The Tölt Tales

Episode 25 - Ásta Björk Friðjónsdóttir

• The Tölt Tales • Season 3 • Episode 5

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 47:51

Þetta reddast - Everything will work out.

For this episode, we learned the motto many Icelanders live by. Ásta is taking us in episodes produced for EidfaxiTV behind the scenes of Meisteradeild competitions, young horses at Skipaskagi and something super interesting - the export of a horse. Come and listen to her amazing adventures and get exclusive insights into the life of a horse person.




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

Ariane:

Hello, everyone. Today we welcome someone that takes us behind the scenes of top competitions and tells us about how Icelandic horses are exported by plane. Ásta Björk Friðjónsdóttir is in The Tölt Tales podcast. Welcome, Ásta. Thank you for joining us today.

Asta:

Thank you. Thank you so much for having me.

Ariane:

For people who do not know you, can you just briefly introduce yourself? Who are you, what are you doing?

Asta:

Yes, so my name is Ásta Björk Friðjónsdóttir. I'm currently working independent as a contractor for various companies doing social media work. I have been working for some time for Horse Day. I have been working for Eidfaxi, Livland and mainly social media marketing. But I don't know, I'm probably most known for my episodes or series I've been doing for Eidfaxi. One series where I follow writers in Meisteradeildin on their day of competing. And then I have a new series ongoing right now, which is A Day in Horsemanship, where I go into or have a look into these different aspects of the Icelandic horse world.

Ariane:

That sounds really interesting and we will dive a bit into this. But maybe we can start first like, I mean, obviously you live in Iceland, so we normally have a question like why Icelandic horses, but I think that is something that is self-explanatory maybe. But I know from your social media also that you tried at least some Spanish breeds.

Asta:

Yes, I did and I love them. I have gone three times to Spain. Of course, the Icelandic horse is the only thing that's available to me in Iceland. And I love the Icelandic horse and my grandma owns a farm and she's breeding Icelandic horses. So I've just grown up around the Icelandic horse. But I've gone three times to Andalusia in Spain with a great friend of mine, Susanna Sand, and she knows, she's built up like, how do I say it? Like a net of connections to a lot of really good Spanish riders, Olympic riders. Where we get to go and sometimes we only get a demonstration and sometimes we can go and get riding lessons. Okay. I have gone there, as I said, three times to Spain and tried the PRE horse and got riding lessons in dressage. And truly, it's so, I couldn't recommend it more to dive into another, just side of horses. Because for me, this is the only thing I know, the Icelandic horse. And just to, I don't know, see.

Ariane:

Open your horizon.

Asta:

Exactly. Exactly. And just like get new ways of explaining how to ride. You have to use, I don't know, I feel like we are really much here in Iceland. We just go out for a ride and we have fun. And even though the Icelandic writers and like horsemanship in Iceland has really evolved for the last, I don't know, 10, 20 years, but still to go, like the horsemanship and equestrianism in Spain, and especially south of Spain, it's so deep.

Ariane:

Yeah.

Asta:

It's so old and they just, so yeah, I have learned a lot and every time I come home from Spain, I'm like, oh, I have to teach my horse to do a pirouette or the Spanish step.

Ariane:

Yeah, but you get really different inspirations from that.

Asta:

Definitely.

Ariane:

This is what we heard. We had a talk also with Gudmar Pettersson from Hesterland. And since he worked in the US and Kentucky for several years, he experienced also different breeds and worked with different breeds. And he said also that it kind of gives him a different way of then back home approaching the Icelandic horses, thinking in different ways, a bit more open minded. So I guess that's for you the same.

Asta:

Definitely. It's crazy how much it widens your perspective.

Ariane:

Yeah.

Asta:

To go and try. Yeah, because even though a horse is a horse, in my opinion, but still they are so much different.

Ariane:

Yeah, I can imagine that.

Asta:

Yeah.

