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23.12.10
Christmas greetings from the Horse Centre
Horse Centre Söðulsholt wishes its friends, customers and all those who have visited its website Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
14.12.10
Foal show
Even though this horse flu has stayed with us for a long time and a number of foals have been sick this past fall, it appears to be finally moving in the right direction. All our foals are now healthy and we just hope that they have overcome this disease (knock on wood) and we have been hearing the same from others we have spoken to. We have therefore decided to look at the possibility of holding a foal show in February/March, but will make a final decision closer to the actual date, keeping the foals health status in mind.
08.12.10
Two with potential
Training is going well and the horses are improving their form as time goes by. We decided to take pictures today of two mares with great potential, but intend to add more training pictures of the stabled horses thoughout the winter. Unfortunately, daylight had started to fade when we took the pictures, but so be it.
The first mare is Kólga from Skarði 1.
Kólga is 4. winters old, sired by Straumur from Innri-Skeljabrekka and Röskva from Skarði 1. This mare has potential and it is always interesting when a beautiful colour and quality are combined in one horse. Kólga‘s owner is Hrossaræktabúið Eyri.
The other mare is Kvika from Grundarfirði, one of our favourites, who shows daily improvements and it will be interesting to see what she will be capable this spring.
Kvika is 5. winters sired by Illingur from Tóftir and Kveikja from Söðulsholt. Owner is Herdís Tómasdóttir.
05.12.10
New family member
A new familiy member joined us last week when this beautiful Border Collie bitch joined our family. The little one has an excellent pedigree, born in Syðra-Skörðugil and is named Fjóla after the housewife there.
22.11.10
News update ;0)
It was so beautiful out today that we just had to take some pictures. Don‘t know what this is called, but everthing was frosted white and could possbily be compared with a magical world.
Old Kolbrún, the oldest mare, appeared so very grey this morning, but was, like everything else, covered with white frost.
Life continues here at Söðulsholt, horses come and go and many interesting horses are currently stabled. We stable 35 horses and we have just taken in a few mares that we intend to have evlauated his spring.
Óli, Einar‘s son who lives in Ameríca, is currently here for a visit and the young granddaughters, Ella and Bryndis, went for a ride today. Not a bad deal, having a grandfather who owns so many horses. It won‘t be long until they will join us for rides outdoors.
03.11.10
The first snow
It was christmaslike this morning when we looked out the window, white everywhere and still big snow flakes kept on falling. Only christmas songs being played on the radio were missing;0).
We took the camera with us today when we went to check on the foals and the mares. The veterinarian had recommended that instead of keeping them all close to home with access to a hay bale, we should distribute the group and try to put some on clean land, where no sick horse has been before. This we did three weeks ago and the mares and the foals are now located in 4 different areas, some with access to hay bales and others still eating what is left of the grass. This appears to work quite well and they all look good, although we did see some snot in one of the foals today, Gyðja, who was sired by Sigur and Sunnu from Akur. However, she didn‘t have a fever and appeared very lively. Below is a picture of her and more pictures will be added to our facebook page later this evening.
31.10.10
Fall news
The rider badge courses have begun again after the summer break, and currently the third rider badge is being studied. This weekend was mostly academic, but the course also included show and tell with double reins and various horse types (built and gaits) were discussed. There were 8 participants and the instructor, as before, was Birna Tryggvadóttir.
3 foals are now on a course of antibiotics, one of them for the third time, the others on their first course treatment. Those that are outside appear much better now when compared with a month ago, despite colder weather. So who knows, maybe they are getting over this, at least we hope so.
Training has gone well this fall and the weather has been unusually good. Most of the 3 year olds will be released again after the weekend and new horses will replace them and start their training. Linda from Germany has been helping us for the past month, but will be leaving us tomorrow. On November 10, Linnéa from Sweden will arrive to work with us.
19.10.10
Rising star????
The 3 year olds are now well into their training. Although they are at various stages their training is going well and some are actually pretty promising.
The horse on the picture above is Fjöður from Ólafsvík, 3 years old, sired by Mars from Ragnheiðarstöðum and Perla from Einifell. Her owner is Sölvi Konráðsson, but we are pretty sure that there are many who would like to have this one in their stables.
11.10.10
Sunshine and no wind!!!
The weather the past few days has just been unbelievable: no wind, sunshine and over 15 degrees. The horses are enjoying this calmness and simply lie in the sunshine, almost too lazy to move around. We grabbed the camera along on Sunday when we went to check the foals and we posted the pictures on Söðulsholt‘s facebook page. The page is open and anyone can access, view and read the page. You don‘t even have to be a facebook user – the page is open to all:0)
Click here to visit Söðulsholt‘s facbook page
04.10.10
Work has begun again
Work has begun again after a nice and long fall vacation. On Wednesday we brought the whole herd home and started to sort them. We took in some horses from Krókur, that were bought last year, but that we couldn‘t work on the entire summer due to illness. We also brought inn all of our 3 year olds and have also taken in a number of horses for third parties. In total we took in about 30 horses and they all appear to have great potential. We have, for example, horses sired by Baugur from Víðines, Hágangur from Narfastaðir, Gígur from Auðholtshjáleiga, Dynur from Hvammur, Mars from Ragnheiðarstaðir, Smári from Skagaströnd, Hrymur from Hofi and many others whose sires I can‘t remember at the moment.
