The Icelandic Canadian - 01.04.2007, Blaðsíða 25

Vol. 61 #1
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
23
Icelandic Horses
by Brett Arnason
Sooner or later as you go through life
you get a day or days that for some reason
you never forget. It might be a great day or
some horrible day but nevertheless you
never forget it. August 17, 1987 is a day
that will stay with me for the rest of my
life. At 8:00 a.m. on Monday morning I
received a distressed phone call from my
mother. She was trying to wake my father
up and he would not wake up. I knew
instantly that my father had died.
I was very angry at the world for a
period of time. It just did not seem fair that
you should have to lose someone when
they were so young. At 64 my Dad has just
begun to think about retiring for a second
time. He still came to work most days but
not as early in the morning and he took
longer holidays. Dad had just returned
from guiding a group of visitors from
Iceland on across Eastern Canada. He had
called me at home Sunday night and told
me about how wonderful the trip had been
and that he would see me early the next
morning as we had lots to do. That was the
last time we talked.
During the year prior to his passing
Dad had been working on a Centennial
project for the Islendingadagurrin
(Icelandic Festival of Manitoba). He had
decided that it would be appropriate to
have Icelandic Horses come to Manitoba
for the 100th anniversary of the Icelandic
Festival and put on a demonstration. Dad
kept me informed of what he was planning
and he tried to instill some enthusiasm for
the project in me but we were very busy at
work and although I was patient with him
I was not very interested. We owned a
number of thoroughbred race horses and I
was of the opinion that horses as small as
Icelandics could have nothing to offer me.
Maybe a horse for kids to ride but when I
heard what the cost of an Icelandic Horse
was I quickly dismissed the idea. The plan
to bring Icelandics to Manitoba was going
to die with Dad.
During late October, Lorna Tergeson,
who was the president of the Icelandic
Festival Committee, contacted me and
requested that I take over the project to
bring horses to Manitoba. My immediate
reply was NO!! Lorna was persistent and
encouraged me to at least follow up on
what Dad had been planning. I reluctantly
consented to look into the matter and give
it fair consideration. I was not very enthu-
siastic.
A few weeks later I received a call from
Joe Sigurdson. Joe had been in contact with
Lorna Tergeson and she had suggested that
we get together for lunch and talk horses.
Joe owns a business that custom builds
horse trailers and he was a polo enthusiast.
We dug up all of Dad's correspondence and
found a video that had been sent to him by
Robyn Hood and Susan Hodgson. The
video aroused our interests and the project
was resurrected.
The original plan was to arrange for
Susan Hodgson and a group of Icelandic
Horses and riders to come from Toronto to
give a demonstration and then the horses
would go back to Toronto. This would
have provided great entertainment but
nothing would be left behind. Joe and I
continued to meet and discuss the horse
project and we eventually conceived a more
grandiose plan. We decided that if these lit-
tle horses were as exciting as they looked
on video then maybe we should try to
expand the project so that we could perma-
nently establish Icelandic Horses in
Manitoba. The initial goal of a one time
only show was revised. If we were going to
do this thing then we would try and estab-
lish some kind of legacy to stay in
Manitoba.
Joe and I soon discovered that we
shared many common interests and we