The Tölt Tales

Episode 21 - A year of Tölt Tales

• The Tölt Tales • Season 3 • Episode 1

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0:00 | 35:16

This is already our 3rd season!!!

We wanted to take a bit of time to do a recap of our 1st year of podcaster and take the opportunity to reflect on some of our guests and episodes!!

We would like to thanks of our guests from Sabina to the last one Catherine and obviously thanks all of our listeners for being with us on this journey.

2026, year of the (icelandic) horse promise to be exciting with new guests, new point of view, new travels and project. We will come back very soon with new episodes during this seasons and bring new format this year.

Like, subscribe, share, rate... our podcast it helps us to reach even more people!!

2026, Let's Go!!


Music by Cob.
Follow us on Instagram and Facebook, @the_toelt_tales.

Lionel:

Hello and welcome to The Tölt Tales Podcast. Hello, Arie.

Ariane:

Hey, Lionel.

Lionel:

You good?

Ariane:

Yeah.

Lionel:

Okay. Good. So, this is our first episode for the third season already.

Ariane:

Wow.

Lionel:

A bit more than a year.

Ariane:

Yeah.

Lionel:

Now, 13 months.

Ariane:

Yeah, it's amazing.

Lionel:

And we thought to kick off the third season, we wanted to do a special episode a bit with just you and I.

Ariane:

Like a recap.

Lionel:

Like a recap, yes, of memorable moments we had during the year, and then we can kick off the season in two weeks. But yes, we wanted to maybe to talk about like, what did we learn and what happened the last 13 months.

Ariane:

Yeah, maybe I can start a bit with like, when you first told me you wanted to do a podcast, I was a bit hesitant, to be honest. Because I have not been listening to podcasts really much, and I didn't know what to expect. And so I, yeah, I was really hesitant. And then we started to have some really interesting guests, or actually all of our guests are really interesting. But we started with our first guest, Sabina Svert.

Lionel:

Yes, which is a bit the godmother of our podcast, I would say. I don't know if you say that, but she's our, she's the first crazy guest that...

Ariane:

She was a guinea pig also a bit, like a lab, or an experiment for us, because she agreed to do something where we didn't have experience, and we didn't know how it turns out. And she agreed doing that with us. And I think what, for me, Sabina is also really interesting, that we actually met her via social media.

Lionel:

True.

Ariane:

Some years ago, we started following her, starting to have lessons with her. And so, since she's living close by, we have been in contact with her over the last year. So, it was really amazing to have her as a first guest, because it felt safe. It felt like we can trust her, and that was... It was a good feeling, I think.

Lionel:

Yeah, like you mentioned, Guinea Pig, it's also... That was the first time we tested the material.

Ariane:

The equipment.

Lionel:

The equipment. We were... We kind of came to her place, and she welcomed us. She was like, okay, yes, sit there. And then after... Yeah, we just started recording. It just felt extremely natural.

Ariane:

Yeah.

Lionel:

And I think this is where I started to click of like, wait, we are the lucky ones. Yes. Because we get to hear professionals like her.

Ariane:

I think especially, I can, from my perspective, it was always like having the backseat in the beginning more. And then I also started to talk to people. I felt like I really could sit, lean back, and enjoy the ride, enjoy... It was almost like a private lesson for me.

Lionel:

Almost you were the first listener, right?

Ariane:

Yes, exactly.

Lionel:

You were the first listener live, and you're like, okay, that sounds good, or sounds less good.

Ariane:

Yeah. Sometimes, you know, when you sit there, and we agreed that one of us is doing the interview, I don't know how you feel, but sometimes I feel like in that moment, while I listen, and I have ideas, and I would like to say something, and we agreed, no, this time, this person does the interview. Sometimes I feel like, oh, I want to say something, but we usually switch our phones off, so that we also don't receive any messages. So it is like, there is an itch sometimes to kind of step in and say, don't forget to say this, or don't say that.

Lionel:

But maybe, wait, that's funny, because maybe that's an itch that people who listen to the episode have, you know?

Ariane:

Yeah, maybe.