The foals and the 1 year olds have been kept close to the stables and are under daily inspection. Three foals had to be put on antibiotics 3 weeks ago and five foals were kept inside last week. We were afraid we would lose our Ófeigur, last weekend. On Friday he stopped drinking from his dam so we milked her every 3-4 hourse and poured the milk into Ófeigur. Fortunately, he tried drinking from his dam again on Sunday morning and today he is healthy again and outside. He deserves an A plus for a superb temperament, while on his second 10 day antibiotic treatment, in addition to having hurt his leg where the bandages needed daily changing, and someone always disturbing him. He showed great calmness and patience during this whole process and is today even more of a favorite then before.
15.09.10
Rider‘s badges..
The rider badge courses will begin again shortly, so if you are interested in joining the group and begin on the first rider badge, there is still space available. You can learn more about the rider badge system at http://knapi.holar.is/. It is ideal for beginners and intermediates. Instructor will be: Birna Tryggvadóttir.
15.09.10
Successful and unsuccessful breeding!!
Edda, the veterinarian, came to us yesterday to give the mares that have been staying with Ábóti this summer an ultrasound. He has had a good summer with 12 mares and they have all been successfully bred, except for one, although a successful breeding has not been ruled out as Ábóti was still with the mares. All in all, this was a fine job by the youngster and it will be interesting to see his offspring next summer.
While Ábóti‘s mares were being checked for breeding, Einar and Dóri went South to collet four mares that have been with stallions. Two of the mares were from Söðulsholt and two are owned by neighbours, but they all turned out to be barren. Rebekka from Krókur was being serviced by Sporði from Berg, but she also turned out to be barren. Although there is still a slight chance that Rebekka and Gerpla are successfully bred, as the stallions were still with them, we decided to put both mares with Ábóti until the end of the month. We decided to take Sunna to Abraham from Lundir, a two-year old stallion by Auðna from Höfða and Vilmundur from Fet.
The foal in the picture above is Hertogi from Söðulsholt, sired by Sigur from Hólabak and Kolbrún from Kjarnholt.
04.09.10
Ófeigur home again.
The breeding mares are coming home, one by one, after having been with the stallions, although 5 mares are not yet confirmed to have been successfully covered, which we feel is a high number as we are already in September. However, we are still hopeful that coverage will be confirmed for all of them. We went and picked up 3 covered mares in the South of Iceland yesterday. One of them was with Arður from Brautarholt, one was with Fláki from Bessastaðir and the third, Blæja, and her very handsome Ófeigur, was with Álf from Selfoss. It is great seeing Ófeigur again, as he is a bit of a favourite, and we naturally took a few pictures of him.
26.08.10
Lipurtá attended a breeding show
Agnar of Staður presented Lipurtá from Söðulsholt for us at Miðfossar. The show and presentation went well and her total score was 7,96, conformation she received the scores: 8.0-8.0-8,5-8,5-8,0-7,0-8,0-9,0= 8,09 and for rideability she received: 8,0-8,0-7,0-8,0-8,0-8,0-8,5=7,87.
Lipurtá is sired by Rökkvi from Hárlaugstaðir and Katlu from Neðstabæ. Lipurtá has been covered by Ábóti from Söðulsholt.
22.08.10
IN MEMORIAM
We have been experiencing great sorrow today and yesterday as one of our main breeding mares, Arna from Varmadal died yesterday.
Arna was 15 winters old, sired by Mikki from Tóftar and Brúnka from Ármóti, she had a score of 7,91 for conformation, 8,45 for rideability with a total score of 8,23. Arna also had a long and successful career in the compeition ring and she placed both in the National championship in the A category and at breeding shows. Unfortunately she leaves us with only one live offspring, a one year old filly sired by Klettur from Hvammur. She will hopefully have great success in her future.
18.08.10
Donna received a 1. prize score
Dóri took Donna from Krókur to Blönduós for breeding evaluation, where she increased her score for slow tölt, galop and walk. For conformation she received the scores 8.5-9-8.0-8.5-8.5-8.5-8.0=8.51 and for rideability she received the scores 8.0-8.0-5.0-8.5-8.5-8.5-7.5=7.66 and for slow tölt and galop she received 8.5. Total score: 8.00.
According to Worldfeng, Donna from Krókur, Gletta from þjóðhólfshagi and Birta from Úlfsstaðir received the highest scores for conformation this year, at least so far, all having a score of 8.51.
Here are pictures of all the horses at the breeding show held at Blönduós.
08.08.10
Firm competition at Faxi
As the little lady in our home is now overly interested in competitions, and has been begging to be allowed to compete in such competitions, it was decided to take her and her friend Elisa to Miðfossar where the firm competition took place on Saturday. They were very excited about the whole thing and of course everyone received a medal at the end fo the competition. Katla was very certain that she had won the competition as her father ran the fastest, and of course the competition dress, selected a few days earlier and stored for safekeeping, had a certain effect too,,,,
Here are pictures of all the paricipants in the firm competition event.
06.08.10
Breeding show at Miðfossar
Dóri took Þyrla from Söðulsholt and Donna from Krókur to the breeding show at Miðfossar on August 5 and 6. Þyrla did well and received a first prize score for rideability, including a score of 9 for pace. She received a score of 7,56 for conformation and 8,03 for rideability and a total score of 7,83. As an interesting aside, Þyrla is the first horse born in Söðulsholt under the ownership of Einar.
