The Icelandic Canadian - 01.04.2007, Page 27

Vol. 61 #1
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
25
ed to an advertisement in the local newspa-
per and arranged to go riding the next day
with Hugga ( Hugrun Ivarsdottir ). Hugga
turned out to be the best contact that we
made on the trip. She took us on a two
hour ride and we told her all about our
plans. We were exactly what Hugga was
looking for. She wanted to travel to Canada
and work for a short while with horses. As
it turned out she was going riding with a
group of friends on the weekend. They
were taking about 30 horses up the moun-
tain for an overnight camping trip and
returning the next day. Hugga would talk
to her friends and see if we could come
along
Hugga called that night and verified
that we would be welcome on the trip. We
looked forward to the next day. We rose
early and headed for our meeting point
with great enthusiasm. We met Hugga and
nine of her friends at a small horse farm just
out of town. It was hard to contain our
excitement as the riders mounted up and
headed down the road to leave the farms.
The two riders that were to follow the
group for the first phase of the trip opened
the gate and the mass of horses charged out
of the corral and headed down the trail fol-
lowing the riders. The two tail riders could
barely contain their horses as they tried to
keep up with the group ahead. We were
scheduled to ride the first phase of the trip
in the Bronco with Reynir Hjarturson. He
advised us that the first phase of trip was
down the ditches and across a couple of
busy highways. It was not fun riding and
he did not want to chance putting us on
any of the horses until we headed into the
mountains. Reynir sensed our disappoint-
ment and assured us that there would be
plenty of riding and asked us to be patient.
Thirty minutes later we pulled up to a
large stone corral to wait for the horses to
arrive. Moments later the riders arrived and
turned into the paddock. The loose horses
turned as a group on signal through the
gate as though they were a single unit, their
manes flying in the breeze, their tails held
high and dust flying up behind them like
volcanic cloud. They were excited and
happy to be on the trail and so were we.
The gate closed behind them, the riders
dismounted and removed their tack. The
horses settled down to enjoy the break and
the riders sat down in the sun with us to
enjoy a snack of buns and coffee. Joe and
Brett were introduced to everyone, ques-
tions were asked about our riding ability
and 20 minutes later we waded into the
mass of horses to choose our mounts for
the next phase of the trip. We were
astounded as to how well the horses
accepted us moving among them while the
new mounts were caught and tacked up.
We kept expecting to be kicked at any
moment but if our hosts were foolish
enough to wade through the sea of horses
then we had better get on with it if we
wanted to ride.
My first mount was a very small red
and white pinto mare called Skjona that
seemed to be too small for me. I suggested
to Reynir and Hugga that maybe they
should give me a bigger horse. They just
laughed and said that even though she was
small that she thought she was big and she
was a very powerful horse. They suggested
that if I could not handle her then they
would find me an easier horse to ride.
Reluctantly I mounted the tiny steed and
she surged into action and out the gate in
an instant. It took all of my strength to
contain the little girl while the rest of the
crew caught up. She was a tremendous
tolter. Very fast and very smooth we cov-
ered the ground at a pace that was unbe-