News

27.july 2010

As usually time flies. We have been busy with the guesthouse and making some hay for next winter and in between we try to ride the horses. This summer we haven´t gone longer tours so far because of the coughing in the horses. We thought it would be better to take it a bit slower and not tire them too much. But we could ride all the time and the horses seem fat and happy. Getting in shape by now, so that is good. We took some pictures of the younger horses that have been in training. They make a lot of progress and that is fun to see.

25.june 2010

So now spring is done, and summer is there. All work is finished. The sheep are in the highlands, the young horses in their summerfields, even the last sheep has given birth. And she did it well, surprised us with three nice lambs. Not really the surprise we were after, but she will be fine. So next on the schedule will be making the hay. The grass is growing fast the last week, so it won´t be long before we can start to cut some hay. That will be nice. We have started to ride the horses a little more and so far so good. But the older ridinghorses we still aren´t sure of. Will they get a cough one day soon or not. But so far no signs of anything, and they are happy and fat. The horses that were in training last winter do really well, they are all back on track and it will be fun to train them a little bit more in the next weeks.

15.june 2010

Ísold got a beautiful marefoal last night. Happy to see her. Now we have only one mare left to foal, our good old Ljósbrá. I hope her foal will come after the weekend. Further everything is really nice, the weather is great. It is way to sunny and way to dry, but the grass is green and it feels lovely. We are riding a little with the horses. There are a few that cough but the oldies seem to be fine and some of the mares that were coughing a lot have recovered also.

11.june 2010

After a long wait Kantata finally foaled early this morning. She got a beautiful stallion after Ómur frá Kvistum. They are always so funny when they are newborn, to long legs as you can see on the picture. She will be covered by Orri frá Þúfu. I am very excited about that. Next year the wait will be even longer I guess, haha.

Where do you go with your legs. He seems ot have good action, uses his backpart extremely well and wide movements, isn´t it?

After some beautiful weeks of sun and warm weather we got some much needed rain yesterday, but today the sun will come back. It looks like it will be a gorgeous summer. Now the mountain starts to become beautiful green and the sheep are happy and dissappearing up the mountain.

6.june 2010

We have a new foal.............

Also we have started to ride the horses again. A little, and not too long. But it is nice to be able to work a little with them. Most of them seem very happy. But I see that they still need some care. So they are out in the grass a lot. That makes them very happy. In the mean time we do a lot of other work on the farm. We still have to work a little with the lambs and the sheep and we try to work in the garden and forrest. Also the guesthouse is slowly asking more time. It is a joy to be there. Many people from different countries all over the world visit and it is interesting to share our thoughts.

15.may 2010

After almost a 1000 lambs now we got our second foal, take a look at our foalpage to see the newborn after Vænting. We have started to breed some mares also again. Varpa and Orrahríð are with Sólon frá Skaney, Þokkadís is with Stimpill frá Vatni and Þekla will be covered by Kappi frá Kommu. It is a busy time, but lovely. All those young animals around. Our fields are filled with little lambs, who grow very fast. They play and play, it is such a joy to watch them. In the stable the last sheep are waiting to give birth, but soon that will be finished and then the summer can begin. Our ridinghorses also got this cough. Fortunately very little, but we have taken it very slow to let them recover well. And there are enough other things to do, nice to catch upp things that I love to forget when I am so busy with the horses.

We planned to show quite a few mares, but due to the cough we have to postpone the showing of them. There are two mares still who have maybe a chance. Two young mares, that are 4y old, Eyvör after Sólon frá Skaney and Snerpa after Kraftur frá Bringu. But they are both very little trained so time will tell. We´ll see how everything develops. But it is dissappointing to work very hard for many months and then when the time is there you can´t even train. The other mares we will try to prepare for showing later this year. Which is also good, they will be stronger and it will be easier to perform.

10.may 2010

Really funny, I predicted to the children that the first would come on the 10th of may. And there he was, a little brown stallion. Pictures you find here  

25.april 2010

It´s a really long time I wrote something about what´s going on here. Well the winter has been very good. Most of the time nice weather and that makes life a lot easier. Except somebody upp there mixed up Christmas and Easter, because we got a hugh amount of snow for a couple of days. As we haven´t seen that for a long time, it was rather funny. We went skiing and had another afternoon great fun on a sled on a a steep hill. And the snow dissappeared in a few days, so that was nice too. The last months we have been working a lot around our house and it makes the surrounding look fabulous. It is not totally finished as we are still waiting for the last material to arrive, but that hopefully comes soon.

I don´t have to tell anybody about this vulcanoexperience that we have had here the last month. The first eruption was a small one, very nice, easy to go and watch and totally not inconveniant at all. But the second one, I really feel sorry for the people who live in the area of this vulcano. Fortunately the area which is most affected is rather small, I think there are about 20 farms badly affected. But it is horrible to look at the pictures and hear from the people. We, here in the north, have never in our lives been so happy with the cold northern wind. Now the wind is changing to south directions, but there is little ash in the vulcano at the moment, and I think we are pretty safe that there won´t come any harmful amount of fluor and ash in our direction.

We have started to spend a lot of time in the sheepstable and the first lambs have been born. It is always nice to see them, take the first steps. The lambs we get at the moment are very important for us. We use artificial insemination a bit and of course we would like to own those lambs for future breeding. Hopefully we get some great male sheep out of those who will keep improving our livestock. The sheep will give birth during the next three weeks. And after that they will all be outside in the field.

The horses have done great last winter. I am very happy with them. Many have made great progress and now we are waiting for the breedingshows to start to see if we can get some good notes added to their papers. Yesterday Þekla was shown at the breedingshow in Sauðárkrókur. We were happy with her notes, and now we will try to breed her to a topstallion. Only question is which one.....

IS1998258301 Þekla frá Hólum
Litur: 1540 Rauður/milli- tvístjörnótt 
Ræktandi: Hólaskóli
Eigandi: Eline Manon Schrijver, Jón Gíslason
F: IS1988186775 Logi frá Skarði
Ff: IS1968157460 Hrafn frá Holtsmúla
Fm: IS1978257751 Remba frá Vindheimum
M: IS1985257801 Þrenna frá Hólum
Mf: IS1977157350 Feykir frá Hafsteinsstöðum
Mm: IS1978258301 Þrá frá Hólum
Mál: 140 - 139 - 64 - 152 - 29,0 - 19,5
Hófamál: Vfr: 8,8 - Va: 9,1
Sköpulag: 7,0 - 8,5 - 8,0 - 7,5 - 8,0 - 8,0 - 8,5 - 7,0 = 7,99
Hæfileikar: 8,5 - 8,5 - 5,0 - 8,0 - 8,5 - 8,5 - 8,0 = 7,85
Aðaleinkunn: 7,91
Hægt tölt: 8,0      Hægt stökk: 8,5   

There will be some more mares shown later in may and I will of course keep an update here about their performances. In the second half of may some of our foal will be born and I will also make a new foalpage with pictures of the newborns and info about their pedigrees.

