Icelandic horse farmer – Haukur

The days are getting longer and with more and more sunshine the more eager the anticipation  for the start of the riding tour season. Life at Hvammur 2, the home of farmer Haukur who runs many of our tours, slowly moves into the 5th gear to prepare the final twists and turns.

During the winter months the routine of a farmer like Haukur differs quite a bit from the busy riding tour season. The projects during these colder times can range from everything between raising fences  to keeping the guesthouse nice and tidy. Most of the work still revolves around the horses and especially training the younger prospects.

It is not an uncommon sight to see the stable housing over 30 horses in the winter and spring months. The youngest ones, 3-4 years old, learn their first steps. The learning curve is steep for them to begin with. Going from the easy life of grazing and horse-ing around to meeting up with some important ground-work and eventually adapting to saddle and bridle. Training the inexperienced youngsters is both fun as well as challenging for horse and rider. Going on from there to the more mature and seasoned horses the training methods start to become more complex and individualized. As the Icelandic horse is extraordinary diverse both visually and character-wise, no particular training method will be a success for each and every horse. For instance, astonishingly many Icelandic horses tölt straight from the starting post whilst their neighbour horse from the next box might need comprehensive exercise to master the wonderful gait which tölt is.

Polishing the varying problems and obstacles which appear in horses is the name of the game and the very reason for this sport. The delight and gratifying feeling when ones horses learns and thrives is something that all riders can relate to. Being able to witness the growth of young and unschooled horses to develop into bomb-proof riding horses which joyfully carry our riding tour guests is nothing short of fascinating.

As the winter season soon makes way for a focus towards the riding tours, most of the younger generation horses will get a deserved brake. Part of the group will nevertheless get a chance to blend in with our experienced gang of riding horses and debut on the tours this summer. After a happy and successful winter, we can‘t wait to saddle up in the summer and start off the first tours! We hope to see you there!

Greetings,

The Hvammur Team