Prins, who just came inside 2 days ago. Both he and Þokki are supposed to get castrated soon.


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14.06.2013 10:52

Fishing...

...is not that easy! At least I'm really not good at it. Tried a lot of times, but never got a single fish, just weeds. Nevertheless we went on a short fishingtrip with Bensi and his family at Laxáriver. Ella was the lucky one to catch a trout and what a big one!
Think I'm better at taking pics, so I set the fishingrod aside and grabbed my camera emoticon










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08.06.2013 23:17

Spring...

...arrived here a few weeks ago, the snow is melting and causing quite some trouble. River Laxá is floating over a lot of meadows, the farmers can't start cleaning up after the winter, fences are under water, some of them so damadged that they have to be rebuilt completely. Nobody knows when it will be possible to release the sheep to the highlands as there's still quite a lot of snow up there. 
The warm weather and rain caused rather big mudflows in our area, most of them near the farm Ystafell, where the local car museum is. As far as people remember, there haven't been any mudflows in this area. The biggest one took the road away, so when you want to go to Akureyri, you have to take the route passing Góðafoss. Here you can see air images from the mudflows.
Of course we were interested to see, how Góðafoss looks with all this meltwater and it was a very impressing view. Where usually tourists take a walk to go as close as possible to the edge, incredible amounts of water were rushing down. In the news they were talking about tops  679 m³/second, usually it's about 50 m³/second...
I attach some pics for you.











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03.06.2013 23:06

Youngsters

Today we fetched the youngsters Embla, Þyrnirós and Þokki and put them in the stable. Embla is going through an "update" in all the necessary things she has to know in daily life and care, the two others are learning to be led, lifting their feet, being tied and so on. Þyrnirós is very big for her age and of course we're going to measure her, when she is tame enough for that. All three are doing very well and we are looking forward to work a bit with them before they go outside again.







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01.06.2013 22:45

Sjómannadagur 2013

Today is the annual Sailorsday in Iceland and as usual people celebrate with a sailing trip. We were so lucky to get an invitation from Hulda and Jói to join them on Jói's boat. Hjördís, Benedikt and Ingólfur's dad Jón joined us and we went west, close to Kinnafjöll mountains. Most of the other boats and ships were going in the direction of Lundey, the Puffinisland. Puffins, artic terns and a lot of other birds were at sea and we met a very large group of seabirds feeding on small fish. Nearby were some whalewatching boats and soon we saw the whales, too. First mink whales and dolphins, but then we detected 2 huge humpbackwhales surfacing close by. We tried to follow them a bit and could watch them very closely, hearing them breathe, smelling their breath. That's something you won't forget so soon. For me it was the first time to see humpbacks and I was happy to have my camera and click away.
In the afternoon we went to fix one of the fences in Hagi, where we are allowed to keep our horses over the summer and in the autumn. The snow and ice had damaged it a lot and the wirenet looked like an accordion on some places. At least we had wonderful weather and so the work wasn't so bad. Always better to have a good and secure fence. Now a good day ends and we are all rather sunburnt and tired. Hope you like the pics in the album! 



One of the humpbacks surfacing closeby...



...and diving even closer!



Having a great time together!



Happy sailor



Teamwork



Good to have a secure grip on the hammer.



Ella is checking if we are doing everything right.

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26.05.2013 09:31

Finally...

... the long waiting had an end and Aurelia's Freyja got her foal. Looks like she was really lucky and Farsæll did his best to give as much colour as possible. The foal is a yellow dun pinto with a huge star, a snip and a white chin. It looks nearly the same on both sides, such a cute little thing. As far as we could see yesterday, it's a little lady, but we are going to check that better today.

What else have we been doing... Well, guess what, we've been backing! Bread, a cake and another kransakaka. I like how different kransakaka can be and there's no limit to your creativity. And of course I like the taste!
In the afternoon we were in Hólmavað, where we took care of the sheep while Bensi and his family attended 2 celebrations. There was not too much to do, looks like the sheep waited for their owner to be back. At least 2 of them gave birth to 2 lambs each, all of them white and halfsibblings. We had to help one of them a bit as her little son had so big horns and it was difficult to get him out. The other one just did everything on her own.
Ingólfur used the time to go fishing and was lucky. He got a big (50cm) trout and was really proud. Looking forward to eat it. 









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20.05.2013 23:04

Weekend...

...at least it's called that. We were very busy, baking for 3 confirmations and one baptism. As you can imagine, there was very little time left for doing what we wanted to do. Hjördís was invited to a Eurovisionparty Saturday evening and stayed overnight in Hólmavað. I think it would have been rather boring for her, to watch us baking and decorating. She was already really patient on Friday evening/Saturday morning when we started to bake. Alltogether it was 60 breadloafs, 2 chocolatecakes, 2 kransakaka, one big strawberrycake and one chocolatecreamcake. While Ingólfur was baking, I made chocolatehorses for Iðunn's cake and butterflies for Dagný Anna's, which worked out really well. This morning I tried to do some Winnie the Pooh pics with chocolate, but I have to admit, it was more difficult than I thought. 
After baking and eating and more baking we both took part in a small competition, but none of us made it to the finals. In my opinion, the track was far too hard to go fast tölt or pace and a lot of horses didn't pace at all. My best pace was on the way home with completely loose rein. 
Later we took a drive to Helluland, visited Sigtýr, who came straight away to get some treats, had a look at the colourful lambs, got coffee and ended our visit in the cowshed, where one of the cows is taking care of feeding 4 calves in a very big box. None of the calves is hers, but she has clearly a favourite, who gets a good, thorough cleaning with her huge tongue now and then. Not sure he enjoys it as much as she does.