26.januar 2010

A bit late, but of course everybody a very happy New Year. Here the year has started very nice, we have been on a holiday to the sun and relaxed and enjoyed. I think the horses at home were also happy, to get a small break from daily training. They really deserve it. All the horses are in a good condition at the moment and have made good improvements. We have several new horses in our herd. First of all we bought the silverdapple mare Ísold frá Neðra-Vatnshorni. She is judged with 8,5 for tölt and 9 for temperament. Ísold is pregnant with the silverdapple Glymur frá Innri-Skeljabrekku and we look very much forward to see her foal.

Then we have three new youngsters. The youngest one is Þyrla frá Eyri. She is silverdapple, born in 2007, F. Glymur frá Innri-Skeljabrekku M. First prize mare after Svartur frá Unalæk. Then two mares that I am starting at the moment. Snerpa frá Eyri, black with a star, born 2006, F. Kraftur frá Bringu M. first prize mare after Kormákur frá Flugumýri. And last but not least Eyvör frá Eyri, palomino with a blaze, born 2006, F. Solon frá Skaney M. first prize mare after Oddur frá Selfossi. We will train those mares and see how good they become, I have good hopes they will join our herd of breedingmares in the future. They are really really nice to work with, superb characters, good building and very nice gaits. So, how happy can a trainer be.

The weather here has been exceptional you can say. It is so calm and nice weather, often above zero. Very nice, and strange too, there are many days that you don´t hear any sound from nature. It is fun to see very small birds, called Snjótitlingar, flying around our stables and singing. Give them a bit of food and they are really happy. So we decided to take some more horses into the stable. We have Söngvadís (f. Sveinn-Hervar frá Þúfu), Varpa (f. Vikingur frá Vodmúlastöðum), Hamur (f. Gammur frá Steinnesi), Sveppi (f. Óskahrafn frá Brún) and last but not least the gelding our oldest daughter did win at the bingo at her school named Bíngo (f. Blíður frá Syðra-Lönguvmýri). All together, a nice day of work.

29.december 2009

The last days before the new year I want to share a story with you that has been all over the news here in Iceland. I find this story so wonderful and exceptional, it is something you have to hear.

Last wednesday there were a father and a son in law on their way to Reykjavik from the Westfjords in their new vessel. The vessel turned over and the water fled into the boat. Both men were in the control room, where it filled fast with water. They went down into the engineroom in hope to find some air to breath while they would figure out a plan to save themselves. The sea was freezing cold and started to leak into the engine room, it was cold and very dark. There the two man discussed their options in the sudden dark silence that appeared since the engines had shut down. It seemed there was no way out and they were exhausted and cold. And they realized that moment that they only had each other in their last minuts. With the water rising high they held hands and embraced each other. Then the son in law said deeply disappointed: I was looking so much forward to enjoy my first Christmas together with my wife and our baby.

The old men looked him in the eye and said: Then you will live. You go down through the door and into the controle room and out. Immediately he used all his powers to push his son in law down into the water and in the direction to the door.

The son in law made it through the door and out into the sea, he managed to get onto the boat which was upside down. Once upp there it was still freezing cold (it is very cold in Iceland at the moment). He screamed to God and asked him why he would save him out of the boat and then let him die here because of the cold. He was also trying to keep an eye on the window to see if his father in law was following him, to help him to get upp. Suddenly something flew through the air, straight into his arms. He caught the thing, but his first reaction was to throw it away like you catch something that burns you. But he realized immediately it was a lifesuit, one that is strong and keeps you warm, something you have to wear in situations like this.  He has no clue how the lifesuit came into his hands. He dressed himself into the suit, managed to get into the rescueboat. Three and a half hour later he was saved by another vessel. The old man was found dead in the engine room, he gave everything he had to bring the family of his daughter happiness. But his words Then you will live  are some to remember forever..........

25.december 2009

Merry Christmas

We wish everybody a wonderful christmas.

21.december 2009

And again there is a month that passed very quickly. In early december we always spend a lot time in the sheepstable, we use artificial insemination for the sheep to improve the quality and get new blood in our group. It is exciting to see which males are offered for use, almost like with the stallions and speculate about them. Funny how much you can discuss and change about the looks of a sheep. After those days we put our male sheep together with the females and in may we´ll see how everything went.

The horses are in pretty good condition. We have many mares that are really into work and ready, they are well muscled and happy. So it is a real joy to ride. Hugmynd is learning a lot and we have started to ride outside on the street. The new paddock is ready and we can work a lot there, put some details to the execution. Also we have started to go for some short runs with all of them together. I can see how much they love to run freely and how happy they become. As the weather has been very good they also have been a lot outside in the field. But as the days are dark before christmas sometimes the day is not long enough to do all of this. But from tomorrow every day will be a few minuts longer, that will be lovely.

We had a great season but last weekend the weather changed and now it is pretty cold, and there is more wind. Still hardly any snow though. On friday we went with the whole group for a ride and were comming home very late for lunch. Then the phone rang, which normally is not very interesting. This time it was a lady from Eidfaxi who congratulated us with winning a Hilbar saddle. That was a great surprise, you can imagine that we were flying on a big pink cloud the rest of the day, what a great surprise.

Örk, 6y old after Hágangur

I really love this picture of our oldest daughter on Ör.

29.november 2009

Now it looks like winter has arrived. It is below zero and we have a tiny bit of snow. The horses I have in the stable start to change a lot, that is lovely to see, and they change in the right direction, they are so nice to work with, all of them. Lovely characters, very clear gaits, just a joy.

The horses we have at the moment in the stable are

2.november 2009

We can look back at a busy fall. But finally all sheep and horses are down from the mountains and life has taken more routine than in summertime. In wintertime the days always starts with feeding, exactly as it ends. But that is lovely after a hectic summer. Our sheep look happy and fat after the summer and at the moment we are starting to take them inside again. In the horsestable I have several horses that are in light training. I won´t start training seriously until middle of november. But it is good to start a little bit building upp the muscles and condition again.

A lot of time is though spend in trying to improve the facilities at the moment. We are building a new paddock for the horses and fences have to be fixed, stables cleaned and many more things. It will be great to see how everything develops. In a few weeks I will make an up date about the horses that we will train next winter. For now I have added several to our salespage, so if you are interested, take a look.

25.august 2009

So today the summerholidays are over in Iceland. The school will start again. It has been incredibly busy in the guesthouse the last few months and it has been a lovely time, but hard work. After this week it will slow down significantly, but then we start gathering the sheep. We already did fetch the first group of the mountain here at home. The lambs look lovely, they have grown a lot.

One very special thing happened last week. We had the President of Iceland and his wife staying over in our guesthouse. It was very nice to talk to them over breakfast and very interesting.

