Hestar og aftur Hestar

15.11.2012 19:55

Horsetraining

Just a few lines about the traininghorses. Our stable is full, 8 horses we are looking after, 2 for Bjössi and Gisli is using the last place the next few days as it is impossible to train in the stablevillage due to too much snow.

Bjössi and Ingólfur already went on back on Blöndal, Svartur, Drottning, Sleipnir and the black mare out of Gígjar. We started mounting Hringur, which went quite well. Kátína and Flugar are in longeing and free work at the moment, but I have to start riding Kátína a bit more often.
We are teaching them now how to react to the reins and walk beside them holding the reins like when we are on back. Some are faster learners than others, but we are very happy about the steps forward all of these horses have done. Looking forward to see how they are after 2 more weeks!

11.11.2012 21:17

Between storms

As they predicted stormy weather for tomorrow, we used the beautiful day today for moving our horses. At 10 o'clock we started with getting some halters in Saltvík, fetching the trailer back in Húsavík and then catching Perla and moving her to the fence next to the road with Hrauna and Hrauney. Perla overtook the hay the moment she saw it, making very clear to the other 2 that it was her hay now.

Now it was time to fetch Farsæll and Ösp, which were supposed to go to the fence where the foalmares and Embla were. The difficulty was catching the mares before the horses mix. After walking from the main road to the fence (no way driving there, far too much snow for the trailer), Ingólfur closed the gate between the upper and lower field and I went to try and catch Aldís. She didn't like that idea at all and after hanging on her for a while I had to let go and the horses rushed away. Ingólfur came to help me, we put halters on Vordís and Þokkadís without big trouble and tied them in the shelter. Aldís followed them and we got her in the second try. Now we just had to pass the other 3 horses, taking care of them not following us, the mares and foals. Embla was not fond of that, ruined the lower gate and rushed after us. We managed to lead our group out of the fence and Ingólfur made shure Embla wouldn't follow. At least the foals were behaving and followed their mothers. No problem putting them into the fence next to the road. While the others started to run around, Vordís just knew one goal: the hay.

Next thing to do was getting Jódís, Mieke's mare, that was supposed to go to training at Bergstaðir. She was very cooperative, just came when she saw us, stood still when I put the halter on and walked up the trailer like she's doing it every day. I wish, Mánahringur would have done the same...

Vaka was not so happy to see us and tried to walk away, but in the end we got her. Next problem was that Mánahringur, her foal, thinks that he's already a big guy and doesn't need his mum at all. So he denied to follow her in the beginning, but in the end Bensi Bergsstaðir and Ingólfur made him go. The first few tries to get him into the trailer did not work at all, he just went away and tried to go back into the fence. So we moved the trailer up to the house, put it close to a wall and thought that would be enough to get him inside. Mánahringur thought different, Ingólfur and Bensi didn't manage to catch him properly and after a short fight in the snow, he disappeared with his tail high up in the air back down to the field, under the fence and straight into the herd. So Vaka and I walked back, Ingólfur called Bensi in Hólmavað for help, we made Mánahringur follow his mum up to the house an trailer again and waited for help. When help arrived, everything went rather fast (after following Mánahringur all the way up to the stable...), the guys managed to grab him and put him in the trailer, Vaka just followed. Back in Hólmavað we put them to their winterpasture. Bensi, Ingólfur and Kristján went to get the other horses, which were enclosed by water and waiting for their rescue. Think they were quite happy to be led to dry land and food.
Next stop was Helluland, where we helped Kiddi sorting his horses into 2 groups, one staying home, the other one going to a valley with lots of grass. Not so easy to sort horses that are not so willing to be caught or leave their friends... But in the end we managed.
Last thing to do was getting List and Ögn, which we did before delicious dinner at Hólmavað. After dinner and a quick coffee we drove to Húsavík, took a last long walk down to the winterpasture with the 2 mares and back, checked the horses in Saltvík (Thanks for taking care of them today, Bjössi!) and put the trailer back in its place. I think you can imagine how good it was to come home after a long day like this and take a long and hot shower! Being so busy I had unfortunately no time to take pics. That has to wait until later.

10.11.2012 21:21

Snowstorm, take II

Snowstorm, again... Just one week after the last one. This time not as long and strong, but still bad enough for the horses and us. Friday the electricity kept going and coming the whole day, at school we even decided to unplug the computers and videobeamers, not to risk to damage them.

Our traininghorses had to stay inside yesterday and were just outside for a short time today. We sent 10 horses in different colours out, but got 10 white ones back inside, so you can imagine how stormy it was. They were covered all over in snow. The outside horses are doing fine, having good shelter and enough food. Usually we'd start feeding them after New Year, but if the weather keeps being like that we have to start feeding soon.

At least the horsetraining is going well, all of the traininghorses already longed with the saddle, some of them hopping the first time(s), other just taking it as normal to carry something on their back. Bjössi is helping Ingólfur a lot, being our first rider on all of them. So far most of them behaved very well, just being a bit imbalanced, but ready to learn and please. We started to ride Kátína free, she's doing her best to understand why on Earth I'm not longer in the middle but on her back and trying to give her commands from there. Think we are gonna try it with Ingólfur in the middle and me on back next.

Monday we moved the foalmares, foals and Embla to Húsavík, which went very well, better than we hoped. Gonna move them to a different fence again except for Embla, which is rather fat. She'll be joined by Farsæll, Perla and Ösp. Then we are going to get Freyja home and check her, Vordís and Perla for pregnancy. Keep your fingers crossed with us!

04.11.2012 22:39

Snowstorm

The last days, precisely from Wednesday afternoon to Saturday late night, there was a very powerful storm going over all Iceland. Here in the North and in the East it was a snowstorm, which left Egilsstaðir with the biggest amount of snow in a very long time. In the Southeast and South it was "just" a very heavy storm, blowing huge containers from their storage place, lifting people and destroying quite a lot. Our friend Hanný Heiler near Höfn in Hornarfjörður had a very bad time, even the concrete from Road 1 blown away. You can find pictures on her page.

Our horses had good shelter, so we were not too worried about them. The traininghorses had to stay inside as it was not possible to put them in the paddock because of the huge snowpile there. The southdoor was hidden in snow, when you opened it from the inside, you just saw a white wall.
Today the weather was very good, so we started to tidy up after the bad weather. First we had a look at Maggi's horses, which were happily eating when we arrived, then we cleaned our fence, where our foalmares are going to be, from huge iceballs that had formed in the rather wet weather yesterday. Not so easy, but we managed. Next step was going to Saltvík and digging our way in at the southside of the house. Ingólfur and Jón Óli were digging while Hjördís had fun sliding down the huge snowpile again and again. Think the horses were really relieved to get a chance to go out after being inside for 2 days. They were running and rolling over and playing in the snow. Kátína however was very fast finding some plants under the snow and was very busy digging them up and eating them.

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to get rather warm, so we hope a lot of snow will melt.
Just have a look at the new pics.