News - July until December 2009

We would like to wish all friends and guests a MERRY CHRISTMAS and hope that you have a wonderful time with your families!
It did not look like we would get a white christmas until December 23rd but it started to snow at Christmas eve and it has been snowing since. ;-)

There is not only one Santa Claus in Iceland. No! There are 13 Yule Lads!
They are the sons of the ugly and awful giant Grýla and her lazy and even more ugly husband Leppaluði.
They live in Dimmuborgir at lake Mývatn and appear one by one from the 12th of December until Christmas Eve. In old times they have been really scary and were known for stealing and doing other bad things. Nowadays they are not so scary anymore and bring sweets for well behaving children BUT potatos for the naughty ones!
We went to Dimmuborgir some days ago and met two of the Lads. It was Stekkjastaur, a very stiff and serious one and the "story teller" Kjetkrókur, also known for stealing meat with a hook, who welcome us at their home in the lava fields Dimmuborgir. You find some pictures of our visit in the gallery!

We are looking for someone giving us a hand during the training of the young horses from February until April for 4-8 weeks. If you are interested send us an e-mail to get more information.

Once more I used the good weather and went to take some pictures.
This time I visited the two herds with mares and their foals.
It is always so much fun to see the colour- and beautiful herd of curious foals. You can have a look at the results of my photo shooting in the gallery!

There have not been many days we can call "golden autumn" this year.
But after the early winter in the end of September went away again, we had a few good and sunny days.
I used the sunshine last weekend to walk around and take a few pictures. You find them as usual in the gallery!

The riding tour season 2009 is now over and we and the horses take a well deserved rest.
The season has been very busy and very successfull and we would like to thank everyone who took part on one of our longer or shorter trips. It makes us happy that so many people find their way to us and leave us happy and smiling. :-)
The last riding program was as every year the big horse round up at Laufskálarétt near Hólar. The weather was not good and our guests met a real Icelandic snowstorm, but nevertheless was everyone impressed and happy to be in the middle of this unique event.
All horses got now their shoes off and left out on the autumn fields. They need to be eager to put on enough hair and fed for the long winter.

The riding tour program for 2010 is now online. You will find all our classical tours such as Austurdalur and Sagatour. We have renamed two tours. Highlight I is now "Perls of Skagafjörður" and Highlight II "Traces of the past". Have a look at the program here. Some tours are already well booked, especially the program around Landsmót 2010 which will be held once more in Vindheimamelar, only 12 km away from us.

We will celebrate our 10 year anniversary next year: Lýtingsstaðir Riding Tours from 2000 - 2010! Our Highland Adventure is the special anniversary tour and I´m sure we find some time to celebrate this mark!

The summer is over and autum has arrived in big steps. The days are already quite short, temperatures low and the mountain peeks are slightly covered by snow.
The longer riding tours are finished for this year and on the coming saturday we will join the big horse round up at Laufskálarétt. Our guests are getting very excited about this big event and we have trained rounding up horses today with our own stud. That was a lot of fun for everyone!
We have spent the last two weekends with rounding up sheep in the highlands and the mountains around. You see a few impressions beside! For further impression have a look at our YouTube videos:
Sheepy impressions part 1
Sheepy impressions part 2
Sheepy impressions part 3
Flood of sheep

Our plan for the riding tour season 2010 is ready. I will upload the new schedule within the next days.

We are always very happy to hear from horses we have sold. After taking care of them since they were born until they were sold, we still own a big part of them in our hearts. It makes us happy to have the possiblity to follow the horses way. Like Vorboðis way...
Vorboði was sold two years ago when one of our guests fall in love with this beautiful 4 year old gelding. Vorboði is a son of Vordís (our long maned black beauty among the breeding mares) and Smári frá Skagaströnd. He was started under the saddle before he left for his new home in Sweden last October.
His owner Helena has kept us up to date with news and pictures and I would like to show one of her last e-mails:

"I just want to let you know that everything is fine with Vorbodi. He is out on the big summerfields right now and seems to like it very much. He just eats and eats and between that he is laying down resting and sleeping :-). I ride him 6 days a week and it worked out very well so far! He is SO NICE to ride!!! He has good movements and actions, learns fast and is willing to please me. A really dreamhorse!!! I am so satisfied with him and couldn´t have get a better horse, so big thanks to you for breeding such a good horse and letting me buy him! The plan right now is that I take him to a light competition in the beginning of september. My trainer says that we are ready for it. She says that Vorbodi is a really good horse that can develope his movements and gaites to be very good...."

We wish Helena and Vorboði all the best for the future!

The last foal of this year was born last night at 09.30 pm.
It was finally Tibrás turn and within 5 minutes after we saw her laying down, she gave birth to a beautiful dark bay stallion after Tindur frá Varmalæk. Our 16 guests who had just finished the Highland Adventure were lucky and could follow these impressive moments. Many pictures have been taken and I will upload some of them soon. If there wouldn´t be the problem with the choice....and the time.... :-)

After a great week in the highlands we continue our riding tour program tomorrow with our next tour into Austurdalur and another "Ride & Enjoy" week.

These days are as usual very busy.
Svenni is with a group of 16 Swedish guests on our Highland Adventure Tour and I´m keeping the daily riding and guesthouse business going.
The weather has changed a little bit since last week. No more 23°Celsius but at least no rain.

Our young mare Vænting has got a foal about a week ago. Vænting herself is from Kvika (mare with 1st price for riding abilities) and Tindur frá Varmalæk, the well known 1st price stallion which is now living in Norway and collecting many prices on Norwegian Championships. The father of Væntings foal is Sólnes frá Ýtra-Skörðugili (sire: Gustur frá Hóli), which got 1st price as a 4 year old stallion. So we are very exited about Væntings beautiful mare foal which got the name Sólbjört.
We are now waiting for the last foal. Tibrá has left to give birth to her foal from Tindur. Tibrá is a young mare from our old 1st price mare Perla (also mother of our recent judged mare Veiga which got 1st price) and the beautiful pinto stallion Skári frá Miðsitju. So we are very exited to see the result of her pregnancy and hope that we have not to wait for much longer ;-)
You find pictures of Sólbjört and other nice summer pictures in our gallery.

I have now actualised our news site and the gallery. You find old pages in the archive.