Last week the late breedingshows were in Iceland. We had the mare Þekla shown by Sigurður Sigurðarson. We bought Þekla in early july. Þekla is a daughter of the famous Þrenna frá Hólum. She has been used as a ridingschoolhorse for the students at Hólar. In the beginning it was a lot of work as she was not much used to riding outside in the fields, but soon she changed a whole lot and was such a joy to ride. Video of the breedingshow you find here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlBzPnwkAK8

She got the following notes:

IS1998258301 Þekla frá Hólum

F: IS1988186775 Logi frá Skarði
Ff: IS1968157460 Hrafn frá Holtsmúla
Fm: IS1978257751 Remba frá Vindheimum
M: IS1985257801 Þrenna frá Hólum
Mf: IS1977157350 Feykir frá Hafsteinsstöðum
Mm: IS1978258301 Þrá frá Hólum

Ext: 7,0 - 8,5 - 8,0 - 7,5 - 7,5 - 8,0 - 7,5 - 7,0 = 7,77
Riding: 8,5 - 8,5 - 5,0 - 8,0 - 8,0 - 8,5 - 8,0 = 7,82
Total score 7,80
Slow tölt: 8,0      Slow stökk: 8,0   

At the moment she is with the stallion Gaumur frá Auðsholtshjáleigu and we plan to add her to our group of breedingmares.

The pictures are taken at the breedingshow. I am especially happy with how concentrated Þekla looks.

5.august 2009

Slowly some mares start to come home who have been with stallions. Klóra is pregnant of Kjarni frá Þjóðolfshaga, Kantata after Ómur frá Kvistum, Þokkadís after Kappi frá Kommu, just to name something. It is lovely to get them all back home! The foals have grown a lot and are changing colour and looks. The horses in the stable are in good condition, but slowly they start to prepare for winter. They start to be a little bit fatter and they have started to change the hair again. Summer has been with ups and downs this year, from very warm to snow in the mountains.....

At the moment the WorldChampionsships for Icelandic horses are in Switzerland. Too bad we can´t take some time of to join, but we watch the news instead. Today I saw that to off spring of a mare of us are competing in the stallionsclass 5y and 6y old. Farsæl vom Hrafnsholt (8,17) and Frami vom Hrafnsholt (8,24) are both in 3rd place in their classes. They are full brothers after Depill frá Voðmúla and Flóra frá Hofi (F. Orri frá Þúfu). We still own a daughter of Flóra, that is Klóra who is a first prize mare. But it is really a nice feeling to see that her off spring do so well, even though we sold her to Germany.

Flóra

19.july 2009

Finally our last foal arrived. Góa gave birth to a beautiful chestnut pinto stallion last night! Pictures you find at our foal page (click here) . The father of this gorgeous foal is Gári frá Auðsholtshjáleigu.

Summer is wonderful as always. The weather is pretty ok, the fields are green. We have made a lot of hay and we can ride along the river. The horses are in fine shape and the young horses are continuing to learn a lot. The last week we had several groups passing by in our guesthouse who were trekking with their horses. That has been a lot of fun.

3.july 2009

We got a phonecall that Varpa´s foal had arrived. We already put her in the field with Ómur frá Kvistum but were still waiting for her foal. And she got a very big, hairy, black marefoal. I couldn´t be happier! I was so sure there would come a stallion after all the marefoals she has gotten until now, but no another mare. The father of Varða (her name) is Gári frá Auðsholtshjáleigu and I believe that the two make a good combination, he could add better neck to her conformation and maybe add some pace to her gaits. That would be a lovely ridinghorse in the future. I have ridden three off spring of Varpa so far, and they are very easy to train, superb characters, clear gaits (they have all been fivegaited even though Varpa is fourgaited) and very high action. So Varpa is very valuable for us. It will be interesting to see if Kantata, her daughter, is an as good breedingmare.

Finally it starts to become very nice weather, warm and often sunny. Lovely! The grass is growing a lot and we have started to make some hay. The guesthouse is on full speed, the horses in quite fine condition, the sheep in the mountains. Done a lot!

In the last few weeks we have had some specialists around every now and then to do research at the ancient cemetary that we found. It turns out that the cemetary is very old. The eruption from Hekla in 1104 is very clear to find and not broken. So that means that everything is older. We have also found left overs of a turf wall, this wall gives us the feeling to be older then the graves, and there are some signs of even older graves. But to get a complete picture there is a lot of work left. First we have to start and see if it is possible to do serieus research, but we will try! In the fall when I get more specific information I intent to make a homepage about this cemetary and I look forward to learn more about the people who lived at our farm thousand years ago. Strange thought isn´t it? Everybody knows that there have always been people living on earth, but to see them adds some new prospekts to your imagination!

15.juni 2009

Prinsessa got a little mare!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so happy with her, black with a gorgeous star!!!! Pictures follow soon, she´s still wet. Tomorrow I shoot new one.

11.juni 2009

And when I went out this morning I got another surprise. Take a look here to see it too! Click here

Merry Christmas! We wish everybody a wunderful Christmas and some lovely time spend with family and friends. Here in Iceland we manage to have a little bit of white christmas. Strange, there has been a tiny bit of snow all fall, but two days ago suddenly the temperature rose until above zero and everything dissappeared. But this morning everything was covered with some white corns again. The weather has been lovely until now. Very quiet weather, extremely bright in the nights. Not during the day, the sun does not come above our mountain and even though the sky is sometimes clear it still looks like five o clock. But in the night, we had full moon, it was like magic. I guess that is what you are looking for when you come to Iceland.

13.november 2008

The snow was gone again, but this morning there was this tiny layer of white sparkling in the full moon. It is getting darker again. Now it starts to get bright at about 8.30 in the morning. It really shortens the day! Jón has started to shave the sheep, they look fine after the summer and the fall. So that´s really good. We have to shave all of them (they are approx. 625 at the moment, we couldn´t choose out of the best lambs so we kept them all....), and feed them very well. Then we do artificial insemination with a group around 1 of dec. and the rest will be covered by our own male sheep. We feed them hay twice a day, and everyday they also get grains. We grew our own grains last summer and it is lovely to see how they enjoy the food.

We sold several horses and I was kind of out of work again in the stable. So I hope I can fetch a few horses that I plan to train next winter. Bit earlier than normal, but it is good to begin slowly. Today I saw that Örvar was down at the fence. He is a funny horse, he loves to be around the farm, so he comes often down. He is 5y. old and not trained a lot. We bought him last august. But I could go and fetch him. So that was great! He is after Kveikur frá Miðsitjue and a good second prize mare. I liked him last summer, so now he can maybe start to work more. Söngvadís is doing well. She starts to get some condition, but she is still way to fat. I try to be tough to her, and take care of her food. But that´s difficult, haha. She always looks so sweet to me. But she has too. If I want to try to show her next spring she has to be slim and shiny. Maybe if I give her less now, I can start feeding her really well again the second half of the winter when she should be totally ready for hard work. All the 3,5y. olds are really settled. Calm and friendly, fun to work with. I will try to make some more pictures of the horses who come into the stable to show!

2.november 2008

Wow, we had a lot of snow the last week! When I went out in the morning to feed it felt like christmastime. Really funny. But it was pretty hard on the sheep. We had to take them inside and feed them hay, what we normally prefer not to do. We have to try to keep the wool clean and therefore we let them outside during the day. The sheep were not very fond of that idea, they thought it was easier to stay inside and eat some more hay. But as they love some goodies, they come and run behind you when you go in front and promise them some. So each morning we went out with a bucket and had approx. 500 sheep running behind us trying to put their heads in one little bucket. We are in pretty good shape after those days I can tell you, haha. Now it is above zero again and the grass is back, so they can stay outside a little bit longer. The lambs that we are going to keep are in the stable though. We have to start feeding them very well, to prepare them for next winter!