Ariane:

I come from big horses like big horses, like the German breeds for jumping and dressage. And for me also, this is still while it is riding, it is so different. So I really appreciate everybody that is kind of experiences the differences and kind of try something. But do you own a horse at the moment, an Icelandic horse?

Asta:

Yes or no. Like I said, my grandma breeds horses. She has some horses, some breeding mares, some young horses and a couple of riding horses. So at the moment, kind of no, not my own horse. I recently sold my horse and I am not, I've not been riding at the moment. Okay. So yeah, I have to choose really kind of one of the horses that is in the field at my grandma's to be like, okay, you're going to be my next project.

Ariane:

Okay. But this is also good that you have kind of like, yes, it's a collection of horses and you can choose whatever you feel like on the day.

Asta:

Definitely. Like I said, it's a privilege.

Ariane:

But then, so you sold your horse. So my next question would have been, when is the last time you bought a horse? But since you sold it.

Asta:

So yeah, I was thinking about this because I've noticed you asked other guests this question as well. And I thought, have I ever bought a horse? Because I've always just been riding my grandma's horses. But I did have a horse exchange. So I had my horse that I got for my confirmation when I was 14. And then I was training a horse, which became kind of my circus horse. I could have her lay down everywhere. And she did this beautiful big bay Pinto mare. And maybe, I don't know, some people have seen the ad that Horses of Iceland did where there were horses walking on this big keypad. Yes, so the Pinto horse, that was my horse. So I didn't exchange, I was only training her. But then I exchanged my only horse for her. So I kind of bought her.

Ariane:

But this is funny. Now I will look for the ad as well again.

Asta:

It's Out Horse Your Email. That's what it's called, Out Horse Your Email. And it was such a fun project.

Ariane:

I can imagine. So you try also different things with your horses.

Asta:

Yes, I would say I have competed a little bit just when I was still in the younger classes. But really not that much. I've just found way more passion in simply training. And it just happened that I've had quite a lot of young horses. So they've always been like, oh, this could be a competition horse. And always with the aim to create a competition horse. But then it kind of like goes somewhere else. And I have not really made it to the competition field really. But I still find the most joy in simply training and making my horse better and creating a connection to it.

Ariane:

Yes.

Asta:

With these liberty fun exercises. And yeah.

Ariane:

Yeah. This is actually a good keyword. The connection that you build with your horse. This is something that I think is always special with horses is that you can do this.

Asta:

Yeah.

Ariane:

Ah, absolute. Then, so you do a lot of social media and this is how we found you. Because I thought it was very interesting. I haven't seen all the episodes yet. So I need to kind of go sit down calmly because that's always the problem, to sit down calmly and watch the episodes. But can you tell us a bit about how did you end up working for Eidfaxi? Because you are now like an independent contractor. How did you end up there? Because you learned something else.

Asta:

Yeah, I went to in junior college. I don't know how it is in Germany or Denmark. We go to primary school to 10th grade and then we go to junior college for three years. Most people choose like nature science or a linguistic path. You can choose like paths for your future studies. And I went to a school called FMOS which offered a horse path. So I just studied the basics like Maths and English and Danish. And that all we have to study. And then all the extra courses were horse related courses.

Ariane:

This is crazy.

Asta:

Yeah. And this is most definitely the start of everything for me. Because I had only been riding out in the country and just like we do here in Iceland where we ride and herd sheep, you know. I had just been riding like this. And then I go to the school. I learned the foundation of everything, how to care for a horse and how to ride a horse. And just things started rolling from there. And yeah, going to Eidfaxi. I haven't studied anything related to like filming or...

Ariane:

Okay.

Asta:

I tried to study business, hated it, quit. So, yeah, the marketing side there was maybe the only thing that I related to, but it wasn't interesting enough for me to stick because I'm more on the creative side.

Ariane:

Yeah.

Asta:

I don't know. I think it maybe started with me getting a job for Aalandis.

Ariane:

Yes.

