We've had great weather the last days and decided to break our daily routine a bit today. Outdoorclothes were on top of our list and looking like tourist we climbed in our car and off we went to Þeistareykir. The goal was to check out the amount of snow on the mountains and find a good slope to sled down. When arriving we had to acknowledge that there was pretty little snow left, but found a spot on Bæjarfjall which looked promising. Ingólfur and Hjördís started to climb the mountainside whilst I took a walk down to the lake to check out the ducks and geese there. As I had my big camera with me I decided to stay behind and not risk any damage to it. At the lake I saw a group of tufted ducks, which weren't happy about the interruption, a few greylag geese and a pair of pink-footed geese just arriving. Of course there were some european golden plovers around, the trademarkbird of the highlands. I'm still trying to get used to my big lens, which I have to adjust manually. So the pics are not necessarily always in focus, but I think I'll soon learn how to cope better with the lens. 
Meanwhile father and daughter were closer to the top, soon reached it and walked on the edge to the spot of snow we had spotted before. Then it was the moment to sit down, lift the legs a bit and enjoy the ride. Think they both really did!
And to make a good day even better, we went for the first longer ride today, all the way to Kaldbak and back to the stables. We took 5 horses with us, List was just a handhorse, following me on Sigtýr and sometimes not so happy she had to stay slow with us. Hjördís rode Embla, which went fine, they are getting better and better together and Hjördís especially likes how easy it is to tölt Embla. Ingólfur started his ride on Ögn with Krummi as a handhorse, but changed at Kaldbak, when Ögn missed a shoe. It was the first time we rode Krummi with a handhorse, but all went very well and the horses were happy to roll over in the clean sand when we arrived back home.

And with horses the number 1 to do is almost always to eat. At least with most of my horses. After being in the paddock without food during the afternoon, the horses took a rush down to the meadow where the haybale was awaiting them. Usually they are not in as much hurry when they have to go back to the stable/paddock. I think it's a privilege to be able to offer the riding horses a meadow right at the stables and the possibility to stay outside overnight and decide how much and when to eat. Makes them happy and therefore us, too.
Watch them here.

Yesterday evening we joined our friends Gísli and Óli and went all together to Akureyri to have dinner together and watch the Northicelandic Stallionshow in the ridinghall. We didn't know which stallions would be shown, but it's always nice to get an overview and maybe see one or another future star. 
I was rather surprised that the program was quite "fast", mostly 2 stallions at the same time, showing the best the horses had to offer. Some riders obviously had made up a plan and showed some choreography whilst others did more or less their thing. 
There was a very nice group of Óskasteinn frá Íbishóli offsprings, especially a really good brown mare and a very interesting buckskin one. 
Unfortunately the music was that loud you could hardly hear the speaker and the information about the horses in the printed program was really poor, just the name of the horse and rider. It would have been nice to at least know the age and pedigree of each horse as they weren't all listed in the stallion book you got when you bought your ticket. Not everybody was able to look the other stallions up in Worldfengur during the show.
My personal star was the really talented and very young stallion IS2013164067 - Adrían frá Garðshorni á Þelamörk, a young son of Hágangur frá Narfastöðum. He showed exceptional suppleness in all gaits and was offering his rider everything on a silverplate. Were it my horse, I'd allow it to get a very good break now and return to training next autumn. But we'll see what the owners do. Hope it won't be with him like Konsert frá Hofi, which was showed far too much at a very young age.
It was nice to meet a lot of people, have interesting chats about the show and watch promising horses.

Happy summer everybody!
Today's the first day of summer according to the old Icelandic calendar. It's said to be especially good if winter and summer freeze together as it did last night. So there'll be a great summer this year (at least we hope so).
Our horses are back in training after a good break whilst we were in Austria. All of them have started to loose their winterfur which means that we look like yetis when we brush them...
All the best for you!

Or maybe I should start at the very beginning...
Last autumn we went with the local riding club to the annual ride, called Fákagleði, where we go for a long ride, have games afterwards and grill alltogether. At that certain ride we went up to lake Botnsvatn above Húsavík. Ingólfur rode Amor and I went on List. I soon discovered that she really liked to vade out into the lake as far as I would allow it. 
So I thought, what, if I'd show her the sea? We already took a walk down there a few years ago and she wasn't that keen on walking into it, but why not give it a try? A word and a blow, we went for a beach ride and then walked straight into the waves, no hesitating. In fact I had to make List walk parallel to the beach so she wouldn't just walk further and further and swimm in the end. We went out and in again, having a lot of fun! Well, who needs and aquatrainer if you have the best available just around the corner?
We'll definitely do this again.
Afterwards Ingólfur and I went on Magnús and Sigtýr for a ride, which was just gorgeous, no need to say more. It's a privilege to have horses like that and be able to enjoy a great ride.
If you'd like to see a short video, click here!

We spent a few days with friends and family in Vienna. Lots to do and we just had the very best weather to do all the stuff. 
There was a big easter market downtown, we used the chance to take a walk there and on the way decided to climb the south tower of St.Stephen's Cathedral. You are able to walk up to the watchman's chamber, which is 343 stairs up a very narrow staircase. What an experience! The view from above is fantastic and I recommend everyone to climb up there and have a look over Vienna.
Of course we made a daytrip to Waldviertel and anotherone to have a look at Gerti's new horse in Burgenland. On our way back we purchased fresh asparagus straight from the farmer and a bottle of wine going with it, too. Will make a delicious meal when we are back home.