I have updated my salespage again, if you are interested, take a look!

17.october 2008

Well I guess many people are curious about how life is in Iceland at the moment. That´s a good question and not so easy to answer. Life goes on, that is for sure. As we live out in the country life is definetely different from the life that is going on in a city like Reykjavik. Here daily life is not so much influenced by shares in companies and money on banks. We still have to fetch the rest of the sheep and horses (we finally got our last youngster home, that is a very good feeling) and prepare them and the stables etc. But this moneycrisis is hanging like a dark cloud above our heads. It is strange not to know how much money you owe the bank. A loan in the bank goes upp and down, like you buy a big jeep every now and then, but strange enough it goes down again the same way. Next day it is upp again. And nobody knows. It is no problem to pay your bills within the country and also the bank sends you a notice that you have to pay interest on your loans. So in short words, not so much difference from normal! We do not know what happened to accounts like accounts where you can save money for your pension. It seems that at least a part of it still excists, but it is not clear if there is any interest on it. Some accounts have dissappeared with the fall of the bank.

Our town is a very small town, with not many shops. Prices have gone upp a little, but you can still buy the same goods. I haven´t been to Reykjavik or Akureyri, so I can´t tell how the prices are there. But I can imagine that people are not really spending in times like this.

But more about us here. Like I mentioned before, we finally got the last young horses home. I had already seen them a few times, but we hadn´t had the opportunity to fetch them. Yesterday we went upp the mountain to fetch them, which went really well. They were only not very interested in going home, and checked out every fence on the way. And I can tell you, they were many! Do people never close anything behind them???? That´s a good question too. But we came home, and now they are here at the mountain at home. I can see them out of the window! That´s lovely. It is always a good feeling when they are all home again. Most sheep are back, but we know that there is at least 1 mother + lambs missing and of course there are some lambs that we would like to see even though their families are already home. We do not have many lambs left, that are going away. There is one group wherefrom we keep almost all of them. They look very nice this year and we have bred the highest judged malelamb in our area this year. That´s a really exciting thing. Something like having a mare at the Landsmót. I think you can not imagine how much we farmers talk about the highest judged lambs here. Sheepbreeding is as interesting as horsebreeding, the lambs are juged and you can improve your sheep with Artificial Insemination if you want to get new blood in your herd. As they are so many and the lifecycle is much shorter you see within a few years a lot of changing.

So then I have started to train some horses again. Not really fanatic, but I work with them the days the girls are in the school. First is Leskja, she is black pinto born but will be snowwhite. Leskja is born in 2003 and after Kveikur frá Miðsitju and Ljósbrá. She is just started at the moment, but it goes very well. I am very interested in her, as she seems to be a very good breedingmare. We have a 1y. old mare, Leiðsla, after Leskja and Sveinn Hervar frá Þúfu that looks incredible and has movements like you have hardly seen before. Let´s hope Leiðsla will make this all come true when she is trained later on. Back to Leskja, I have ridden her once now and she will be very willing I think. So we´ll see. I will train her a lot in the next months, hopefully to have her judged next spring! Kveikur has given very good breedingmares. There are quite a few mares after him at Fet who give highly judged off spring one after another.......

Then I shoed one of my best friends, Söngvadís. My big, fat, lovely girl. I love to ride that horse. She is only 4y. old, but very easy to train and lovely to ride. She is fivegaited. Söngvadís is after Sveinn Hervar frá Þúfu and Þokkadís frá Hólum. She is mainly shoed because I want to keep her on a little diet......... I have another mare that will turn 5. That is Dúkka frá Sveinsstöðum. She is after Huginn frá Haga and Fló frá Geithömrum (judged with 7,90). But we are just starting to handle her and time will tell how she develops.

And then there are 3 young mares, that will be 4y. old next spring. Koldís after Adam frá Ásmundarstöðum and Þokkadís; Regína after Hrymur frá Hofi and Gína frá Hofi and Krás frá Hæli after Kvistur frá Hvolsvelli and the first prize mare Nóta frá Blönduósi. Very easy going mares, I think I am riding them in only 1-2 weeks, they are so nice! My plan is to see how they behave and what they show and then make a decision weather it is time for them to start serieus training this winter.

19. september 2008

So now we are in the middle of bringing our sheep back to the farm. The first few weeks the weather was great. It is so amazing to be upp in the highlands riding a horse and fetch the sheep. It is impossible to describe the colours and feeling of freedom that you get when you are together with your horse out in the middle of nowhere. So, yes, that is a lot of fun! But now the weather has changed a bit, more windy and rain. But we really need the rain. After a very dry period in summer the water in the fields was starting to dry out. We had to take care of the horses in the stable as there was not too much water in the well there and in one field we couldn´t keep our sheep anymore as there was no water anymore. Pretty strange if you live in a valley that is called watervalley. But the last few days we have had a good share of rain and I hope there will come more balance again. The sheep look good this fall. Of course it changes a lot for them that our lambs are born a few weeks earlier this spring as in the years before. Interesting to see how much they grow in only a few weeks time.

We will bring the horses out of the mountains on friday the 26th. It will be good to have them home. Most mares are also back home, pregnant and looking good. In a few weeks we will have again the routine of feeding everything. After a busy summer that will be nice and interesting to see when we start training the new youngsters again.

27. august 2008

I updated our foal 2008 page for the last time. To see it click here!

24. august 2008

Þokkadís got a healthy stallionfoal yesterday. Great, as I had started to worry about her. She was very heavy and still nothing. But yesterday there came this big stallionfoal! I have seen several off spring of Akkur frá Brautarholti and they look very nice, big and strong with promising movements. We will bring Þokkadís later this week to Álfur frá Selfossi, that will be an interesting combination!

Slowly the mares start to come home from the stallions. Kantata is pregnant and will come home with the next truck, I look forward to see her, now we hope her foals will be as good as she is herself. You can see that the fall is starting to come here in Iceland, the colours change and even though the sun is shining you feel the fall is in the air. The horses start to become more hairy and fat. So not very nice to train, but we do mostly some long distance work to prepare the horses for the comming month where we fetch the sheep and horses. And they are in fine shape, good tölt on long distance, that is a lot of fun.

12. august 2008

Finally, Klóra got a marefoal yesterday! I am so happy with her, after 3 stallions we got a beautiful mare. The father of the foal is Akkur frá Brautarholti. He has a very interesting pedigree, after Galsi frá Sauðárkróki and a mother who is only giving top first prize horses. Last year Klóra had a stallionfoal after Galsi and this young stallion is one of the most promising horses that we have ever owned. So the little mare will be one to follow! Now only Þokkadís is left to foal, she looks like she is going to have twins............ but so far...........

