News - from January 2011

We have a rather strong winter this time, at least compared to the past winters. Snow and frost since the end of November. This has not happen during the last 10 years I guess. But it´s fine. The snow protects the soil and the grass and makes the short days brighter. It is much more convenient as the constant change of temperature followed by endless storms like the past winters used to be.

We use the wintertime as usual for several construction and building projects. Our partybraggi, already in use last summer, gets isolation and a withe cover inside. We look forward to our weekly barbeques in summer and are sure that we don´t need to freeze anymore while barbequing :-)

I took my camera yesterday, using a sunny and later a foggy hour to take pictures of some of the foals and youngsters. I have uploaded the pictures here. Just click and enjoy a few minutes with me among the horses!

Wintertime is also office time for me. The bookings for next summer are going very well and some tours are already fully booked. If someone missed our Highland Adventure last year: we still have some place left for this year.
I will try to update our websites during the next weeks, before we start with the training of the young horses. Some new pictures have already been uploaded in the random gallery and I will go on with more work soon.
Actually there is a snowstorm coming up and I can hardly look out of the window. It might be good to finish todays outside work before it gets worst.
I send you my best regards from snowy Iceland.

We would like to wish all of you a peacefull and happy New Year. May the new year bring you lots of joy and happy hours, health and success.
We are looking forward to see some of you (again) in 2012!

Have a look at a small video which we made from pictures of the last day in 2011. Click here and enjoy!

Last year same time we looked back on a rather difficult year. This year we look back on a much better year. The horses stayed healthy, no accidents and the volcanic eruption lasted only short this time and had no affection on us (again) and not either on our guests travel ideas.
We had a fantastic riding season with new guests as well as good old friends, coming for their 2nd till 5th time. The new cottages were very well booked and everyone loved their stay in the cozy little houses.
A few of our horses got new owners and have already left Iceland and settled down in their new home. A group of pretty and talented foals have come up during the year.
Rather sad was to say good bye to a few (very) old horses - Vinur, Nonni, Siggi, Grani and Þota - but these moments belong as well to life then joy and happiness.

We would like to thank everyone coming to visit us this year, as well as for all your recommendations and help in any way (a special thank to our wonderful "helping hands", our girls). Thanks for all the good moments and talks.
We are now looking forward to our 13th riding tour season and the bookings promise a busy summer with many new guests and a lot of well known people and friends.

We wish you a Happy New Year 2012!

We wish all friends, guests and visitors a Merry Christmas!

The 13 Icelandic jólasveinar (Yuletide Lads) have absolutely nothing to do with the red-clothed Santa Claus. They are descended from trolls, and originally they were used to scare children. During this century they have softened, but they still tend to pilfer and play tricks.
Grýla and Leppalúði are the parents of the Yuletide Lads, and their pet is the Christmas Cat; children feared all these characters in times past.
On December 12 the Yuletide Lads begin to come -one by one - to towns and villages, put a small gift (or potatoes if the child has misbehaved) into shoes placed by children into their windows, each staying for two weeks before departing.

You would like to follow their daily arrives? Click here!

...it is pretty obvious that it is winter time!
Already? Where has all the time gone since we said Good Bye to our last guests?
The reason for flying time is often the fact that we are busy, isn´t it? And we have been busy during the last weeks and months. There is always a lot to do in the autumn. The horses need to go on vacation; they are staying in different pastures to get the best grass as possible to make sure they come well through the long winter. Saddles and riding gears need to be cleaned, horseshoes sorted, the book holding finished, the new season prepared and the lambs slaughtered. You see there is no lack of activities during this time of the year.

Beside the normal work I have been going on with my studies to become a Tourist Guide for North Iceland and I have just finished my last exam a couple of days ago. I attended these studies at the University in Akureyri and it has been a wonderful time being a student again. It was like a long journey through this wonderful island. I have learned a lot, I met many people and some new projects have been developed during the last months. In cooperation with the company of one of my class mates ( The Traveling Viking ) we will offer a day tour from Akureyri to Skagafjörður, introducing the guests to Icelandic Culture in connection with the Icelandic Horse. See here our promotion video.

