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07.06.2011 14:06

Vaka's daughter

A few days ago, Vaka frá Flugumýri, Bensi's mare gave birth to a healthy, pitchblack marefoal. We were so busy that we didn't manage to go and see her before and used a quiet eveninghour to do so. The young, still nameless, lady will probably get grey like her father Vökull. She is fullsister to Vigri, who is 2 years old now.
Hrund came with us to have a look and I took some nice pics of this exceptionally nosy foal!



07.06.2011 13:58

A stableguest

As we like to have good and fresh air in the stable, the upperdoorhalves and the windows are open if the weather allows. That sometimes causes birds to fly inside and pay us a visit. Especially smaller birds use it from time to time as a refugee if the weather is worsening.
This time the visitor was a bit bigger... When I took Dalur out of his box I heard the noise of quite big wings and had a look, which bird came to visit now. It was a Ptarmigan! I was so lucky to have a camera at the stable and took this pic of it sitting on Bjössi's helmet.

01.06.2011 00:09

Ladies' ridinglessons

The last weeks a few ladies from Húsavík and surroundings came for ridinglessons. At first for one or another it was a bit difficult and costed a lot of effort to overcome their fear of horses. But everyone managed and we had a lot of fun together! I really like teaching grown-ups as they ask quite different questions from those young riders are interested in. So it's good to have the chance to teach kids and adults. 
During the last lesson we tried everything they learned and went for a long ridingtour. Everything went really well, nobody fell off (not even me...) and somebody was so nice to hide some rewardbeer for them on the way. While enjoying it, Ingólfur, Bjarni and Elsa joined us and we had a fast ride back to Saltvík.
Now we are just waiting for them to call and go for a ride!!!!
 






22.05.2011 12:04

Snow....

After having spring we have winter back... Húsavík is covered in a white, wet blanket, nature is taking a break and I use the time to update the links on our homepage. This had to be done anyway, so why not use this weather for it?
If you don´t believe me, just have a look at the new Húsavík Webcam

So, if you have time and nothing else to do, just go through the updated links from the Icelandic Breedingfarms and have a look at the first foals born at different farms.


13.05.2011 09:21

Víkingareið Grana 2011

Once a year the vikings from the local riding club Grani meet for a riding tour. Vikings only, no valkyries!
This year the vikings were meeting in Traðagerði and had to solve riddles to find the right way. On each stop was a hint where to go next. First stop were the ruins of a house the Firebregade had used for training. There were a bottle of Brennivín, Hákarl and some juice hidden for the thirsty and hungry riders. The hint was not too difficult and after finishing the drinks they were off to the watertanks where they met a valkyrie offering refreshments (beer and liversausage) and another hint. As it said "fyrstur kemur, fyrstur fær!" - "first-come, first-served!" Óli just went straight on back again and off to find the mysterious "Hornkerling" - "Cornerlady". The vikings were supposed to take her back to Saltvík, where their trip ended. They arrived with beautiful orange bandages all over as they were supposed to dress up at the last stop. After a few games in Saltvík they went back to Traðagerði (this time by bus) and had dinner there. Think they all really enjoyed themselves, laughed a lot and sang even more!



13.05.2011 09:07

Finally...

... the waiting had an end! I received a SMS during the teachers' conference telling me that Mysa started to have her lamb. I'd have loved to just jump on my feet, run out of school, jump into the car and drive to Hólmavað like a madman. Well, as that wasn't possible I had to wait till the evening to see her and her lamb. And what a lamb it is! It's a little ram, white like it's dad but thick and heavy, as big as a 1 week old lamb.
I was on duty while Bensi, Ella and Helga went to school concert. Looked like all the ewes waited with having their lambs till they were back. Probably not trusting my skills emoticon
So I had enough time to take a good look at the already born lambs and admire the long long long legs of the "frontsheep"lambs.




07.05.2011 09:55

Busy Saturday

All the things we did today could fill a few days ;-)
In the morning we met the members of Grani, the local riding club, and took part in Húsavík Cleaning Day, which is every year in spring. All the clubs in town get an area they are supposed to clean from all kinds of trash. At lunchtime everybody is invited to have a hot dog and drink at the school. We skipped the hot dog and had instead coffe and cakes at the clubhouse emoticon

At one o´clock we met our friends in Saltvík, put a lot of horses in 3 trailers and went to Víðiholt to have a so called "rekstrarferð" which means you take a ridingtour and let all the horses you can find run free with you. It´s a good trimmprogramm for the horses and they learn a lot about how to behave in a herd. And it gives the photographer a lot of opportunities to get good pics.