Klóra will be covered by Hróður frá Refsstöðum.

5. august 2008

Kantata

3. august 2008

Summer flies. We are very busy with our guesthouse, have made a lot of hay, ride with the horses and do some other things are you have to do when you have a farm. The weather has been quite ok, many sunny days, sometimes a bit of rain so the grass keeps on growing and a few less interesting, foggy days, but all together pretty good. The ridinghorses are fine shape and we are starting two young geldings who do both very well. One is a palomino 4y. old gelding after Bjarkar frá Blesastöðum and the other one is a black, very big, 5y. old gelding after Kveikur frá Miðsitju. They are both very easy to handle, friendly and seem to have good gaits. Also we have a new 7y. old brown mare after Kolfinnur frá Kjarnholtum. Her name is Virðing frá Úlfsstöðum. Virðing is a very good tölter and nicely build (shown with 7,89). I like to train her and see how good she can become in the future, but so far she is a joy to ride.

Today I went to take a look at Fríða and Friður. The look very happy, the old lady is in good shape and the foal is growing and it is interesting to see his development. He has a very good building and a good way of carrying himself. So here are finally some pictures of him!

Ljósbrá and her daughter after Borði frá Fellskoti

15. july 2008

Funny summer here in this area. Sunny days are exchanged by some very cloudy, misty, cold days. Today it rained and rained. Superb for our grass, maybe less interesting if you are on a holiday here around. But now in the evening the clouds are leaving and my laundry is hanging outside again. So it isn´t that bad. But this rain made a whole lot of difference for our hay and the grass we need in the fall for our sheep. Really good.

Last saturday I was happily surprised by a new foal. Fríða gave birth to a chestnut stallion with a star. The father is Gammur frá Steinnesi. Fríða is our oldest mare, and I am always a bit worried about her giving birth. But it went really well, and Friður frá Hofi is a happy guy! Fríða went now to Kiljan frá Steinnesi. Kiljan was one of the high jumpers at the Landsmót. He is 4y old and after Klettur frá Hvammi and Kylja frá Steinnesi (f. Kolfinnur frá Kjarnholtum; and a first prize mare). Kiljan got 8,60 for riding (9 for tölt and pace), the highest of all 4y. old horses this year, his overal score is 8,39. He was in second place. In my eyes he deserved also 9 for temperament and willingness as he went two long sprints in pace at full speed, and that for a horse only 4y. old. 

Kiljan

Now there are only two mares left to give birth. That are Klóra and Þokkadís. Hope they show us their foal really soon, but we´ll see. It can also take a week or two. Then we have a new mare in training. Her name is Virðing frá Úlfsstöðum and she is after Kolfinnur frá Kjarnholtum. I like her a lot, she is easy going with a very good way of carrying herself and good action. We´ll see what she does. I am affraid the time will be to short to prepare her for the breedingshow in august, but you never know.

7. july 2008

We´ve  been busy as always. We managed to make some hay for next winter. Was not really a lot, but a good start. We have had a very dry period here in this area and you could say that all vegetation didn´t grow anymore. So best was to cut some grass before it started to burn. But since we did that it has rained a few times and everything looks a lot greener and better. The horses and sheep look happier too with new grass!

In the guesthouse things have started to be living and there are guests everyday. Before the Landsmót we had a fabulous week. With very good horses and very good riders we made some very great tours here in the area. Both here in the valley and upp the mountain. As we rode to a stable that is almost on the F35, maybe better well known as the ´Kjölur'. Around the Landsmót many people visit Iceland and we plan around the Landsmót in 2010 to close the guesthouse for regular guests and have some very good ridinghorses ready for everybody who wants to join us. I look forward to this as the days to ride around the Landsmót often are the best in summer!

We went to the Landsmót on thursday, wanted to see Kantata of course! She was in 5th position in the 4y. old group of mares. She looked very good and it is a joy to own such a mare. I think she has become stronger since I saw her last time and seems to lift even more. Now she is enjoying a well earned vacation and is in the field with the stallion Krummi frá Blesastöðum. Krummi is a beautiful stallion with a lot of power and very good looks. This foal will be very exciting to wait for! Krummi got 9,5 for tölt!

Kantata

27. june 2008

Summer has really arrived in Iceland. The sun is shining, ok, bit cold wind, but it is extremely dry and sunny. Weather to be outside! We have brought some sheep to the highlands. That is always a nice day, like going with the horses to Gilhaga. Just go out of the valley and see the wide nature, that´s lovely. When we have unloaded the sheep we will wait until every lamb has found it´s mother again and then release them. After all have been released we walk behind them and bring them to  a place where there  is a lot of grass and they will usually stop there for a while and it looks so peaceful, about 100 mothers with their lambs.

In the guesthouse there is more and more to do. People from all over the world and often we have very interesting conversations about life. There also have come some people to ride with us and we have done some very good riding along the river. The older horses are in fine condition and it is good fun to go for a fast tölt. In the next days we will get many guests to join us with the horses, and next week we will go to the Landsmót.

After the Landsmót I hope the next foals will start to arrive.

8. june 2008

Yesterday we brought to young horses to our fields who are close to the highlands, those fields are named Gilhaga. It is a beautiful ride, through the valley and afterwards a few kilometers upp the mountain. The horses have such a great life overthere, enough to eat and place to play. They become very strong in muscles through all this movement they get during the summer. Of course it is a bit far away, but also it is fun to go sometimes and visit them. So after we came to the field, which is about 100ha. We rode with the fence to check it one last time and took a look at the canyon and the waterfall. Chantal joined us, she has been visiting from Holland. So it was a great ride!

3. june 2008

We are very busy preparing the fields for the summer. So this morning I was driving the traktor and listening to the news on the radio. Something got my attention. The headlines were that there was an icebear walking on the road between Sauðárkrókur and Skagaströnd. Haha, first thing that crossed my mind was which day it was today. Maybe 1 of april? But no, serious, it was true! Several people had seen the icebear. Unfortunately are such animals extremely dangerous, so it ended that they had to shoot the poor thing. On the pictures it was a huge animal, fully grown and enourmous teeth. It is not often happening an animal like that comes to Iceland. I think last time was somewhere in the 80´s. And the biggest chance is that they will come on Ice that flows on the sea. It is quite a while ago we had such Ice this winter. The question is now, how long has this icebear been here?

2. june 2008

Vordis even improved her notes at the second day, she ended in 8,11! Really good result. Then Hersir frá Hofi is selected to participate for the ridingclub Fákur in the fivegaited competition.  Hersir is after Gustur frá Hóli and Hrist frá Hofi (Hrist is after Hera frá Hofi and Skinfaxi frá Þóreyarnúpi).

Last but not least, Vænting had her foal yesterday. And guess what, another mare! I think the mare is red dun, but maybe in the end she will turn out to be just chesnut, it is a bit hard to say. But for the time being she does look like a dun. Pictures will follow very soon. The father of the little mare is Kaspar frá Kommu (f. Gustur frá Hóli), judged with 8,28. 9,5 for trot, 9 for tölt, temperament and looks under rider.