Asta:

It connects to that. My job, me working for Eidfaxi, kind of connects to that. So I was creating YouTube videos for, again, my good friend Susanna. She had written a book and she wanted to do demonstration videos on YouTube, like from her book. A mutual friend of ours had a connection into Aalandis, which was just new at the time. This was 2020 or something.

Ariane:

Yeah.

Asta:

And they offered me a job and I was over the moon.

Ariane:

Yeah, I can imagine.

Asta:

I was still in that high school or like junior college. I just got a job offer from Aalandis. It's my dream to be working with filming horses. And like, yeah, it was a dream come true to start working with them.

Ariane:

I imagine that.

Asta:

The team that we were at that time was so fun and such a dream. They encouraged me. I went to the Faroe Islands and I was like, would it be interesting to create an episode because they have Icelandic horses in Faroe Islands. And my coworkers, they were so encouraging. They were like, yeah, do it. So I simply filmed the travels on my phone, on my iPhone, took interviews with some Faroese people that I met and I went there on their national holiday, Ålasvega. And there was the first episode. And from that, it started that I could create episodes. Really, it kind of just started rolling from there. I quit working for Alantis. I'm really bad with years. So I don't know, I think it was 2020. Like there were some changes. I went to school, started, tried to study media. Then I just got a job offer from Horse Day. This is all kind of happening at the same time, really, for me. It's like, I start working for Horse Day, but I'm still, I know the people in Eidfaxi. And now that we know that I can create episodes, it's just something that I can kind of jump into if we get a life of a horse series, that yeah, let's do it. I can do that, you know?

Ariane:

Yeah, absolutely. But how come that you decided you will be independent as a contractor?

Asta:

Like I said, many of these things were happening at the same time. So I had that job at Horse Day, but I was doing some work on the site for Eidfaxi. And these side projects just kept on kind of coming. And this is over a period, like, yeah, I've, again, I'm really bad with years. I think I've worked for Horse Day on and off for like two or three years now. And I've been independent since the beginning of this year. So that's just when I made the jump. And that was basically because I had been getting just a lot of side projects, Eidfaxi, other companies. And I just felt like that was so exciting, you know? Like all these other projects. And I was like, okay, maybe this could work out. If not, I'm fine with taking a little bit of time off because it's been a lot of like, yeah, like work, work, work for me.

Ariane:

Yeah, you keep yourself busy.

Asta:

Yes, I do. Actually, a really hard decision for me. I am still working for Horse Day. Just now I am just independent with other projects as well. That's been going really well. I have a list of projects that I need to get to. So that's okay.

Ariane:

A day in the life of Ásta. How does it look like?

Asta:

Most of my work I do here at home.

Ariane:

Okay.

Asta:

So a lot of it I have been as working for Horse Day. It's a startup company and we're not that many working there. So you have to wear a lot of hats. You can't just be one thing and just do one job. It's like lots of jobs. So it's like designing advertisements and editing some stuff and just managing. So that's just an office job, really. So I can just do that from here. And then when it comes to filming, I just go film that project and then I work it here from home.

Ariane:

Yeah. So if we see anything on Instagram, for example, from Horse Day app, is that what you do?

Asta:

Most likely, yes. Yeah.

Ariane:

Yeah, we, of course, we follow them, we use the app. So I'm really curious how it will develop now that you also have this, like as a viewer when you watch, for example, the competitions that you can vote for the points.

Asta:

How do you like it?

Ariane:

I think it's cool. Though I'm always surprised what I see compared to what the judges see. Sometimes I would have voted differently, but it's, I mean, this is probably a personal thing. Or also I'm not as experienced, right? I'm not trained in what should be there. So I think it's interesting.

Asta:

That's also the point of getting the audience's opinion. I'm always giving them way higher. I'm like, wow, that was awesome.

Ariane:

Same.

Asta:

That's a S9.

Ariane:

Wow.

Asta:

Love it. 9.5.