The bookings for next years riding tours are going very well. The Sheep Round Up is already fully booked and some other tours are just about to fill up. The cottages are also already well booked. So if you like to take part on one of our tours or to stay in one of our cozy cottages, don´t wait too long with the booking!

We sold some horses this autumn. Some untrained youngsters and already trained riding horses. Most of them went to Germany last week and they have all arrived safely at their new homes. We wish owners and horses a long and happy time together.
I will hopefully have time soon to update our sale horse list. Last but not least I would like to remind you that we have a well updated page on facebook . You do not need to have a facebook account to access the page. Just click on the link. But of course you are welcome to like our page and get regularly updates on your facebook wall.
We wish you all a nice and quiet advent!

We finished this years riding tour season a week ago with the participation on the horse round up at Laufskálarétt. We will keep our Horse Rental open at least until October, 15th and maybe longer.
The bookings for next year have already started and some tours, such as the "Highland Adventure" start already to fill up.
We have a new tour in our program from June 25th until July 1st.It´s a combination of some of the best riding and sightseeing possibilities. For those who choose it will be possible to shorten the tour and to leave on Friday night to visit Landsmót 2012 in Reykjavík on saturday and sunday. Have a look at BEST OF Lýtingsstaðir!

A part of the annual sheep round ups are done and the riding season is almost over. Next week we will run our last riding tour for this year, the horse round up tour. We will have some nice rides and a sightsseing program and will take part on North Icelands biggest horse round up at Laufskálarétt near Hólar.

We have been working on next years riding tour program. There are no big changes and the prices will be the same as this year. At the end of June we will offer a tour called BEST OF Lýtingsstaðir. I have left to write down the detailed program but you can expect a tour which combines a two day trip into the highlands with some other nice rides and some sightseeing. It will be possible to end the tour earlier to visit Landsmót 2012 in Reykjavík for those who are interested.
The complete riding program for 2012 is now online. Have a look and book!

Time is passing away, as always when someone is busy. It seems that we just started the season but the weeks have been flying away and we have already passed the high season. The days are getting shorter, the first northern lights are dancing over the midnight sky and the horses start to put on their thicker coat.
We have had a wonderful riding tour season with many new guests as well as many guests that have been here before. Our cottages have been much in use and everyone happy who had the chance to stay in these cozy and comfortable houses.
The daily horse rental has also been popular as the years before and many travellers experienced Iceland in this very special way - on horseback.
We are now ending the summer program with our "Late Summer Riding Week". We are very lucky with the weather and can go for long rides. In September we will take part on the annual sheep and horse round up.
As the season ends we are starting to plan the season 2012. The new program will be online in the beginning of September.

We got a few new animals on the farm a couple of weeks ago - a group of Icelandic Settlement Hens. Pretty and funny chicken :-) We hope for the first eggs at around Christmas time.
No more news so far. Maybe I should mention that we use the modern mediums rather well and have a well-updated page on Facebook. Even if you have no Facebook account you can follow our news. Just click here!

The time for the longer riding tours has now started with the Midsummer tour. The weather is still rather cold but we have had a lot of sunshine, also during the nights. And the sunshine at midnight is what makes this time of the year so spectacular. Sunny midsummer nights is what you will never forget - once experienced. Among other activities we went for a walk along the coast to a place called Glérhallavík and took a refreshing bath in the hot pot Grettislaug afterwards while the midnight sun was shining. Tonight we will take our guests for a last ride and we hope for another sunny midsummer night.

On Monday starts the big horse and rider event Landsmót, just a few kilometers from our farm. A few thousand visitors are expected and we look forward to go and see Iceland´s best horses and riders.

As you see we are already in the middle of our busy riding season and we look forward to all the tours and guests. The horses are well prepared and trained and we are full of energy.

For those who are on their way around Iceland: be welcome to stop for a ride and/or a night in one of our cozy cottages (probably the most coziest cottages you can find in Iceland :-)).