30. may 2008

So we are coming back to earth, haha. But I must admit that it is very exciting to own a mare that is in good chance for a topranking at the Landsmót. Life though here at home goes on, we have to keep taking care of the sheep. There have been guests almost every evening in the guesthouse and we have shoed to older ridinghorses and we try to get them in some shape. Yesterday I went to Borgarnes to pick upp Varpa and Prinsessa. Who both have been covered by Glymur frá Innri-Skeljabrekku. I took Ljósbrá with me and she will be covered by the son of Kolfinnur named Águstinus frá Melalæti. Águstinus is a young stallion who got the amazing not of 8,93 for riding. We are pretty interested in Kolfinnur´s off spring and as Ljósbrá owns a very nice off spring after Kolfinnur it will be nice to try again!

In the mean time there are still breedingshows going on. In Sauðárkrókur Vordís frá Hofi, 5y. old, got an overal score of 8,07 Vordís is born at our farm, but bred by Steffi. Vordís is the first foal born at our farm that was bred by somebody abroad that get´s first prize. Congratulations Steffi, I think you bred a wunder ful horse! And I hope that there will follow many more. Ösp frá Hofi was also shown, she got a result of 7,82. Tomorrow is the second day and I hope she will improve a little bit more. I know that she can show much more!

27. may 2008

As everybody knows breedingshows in Iceland are on full speed. Everybody is very excited to see which horses make it to the Landsmót. So far, only few  horses have made it and the competition is incredibly tough. Yesterday we went to Borgarnes to see our 4y. old mare Kantata perform. And she had a magnificent performance. At the moment she is the highest judged 4y. old mare 2008 with the following notes:

IS2004256111 Kantata frá Hofi
Litur: 2500 Brúnn/milli- einlitt 
Ræktandi: Eline Manon Schrijver, Jón Gíslason
Eigandi: Eline Manon Schrijver, Jón Gíslason
F: IS1991158626 Kormákur frá Flugumýri II
Ff: IS1986157700 Kveikur frá Miðsitju
Fm: IS1986286300 Kolskör frá Gunnarsholti
M: IS1997256113 Varpa frá Hofi
Mf: IS1990184419 Víkingur frá Voðmúlastöðum
Mm: IS1982256003 Þota frá Hvammi II
Mál: 141 - 139 - 64 - 142 - 28,0 - 17,0
Hófamál: Vfr: 8,8 - Va: 7,8
Sköpulag: 8,0 - 9,0 - 8,5 - 9,0 - 7,5 - 7,0 - 9,0 - 7,0 = 8,44
Hæfileikar: 8,0 - 8,5 - 7,5 - 8,0 - 8,5 - 8,5 - 6,5 = 8,14
Aðaleinkunn: 8,26
Hægt tölt: 7,5      Hægt stökk: 8,5 

We are so proud of her! She is trained only since jan. and shows very good gaits and definetely there is a good chance of improving at the Landsmót. We believe that she can increase for both tölt and canter. But for the time being we enjoy this result and are incredibly happy!

Before I forget, we got our 4rd marefoal! Aska gave birth to a nice black filly. I haven´t had the chance to shoot pictures, but hopefully they will show up here soon. I also expect Vænting to give birth very soon.

24. may 2008

Time flies! It is a very nice time in Iceland, fine weather and everywhere you look young animals. There are only very few sheep left to give birth. So we start to have time for different things again. But we still spend a good part of the day with the sheep, keep an eye on the lambs outside and make sure they have enough to eat. Today we got our third foal, Ljósbrá gave birth to another marefoal! Beautiful darkchestnut with a star/blaze. Pictures will follow soon, one is on our breeding 2008 page. This marefoal is for sale, for further information you can contact us on our email (hof@simnet.is).

12. may 2008

Guess what, during the day Prinsessa gave birth to a gorgeous pintomarefoal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You can say she really made our day!

12. may 2008

Prinsessa still has no foal.... Information about the foals this spring you will find here.

11. may 2008

Well hopefully we had the last signs of winter the last days. Friday the weather was pretty bad, around zero and rain and wet snow. In the evening we decided to bring in all the mothersheep and their lambs that we have put already outside. It went amazingly well to bring all those little things to the stable. I thought it was funny when I came to the horsestable. There were maybe 70-80 sheep outside there during the day, they all had gone in except 7! Very clever. Saturdaymorning it turned out totally right the extra work we did, the sheep looked very happy all and we could feed them well. Outside earth was covered with a thin layer of snow. Fortunately that dissappeared around lunchtime and we could let them all out again. That took a bit longer as putting them inside. As we never let any sheep outside unless it has all of the lambs by her side, and they find that sometimes difficult to remember.

There was also another surprise. During the snowy night our first foal arrived. Varpa got a beautiful marefoal. I had been worrying a bit weather she or Prinsessa maybe would foal and went very early to check. I saw this little black foal lying on the ground. Soon I started thinking that she hadn´t started to drink. It was cold and some of the young horses were very interested in the foal. I went home to get the trailer.  We had her there for a while with a blanket to dry and get warm. Soon she started to drink and before lunchtime she was totally happy! We kept her here at home until today. It was fun to have her so close by and being able to see her so well. It is a nice moving foal with a friendly character. I will try to make a foalpage like I always do with some more pictures. But here is one from the her in the trailer. The father of this foal is Geisli frá Sælukoti, the stallion who won the fivegaited class twice at the Landsmót. Something no horse ever has managed so far.

6. may 2008

Long time ago that I have written here. We are as usual pretty busy with different things. First of all we showed Vök with a quite fine result. She is sold now and will be covered. Then we have lambseason! That means that we are 24 hours a day in the sheepstable helping the new mothers with their young ones. It is hard work, but a lot of fun to have all those lambs. I haven´t counted exactly but I think there are already about 450 lambs! And there are quite a few left to come! Soon we will put pictures here at our homepage so you can get an impression of how that looks.

I hope soon we also have the first foal. I saw that Prinsessa was starting to have milk. I thought that Varpa would be the first, but since I have seen this I think she will wait a little longer. Prinsessa is covered with Þristur frá Feti. We are also thinking a lot about the stallions that we will use this summer, that is also exciting as there are so many interesting ones.

22. march 2008

Kjalar and Glitnir

Söngvadís

21. march 2008

  Gullfoss

Strokkur

Þingvellir

17. march 2008

We just came back from a nice time of being a tourist on Iceland. We went to the south and stopped at the tourist places like Þingvellir, Gullfoss and Geysir. The weather is fabulous at the moment, sunny and no wind. As almost the whole country is covered with this gorgeous white thin lay of snow, it was like Iceland at it´s best. I took a lot of pictures and I will share them here with you in the next days. It was very funny, on sundayevening we wanted to go out for dinner. I sometimes complain that there is very little going on here in the area. And imagine that in other places everything is more ´alive´. Well we drove to all small towns in the south, but couldn´t find a restaurant that was open....... At one place the owner was around, but no, sorry the place was closed. He suggested that we would drive to Selfoss. So that we wouldn´t get hungry on the way, he gave us  plate with cold chicken to eat while we were driving! Really funny, haha. So we ended up in Selfoss, ate at a cozy little restaurant, that I can recommend to everybody!