Donna from Krókur is an absolute beauty queen and received a score of 8,51 for conformation and 7,59 for rideability, for a total score of 7,96. Donne received a score of 9 for neck and 8,5 for head, proportions, legs (quality and joints), mane and tail, form under rider and spirit. We believe, however, that she deserved a higher score for rideability, especially for tölt and gallop. Even though Donna is 7 winters old, her training didn‘t begin until last winter and so she still has plenty of rideability improvements left in her. It will be intersting and exciting to see what happens next year.
Here are pictures of the other horses that entered the breeding show.
31.07.10
Haukur
Haukur from Haukatunga Syðri1, 6 winters old, sired by Glampi from Vatnsleysa and Kolfinna from Haukatunga Syðri1. An interesting horse and the colour definitely doesn‘t hurt J Haukur‘s owner is Ólafur Pálsson.
26.07.10
Farmers‘ ride
Here are plenty of pictures from the annual farmers‘ ride, which took place last Saturday....
22.07.10
Ábóti
I had to post a few pictures of our Ábóta Unbelievably beautiful;)....
Ábóti is a two year old chestnut pinto, chestnut headed with a blaze, sired by Álfur from Selfoss and the daugthoer of Roði, Sunna from Akur. He is highstepping and moves around using tölt and trot. He has, like many offsprings of Álfur, a very supple and flexible body.
Ábót has been with mares this summer at Hrossholt, but we took him home last week in order for him to service one particular dam. I don‘t think there are many 2 winter old young stallions where one can simply walk into the pasture, put a halter on him and lead him away from the mares and into a horse trailer, without any problems whatsoever. At any rate, he looks great and it will be interesting to watch how he will continue to develop.
20.07.10
Sun and not even a breeze!
Úff, it has been incredibly warm here on the peninsula for the past few days, almost too warm, with temperatures rising well above 20 and even more, not even a breeze. We finished haying this weekend and the last bales are being driven home. It will be interesting to see how the barley will turnout, as for the moment, the crop looks really good. Maybe we‘ll have a record year this year if everything turns out well.
The foals are not very interesting in playing much in this heat. They just lie in the sun and only get up occasionally in order to have a drink befoe throwing themselves on the ground again.
We received a new addition to the group of foals when Gerpla from Laugasteinn foals a chestnut filly with a star. There are now 12 foals, of which there are 5 fillies and 7 colts. Most of the dams are now with stallions and we can‘t wait to see the changes in the foals when they come back again. Gerpla will be brought to Hákon from Ragnheiðarstaðir.
We have been adding new links in our Link section, but if you know of any websites which haven‘t been listed, but should be, please let us know by sending us an e-mail.
17.07.10
New camera
You may not have noticed, but lately there haven‘t been all that many pictures of horses being ridden, as the old camera broke down in April. Then again, we wouldn‘t have been able to take many pictures of horses being ridden due to the horse flu. Now we have a new camera and we can start taking some „action“ pictures again. It would have been nice if we could take pictures of additional horses, but unfortunately a number of the horses are still coughing.
Donna from Krókur is getting back into shape.
Here are two horses that are for sale. They are both good riding horse material.
Brútus from Söðulsholt 5. years old by Arm from Sveinatunga and Vordís from Litla-Ásgeirsá
Erró from Krókur 6. years , by Júpiter from Stóra-Hildisey and Kvísl from Lækjamót
09.07.10
A new filly;)
A new foal was born last night when Sunna from Akur, daughter of Roði, foaled. She presented us with a chestnut filly, with a star, which was a nice change :), sired by Sigur from Hólabak. She is very beautiful, which is perhaps not all that surprising as both her parents have high scores for conformation. Sigur has a score of 8,44 and Sunna a score of 8,38. Sunna will be joining Borði from Fellskot in the near future. There are two mares that still have to foal, Gerpla from Laugarsteinn, who will hopefully foal very soon, and Arna from Varmadal, who probably won‘t foal until late August.
07.07.10
Silver dapple bay or not????
Rebekka from Krókur foaled this morning. We were obviously very excited to see whether we would get an interesting colour. Of course, the foal turned out to be a colt J and at first glance he appeared to be a very uninteresting chestnut with a star, a chestnut colt! sired by Glymur from Innri-Skeljabrekka and Rebekku, a chestnut pinto. But when his coat started to dry, we didn‘t think he was a simple chestnut anymore, but though he might be silver chestnut. As we are no colour experts we called a few experts :) who informed us that silver chestnut does not exist and thus he must be silver dapple bay. We then looked at pairings in the Worldfeng database and found out that there was a 5,6% chance of obtaining a silver dapple bay offspring of Glymur and Rebekka. Of course the colour should not be what matters most, but it is more fun to get cool colours. So until proven otherwise we conclude that the colt is silver dapple bay J. But whether or not he is a chestnut or a silver dapple bay he is very handsome and we are very pleased with him. He has already been named Biskup (bishop) and his BLUB is 116. Next, Rebekka will be meeting Sporður from Berg for stud services.
We will try to include more pictures of Biskup tomorrow.
04.07.10
Stud services
Sometimes it can be quite difficult to choose a stallion to service the mares, and more often than not it is subject to change and often even the stallion selection is changed. Maybe it is best to say nothing and wait until the mares come home impregnated and then announce the studs that were used :).
