Hestar og aftur Hestar

28.10.2013 22:35

Visitors from the south

Two journalists from Eiðfaxi, one of the Icelandic Horsemagazines, are driving a circle around Iceland, stopping at different places and talking to horsepeople around the country. Óðinn Örn Jóhannsson and Daníel Smárason started their trip on an old Landrover 24th of October, going first East to Hornafjörður, then the Eastfjörds and Egilsstaðir, where their car finally broke down. After changing their car they were able to continue their trip.
Today they visited horsepeople around Húsavík and met Gísli in Saltvík after talking to Einar Viðir, Vignir and Berglind at the new stables. We were in Saltvík, too, when they came, so Óðinn and Daníel had a look at our place, took some pics and an interview with us. I was trying to slip away and let Ingólfur do the interview, but had no chance to do so. At least, I managed to take a pic of our visitors.

Afterwards they were headding to Helluland and Norðurhlið before going to Akureyri. Kiddi didn't believe us, when we called and told him to prepare for their visit. He thought, we were just kidding and was taken by surprise when they showed up at his place. Hope, they asked Miriam some questions, too.

The rest of the day was spent with moving horses, shoeing and training. We moved Ösp and Magnús to Ísólfsstaðir, where they met Ögn, Glói, Isaak and Þokkadís. Magnús had to show off a bit and I was luckily ready with the camera when he rised very slowly on his hindlegs, reminding me of the stallions in the Spanish Ridingschool. Was wondering who showed him a video...

Ingólfur, Óðinn and Daníel getting ready for the interview

Magnús trying to become an exchange student at the Spanish Ridingschool

24.10.2013 22:28

Youngsters at Helluland

We recently paid a visit to our friend Kiddi in Helluland and Miriam, his horsetrainer from Swiss. Miriam came in early September and stays until Christmas. She is doing very well and seems to like her job (she helps with the cows, too) and the traininghorses. At least, there's enough to do.

It was time to clip the hooves of the young geldings and take some pics of them afterwards. The gelding, which was wildest last time, was a bit tense, but with giving him time to get accustomed with everything, it was no problem at all and we were finished faster than expected.

I attach some pics of the geldings and the young stallions, hope you like them.

Dimmir, stallion, born 2010 (Kappi-Röst)

Gelding, born 2011 (Þristur-Slaufa)

Gelding, born 2011 (Ómur-Súla)

Mjölnir, stallion, born 2011 (Hófur-Röst)

Roði, gelding, born 2010 (Djákni-Glæta)

Straumur, gelding, born 2011 (Þristur-Lukka)

21.10.2013 21:48

Snilld

Remember when I blogged about Hraunsrétt in August? Then I just found my grey ewe, but not Snilld, her spotted sister. She didn't come with the herd at the second roundup either, nor did she show up at any other roundup in the area. So I had very low hopes to get her back alive.
In fact Snill just didn't want to come home early and enjoyed her freedom in the highlands as long as possible together with a few other sheep. She was found in the last search and captured together with 15 others. I was really happy to hear that, couldn't believe it in the beginning. When I saw her so after the long summer, she for sure remembered me and the treats I usually carry with me and started to beg rightaway. Of course she got some emoticon

I have to admit, she perfectly fits into my group of animals: she's fat, greedy and misbehaved...

17.10.2013 21:30

Þeysir

A few days ago we got news from Þeysir, who is in the Netherlands now. Lilian, his owner sent us a few lines and pics and we were really happy to see how well he's doing. As you can see, he gets the mane from his mum, but the conformation of his dad with strong legs and joints.

Thank you for keeping us updated, Lilian!

14.10.2013 22:16

Flatey

Every autumn, the older classes of the local school are invited to a sailing trip by Northsailing. This year we went to Flatey, an island in Skjálfandibay, which was inhabited until 1967. 2 of the students power the keys of some houses there and invited us over to have a look. Their families have put a lot of money and effort in rebuilding the houses and it was fun to have a guided tour. Of course we had a look at the lighthouse and the church, too. On our way back we encountered a few humpbackwhales in the distance. The weather was very good, sunny with a light breeze. It was rather cold on sea, but we could get overalls on board. Think one of the highlights for the kids was to get hot chocolate and cinnamon buns, which disappeared in no time.

Náttfari with classes 8 & 9

Náttfari & Haukur

13.10.2013 16:08

Autumnpasture

As I mentioned before, some of our ridinghorses together with Bensi's horses enjoy a huge pasture at the moment. The landscape is so diverse, small hills and valleys, grass and heath, rocks and water, the horses have enough to do to find their food and seem to wander around quite a lot to find the best bits. So they are not always where we expect them to be when we come for a visit. Today we took a good walk around to find them, but it took us quite some time til we finally spotted a spotted horse in the distance. It was Farsæll and the others were just around him. They were nosy, but didn't want to come straight away, so Ingólfur went to greet them and they followed him back to where Hjördís and I were. I got a few really nice pics and a new favourite picture. The horses were all well, happy to see us and get a good clap.

Where could they be?

Best go and fetch them.

Here they come

My new favourite

Best friends

13.10.2013 14:21

Horseroundup in Eyjafjörður

It's always nice and interesting to take a look at horses, others breed and so the 2 horseroundups in Eyjafjörður yesterday were a good opportunity to do that. Farms like Höskuldsstaðir, Komma, Litla-Garður and Árgerði have their horses in the highlands and fetch them in October every year.

At the first roundup there were many flashy colours, nearly all the fashioncolours like buckskin, palomino, splash and other spotted, a lot of grey horses and of course silverdapple. It was interesting to see the horses before they were driven into the arena to sort them. They were so calm and friendly, very relaxed and happy to get a good clap. In the arena some of them changed, didn't want to be taken and sorted. Some were very unfriendly with the other horses, bit and kicked, others just trying to hide in the mass. And then there are these horses, that just grab your attention and nearly force you to keep an eye on them. There was an older broodmare, "just" black, who had this special thing. She had a frostmark on her back so I could look her up in Worldfengur, but unfortunately I couldn't find any offspring of her in Worldfengur. I'm pretty sure, the 2 horses following her where her offspring.

At Melgerðismélarrétt there were not sooo many colours, but I liked the horses I saw more. It seems like the breeders there have not as many foals as the others but different ideas and thoughts for their breeding. The eyecatcher there was a black or darkbluedun horse with a star and a snip and a blue eye. Not exactly my taste, but that one was fabulous. I put some pics in an album for you, have fun!

10.10.2013 09:47

Horsetraining

Just some short news from our youngsters. We started riding Aldís inside 2 days ago and she's just fine with it, relaxed and doing what you ask her to do. At the moment she offers walk, tölt and trott, we just have to sort out how to get what we want.

We were wondering if somebody already secretly trained Nökkvi before we fetched him as he isn't afraid of anything, doing as he's asked to do and just in good mood, learning very fast. Neither was the saddle bothering him nor the fact that somebody mounted his back.

Embla is not always thinking about how big she in fact is, but she too learns fast and takes new things rather easy and relaxed. If things continue to go that well, these two are not going to stay inside very long but will get their break soon.

Sigtýr left us and went to Skagafjörður for his training. Looking forward to get news from him.

06.10.2013 09:17

Tungurétt

Yesterday we took a drive to Dalvík to meet our friends Gabi and Jutta, who joined a group of riders from Saltvík for the horseroundup in Svafardalur. Not so many horses, but if I translate their happy faces right, they had a great time with good horses. And they were lucky with the weather, too. A bit of snow, a bit cold, but not too bad. It was so nice to meet them and chat a bit since we don't meet so often. Hope they'll finally come to stay a bit with us.