12. march 2008

The Icetölt was really a great day. The weather was fine and there were really a lot of very good horses, highly judged stalllions and mares. Very interesting to watch! Glitnir was fine and we ended somewhere in the middle, which is satisfying for me as I cimpeter not very often en Glitnir has only been once before on competition in the ridinghal. Here are some pictures of us:

1. march 2008

We made pictures of Glitnir. I plan to ride him on the Icecompetition next week, not that I have any chance, but it will be fun to participate. I was trying out the new boots I bought but after they fell of 3 times I gave upp. So he also doesn´t wear any extra weights on the pictures, I guess I have to find something better before next week.

24. februar 2008

Finally the days start to get longer again. This time of the year is usually a lovely time. Still cold, but calm and the days get brighter. Very nice to work outside. We have been working a lot with the horses and I can ride all the young horses now, they do really well and I am very satisfied with their performance. The horses who are a little bit older are also making progress. We made pictures of Vök

Vök is improving a lot. She is starting to carry herself better and there is some collection. Also I have found her fifth gear, she can go really fast! I train her for the breedingshow in spring, and hope she will make more progress and really go for it. So she is shoed with only 8mm around and no extra weights.

We took Klakkur and Dimma to the vet for x-rays and they both passed.

The other work on the farm continues too. Jón has started to shave the sheep again. The ducks go out almost every day and they have started to lay eggs again. But the chicken like it best to stay inside, strange animals!

Further is the organisation for the Icetölt on Svínavatn on full speed. We expect the best riders from the country to participate and it will be a day to look forward to.

10. februar 2008

I updated our homepage about the sheep. Added some more pictures and so on. If you are interested take a little look here http://www.hof-is.com/Icelandicsheep.htm  . Jón shaves the sheep himselves and we try to keep the wool as clean and natural as possible. If you are looking for some wool to work with send us a note, we have it available in most different colours.

There is starting to be a programm around the anual Icecompetition in our area. The ice is looking great and there will be many of the best horses attending this competition. If you would like to join us and see this competition yourself, send us a note and we give you full information. Maybe it is a good chance to look at many different horses, have a nice little holiday and a time never to forget!

9. februar 2008

We had this huge storm yesterday. I think this was the worst storm I have ever been in in my life. Strong northern wind, very aggresive. It really didn´t feel nice to go to sleep. But outside it was rain and very dark, so nothing you could see. And it was impossible to do something outside, so all we did was keep our fingers crossed and went to sleep. This morning the wind had gone quiet. A lot of snow had dissappeared. In the stables everything seemed ok, there was some water where the hay is for the horses, but that was only to be cleaned. We figured out that our greenhouse had fallen apart. Strangely it wasn´t damaged and we could put it together again. I guess it is just luck it didn´t break. On one of the next farms half of the roof of an old stable had lifted and fallen down next to the house!

Tonight we have our anual Þórrablót. We will eat ramsballs and burned sheephead, complimented with rotten shark! During dinner we will be made fun of by sketches and singing (so I hope I didn´t do anything stupid last year), and still, Þórrablót is the best party of the year and tonight Jón and me celebrate that it is 13y. ago that we went out for the first time. It will be a party!

30. januar 2008

I rode on the ice today! There are no words, only it feels like heaven!!!!!!!!!!!!

28. januar 2008

More storm last week. So I decided to use the time to do some shopping. Nice idea while I was in Reykjavik, but when I wanted to go home the road was closed due to storm. Not very good, that way you spend much more money as you intended. But in the end I came home without any problems. Today and yesterday the weather was fine and I could use the time with the horses. The young horses do very well. I can ride both Kantata and Söngvadís without any problems. They have easy gaits, but are very different in character. Nice to see how they react and what they are capable off, I have very high hopes for them in the future. But I have time, until next year or the year after. I have also started to ride Póstur, he is a 4,5y. old gelding after Prinsessa and Eiður frá Oddhóli. The last 2 years he has always looked like a bored teenager with his pants down to his knees, you know, the last one in the group and teasing. But to work with he has been very nice, friendly and fast learning without being lazy. Yesterday I stepped on his back first time, and he was very relaxed and responding fine.

Then we have two new horses in the stable. First a 4,5y. old mare, Dimma frá Kúskerpi. She is black with two stars. Her father is Askur frá Kanastöðum, who is a son of Svartur frá Unalæk and the magnificent mare Askja frá Miðsitju. The mother of Dimma is a fourgaited daughter of Kolfinnur frá Kjarnholtum. So far she looks friendly, she has never been tamed or haltered. So I will work with her on that part in the next days. Then we have a 4,5 y. old gelding, Straumur frá Kúskerpi. He is chestnut with light mane and tale. He is a son of Kolfinnur frá Kjarnholtum. I love the off spring of Kolfinnur and Straumur seems to have inherited a lot from his father. He is very friendly and I will start leading him around in the next days.

19. januar 2008

We just got a telephonecall, the local rescueteam  found a sheep from us with her two lambs! We knew that she was missing, but where to look. After searching our homeland over and over again it was quite clear she was not there. So today we found out she has been upp in the highlands all the time. Poor thing!

It is first now that we have some snow to use snowscooters, that is often a very good method to find sheep who have been missing, and a lot of fun too!

18. januar 2008

It is winter in Iceland, but we have had a fine week. A little bit of snow covers the landscape, enough to make it look gorgegous but not enough to cause trouble. Very nice. It´s been no problem to work with the horses and the animals outside have it fine. Enough water, hay and dry weather. Often I see the horses playing when I am riding. It was very funny one evening this week it started to blow and the temperature rised to around zero degrees so the snowsurface got kind of wet, the wind blew snowballs which rolled around the field. So everywhere you looked there are snowballs on the fields. It is like there had been a huge party where the kids had made snowballs the next days. If it would have been in the dark days before christmas I would have thought that the 13 SantaClauses of Iceland would have had some fun! Very strange!

Last fall we sold Fursti (F. Tývar frá Kjartansstöðum; M. Fríða frá Hofi)  to Denmark, he is ridden by Julie Christiansen (who participated for Denmark at the WordChampionships last summer). She competed with him at the gangartscuppen. Fursti did very well, she is nr. 1 in total after 2 disciplines. Congratulations!

11. januar 2008

It´s been a nice and busy week full of horses. The weather was nice, calm and quiet, a bit cold maybe but can´t complain about that. So we did a lot of work with the horses in the stable. We shoed Kantata and Söngvadís and today I rode them for the first time. They are lovely and I am very excited to see them develop. The other horses are getting a little bit of condition and start to be more souple. We rode once this week to Hvammur and had them all run on the road freely. Such tours help a lot to build up condition even though it is not far. And it is fun!

6. januar 2008

Happy new Year and that all your wishes may come true!!!