Time is flying away as so often and we keep busy as always. It is already June but the weather still behaves like in April. It is cold, very windy and the mountain peeks present new fallen snow almost every morning. We still wait for the spring to arrive and wonder if there will be any summer if we miss spring?
Anyway we had a busy lambing season in May and finally the first foals arrived two days ago. Pictures of them will come later. We still wait for most of the expected foals.
The riding season started in May with the first shorter tours and this week we have already the second tour program on schedule which we call "Í sveitini - through the country side". We ride through our valley, enjoy the fresh riding horses and try to keep as warm as possible. Maybe we get some sunshine and mild weather soon?
Our cottages have already been used by guests and are well booked during summer and autumn. We are very pleased about that.

More busy weeks are ahead and we expect many guests for our longer and shorter riding tours. Soon Landsmót, the big horse competition, will be held in Skagafjörður and we look forward to visit the event with our guests, see good horses, exciting competitions and meet friends.

The winter has been quite long. There was more snow then the years before and we had many stormy days. But finally it seems like there is some spring in the air. The sun shines very intensive and warms up the ground. The first plants try to stretch out of the still frozen soil. The snow is melting and the birds start singing. What a joy after a long wintertime!
We have been very busy during the last weeks, trained the young horses and almost completed all building and construction works on the farm. The first guests will arrive at Eastern and stay in our new farm cottages. The riding horses will get shoed in the beginning of May and the lamb season is starting soon. Beside the farm work I´m studying at the University in Akureyri to become a Tourist Guide for Northwest Iceland. These studies last for almost one year and are a lot of work. But I´m sure it´s all worth it and I can use everything for my work with our guests.

I finally had the time to complete the picture gallery. Take you time to look at hundreds of pictures from last year and follow our farm life in the actual picture gallery.
Click here to find
Gallery January until June 2010
Gallery July until December 2010
Gallery from January 2011.

Góða skemmtun - have fun watching them!

Last Friday was the big day we had been waiting for: all preparation works had been done and the weather conditions were perfect for the transportation of our new farm cottages.
The cottages were transported on lorries. Each cottage came on its own vehicle. We were very excited and many people in our neighborhood followed this event as everyone knew that we are going to get the cottages.
I waited with my camera and took many pictures to document the arrival and the setting. You see a few pictures beside and I will download some more in the next days.
The cottages are almost ready to move in, we have only left to put on the water and to even the ground around the houses.
We are looking forward to welcome our first guests in April and hope everyone will like these cozy cottages as we do.

The first weeks of the new year have already passed but I think it is still a good time to wish everyone a Happy New Year!
As usual many things are going on over here though this time of the year is more quiet then other times. We are always waiting for suitable weather conditions to finish the preparations for our new farm cottages. Between Christmas and New Years we were lucky with the weather and could make the foundations. Heavy snow storms, low temperatures and finally rain and mud in January disturbed further works but now we seem to be ready with everything. If we are lucky we can move the cottages to our farm by the end of this week!

The days are getting longer and longer and the sun has already reached a good level to shine for some hours every day (if the weather is not cloudy of course).
We have not taken any horses into training yet but soon we will start with the youngsters, born in 2006 and go on with the training of the horses born in 2005. We are looking forward to start with Jörfis colourful offsprings and hope they will all be as kind, easy and talented as Jörfi himself.

August Hofmann, well known horse breeder from Rappenhof in Germany (for instance Týr vom Rappenhof) had been our guest during the last week. Beside interesting and deep discussions about the breeding of the Icelandic horse we had the possibility to follow his work as an Osteopath. After treating a horse he gave the owners lots of information for the further training. The picture beside was taken on Varmilækur where he treated a few competition horses.

The bookings for the next summer season are going very well. The first riding tour (Traces of the past) is already fully booked but there is still a double room and one of the farm cottages left during the Landsmót week. If you are interested please contact me as soon as possible. There are only 4 places left for the Highland Adventure in the beginning of August.
We have already many bookings for our farm cottages and they seem to be a good choice for many people to stay for a shorter or longer time on our farm.

During the next days I will build a picture gallery for the year 2010 and for 2011. Please visit us again soon to have a look at more than 300 pictures from last year.