Two impregnations have been confirmed, Abbadís from Söðulsholt has been settled by Glymur from Innri-Skeljabrekka and Hildur from Sauðárkrókur has been settled by Þristur from Fet. A little more than a week ago, 5 breeding mares along with their foals were transported south for stud services. Blæja from Svignaskarð is visiting Álfur from Selfoss, Von from Söðulsholt will be serviced by Arður from Brautarholt and Pyngja from Syðra-Skörðugil, Píla from Brún and Fjóla from Árbær all went to Fláki from Blesastaðir. A few mares will have an ultrasound on Tuesday, for example Kórína from Akureyri, who was service by Hákon from Ragneiðarstaðir and a few mares that were with Ábóti from Söðulsholt. Still 5 more mares haven‘t foaled yet, but we hope that they will begin foaling in the next few days....
30.06.10
Updated news
They hay season has begun at Söðulsholt. About 4 hectares were mowed, giving us 65 bales before the rain caught up with us. Last year we only got 40 bales from the same fields.
We have a new foal, as Kolbrún from Kjarnholt foaled last night, a colt, naturally, chestnut with a star;)
Birdlife has been very lively lately, and those of you who follow our website may remember the white redshank who stayed with us last summer. Well, he is here again, and we see him off and on flying around the stables. Also, a pair of thrushes have made their home in the small stables and it is soon time for the young ones to leave the nest. The parents have had to fly frequently to bring food, stored in their beeks, to the young ones. As the young ones number five, I guess their feeding involves quite a bit of work for the parents.
21.06.10
News update and pictures!!!
We are probably not the only ones who are positively disgusted by this horse flu. We were going to try for a ride this morning and herded the horses home. But with every second horse coughing and the others displaying these kind of snotballs, we opted for shoeing them instead.
I think they guy who coined the phrase „allt er vænt sem vel er grænt“ (meaning: all things very green are (environmentally) friendly) did not have this green snotball in mind;)
Here is also a a picture of Kolbrún from Kjarnholtum who must be the winner of this summer‘s biggest belly. She appears to be ready to explode and will probably foal very soon. Who knows, maybe there are two foals hiding in this huge belly.
And finally, here is a picture of Dóri and Sigurrós, the foal with the long and supple neck. Einar‘s grandchildren, Inga Dís and Róbert Vikar, have been very good at visiting the foals and after only a few visits, the foals have become very friendly and entertaining.
17.06.10
Two foals a day will improve anyone‘s day;)
We received two National Independence Day foals today, both sired by Sigur from Hólabak. One was a bay colt, whose dam is Píla from Brún.
The other is a chestnut filly with a blaze, whose dam is Pyngja frá Syðra-Skörðugil.
It is interesting to see how alike the foals are that sired by Sigur and born so far. They all have a light build, are all tall with a finely shaped throat and neck. We would, however, be very happy to see more fillies born, as so far the foalings include only two fillies and four colts.
15.06.10
And more foals
Fjóla from Árbær foaled a chestnut colt with a star yesterday, sired by Sigur from Hólabaki. This was supposed to be a filly so we were initially a bit disappointed, but he is very handsome and so we are smiling again.
And not to be forgotten, Söðulsholt now has a facebook page :). You should definitely take a look at that page.
13.06.10
More foals
Von from Söðulsholt foaled a chestnut colt with a star, sired by Sigur from Hólabaki. He is finely built with a beautiful neck. The question is whether this little one will follow his brothers and accumulate prizes at the foal and young stallion shows;)
Decided to add a picture of little Ófeigur who was moving around close to me while Von was foaling. Normally newborn foals are rather pacey, but this one started to trot showing big movements and a great suspension. It is going to be so diffictult having to wait 3 years before we can begin his formal training.
12.06.10
Ófeigur from Söðulsholt
We were getting a bit impatient waiting for the the next foal to arrive, but we have been watching the mares closely the last few days and finally Blæja started to leak milk. According to the ultrasound she should have foaled a few days ago. So we watched over her last night but things were progressing unusually slow, as normally the mares don‘t take too long giving birth. However, she was obviously anxious and was having contractions ever so often, but she never laid down to push. Suddenly, everything stopped and she started feeding again. After a discussion with the Vet, who couldn‘t immediately come by, Dóri reached inside of Blæja. But, instead of finding feet and a nose he found the foals back. Perhaps it can be said that thankfully Dóri has a lot of experiencing in helping out during the lambing season and thus was able to turn the foal and grab its legs. We have to admit though that we weren‘t very optimistic that the foal would be alive.
Understandably we were ecstatic when we were able pull the foal out of the mare and it was alive, presenting an unbeliavable colour. A red pinto, with not one, but two glas eyes (ring around the pupils), showing a lot of white colour, with just a bit of chestnut on his ears and between them, a chestnut spot next to each eye and a chestnut spot on one side of his loins. UNBELIEVABLY beautiful :) and will probably be bathed quite often in the future.;)
The little one was already named before he even tried to stand up. His name is Ófeigur (meaning someone who is not fated to die). His dam is the first prize 4-gaited mare Blæja from Svignaskarð and Hákon from Ragnheiðarstaðir.
02.06.10
No news
Not much is happening here these days. The mares are certainly in no hurry to foal their little ones, although we are still hoping for a new foal this weekend. Most of the horses are still coughing, although we are gradually starting some training again, mostly in the form of easy exercises. The large stable has been mucked or emptied and everything has been washed down. Now we only need to sterilize the stalls.