Lionel:

Maybe that's like, oh, why they didn't ask that question. Tell us. Tell us in the comment or everywhere. If you have this itch, maybe we can revisit some of our old guests. I don't know.

Ariane:

Exactly. So if you feel like we missed certain points to ask people, just tell us, and we will try to reach out to them again, try to ask those questions for you, send us a message on Instagram or Facebook, comment under the reels that we post, so that we have directly an idea which episode you mean. So give us the feedback, that we highly appreciate it, and we try to kind of address those questions that you have.

Lionel:

Yep. So thank you, Sabina, if you listen to us.

Ariane:

Thank you so much.

Lionel:

Thank you so much for the trust as well, because you come, not totally stranger to her, though other guests, we were stranger to them, like a good part of them. And this Christian, they didn't know us. Egrun didn't know us.

Ariane:

I think for a lot of people from the second season, almost, where a lot of people, no, actually, overall, I'm not sure, I never really looked into it, what is the percentage, but a lot of people, we only knew via social media, how they present themselves. And of course, it's interesting to see how they are then in real life. It's a bit like for me, fangirling when I see those superstars on social media, and then I can talk to them, and they're just really nice people.

Lionel:

Yes, I have to agree. We started with Sabina, we had Linda, our own vet, kind of.

Ariane:

Exactly.

Lionel:

She's the go-to vet when you have Icelandic horse around us.

Ariane:

Exactly. So she's well known in our area, and it was extremely nice also that she took her time. And then the next one is Luis, our trainer. She has a lot of experience also with young horses, so that's really nice. And then we went on to Nils and Susi from Linbeil, from Scotland, Iceland, Sesta. And we actually have a Scotland horse, and we trained for Nils many years. Yeah.

Lionel:

I mean, he taught me almost everything.

Ariane:

He taught you everything, yeah. So I think also for me, it's a special bond every time I look at Nui, my horse. Because when we were about to buy Nui, we asked Nils, and so he looked at videos. But then additionally, Exactly. Then additionally, Susi went and she checked all the World Fango, which was so new to me, and I had no idea. So she looked at all the statistics and really tried to see what is happening in his pedigree and gave me also like a lot of confidence to go ahead and buy this horse. Yes. So those two together, really it felt good to have them in my back.

Lionel:

It was super interesting. We, especially our first episodes, maybe now it's 50-50 or even less than 50-50, we were traveling in Skona a lot with our mobile setup. Everything was set up in a way that we come, we take the mics and we record on site. So we recorded at Linda, at Nils, at Louise.

Ariane:

And then actually, I got for Christmas from the family. As you might have guessed, it's a French family. The whole family put together that we go to Iceland. So it was already booked and everything. So we went to Iceland with our mobile setup, and we got the chance to talk to such amazing people. We had a good time also in Iceland.

Lionel:

Yeah, yes.

Ariane:

But for me, I think the thing that stuck most with me was the lesson, the personal lesson with Gunnar Pettersson. That was really something. And since then, I'm also on his Patreon page, diving into videos. And I really highly recommend watching the videos. Get a subscription for his Patreon. I make some promo here. So greetings to Gunnar. I really, really much appreciate his videos, but also the feedback he gives on. He has a Q&A. You can comment. You can ask questions. And he addresses you personally in the Q&A, which I think is such a nice setup. So also to get his lesson on such amazing horses that he has in Hesterland, that is like one of the highlights for me for the Iceland trip.

Lionel:

And the recording of the episode, right? Goddamn tractor that was passing through every now and then. So kudos to the recording thing that we are able to remove as much as possible. It was super interesting in the tiny office, but that it takes the time. And then we had obviously...

Ariane:

Berglind.

Lionel:

Berglind in Reykjavík.

Ariane:

Horses of Iceland, like the biggest social media account for Icelandic horses. She agreed to talk to us.

Lionel:

And Berglind that allow us to meet Christine later. Yes. From the historic Icelandic horse center in Olar.

Ariane:

Exactly. So that is also that we make those connections. And now we hear our dog in the background coughing up some stuff. But, and Isak, our dog, you hear all the time.