Then it was time to put Embla outside again. Before that we clipped her hooves, which went really well, no struggling or stress. Hope that the other youngsters will be like that too, when we take them. When we arrived in the field we first caught Ösp, who finally should start her training, and put her in the trailer, then we released Embla. She was really happy to be free again, eventhough the other horses were not soooo friendly with her in the beginning. Good to see her running again!

After a quick dinner we took a drive to Helluland and had a look at the colourful lambs and the youngsters from last year. There are some really interesting horses and we are looking forward to see how they´ll develop the next years. Especially Fluga and her brother were impressive.







06.05.2011 00:32

Farsæll and Skömm

Time had come to go and check out the horses in Torfunes. Bensi showed us both Farsæll and Skömm under the rider. They are both at a similar stage in training, already being ridden outside in the basic gaits, both showing tölt too.
While we were watching Bensi, Hjördís made friends with Torfi, the dog. They were playing together, Torfi not all the time ready to give back the stick Hjördís threw for him.
Afterwards we had a good talk with Baldvin about the future training of the horses and were happy to hear that he wouldn`t castrate Farsæll straight away and that it is maybe not such a bad idea to get a judgement for conformation for him. Skömm will stay a bit longer and then come back home and take a brake before she goes to further training.
As you can see on the pic it´s not so bad to come home and enjoy some time outside in the paddock! For more pics just have a look at our albums.




05.05.2011 00:25

Embla

News from Embla! As she is doing very well and already really bored staying in her box, she got the OK from the vet to stretch her limbs a bit in the riding hall. If everything was going fine we were supposed to let her loose inside the day after and set her out afterwards.

Well, everything went as well as it could, no signs of any injury or lamness at all. Embla was letting all her energy loose, hopping, running, jumping, just name it!
She was sweaty but happy afterwards emoticon
We are looking forward to bring her back to the field soon!

01.05.2011 22:29

Lambs

The lambingseason has started in Hólmavað, the first lamb born by the ewe Lady. As it is a ram, it is called the lambking and got a royal name. He is called William.
Short after William the lambqueen (first female lamb of the year) and her sister the lambprincess were born. These two got the names Elizabeth and Kate. Looks like the Royals are a big theme this year emoticon
We hope that everything will go smooth and easy and that Bensi and Ella won't have to help a lot this year. My ewe Mysa will be one of the later ones to give birth and I'm looking forward to see her lamb. At the moment she is still more interested in the food we have to offer and comes gladly to get it. Thanks to Ella who invested her time to train her on a special sound!



Lambking William



Lambqueen Elizabeth checking out her mums horns



Mysa getting treats

30.04.2011 11:22

Saltvíkridingtour

The weather has been great the last weeks here in the North, springtemperatures, sunshine... Perfect! Best to use it for a good ridingtour with nice company in different surroundings. We had to bring back Sindri anyway and so we planned to ride to Gunnar Óli in Sandur.
Saltvík North and Saltvík South filled 5 horsetrailers and went to the parkinglot at the beginning of the road to Sandur. We were alltogether 11, 10 grown-ups and Hrund, daughter of Bensi, who joined us for this tour and had a lot of fun.
First we went the old road, Túmi and Kátur in front all the time, chasing geese and making Ptarmigans fly. Amazing in how big numbers geese are already looking for nestingplaces in the lava, some of them already laying eggs. Short before we hit the new road we met Gunnar Óli and Christiane, riding home to Sandur all together. The horses were in good mood, very willing and having fun in the group.
After a good coffeebreak with cake and Kleinur, Gunnar Óli showed us a small trail through the lava and swamps down to the banks of Skálfjandflót where we found very good riding tracks. We followed them up to Hraunkót and from there on the new road back to the parkinglot. There was one or another pacerun, Andakt and Laufey far in front emoticon
When we finished this trip was called "Ridingtour of the Year" as it was the best so far but it won't be the last one and I hope there will be many "Ridingtours of the Year" in this nice group!







