... I finally started to work my way through all my pics and updating our blogg.
November 2016 is complete, now it's December and then so on. Hope to get in done soon. Thanks for still coming back and checking, promise to put more stuff in here at the first opportunity.

 

 

Coming home from spring it was quite a change to go back to winter. In fact more winter than we had during winter. Anyway it was time to feed the horses and the youngsters were in great playmood. First Rögnir and Sjarmi had fun following Ingólfur, who was dragging the haybale with the car and afterwards when Rögnir grabbed a piece of plasticwrap and chased the rest of the herd with it, making everybody run like crazy. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...Sicily! 
On Monday, 13th of March, we started our trip from Húsavík to Catania in Sicily. It was part of a regional project called Cristal, which is a cooperation between Norðurþing in Iceland, Sweden and Italy. Our host was Vincenza Ferrara, a young sicilian lady, who makes highest quality olive oil under the label "Le gemme di DORA". 
The  main goal was to learn about sustainability, environmentalfriendly agriculture, how to find ways to promote remoter areas and so on.
The plan was to go to London on Monday, from there to Catania on Tuesday, a visit to Vincenzas farm and the village of Villarosa on Wednesday, Thursday a workmeeting at our hotel and in the afternoon a trip to Enna, Friday an early start and a ferry trip to the Island of Ustica, where we were supposed to stay until Sundaymorning, then Palermo and a visit to the FabLab there, before going back to Iceland on Monday. Well, we got an unforseen extra day as it was that windy that we couldn't sail from the island to the mainland on Sunday. So our supervisors spent part of Sunday with rebooking all our flights, getting us a place to stay at Rome and so on. 
Most impressive in my opinion was the marine reserve at Ustica and the way people take care of this unique island. There's a 3 seamiles zone around the island, which is divided in A, B and C, where A means "no take zone", humans are not allowed to interrupt there, no swimming, diving, sailing without permission. In zone B you are allowed to swimm and sail, but no diving without permission. Neither in zone A nor B are you allowed to fish. In zone C "everything" is allowed and the 9 local fishermen put out their nets there. No other fishermen are allowed into this area close to the island. 
Great to see all the efforts to preserve the island and surroundings. On the other hand I was quite shocked about the immense use of plastic everywhere. Olive oil was packed in small, single use packs, salt, pepper, your coffee to go in a plastic cup with a plastic lid, plastic cups wrapped into plastic and so on. I think there's a lot of potential in reducing waste.
If you'd like to check out some pics, have a look here.
 

Our day started early as we were supposed to take care of the track at Lake Mývatn and help getting everything ready before the competition starts. It was the first time that the 2 local riding clubs worked together in this and I hope it will be like that in the future. So much easier for everybody. 
Today riders compeeted in tölt, fourgait, fivegait and speedpace, where the local police measured the speed with their radar. The horse/rider pair with the highest speed won. Nice to watch and no trouble with timetaking.
The weather was very good, but the ice not as good as the day before, rather slippery today. Nevertheless people were in good mood and I have to applaud the riders for being on time and ready when they had to go into the track. Bjarni Páll did a very good job as a speaker, Hildur was fast writing down all the marks, calculating, giving out the results and sending them to the newspages on the internet.
I think everything went very well and the cakebuffet afterwards just made it perfect.

You can find the pics here:

A flokkur (Fivegait)
B flokkur (Fourgait)
Tölt
Hraðaskeið (Speedpace)
Impressions

Here are the results:

A-flokkur

1. styrkleikaflokkur

1. Magnús Bragi Magnússon, Snillingur frá Íbishóli, 8,56
2. Guðmundur Karl Tryggvason, List frá Syðri-Reykjum, 8,42
3. Jóhann B. Magnússon, Fröken frá Bessastöðum, 8,36
4. Skapti Steinbjörnsson, Skál frá Hafsteinsstöðum, 8,34
5. Gestur Freyr Stefánsson, Sæmd frá Höskuldssstöðum, 8,30

2. styrkleikaflokkur

1. Kristján Þorvaldsson, Syrpa frá Sámsstöðum, 8,02
2. Hreinn Haukur Pálsson, Dáð frá Hólakoti, 7,18

 

B-flokkur

1. styrkleikaflokkur

1. Skapti Steinbjörnsson, Oddi frá Hafsteinsstöðum, 8,90
2. Viðar Bragason, Lóa frá Gunnarsstöðum, 8,76
3. Atli Sigfússon, Segull frá Akureyri, 8,49
4. Magnús Bragi Magnússon, Hrafnfaxi frá Skeggstöðum, 8,47
5. Ragnar Stefánsson, Vaka frá Litla Dal, 8,46