Lionel:

Yes, he is an uninvited guest.

Ariane:

For most episodes.

Lionel:

Yes, in most episodes. The one with the... You forgot to mention James before we went in Iceland.

Ariane:

Yeah, James' episode went through the roof.

Lionel:

That's our breakout episode, I would say. If people are wandering, we used... We were trailing well, you know, but with James, James helped us so much in getting a bit more... Rich. So if you are there because of James' episode, thank you.

Ariane:

Thank you a lot.

Lionel:

Hope you stick around for more. But yeah, so James, then we went to Iceland. We had Adrón.

Ariane:

To have some research-based topic.

Lionel:

And we still look for that, right? We want to have...

Ariane:

Yeah, it would be nice to hear a bit more about like genetic background or what is happening in the breeding and stuff like this. So I think overall scientific topics easily packed for like non-scientific people. I think that would be something that I would really enjoy.

Lionel:

And our last guest that we recorded mentioned it, like mentioned that there is so much research.

Ariane:

Yes, we just now, like yesterday, we recorded somebody that... That mentioned it.

Lionel:

Science is helpful in doing two things. We learn new things, but also we confirm the feeling, the tradition behind training, knowing the horses. So we will always try to... We are looking actively for new guests, obviously, but we try to go as broad as possible.

Ariane:

Yeah, maybe also then we can mention, for example, Tim from Hester Covey. Yes.

Lionel:

You don't want to talk about where we recorded Heidrun.

Ariane:

Yeah, but yes, exactly. So coming back to Heidrun, we actually...

Lionel:

The mobile setup.

Ariane:

The mobile setup that we had. And for Gudmar and for Bergland, we had it nicely in offices. And that was good. But we stayed in Reykjavik in a hotel. So we went downstairs into the hotel lobby, met Heidrun that we never met before. It must have looked so weird to people at the lobby. And then a couple... She went back to our room. We went back up to our room. It must have looked as if we are on some kind of platform. We recorded with her in the hotel room while I was sitting actually on the bed listening, because there was no other chair available. And yeah, that was really funny to have her.

Lionel:

Good to meet Aethrun, talk about her research, talk about horses as well.

Ariane:

Yeah.

Lionel:

And yes, then after, yes, let's crack on, let's keep on going.

Ariane:

Yeah, we had Intrinsen or like equanimity actually with Camilla. Also really interesting approach.

Lionel:

It's a different point of view again.

Ariane:

Exactly. Something that I'm not so familiar with, but it was extremely nice. And Camilla welcomed us so nice and so warm. And so we, that was, it was just really nice.

Lionel:

Then we went to, you mentioned Tim from Istakovia. You might have noticed that we love this product as much as we enjoyed meeting him. And that's a funny story also, right?

Ariane:

It is a really funny story. So we, I listened to the podcast from Easy Flix, actually. So hi, Lisa and Tobi. I listened to your podcast since I also speak German. And so it was really interesting to listen to him in German. And I thought like, Lennel, we have to get him for our podcast because his ideas are so good. So we went and met him in Hamburg on the way when we went home to my mom. And he welcomed us, he welcomed our dog. And we chatted, he showed us where he produces his products, how he sets up everything. And then we are about to leave, go back onto the highway. And I don't know, one of us said something like where we grew up.

Lionel:

Yeah, where you grew up in the...

Ariane:

And where I was riding as a child, close to Bremen. And he stopped and looked at me and I was like, this is where my cousin was also riding. And I'm like, yeah, I had this trainer, she's like, that's her name. And he was like, that is my cousin. Like how small must the world be that we met, like 30-something years after this.

Lionel:

And we meet him again, recording an episode in the middle of an industrial area in Hamburg.

Ariane:

Exactly. What a coincidence. That was so hilarious that he knew this stable, where I kind of grew up, spent most of my childhood riding. And now I live in Sweden and I meet somebody over a podcast from somebody else.