We have had a very stormy end of the year. The last days we have had some huge storms going over Iceland, the worst in 20 years. At some places roofs were blown of houses and stables. It is nice live in well build houses these days. The horses seem not to bother, as long as they have their hay and the sheep are inside. We did put the ducks inside though, they were not very grateful and complained a lot. But today the weather has been nice and calm. It is dark outside though, so we look forward to the days getting longer.

Tomorrow the school starts again and then I start full energy to train the horses every day. They have had a more easy time during the last few weeks. Good for them, so they don´t get any muscle ache. So probably in the next weeks I can tell a bit more about them here.

26. december 2007 

Before I continue I would like to wish everybody a very merry Christmas!!!

It has been a long time ago that I wrote here last. The fall is usually pretty ´calm´ and not much happens. The horses have holiday and are pretty far away on the mountain here at home. That means they feel well, if the weather is bad and they would be hungry they will come running home for hay. The sheep are all in the stable, shaved and well fed. The matingseason is already done, this year the lambs will start to come early, around the 20th of april.

Christmas here at the countryside is a familyfeast. Very little going on besides familylife. And really little here in the valley as the internet broke down before christmas and there was nobody to fix it...... It feels very abandoned from the world I must admit. Can´t even end a Christmaschat. So I hope this will be on the internet before new Year, haha.

On the day before christmas we had so beautiful weather, you wouldn´t believe it. It was like being in a fairytale about christmas. This nice little layer of snow covering the world and full moon. So after dinner in the evening we went outside to go on the sled from the mountain. The moon was so clear and big and the stars completed the scene. I think that is how christmas should look like..........

The horses have been in the stable again for a few weeks. This winter we do not have so many horses to train, but very nice ones. I´d like to introduce them to you:

Kjalar, grey gelding after Ljósbrá and Kjarval frá Sauðárkrókur, born in 2001. He is fun to ride, powerful and active. Kjalar was one of the exceptions that was difficult to find the tölt. Normally the horses born at Hofi tölt from themselves and you have to work more on the trot. But Kjalar turned the world around. But once he found tölt, he was very fast to make this new gait his favorit. He needs more work in collection and so on, but fun to ride!

Vök, chestnut mare after Víkingur frá Vöðmúlastöðum, born in 2002. Fourgaited mare, with easy tölt and wide speedrange. We started Vök last year, she was always pretty big and bony, so last summer we decided to try to give her time to get a little bit fat. She worked mostly on longer runs where she was able to run freely without a rider and that seems to have paid off. She is more ´round´ in her looking and feels good to ride her. She seems also more grown up now. I train with the breedingshow in mind.

Penni, black gelding after Prinsessa and Kafteinn frá Flugumýri, born 2002. Very nice bombproof gelding, he is meant to be for our children. Ásdís has started to ride him and we hope they can grow together.

Gambri, chestnut gelding after Gjóta and Eiður frá Oddhóli, born 2002. Gambri was little trained last year, but has a good basic. He shows all gaits easily and is very steady. It will be fun to see how he develops as he is able to take very big steps and is very easy to ride.

Klakkur, chocolatebrown stallion after Klóra and Óður frá Brún, born 2003. Klakkur was trained last year and shown. He is a reall joy to ride, so eager to please and his gaits are so natural. He needs to learn more collection this winter, but that doesn´t seem any problem, he is well prepared. I intent to join some competition with him here in the area.

Söngvadís, black mare after Þokkadís and Sveinn Hervar frá Þúfu, born 2004. Söngvadís is the happy little girl in the group. Always playing and ready to role. I am starting her at the moment. She has a lovely character and seems to have very good gaits. I have high hopes for this mare, she is the first off spring from Þokkadís that we start training and that promises very well for the future! The plan is that Söngvadís will be a breedingmare at our farm in the future.

Kantata, black mare after Varpa and Kormákur frá Flugumýri, born 2004. Kantata we are starting at the moment. She is very nice build with long legs. I haven´t ridden her yet, we will do that first thing next year, but she shows very nice gaits. Trots mostly and you can see the tölt everywhere in between. She is the second off spring of Varpa that we train and they are very easy to handle and seem to have excelent gaits. Kantata is a futurebreedingmareprospekt for our breeding.

For the people who are interested. The Is-Landsmót, the icetölt on Svínavatn in A-Hun. will be on saturday the 8th. of March. We expect the best riders of Iceland to join this competition. Last year there were Þórður Þorgeirsson, Sigurður Sigurðarsson and several more good riders. The horses they came with were the horses that competed on the last Landsmót and the quality of the horses was supreme! The weather was also very good to complete the picture. Of course is our guesthouse open during this period and we also have some horses in the stable if people are interested to go for a ride. Just email us for further information!

5. october 2007 

Last weekend we gathered the horses from the mountains. On fridaymorning we ride up and cross a peace of land as long as our valley. We take all the animals that we can find, from horses to sheep! The weather was ok, dry most of the time, sometimes windy but clear. Funniest thing is that most of the horses were at the beginpoint gathered. So we made them go in the right direction and didn´t see them much more the rest of the day. There were quite a few of sheep that were waiting for somebody to bring them home and enough to do! After we came down to the valley around 16.30u and taking a close look at the horses we had a very nice moment in the little house with some chatting and a beer.

Saturdaymorning the actual round up took place. Our round up is not so big and very local, a good place to meet your neighbours and have a good look at the horses. Some of the foreign owners of horses at our farm joined us and we had more than enough time to check everything out. The horses are in very good condition and it is great to have them home again!

Wednesday we brought all our lambs to the stable. They are all marked and have a number in their ears. That way we know who they are, and all about their pedigree. To get an idea about the individuals we weight them and there is a method developed to measure the muscles in the back and hindlegs. So every lamb gets a judgement. Afterward we compare them, use the judgement and the information we have about the pedigree (fertility, quality of off spring) to choose the lambs that we intent to keep and breed with. This year we intent to keep about 120 female lambs. We have left 400 lambs to choose from and it is interesting to see the developments. The last few years there have been made huge progress in handling sheep, it definetely shows of in better quality. Besides the females we decided to keep about 7 male sheep. The best lamb we had is a young male, 63kg and he recieved 87,5 points. We never have had a lamb with such high judgement. Now time will tell weather he will grow in the best breedingmale we have ever had!

19. september 2007 

Well the last three weeks have been filled with gathering sheep. We have been collecting them from the mountains surrounding our valley. Even though the weather has been windy, rainy and sometimes cold I think we have collected a great deal. The first group has already left our farm and the outcome was pretty good.

For the first time we had some guests joining us to gather the sheep. Personally I believe it is a lot of fun to fetch the sheep, even though you are maybe not used handling sheep you can be a part of the group and help us. It is easier to help gathering sheep as collecting horses. The work goes slower and the sheep are more spread out over the area and we can always use an extra hand. To give you an impression of the last weeks, there are a few pictures here:

  Jón at Stóra Sandur fetching the sheep.

Eline with one of our lambs

Kathrin

And Ásdís and Jón!

Yesterday I went to take a look at the horses in the highlands. They are in really good condition and look very happy. Next week on friday we will go and bring them home!

 For more info:

hof@simnet.is

hof@simnet.is                     www.hof-is.com