Since the National Horse Festival has been delayed by a year, the interesting question has come up as to whether we shouldn‘t use our facilities at Kaldármelar, since they are in top shape after the regional event last year, and aim for a semi regional event this July/August, a general horse and tölt competition. We could even mix or add in a breeding show to the event, and finally a ball at the Kvos to top it all??
Ábóti from Söðulsholt
21.05.10
First foal of the year
An unbelievable coincidence occurred the second year in a row when the first foal of the year joined our world on May 21, which also happens to be Iðunn‘s birthday. Last year, the daughter of Klettur was born and she received the name Iðunn.
This year a chestnut filly with a double star sired by Sólon from Skáney and Hildur from Sauðárkrókur was born and of course Iðunn wanted another namesake, so the little once was immediately named Silja, Iðunn‘s middle name. Sólon‘s offspring have been doing quite nicely, as 3 of his offsprings have been shown this spring. All of them received the first price and two of them have also received the minimum score required to enter the National Horse Festival.
14.05.10
May news
Even though all the horses, both inside and outside, are now sick, we have had more than enough to do these past few days. We herded all the horses home, gave them worm medication, moved them between pastures, took DNA and frostmarked them. We have also put up and fixed fences, cleaned ditches and harrowed the pastures.
In the first picture is Háfeti from Söðulsholt, a 3 year old sired by Baugur from Viðines and Hrafnhildur from Hoftún. In the other picture is the thick-maned Sóley from Söðulsholt, a 2 year old sired by Sólon from Skáney and Pyngja from Syðra-Skörðugil.
All the barley seed has already been planted, which is unusally early this year, so it will be interesting to see whether we will get a record harvest this fall. One can at least hope J. The first mare, Abbadís from Söðulsholt, has gone to Glymur from Innri-Skeljabrekka for stud service and if everything goes well we will be getting a foal in April of next year. We may not forget the handsome Ábóti, sired by Álfur and Sunna from Akur, who was just receiving a visit from his first mare and he is obviously very happy about that. Ábóti will be in Söðulsholt this summer. Interested parties wanting to bring their mares to him are requested to contact Einar at 899-3314. You can see additional pictures of Ábóti undir the stallion link..
05.05.10
Foal training, last group!!
We completely forgot to tell you about the last three foals we worked on, but they have all been released outside again some time ago. The last group of foals included...
Forseti from Söðulsholt, sired by Arður from Brautarholt and Rebekka from Krókur. Forseti is a handsome colt, moving around on all gaits. You can see a videoclip of him
Kobba from Söðulsholt, sired by Sindri from Keldudal and Hrafnhildur from Hoftún. She is the tallest of the foals in this group by far and she has probably inherited her fathers wonderful temperament. Kobba has also been sold but will stay with us for a little while.
Then there is Svana from Söðulsholt, sired by Kjarni from Þjóðhólfshagi and Hildur from Sauðárkrókur. Svana has a beautiful neck/throat and a light build, and moves around on trot with big movements.
01.05.10
A short trip to the Northwest „Strandir“
Well then, now the horse flu has arrived at Söðulsholt, even though as of yet it is only a light nasal drip and some horses are coughing a little bit. We still decided it was best to cancel the riding course with Maggi Lár, which was supposed to be held this weekend. Since this cancellation gave us a first weekend in a long time where we didn‘t have anything specific to do, we decided to drive up north to Snartartunga to look at our horses there and to check on the progress of the lambing season.
Our three prizes, Gloría, Skuggadís and Kolbrá were doing very well. We cut their hooves and gave them worm medication. Gloría is now 23 winters old and looks good for her age. With her is her filly, sired by Hóf from Varmalæk and since we decided not to have Gloría serviced again, the little one will be staying with her dam for as long as the dam allows.
UThen there is Kolbrá, bay with a blaze, offspring of Gloría and Sólon from Skáney. She is two winters and tall with a beautiful temperament. We didn‘t even have to halter her in order to give her worm medication or to cut her hooves. She just stood there like a statue.
Our dog, Mýra, can be very inventful and always ready for a bit of fun. Here you can see Dóri and Kolbrún egging her on to go beneath the bridge over the farm creek, which she of course did, in the end.
26.04.10
A funfilled Saturday and another riding course
Last Saturday Skuggi‘s corporate meet was held and this time our youngest lady intended to participate in the competition and there was a lot of excitement in the air. In the week before the meet she spent a great deal of time pondering which dress to wear for the meet, because as everyone knows, girls have to own a competition dress :). Finally, the right dress was found and then she decided to wear her red boots and her pink gloves and thus she was ready to compete. Her father got to run alongside her for a few rounds and the little one could be regularly heard telling her father to „run faster daddy, the others are gaining on me“. Everyone received a prize medallion at the end of the competition.
After the corporate meet we rushed to the hall at Ölfus for the Breeding 2010 show, where Dóri presented Donna and Kolfreyja.
Next Satuday and Sunday, Maggi Lár will be instructing at the riding course held at Söðulsholt. Those interested are asked to send us an e-mail or call us at 8995625.
18.04.10
Sports event in Búðardalur
Both Dóri and Arnar competed at the sports event this past weekend in Búðardal. The weather was just great, despite a bit of wind, sunny all the time and the smell of spring in the air. Dóri competed on Nasa from Söðulsholt in the 5-gait event. Even though she didn‘t pace, we were happy with her, as this was her first time away from home and thus she was a bit distracted with all the new sights and sounds. She is very promising though and we can‘t wait to see what the summer will bring.