25.04.2011 10:24

Páskamót in Saltvík

As it was so much fun last year, we had another Eastercompetition in Saltvík yesterday. Everybody who wanted could join, we even had 2 guests from Traðagerði, the other stablearea in Húsavík.
First the kids showed how much balance they already have and that they are not afraid to go faster than walk. The older girls had to show different gaits and then go a few rounds all three together in a line. In ladies' class the speaker was not sure what to let us do, he just said: "frjáls aðferð" which means you can show whatever you want *g* The range was from slow to faster tölt, trott from slow to fast and even a bit of gallopp. Then we were supposed to ride in pairs and do some figureriding. Last but not least there were the gentlemen. 2 groups, 3 riders in each. Here a lot of different things were showed, tölt, trott, gallopp, tölt without hands and tölt with a glass of water in one hand.
As you can see on the pics we had a lot of fun, good coffee and a really nice afternoon altogether!





24.04.2011 10:40

Stablevisitors

Hjördís was getting a few visitors the last days, that wanted to try horsebackriding a bit. Anja, her stepsister, a friend of the family and Helgi with his daughters came to Saltvík, combed and saddled calm horses and were allowed to try inside. Hjördís went on Ögn, rode first alone and was then ready to lead the other girls when they were on Ögn.
Vally tried his new ridingtrousers and shoes and went on Mánadís.
Kátur, the dachshound, had to have a closer look an what was going on and of course he had to try and get some "hestanammi".







21.04.2011 10:01

Eastervisit in the East

Easterholiday, the perfect opportunity to make a visit you have promised for a long time!
We got ourselves ready and drove east to visit Pétur and Marietta in Finnstaðaholt, their new place. Ingólfur baked a huge cake and named it "Magnús" as we wanted to celebrate how well things are going with him. Pétur was happy to see "Magnús" and was really willing to share a piece of him (in fact he was cutting huge pieces...). When we went back on Thursdaymorning, there was not much left of him!
Wednesday we helped a bit clipping hooves and mucking out, having good and interesting talks inbetween. The dogs had fun playing, Jaki pretending to be a big hunter, chasing away the herd of reindeer that came on the meadow on the other side of the road. I would have liked to watch them a bit...
Well, now it is time for them to come and visit us!

Before I forget... they have a homepage now, at the moment still just in Icelandic, but maybe worth a look emoticon
http://finnsstadaholt.com/





17.04.2011 08:55

Sunday, sunday...

...what a beautiful day! The weather was perfect, the air soft and with a promise of spring, the birds singing their song, the horses in good mood, so what should we do?
Our friend Tómmi had a really good idea to break the daily routine for us and the horses. We put them into two trailers and went to Sandur, a quiet road close to Húsavík. We, that were: Tómmi, his daughters Thelma and Sigrún, Dagný Anna, the two of us and, last but not least, Hjördís, who started to ride quite a lot since she moved back to Húsavík and is taking one big step after the other.
When we arrived at the parkingplace, we made the horses ready (it was 5 black horses - Magnús, Ólmur, Greifi, Dimma and Kría, 1 red horse - Ögn and 1 reddun - List) and then decided which way to go. First we were thinking about riding the gravelroad to Hraunkót, but then we changed the plan and took the old road, which lies like an enchanted way through a lavafield and a birchforest. You could literally smell the spring in the air!
After going over small leftover snowfields we had a good ride on the soft track. The horses willing and thinking forward, having fun in the new surroundings, showing themselves at their best.
We took a break halfway and then went back over the gravelroad. Hjördís took her first steps in learning how to let Ögn tölt, which went fine and you could see how proud she was when she managed to do it right.
Magnús did fine, eventhough he was not so sure about Ögn as a handhorse at first. He was dancing a bit in the beginning, but always obeying Ingólfur and trying to do everything right. What a horse!
List was in good mood, a bit like a bomb in the start, but getting light on the reins after a few meters and then she was getting better and better. Tölt from slow up to good middle speed, fast trott and a bit pace *g* On the way back I went off and led her the rest to the trailer as she did a really good job and had earned herself a break.
It was a perfect Sundayafternoonride, one and a half hour of fun and joy, everybody enjoying themselves.




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