Lionel:

I think it's interesting when we just go through some of our experience. When I come to think of it, when we go through the episodes and the guests, and it's like how eclectic, how different the people around the Icelandic horse world, how much they bring. You know, like, Tim is bringing a different approach than James or Edhrun, but we're all still looking at the same horses. You know, we're still looking with the profound respect, I think, on all the guests we had, like the huge respect for this horse and what it means. But it's really interesting to have a different approach. I mean, he's selling products. There is a good mar on his Patreon. Some of the guests have are great riders.

Ariane:

All of them are great riders, but I think the different perspectives, the different backgrounds, this is something that I...

Lionel:

Yes, we started to even ask, right? Are you coming from a horse family?

Ariane:

Yeah.

Lionel:

Or not a horse family? It turns out, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.

Ariane:

It's really the passion that drives people. I was just looking now who else we had, and we had... I mean, we should not forget a really nice talk also with Sola Rundsten.

Lionel:

Yes, yes.

Ariane:

So we went to Gothenburg, and she has so much experience with hoofs of Icelandic horses. So that was so interesting. And again, she... We just knew her from social media, and she welcomed us.

Lionel:

Yeah.

Ariane:

So warm.

Lionel:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ariane:

So that was amazing. Another person also, when we talk about James, we also had Josefine Williard. Yes. Young rider for the Swiss national team. So then we have that.

Lionel:

Yes.

Ariane:

And then Henning, like Henning Draht, like the big name of the voice behind.

Lionel:

If you think about the voice, you think about Henning.

Ariane:

Yes. And Henning also, he just took his time when he was here in Skåne to be a speaker for the, for a competition, Liberia.

Lionel:

Yes, in France.

Ariane:

Liberia, we should mention, for everybody that speaks German or has like some kind of knowledge of German, they had a documentary kind of film for one of the German TV channels. And you should definitely check this out. I think it's on ZTF for everybody knowing German. Yes. So check this out. Tabea and Lisa, wow, so brave. Yeah, and then I think...

Lionel:

I mean, we can say, like, we were lucky enough to be able to meet those people, and, you know, like, we got to meet Johan, which is, I mentioned...

Ariane:

Johan and Osa.

Lionel:

And Osa.

Ariane:

International judges.

Lionel:

Yes, we discussed with Jeff, Christine, Victoria, here in Skåna, where we talked about feeding. I want to come back to Nils, but Elina, obviously, and then we had...

Ariane:

The FFCI.

Lionel:

The FFCI, which I hope it brings another... Again, like, it's maybe... I hope they don't mind I say it like this, but this is a less fortunate country.

Ariane:

They were quite early in five, but it never really picked up.

Lionel:

Yeah, it never picked up, and it's a different world when you have three of albanas in the country versus three every 100 km.

Ariane:

Yeah, maybe also something like we talk with Jeff about, that in Colorado or in the US overall, it is a different way than what we have, mainland Europe, and especially like in the Nordics, plus maybe Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. And maybe then also we have been in looks in that sense. So I think that kind of complex is very dense and very forward in the way how it is.

Lionel:

And let's talk a bit about Niels, Niels Christian Larsen. Nicest man you can ever think about.

Ariane:

Wow, I thought like, I mean, when you see him, maybe there is people look at his reels and how things are presented, like a chandelier and everything is very esthetic. And then you come and it is very esthetic. And there is a chandelier.

Lionel:

Yeah, there is a chandelier.

Ariane:

But then he is such a nice person. He laughs. And when he laughs, I took a picture of him. We posted it. He reshatted. I thought like it showed so much how he made me or us feel. He laughs with an open heart.

Lionel:

Yeah, and genuine, just genuine.

Ariane:

Absolutely.

Lionel:

And he's not sugarcoating what he's saying, et cetera, but very genuine. We were lucky enough again, like to visit his installations, his horses.

Ariane:

He showed us around. He took his time, even though he had other things to do. He was about to buy a horse.

Lionel:

To buy a horse, yes.

Ariane:

But he took his time, and really, even after we recorded, we had time to ask him different questions about anything. And I thought it was just amazing.