Dóri also competed on Kolfreyja in the 4-gait event and placed second after the tie breaker for the first place.
Þyrla from Söðulsholt place fourth in the 100 metre pace event and Arnar was a finalist in both the 4-gait and the tölt events, but decided to only participated in the tölt event final, where he placed first..
Here are numerous pictures of various competitors from the event.
09.04.10
Foal training, second group
The next three foals we have worked with are Gáski, Sörli and Dökkvi.
Sörli from Söðulsholt, sired by Húmvar from Hamrahóli and Sunna from Akur. Sörli is Sunna‘s third offspring and it appears that Sunna gives her offspring her throat (for which she scored 9), as all her offspring have been front beautiful. Sörli moves using trot and tölt and if he is anything like his parents he will be very roomy in his gaits.
Gáski from Söðulsholt, sired by Hróður from Refsstaðir and Gerpla from Laugarsteinn. A finely built and front beautiful colt who tölts and trots. In addition his coloring is incredible, brown with a blaze and a glas eye.
Dökkvi from Dalsmynni sired by Eldjárn from Tjaldhólar and Von from Söðulsholt, a calm and collected colt with a beautifully raised, yet supple, throat. He moves showing big movements in both tölt and trot. Dökkvi‘s achievement so far includes the first prize at the foal show this past fall – which isn‘t bad at all for this young one;)
10.04.10
Pictures from the KB meet series
Here are a few pictures from the preliminary tölt and 5 gait competition of the KB meet series, which was held today.
09.04.10
Foal training.
We started on the first 3 foals yesterday and again today. It was great to seem how fast they learn and of course we speculated quite a bit, as to who would turn out to be the best of the group and so on :). We intend to work on these 3 maybe once or twice more and then we start on the next group and then the one thereafter. Finally we may run them all through one more time before releasing them back outside. The foals in the first group were:
Moldi from Söðulsholt, dam is Píla from Brún and sire is Hæring from Litli-kambur. He is long legged and lightly built with a fine frontbuild. He displays an excellent temperament, is quick to learn and shows high action moves in all gaits
Fjöður from Söðulsholt by Bruni from Skjólbrekka and Fjóla from Árbæ. Finely built and attractive with a high neck and a supple and good backline. She was a bit stubborn the first day, but today she was like a dream. Moves mostly using a dancing, supple, tölt.
Rúsina from Söðulsholt sired by Klettur from Hvammur and Arna from Varmadal. A very friendly and goodnatured foal, even if she became a bit angry in the beginning. She is finely built with a slim yet supple neck, uses all gaits, but moves mostly using trot.
06.04.10
The last suckle;)
This afternoon we drive the breeding mares home, gave them womr medication and removed the foals from their care. The foals are all tall and handsome and we will board them inside for a few days while we get to know them, teach them how to be led, taking up their legs and so on. Of course we will take some pictures of them and place them on the website in the next few days.
29.03.10
Breeding mares and stud services
The breeding mares are getting bigger every day, but the due date of the first delivery is approaching fast and we can hardly wait to see what comes. Of course speculations run high as to which horses should be used next summer. We have gone a few circles with the mares and we probably will go a few more. However, we have decided to use the following stallions for stud services: Þristur from Feb, Álfur from Selfoss, Álffinnur from Syðri-Gegnishólar (Álf‘s full brother), Hákon from Ragnheiðarstaðir, and we will also probably use Ábóti from Söðulsholt for a few mares. In other word‘s, the theme is pinto.;)
This picture shows three of last summer‘s foals, Rúsína sired by Klett and Arna from Varmadal, Svana sired by Kjarna from Þjóðólfshagi and Hildur and Moldi, sired by Hæring from Litli-Kambur and Píla from Brún
16.03.10
Hákon from Ragnheiðarstöðum
We went to the south of Iceland on Saturday for the general annual meeting of the Hákon company. Hákon is a chestnut pinto, 2 year old stallion, sired by Álfur from Selfossi and Hátíð from Úlfsstaðir, in which the farm owns 3 parts. We started by meeting at Hólaborg, a new and excellent physical and stamina training facility close to Stokkseyri. We were given a tour of the facilities, which is run by Ingimar Baldvinsson. This is a fabulous facility and there were a number of great looking horses being trained. After the tour, Hákon we looked at Hákon running around the riding hall. I think we can all say that he fully meets the expectations of his owners, as he ran showing high action, big movements and long strides. The owners were all smiles by the time we left to go to the restaurant Krían for dinner and where the annual general meeting was held.
Einar will be expectin a foal sired by Hákon and Blæja at the end of May and it will be interesting to see what will see the light of day, maybe a fireball pinto filly!!! ;)
16.03.10
Pictures from the KB meet series
We took a number of pictures of the competitors that attended the KB meet series last weekend, but we were mostly trying to capture pictures from our team members at Snæfelling, who did very well. It will be interesting to see where the team will place after this round, but prior to this meet the team was in second place. Our Arnar and Brunki competed in the young rider category and they did well, placing fourth.
15.03.10
New pictures of our sale horses
Finally we took some time to take pictures of some horses while being ridden, and the lucky ones captured by the camera today were Bakkus and Sindri.