Dagný Anna's kransakaka with butterflies



Iðunn's horsecake



Snilld just before she tried to eat my camera



"See what I can do with my tongue???"



3 calves and their living milkbar
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12.05.2013 22:13

Stallions...

In the morning we got a call from our friend Kiddi in Helluland, who was planning to get his 3year old stallion Dimmir (Kappi frá Kommu - Röst frá Hellulandi) inside and put his younger brother Mjölnir (Hófur frá Varmalæk - Röst) outside. I thought it was a good opportunity to take my camera along.
First we went to get Dimmir, which was easier than we expected. Sigtýr of course came to have a look and get some treats. It's amazing, how much he's changing now from visit to visit.
Dimmir went up into the trailer like a pro and off we went to Helluland. 
We decided to take a few pics of Mjölnir before we release him into the herd. He did that quite well, but was not so keen on walking into the trailer. He managed to free himself and off he went, showing us his wonderful trott. Luckily it was not so difficult getting him again and after a short time, he went in the trailer. The plan was to drive into the field, take the halter off Mjölnir in the trailer and then open and release him. That part worked really fine and the other boys came to have a close look at the newcomer. Perfect to take a lot of pics! Sigtýr was showing Mjölnir who is the boss in the field, rearing and exercising Spanish Walk. Well, at least I don't have to teach him that. Have a look at the pics in the album, hope you enjoy them.



Mjölnir frá Hellulandi - 2 years old



Mjölnir on the run



Sigtýr




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10.05.2013 22:09

Sad news...

... we are not getting any foal this summer.
When we checked our horses today, Perla seemed so much thinner than yesterday. As she had a miscarriage last summer, we suspected the same this time and started to look for the foal. After a thorough search we didn't find anything and called our vet to check the mare. It soon was clear, that the foal was still inside, but dead. It was rather difficult to get it out as it was quite big and we hope, that Perla's womb wasn't injured during the procedure. 
We are really sad as it would have been the first foal from our Sigtýr. As far as I could see, it would have been very much like him, big, long legs, thin neck and black. We found a good place for it and put it to rest there. This little stallion is now tölting over evergreen fields with his sibbling from last summer, his cousins Huginn and Muninn and their mother Hugsun. Run free!
First we had the vet already there, we asked him to check Vordís, too. The result was quite disappointing: no foal! 
Looks like 2013 is not our best breeding year...
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01.05.2013 22:06

Holiday...

...but not a lazy day! So many things we managed to do today.
After feeding our horses, we went to fetch a lame horse from Bjarni's big field. It got somehow caught in some wire, which wrapped itself rather firmly around one of the hindlegs. We used Bjarni's huge Pick-up and trailer. Bjössi came with us and together we caught the poor mare and put her in the trailer. When we tried to enter the car, we had to realize, that the car had locked itself with the key inside. So, what could we do? After calling Bjarni and telling him about out missery, we called the Saltvík-guardianangel aka Villi, who found the extrakey to the car and came with it. Being rescued we could continue to rescue the mare in pain. She instantly felt better when we clipped the wire and was using her foot much more than before. Now we can just hope, the wire didn't damage anything important.
After lunch I helped preparing the location for our Ladies Circle-Round Table party on Friday. Lot of work, but I really liked how it looked, when we were finished.
At home, there was more work waiting. As we are spending quite much time at work and at the stable, there is very little time left for the regular housework. We tried to catch up on that today and I think we did quite a good job. I used the opportunity to clip our Dragontree, which was already huge, reaching almost the ceiling and taking quite much daylight. Now there's just a tiny trunk left, the rest was clipped in parts and put in water to try and get roots on it. 
Now it was time to have fun and visit friends, so we went to Helluland, where we had a look at Nökkvi and Sigtýr. Both are doing well and we are really looking forward to getting Sigtýr home and work a bit on his basics. 

Before I forget: we got a visitor a few days ago! Our friend Linnea brought 2 friends of hers along. One of them is a very good photographer and wanted to picture a bluedunpinto. Farsæll was very happy to help out and show off a bit for the camera. Here you can see a few pics: Click!




Nökkvi having a close look



Sigtýr getting himself some treats before...



...showing off...



...in the fresh snow!
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25.04.2013 22:11

First day of summer...