Lionel:

And I hope people listen to that episode. I hope it translated what he is, what he thinks about riding, competing, Icelandic horse, and so on and so forth. Very nice episodes that we had, and his episode in particular, I will say.

Ariane:

Yeah. That is one of my highlights. And again, since I was sitting, listening, and while we were recording, I could see he has all his rosettes and trophies. And I looked at it, and I thought like, he won so much, and he's so down to earth. It's just incredibly nice.

Lionel:

Yeah.

Ariane:

And I learned a lot from him also.

Lionel:

Yeah, yes, yeah, absolutely. Like about Young Horse, we talked a bit more about that. And things like this. And it made me think, because we finished the year with our friends, or virtual friends from Tölt together. And I think Yura was saying it very well. Like the people that we talked to, those are human beings, obviously, and they are not... Yeah, they are human beings, and they just, if they want, they will take the time for you. We had one person maybe that said, how much do you pay for participating to the podcast? No one that anyone will know, to be frank.

Ariane:

And nobody that ended up in our podcast.

Lionel:

And no one that ended up in our podcast.

Ariane:

We do this for free.

Lionel:

Yes, we spending the balance is very much a minus still, but we really do it, yeah, I think we're doing it for us, and we thought to share that with you, I think this is how it turned out.

Ariane:

Yeah, I think last mention would be also Catherine.

Lionel:

Yes, I wanted to finish with Catherine.

Ariane:

Our Christmas episode, because Catherine approached us like a half a year ago or a bit more. She sent us her book, Little Viking Horse, and I read it, and as I mentioned in the episode, I really like fell deeply with that story. And so we got lucky to talk to her, and she's writing another book. She just published also another book. And so she also opened perspective to the UK way of Icelandic horses. She lives in Shropshire. And then finally we had, like you said, Juha and Anela from Tölt together. And hey, to both of you, it was again, it felt like we know them.

Lionel:

Yeah, yeah, but yeah, yes, true.

Ariane:

It was so easy to talk to them.

Lionel:

And obviously, Tölt Together, that's their podcast. There is other podcasts. There is some, and I think it's developing, which I think is really cool.

Ariane:

Which is really good because it also has, especially when they come from different countries, there's a different perspective, there's a different background from the people, how they approach, also the guests, even though we have already some overlapping guests. But I think it's always, we ask different questions because we are interested in different things. And I think that makes everybody very valuable for everybody. And it's just nice to listen to different people.

Lionel:

Yes, true, true.

Ariane:

Talking about interesting horses.

Lionel:

Yes, yes, sometimes very interesting horses. Maybe before we close off, I wanted to talk about what's coming. What is 2026?

Ariane:

Yeah, the year of the horse.

Lionel:

The year of the horse.

Ariane:

Maybe the year of the Icelandic horse.

Lionel:

Maybe the year of the Icelandic horse, indeed. What we decided is that we will keep on doing our main episode.

Ariane:

Yeah, exactly. Every second week, a new episode.

Lionel:

Ten episodes per season.

Ariane:

Exactly. And we have all guests for this season confirmed, and some of them already recorded, so we are ready to go.

Lionel:

We will alternate between myself and Ari as interviewers, just because I think sometimes you have more connection with the guest, and sometimes it's just easier, because we come out of nowhere sometimes. If we have the opportunity to do smaller episodes, like Fika episodes, we will do a Fika episode.

Ariane:

Yeah, I think we have already some ideas what we want to discuss about, and we have a very big project coming up. And I think that will be kind of like a small series of episodes following us with this project. So we want to take you with.

Lionel:

Yes, it's a bit more narrative. We'll see if we manage to, like episodic, you know. And it's related to a big investment. Because the 1st of April, what do we do the 1st of April?

Ariane:

We move to almost a countryside, not really, but we move to our first-owned farm with the horses and the dog. So that's going to be a big thing. And we want to take you with.

Lionel:

Yes, and we're moving from a city life to a stable life and see how we go.

Ariane:

Also from being borders to taking borders.