Bakkus from Söðulsholt is the horse currently on the frontpage of this website. He is a 4 winter stallion, sired by Borði from Fellskot and Hrafnhildur from Hoftún. He is even tempered, clean gaited stallion, with a thick mane, raised and supple neck and his color sure doesn‘t harm him one bit.
The other horse was Sindri from Keldudal. Sindri is on his 5th winter, sired by Hágangi from Narfastaðir and Ísold from Keldudal. Sindri is an all-gaited horse with a great disposition and even temperament. For interested parties, both these horses are for sale.
08.03.10
Riding course next weekend
Hanna will be the instructor at the children‘s and teenagers‘ riding course to be held the weekend of March 13-14. For further information or registration please call Dóri at 8995625 or send an e-mail to sodulsholt@sodulsholt.is Fee is ISK 12.000. Included in the fee is lunch, coffee/refreshments, and horse boarding for the weekend. Last registration day is on Thursday.
07.03.10
Inauguration of the riding hall in Borganes
The inauguration and naming ceremony of the riding hall in Borgarness took place today. The riding hall was named Faxaborg. We gave a small tölt show with Gunnar Halldórsson and Benni Líndal, which went very well, with Donna from Krókur and Lipurtá from Söðulsholt. Here are a few pictures from the show.
You can also see more pictures from the ceremony on Skuggi‘s website:
01.03.10
Pictures from the last riding course
We included some pictures that were taken during the riding course with Magnús Lárusson last weekend. The course was very interesting and educational and since all appeared to be very satisfied with the weekend, it was decided to book Magnús to instruct in another course to be held on April 17 and 18.
25.02.10
Katla doing balancing exercises and a children‘s riding course!!!
We took the camera with us to the stables today as we were going to take some pictures of horses during a ride, but as the weather wasn‘t the greatest, we ended up taking some pictures of Katla (3 years old) instead. She actually likes to have her pictures taken, but usually, when she comes home from day care, she insists on going for a ride. The horse that is usually bestowed with the honor of carrying the little one is named Vonarneisti and belongs to Katla‘s grandmother. However, his main „work“ is to be our lead training horse. Hanna will be the instructor at the chldren‘s riding course, which will be held on the weekend of March 13 and 14. We will provide additional information closer to the actual date.
25.02.10
Naming competition for the riding hall in Borgarnes
It has been decided that the formal inauguration of the riding hall at Vindás in Borgarnes will be held on Sunday, March 7. It has also been decided to hold a naming competition for the hall. The naming committee includes Kristján Gíslason foreman, Sigurður Oddur Ragnarsson and Magnús Magnússon. There will be a reward for the proposed name that will be chosen. If there is more than one proposition for the same name, a draw will decide who receives the reward. Residents of the area, horsepeople, people of Western Iceland from near by and afar, are all encouraged to submit name propositions. They should either be posted in a closed envelope to the committee‘s foreman: Kristján Gíslason, Súlukletti 3, 310 Borgarnesi or sent via e-mail to: kristgis@grunnborg.is (please put in the subject line “Name proposition”) Propositions have to be received by the foreman no later than Tuesday, March 2, 2010.
20.02.10
Riding course at Söðulsholt
Maggi Lár will be the instructor of the riding course which will be held during the weekend of February 27-28. The course fee is ISK 20.000 and included in the fee is board and feed for the horses, lunch, coffe and refreshments on both days. Interested parties are invited to send us an e-mail or to contact us by phone at 899-5625(Dóri) sooner rather than later.
15.02.10
Quick weather changes
The weather in Snæfellsnes can change incredibly fast. After unbelievably good weather during the past few days, the wind picked up yesterday and increased even more this morning. It became so windy that the roofwindow of the machine storage building was lifted or blown off in once piece. It was pure luck that no one got injured. The window was blown off the roof and landed on a fence just bleow the house, where, just a few minutes earlier, Óli from Mýrar had been to pick up hoses. From there the window was blown even further down a little ravine and landed where foalfilled mares are given their feed. Arnar had just been there a half hour earlier bringing the mares their feed. The mares and the foals were there quietly eating away when the roof window came flying down the cliffs and landed on one of the feeding cribs. As luck would have it, the horses all seemed to have moved quickly aside, but we have to admit that we were worried and anxious as to what we would find when we realized where the window had landed. The mares were understandably very afraid and panicky and did not dare to come back to the sheltered ravine so we gave them another hey bale further below. However it was difficult to convince them that it was okay to start eating the hey.
14.02.10
KB meet series
KB meet series began with a four-gaited competition on Saturday. The meet was held at the new and spectacular riding hall in Borgarnes. The meet is a team competition and we are members of the Snæfellingar team, which of course did a great job at the meet. We attended with 3 mares, Donna, Kolfreyja and Lipurtá, who were all participating in their first meet and they did just fine. There were more than 90 registrations for the meet and the division between categories was good. It was an interesting and fun meet. In the next meet, which will be held in a month, the participants will compete in tölt. We took some pictures of the members of our team and have included them here below.
20.01.10
Videos of the foals for sale.
We just created short videos of the colts Moldi and Forseti from Söðulsholt, both of whom have excellent pedigrees and are for sale.
Video of Moldi from Söðulsholt
Video of Forseti from Söðulsholt
20.01.10
Puppy date and straw bales
The first puppy date has come to an end and was a success, with 9 puppies at various ages attending. Not all had developed an interest in sheep, but some showed some very promising abilities. It will be interesting to see how they continue to develop as we will plan on a follow-up puppy date in the near future.