... and it was snowing like hell when I had a look out of the window in the morning. Well, there is an old sayer in Iceland, promising a very good summer, when winter and summer freeze together. That'd better be true! We really deserve a good summer after this long winter.
As it was a holiday today, we used it to help Bensi branding the one year old sheep. Most sheep in Iceland are marked in 3 ways: the eartag, earmarkings and branding on the horns. Bensi marks his sheep with his initials on the right horn and the areacode on the left one. It's rather a smelly business, so good when it's over. Today we marked around 70 sheep and dewormed Bensi's whole herd. I took some pics and my sheep Snilld was begging for treats, which she of course got. Funny to see how she's always registering and watching everything going on.
Gleðilegt sumar!




When branding Snilld's sister...



... and Snilld...



... it's better to have the irons hot!



Got some treats???



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21.04.2013 22:45

Fákar & fjör 2013

The last weeks Ingólfur and Magnús were training very with a very strict schedule. The plan was to take part in the annual horseshow "Fákar & fjör" in Akureyri. In the beginning, we were 8 riders and 1 reserverider. Bit by bit the group became smaller and the reserverider broke his hand so in the end there were 6 riders and a lot of assistants. The trainingsessions were held in our riding hall, the program was rather easy, but we wanted to keep it that way. The surprise was that we were using sparklers and would ride in a dark arena. As one horse wasn't happy about the sparklers, we decided to have neonlights on two of the six horses. 
Friday we went to Akureyri, had one last training around 9 o´clock in the evening and then the big day could come. We were so lucky to stay with Lára and Hjalti. Hjördís and Jói were spending a lot of time together and it was very clear, he was happy to have his cousin around. Saturday was quite relaxed, we did some neccessary shopping and started early to get Magnús ready for the show. Our group was the last act before the second break. It was very exciting to wait outside, sparklers to start the other sparklers ready and seeing the lights go out in the riding hall. Then everything had to go quick, light the sparklers and off they went. I think, they did a great job and the audience definitely liked it. But take a look here.
Today Ingólfur and Hjördís went for a nice ride, while I was trying my new comb. Like it a lot and my horses too! Afterwards they enjoyed a day off at the big field, running and bucking and rolling over like crazy. 
Freyja's belly is getting bigger and it's just a few weeks til she should give birth to her first foal. We hope, she'll wait for better and warmer weather!



Haukur, Hildur and the new schooner Opal today



Freyja and her big belly
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14.04.2013 22:12

Spring's just around the corner...

... or not? Well, if you check the calender, you'd be convinced to see at least some signs of spring, like melting snow and first flowers. Snow we see indeed a lot, but it's not melting at all... Instead it's falling from the sky, covering each and everything. The wind is quite busy piling it up where you least need it, especially in front of doors. Today we had to dig ourselves a way into the stable again (stopped counting how often we already did that). Unfortunately we had forgotten to close one of the windows yesterday so the wind was happily blowing snow inside the stable resulting in 2 wet boxes, 2 wet horses and a very wet floor. So first thing to do was putting blankets on the horses and drying the boxes and floor. After feeding we went to the meeting in the riding hall and ended there after the official part trying to improve the ground together with a few others. We watered the ground, put some special sand on part of it and Bjarni drove a few rounds with his Pajero over the whole stuff to compress it a bit. We are looking forward to see, if that effort improved the ground. If so, we will go on with the rest of the riding hall.
First the weather wasn't very good for taking outside rides, I worked a bit inside with Flugar, who got his first frontshoes 2 days ago, while Ingólfur was mucking out.
At least it was very good weather yesterday which was used for a lot of rides and a good walk with List.
Just attach you a pic of today.





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07.04.2013 09:55

Þeysir

As you know, our Þeysir lives in The Netherlands now and recently I got a very nice mail and 2 pics.
Lilian, his new owner, is totally in love with him and likes, how easy he learns new things and that he's not scared of traffic. Of course he' sometimes a bit naughty, too, but which kid isn't?
Yesterday he was released to a 250 ha nature reserve, where he's going to grow up in a stallionherd. We are very happy, that he got such a good future home and are looking forward to getting news from him.





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01.04.2013 09:19

Easterholiday - Part 2

The weather has just been fantastic the whole week, sunny and mild. We used the time for doing some very nice rides and training our horses at the same time. I went for instance for a very nice ride with Þokkadís, List and Aldís. I had List as a handhorse and Aldís was tied to her with a special girth. After trying to stop a bit in the beginning, she got the idea and was following very well. So nice to have them running with you.
Barla and Corinne from Switzerland came for a visit and we went for 2 very nice rides on ice with them. First on Kaldbakstjörn and on Saturday in Helluland, where they got very nice horses from Kiddi to ride.
Ingólfur tried a few more horsepower on Bótsvatn and took a few circles with our jeep on the ice. Think he had as much fun doing that as I had taking pics.
Unfortunately I broke my left hand and can't go on horseback the next weeks. Well, I'll go for nice walks with my horses instead and am sure that Ingólfur is ready to take them as handhorses, too. Farsæll is enjoying his break outside, it was time for that after he did some big steps forward with his tölt.









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