2. styrkleikaflokkur:

1. Egill Már Vignisson, Dúkkulísa frá Þjóðólfshaga, 8,44
2. Tryggvi Höskuldsson, Flugar frá Króksstöðum, 8,23
3. Sigurjóna Kristjánsdóttir, Dimmir frá Hellulandi, 8,20
4. Steingrímur Magnússon, Blesi frá Skjólgarði, 8,00
5. Guðmundur Hjálmarsson, Einir frá Ytri Bægisá, 7,86

 

Tölt

1. styrkleikaflokkur

1. Skapti Steinbjörnsson, Oddi frá Hafsteinsstöðum, 7,83
2. Viðar Bragason, Lóa frá Gunnarsstöðum, 7,50
3. Ragnar Stefánsson, Vaka frá Litla-Dal, 7,0
4. Atli Sigfússon, Segull frá Akureyri, 6,50
5. Guðmundur Karl Tryggvason, Skriða frá Hlemmiskeiði, 6,50

2. styrkleikaflokkur

1. Egill Már Vignisson, Dúkkulísa frá Þjóðólfshaga, 6,67
2. Vala Sigurbergsdóttir, Krummi frá Egilsá, 6,50
3. Tryggvi Höskuldsson, Flugar frá Króksstöðum, 6,17
4. Guðbjartur Hjálmarsson, Hulinn frá Sauðafelli, 6,17
5. Guðmundur Hjálmarsson, Svörður frá Sámsstöðum, 6,0

 

Hraðaskeið

1. Svavar Hreiðarsson, Hekla frá Akureyri, 45 km/klst
2. Svavar Hreiðarsson, Jóhannes Kjarval frá Hala, 43 km/klst
3. Svavar Hreiðarsson, Flugar frá Akureyri, 42 km/klst
4. Ragnar Stefánsson, Hind frá Efri-Mýrum, 40 km/klst
5. Kristján Sigtryggsson, Fluga frá Hellulandi, 37 km/klst

 

The local riding clubs Grani and Þjálfi invited everybody who'd like to join to come to Lake Mývatn and take part in the annual riding tour on ice the day before Mývatn Open, the competition on ice. The weatherforecast was good, so we decided to join and invited Hjördís to come with us. Just before we started, we got a SMS from Hrund if she'd be allowed to join us. Luckily somebody else cancelled the trip so there was room in Gísli's trailer. Off we went with Magnús, List, Embla and Ögn. When we arrived, there were already quite many riders, so we started to get ourselves ready. Hjördís chose Embla again and it was their first time on ice. I'd estimate it was about 50-60 riders who joined, some locals, some from Akureyri and Skagafjörður and some on a wintertrip to Iceland. 
First we tried the competitiontrack for the next day and the ice was just perfect, a little bit of snow frozen to the surface, which makes it less slippery and easier for the horses. Then off we went on the trail on the lake. A local farmer made a track with his tractor, a very nice and sceneric way through lava rocks, pseudocraters and small islands. Embla was a bit scared with the cracking in the beginning, making Hjördís feel uncomfortable, but they worked on it and in the end they were even cantering and pacing on the track. 
At the end of the track Selhótel offered delicious sandwiches and hot chocolate, what a treat! Whilst the biggest part of the group took the same trackway back, we said goodbye and took a shortcut as we had to set up the fence for the competition the day after. Hjördís and Hrund went with Gísli whilst we took care of getting everything ready.
Perfect ride and if you'd like to get an impression, check out the pics here.

 

 

 

 

 

Hjördís joined us at the stable today and decided to go for a ride with her dad whilst I took care of mucking out and stuff like that. 
She always says Embla belongs to her and her dad and now it was time for her to try the pinto. Embla is born in August 2010, so still rather young, but very secure, a natural tölter with good basic gaits and on top of it flying pace. She definitely knows who's on back and takes care of those not that strong, but can be "asking questions" with a routined rider on back.
After combing and getting ready they set off together, me remaining with a bit of lump in my throat, hoping everything would go well. Of course I peeked regularly out of the door to check where they were and when I saw them approaching I grabbed my camera and waited for them. Everything went so well, that Hjördís even dared to canter her, which I really didn't expect on the first ride. It seems we got a new horse-rider team in the stable and we are very happy that things work out that well!