Ariane:

One thing is that I would have voted differently, but another thing is that I'm always way too high. And I'm like, oh, they didn't like that one, but I like this especially. So, yeah. But I think this is a great feature. And now that this combination also from the bigger competitions, at least in Iceland, that you have the videos from Eidfaxi in there as well. So, I think that is great that you can watch it again and see this kind of this resulted in those points so you can actually study almost.

Asta:

Yeah, I know. It is really game changing. And I think it was really fun when we first released that feature, that collaboration with Eidfaxi, we kind of didn't advertise it. It just dropped and was in the middle of the Icelandic Championships.

Ariane:

Exactly.

Asta:

Everyone went wild. They were like, what? Can we see the videos as well? And everyone was sharing it, and everyone was so happy and like, yeah.

Ariane:

Yeah. I think it's a great feature. So you have those episodes on Eidfaxi. So you did the one for following somebody to a competition. And additionally, now you had in the life of a horse person, right? That was the two things that you did. Can we just talk a bit about first the competition following? How did it start and how did you select also the people that you follow?

Asta:

The selection is, it is kind of complicated, because firstly, the riders have to be willing to have me by their side.

Ariane:

Yeah, I can imagine.

Asta:

Yeah, and I think that's a lot harder than we realize. Like you're at, you're competing. It's one of the most, the biggest event of the season. All eyes are on you. You've been training for this for the whole winter. Maybe you're a little bit stressed and there's a person with a camera in your face the whole evening, you know? So my hat is off for the writers who have let me follow them. I'm truly grateful. And I've always tried to be more like on the side. I don't want to interrupt. Like just their program, you know?

Ariane:

They have a flow.

Asta:

Yeah, exactly. They have a flow. They have something that they're used to doing. Please just don't mind me. I'm just going to be here. I'm just going to be filming. I might ask you a couple of things, but please just do what you usually do. And all of the writers I followed, I've been like, how are you this calm? And how are you just doing this? Because I would be so nervous having someone like, firstly, coming, competing in front of all of these people, both like abroad, and then all of the people in Horsdagetlin at all times. But, and then having someone recording every moment. But I'm so thankful for that because I think this has been really popular. It's just given a new insight into really Meisteradeildin and what goes, what work goes into being a contestant in Meisteradeildin.

Ariane:

It makes you also as the audience, you feel closer connected to kind of your stars or people that you admire, people that you follow on Instagram or anywhere. And you feel like now I'm actually connected with them in a weird way. So I think this was a really nice idea.

Asta:

Yeah, because that's also a little bit the point. To show that they are also just like humans and they are just have their families and their own lives. And so if I answer your questions with how I pick one, it's usually in collaboration with the people in Eidfaxi. I talk to them, we brainstorm, okay, who is going to be competing? It can be tricky because they often don't know if they are going to be competing. They are like, maybe because there are five in each team, five riders in each team and only three compete every night. And sometimes they are just deciding, I don't know, a few days before the event, because maybe all five have really good horses and they just want to let the time pass and see who is actually the best three. It's all happening very, the person needs to be a little bit open. They need to be willing to have me. Of course, it's fun to bet on someone and like, okay, I think this one might be in the finals. At least it would be really interesting to be with them. Of course, it's a factor. But for me, it's always been more important. I don't know, that I feel like, yes, this is a person that I could spend the evening with.

Ariane:

Yeah.

Asta:

And I find them interesting. And of course, they're all interesting. Don't get me wrong. And I've tried, of course, there are teams, and it would have been a nice concept to always have, I don't know, one team or one writer from each team. But I've tried not to let that be too big of a factor, rather just seek out who I think would be open to having me and would be interesting to see.

Ariane:

But what I now think is really interesting is that the people decide just a couple of days before who is writing from the team. This is super interesting for me.

Asta:

Of course, they're all aiming to compete. They're all individual writers, they're all professional writers, they all have stables full of awesome horses.

Ariane:

Yes.

Asta:

And they're all like... For some disciplines, they all have horses. For some disciplines, maybe only three writers in the team have horses. For example, T2, it's not everyone. It's not everyone that has a good T2 horse, you know?