Lionel:

True, true. So the idea behind it is that we want to have maybe 5 or 6 episodes throughout the year. It's a bit more narrative. We can record, take snippets and put that together. And the first episode will be about buying the farm and moving in.

Ariane:

Yeah, I think so.

Lionel:

And I think so that it will hopefully release like maybe end of April, depending on how long it takes for me to edit the thing. But we have a rough idea and it's going to be different. It's not interview.

Ariane:

No, I think it will be more like what we're doing now, that we talk about our experiences. And I see this, for example, we follow somebody, I can just mention without saying the name. We follow somebody who bought a farm recently, a horse farm, and it's her first farm. We see what can go good and what can go not so good. And I think this is something that we will also talk with her when we record with her. So she will be one of our guests and you will hear it then. So for us, it's also very valuable to hear different ideas and experiences from other people, and we want to share that with you. Most of you maybe have already their own stable, maybe not, and maybe you're thinking about it, and we just want to share what we experience here in the south of Sweden.

Lionel:

In the south of Sweden, yes.

Ariane:

So there are big competitions coming, and we live only one hour away from the location where it's going to be the Nordic Championships this year in Eva Rød at Margarethe Hof.

Lionel:

Yes.

Ariane:

So we will be also there.

Lionel:

Hopefully, we will record some snippets, or maybe it's not going to be interviews, but maybe it will be shorter format. We aim to be the week after, actually.

Ariane:

Yeah, we go to lunch mode.

Lionel:

Lunch mode. So hopefully, it's a good time to take contact, record people.

Ariane:

Yeah, and maybe we meet some of our listeners there. That would be really funny. We definitely have already said that we want to meet with all our guests that will be on site. For sure, Christine at the historic center for the Icelandic course. And I highly, again, recommend you all to go there and talk to her.

Lionel:

Yes.

Ariane:

So maybe we see each other in Lansmode.

Lionel:

Indeed. A second project that is maybe further away we'll see is that we wanted to have a series of episodes on gates that maybe go more in deeper, deeper into training, into what is the gate, how do you work with it, et cetera, et cetera. I know that we discussed with a couple of people to see whether or not they can help out here.

Ariane:

Yeah, so that we have the experts and not us discussing it.

Lionel:

Yeah, it's definitely not us. But we aim to bring that maybe the second part of the year, we will see. And we will most likely start with Tölt, I assume. But I think we really want to have pace, trot, walk, obviously, and canter to bring that, obviously, and see if our listeners, you listening to us, have an interest in that. Don't hesitate to, again, it's really important for us to have your feedback, even if it's, yeah, great, we love it.

Ariane:

But maybe also if you are on any podcast platform, we really highly appreciate if you rate our podcast with five stars. Yes, like, subscribe and subscribe, but really give our podcast a rating of five stars. We highly appreciate that. So that we can continue doing this podcast and we see that we bring really interesting people to you.

Lionel:

Yes, yeah, absolutely. We really try to have a rounded view on the Icelandic Horses.

Ariane:

To cover everything.

Lionel:

To cover as much, yeah, everything. I think it's what interests us. Everyone that has his two eyes on Icelandic Horses is someone that we want to talk to and see their expertise, their knowledge, their passion.

Ariane:

Exactly, yeah. So, that is our recap of one year, 13 months, The Tölt Tales podcast. And we really appreciate you all listening to us and following us on social media.

Lionel:

Thank you so much for being there. We started with literally zero followers, with zero listeners on our podcast. And now we have numbers that I even don't believe myself. You are listening to us from all over the world, from Sweden, obviously, but...

Ariane:

And Germany, that's the biggest... But we have people from New Zealand, Australia, Alaska, Canada, the US. We have people from Africa, and from Asia.

Lionel:

So whomever you are, from those countries...

Ariane:

Thank you so much.

Lionel:

Thank you so much. As always, we will come back soon with a new episode in two weeks, to be more precise. Don't hesitate to follow us on Instagram and Facebook. Yes, The Tölt Tales. Thank you, Ari, for this year.

Ariane:

Thank you, Lénaire. It was a pleasure.

Lionel:

Bye.

Ariane:

Bye.

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