We also would like to point out that we are now selling small straw bales and for further information we invite you to visit
20.01.10
Puppy date at the Horse Centre.
We intend to hold a puppy date at the Horse Centre on January 30. This is not a real class, but we are trying to bring Border Collie puppies together, untrained or with limited training 6 months and older. We won’t really be working the sheep, but the puppies will get the opportunity to show their abilities if the interest is already established. Hopefully there will be some experts attending as well, who will probably not be shy in expressing their opinions on the status of the puppies or how their training should be continued.
The cost of the facilities will be split between guests and other arrivals and those that are hiding a cake in the larder or in the freezer are especially welcome, should they bring the cake along. All are welcome as house occupancy permits. Registration and information to be provided or given through dalsmynn@ismennt.is or Svanur, phone : 6948020
24.01.10
Shovelling
This past weekend was spent emptying/shovelling the stalls. Normally we managed the complete this task in one day, but of course we couldn’t miss the handball this weekend, so we decided to take two days for this task. We were trying to count the number of times the stalls have been emptied since we opened the stables and we think this is the fifth time. We don’t remove the manure, just add more straw on a daily basis and use about 3 bales per week. The size and depth of the stalls make a huge difference.
20.01.10
A sample from the stables
Everything is going smoothly at the farm, but the weather has been kind of weird, as it has been warm the last few days, lots of rain and then today we have had lightning and thunder (a rare occurrence in Iceland). It has to be admitted, we wouldn’t mind some snow and frost, if only to improve riding conditions ;)
Horses at play in the paddock and in the other picture are the heating lamps we installed yesterday.
As we are overdue in showing you pictures of the horses currently in the stables, we decided to take some today.
The first pictures are of Glaður from Stórhol, sired by Tigull from Gýgjarhóll and is owned by Jasmin in Switzerland.
Here are also a few pictures of Kolfreyja, sired by Parker from Sólheimar. She had a problem with her back most of last year., but we are hoping that she has fully recovered and that she will be ready for showing this spring.
HHere are also a couple of pictures of Donna from Krókur, sired by Júpiter from Stóra-Hildisey. She is owned by Steinunn of Krókur.
We will soon add more pictures of the horses.
14.01.10
Doði from Krókur
We took a few pictures of Doði from Krókur in the beautiful weather we had today, which actually reminded us more on a good day in the beginning of May, not in the middle of January. For those that are interested, Doði is for sale and is very promising as an excellent riding/travelling horse. He is big, strong, very handsome, with a soft trot and expanding his tölt. Doði is sired by Júpiter from Stóra-Hildisey and Staka from Ytri-Skógar ( Conformation. 7,93- Riding abilities,7.76- total score, 7.84)
13.01.10
Horse pictures
A picture Iðunn took of Gáski from Söðulsholt was chosen as the most beautiful foal picture on 847.is. Gáski is sired by Hróður from Refsstaðir and his dam is Gerpla from Laugarsteinn.
Iðunn also took the picture that placed 5th in the picture competition. This picture is of Þöll from Dalsmynni, sired by Sindri from Keldudalur and the her dam is Dögg from Kjarnholt.
This week, we also received some pictures from Vinur from Syðra-Skörðugil and his new owner, Mareike, while training in Germany.
10.01.10
Record participation at the foal show
We had a record participation at the foal show that was held yesterday where 78 foals were registered, 42 fillies and 36 colts. The judges were Þorvaldur Kristjánsson and Hallgrímur Sveinsson and they did not have an easy time evaluating this great group of foals, most of which scored over 65 points. The prize foal of the show was Dökkvi from Dalsmynni, winning both the colt category and the spectator vote. Dökkvi has the same dam as Funi from Dalsmynni, who won the young stallion show which was held last December.
We wish to thank everyone for a great day, but we would like to especially thank the judges, Lárus Hannesson, who did a great job as announcer, and Áslaug from Þverá, who took care of the coffee and refreshments. We also admired the foal owners for their consideration and care as there was no waiting period with the next foal was always ready in the corner, ready for showing. With that many foals, the show had to run smoothly for the show to end at a reasonable time.
Click here to see results of the show
07.01.10
Impressive registration
About 70 foals have been registered to participate in the foal show this Saturday - an excellent participation. We encourage all to attend and take a look at the foals, a number of which are very interesting and have a great pedigree. In the past years, a few foals have always changed ownership at the foal show and we expect the same to happen this year ;) Not a bad idea to take along camping stools or something to sit on during the show as there are no spectator seats in the hall.
We hope to see many who will come to take a look at the (hopefully) future stars!
03.01.10
Foal show at Söðulsholt
On Saturday, January 9 at 13.00, Söðulsholt will host in cooperation with Snæfelling a foal show at Söðulsholt. Registration fee is ISK 1.000 per foal and the foals can be registered with Einar by calling 8993314 or by e-mail at einar@sodulsholt.is. The show is open to all. Required registration information is name, colour, place of birth, sire, dam, breeder and owner. The competition will be gender based. Registration fee should be remitted to 0354-26-4027 and id nr. 540999-2019. Last registration day is Thursday, January 7.
Admission fee is ISK 1.000 per person over the age of 12. The admission fee includes coffe and cakes/biscuits and we hope, of course, to see as many as possible at the show.;)