Ariane:

Yeah. Or Pace.

Asta:

Yeah, or Pace. Exactly, really good example. So for some of the disciplines, they are just letting it because at the winter time, the horses are changing so much because they're kind of... Some of them are recently have been on a break, and they're still just fluffy and not in their best shape, you know? So each week really counts. So there can really be a difference if you have a team rehearsal, like two weeks before the tournament, maybe it doesn't make sense to choose the horses then, rather than like when the tournament is actually coming, because some horses might have changed in that time.

Ariane:

I mean, how long before do you decide that you follow somebody? Because that could have also then be that you decide on somebody, somebody agrees to take you with, and then last minute they decide they are actually not gonna ride. Has that happened?

Asta:

No, fortunately that has not happened. The pressure is so much that you would want some time to think. And for each discipline, we can, we're guessing who's coming. Like, okay, we know this rider has this horse, he's probably gonna be riding with this horse. I'm just gonna contact him, ask if he's gonna ride, and ask if he would be willing to do this. And then I often get the answer, yes, we're deciding next Monday who's gonna ride. If I ride, it's no problem, you can be with me or like, yeah.

Ariane:

Okay. Oh, but I think that would almost stress me out more than anything to not know if something is happening. I'm really bad with those things.

Asta:

I'm so Icelandic. I live by the phrase Þetta rettast, truly.

Ariane:

What does it mean?

Asta:

You know the phrase.

Ariane:

No.

Asta:

It's like, it's the core of the Icelandic nation, Þetta rettast. Everything will work out. Everything will work out somehow. I will write it to you. You can Google it. It's very known also outside Iceland, because it's like, of course, it's a little bit uncomfortable. It's like, okay, who then? Then I have like maybe a backup. Oh, it's impossible for that writer to get the request so close to the competition, you know? But still, everything will work out. This, okay, just talking about this phrase. I truly live by it. Because we're maybe next going to talk about my other series. We can maybe jump a little bit back and forth. In one of the episodes in A Day in Horsemanship, I go on a horse riding tour with Isastarr, who are just offering tourists to come in Iceland and to go on a couple of days or a week's riding tour in the mountains. And I was like, oh, it would be super fun to spend a day with them and see what it's like. I had not prepared at all to look at where they were actually located, where I was going to be driving to meet them. And they were in some mountain. They were in, it's called Landmannahedlir or Landmannalögar. It's a really popular destination or like a really, how do I say it? It's one of the most beautiful nature scenes in Iceland. Okay. Landmannalögar. And I was like, yeah, I'll just put it in Google Maps and go there. And I had recently bought a new car and it was kind of a fancy car. And I had to drive on a really bad gravel road for an hour. And I was like, oh my God, my car. And the guide that I had been planning to do this with, he was in the mountain, had no cell reception.

Ariane:

No.

Asta:

So I couldn't call him. And I was like, where am I going? Am I even going to the right place? I hadn't been able to contact him for two days because he's just been in the mountains. I was like, okay, I'm just going to try there. Þetta rettast. And then I was a few kilometers away from the point where I was supposed to go, where there was this huge ass river, which I could not cross on my car.

Ariane:

No.

Asta:

And I was like, are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? I've been driving for like two or three hours and then I can't cross when I'm two or three kilometers away. I was like, what the fuck am I supposed to do? And somehow some cars started showing up and one car had a room in their trunk. So I took my saddle and my camera gear and my helmet and I jumped in the trunk of that car and they could pass the river.

Ariane:

So you left your car there?

Asta:

Yeah, I left my car there. And when I arrived, they were on getting ready to saddle up and I met the guy that I was supposed to meet. He was like, oh, you're here. I just thought that you didn't make it. And they were just going to go right without me.

Ariane:

Without you?

Asta:

Yeah. And they would not have passed where I was, where I had my car. So I would have just, it would have all been for nothing, really, but it all worked out.

Ariane:

Okay. Yeah.

Asta:

I had no energy left at the end of that day. This is, I actually filmed a lot of this experience, me being like, where am I? Am I going to make it out alive? So almost half of that episode is just me in my car cursing.

Ariane:

So this is going to be my weekend entertainment then I'm going to watch it. Yeah.

Asta:

So, but like I said, it all turned out well.

Ariane:

So then the other series that we just now talked about. Yeah. The life in the day of horsemen.

Asta:

Yeah, a day in horsemanship.

Ariane:

A day in horsemanship. So how did that start? And what is the concept behind that? I seen farrier and young horses, right? And you did also export. Can you tell us a bit about this?

Asta:

Yeah, it started really, really, really spontaneously. Makki Beinn is one of the main people at EidfaxiTV. And he is also very spontaneous. And we met and we were like, okay, we must create something cool. And we were like, yeah, yeah, okay. Okay. And then either of us had the idea, wow, it would be cool to get to know the process of exporting a horse.

Ariane:

Yeah.

Asta:

And we were like, yeah. So he called Eistirg Leifsson, who runs Export Hester. And we're like, is there, are there any cool horses being exported anytime soon that we could maybe create an episode about? And he was like, yeah, there's one first-priced dahlion being flown the day after tomorrow.

Ariane:

Okay. Very spontaneous.

Asta:

Yeah. So we decided that day that I would be filming that. So the day after, I went to Æstæk and took an interview with him and took an interview with the previous owner of the horse. And then we somehow got it through that I would join the plane and fly with the horse to Lies in Belgium.

Ariane:

Belgium, yeah.

Asta:

Yeah. Yeah. So that was crazy. I was just sitting there with the captain and the co-pilot. And yeah, it was super cool to see that whole process. And the process is so much bigger than I could have imagined. And there are so many people that come to exporting a single horse from Iceland to the mainland.

Ariane:

Can you just like tell us a bit about, because I'm actually really curious how.

Asta:

Yeah.

Ariane:

What do you need to plan also for that?

Asta:

I think the exporting companies mainly oversee most of the things for the owners. So if you were to buy a horse from Iceland, you would pick an exporting company and they would do most of the work. They get the horse to their stable. At least that's how Ásta does it. I'm sure most of them do similar things, but he gets the horses to his stable and there he needs to get a vet, a veterinarian who comes and does like a full body check on the horse. And he creates this horse pass or like passport or yeah, which you all of course know, but we Icelandic people don't know this horse passport because we don't have to vaccinate our horses and we have to use the passports at all, except for when they're exported.

Ariane:

So I know.

Asta:

So the passports are created just for each horse then as they're being exported. And then the vet fills in all the information and like draws the color of the horse. And then he needs to contact, a state needs to contact. I don't know what it's called in English. It's must. It's in Icelandic. It's like the people who are governing basically animal welfare in all of Iceland, you know?

Ariane:

Yeah, OK.

Asta:

If if someone reports animal cruelty, it's their job to like, you know, they do more. But I don't know. That's the best I can explain. But they need to come and also do a full body check on the horse because they have the last say. If they say, no, this horse is not fit to fly, then it doesn't get to fly. So they give the green stamp like, OK, this horse is clearly not sick. It's not injured in any way. It's healthy. It's fit to fly.

Ariane:

OK, yeah.

Asta:

So when that's done, he loads them to his trailer. He drives to Keplavik. And there the horses are loaded into these boxes.

Ariane:

Yeah, it's fascinating.

Asta:

Yeah, truly. And the geldings and the mares can be all in one box, like five just together. And then the stallions and the VIP horses who are just, if people pay for special treatment, then they are like in like aisles, you know, the three horses with a barrier in between them. And they are like bound because of course, stallions can't be loose with another horse, so they have to be isolated. So then you put three horses in one box.

Ariane:

This is really interesting. I mean, for the stallions, I thought this would be some kind of process, but also that they have VIP horses. This is really interesting too.

Asta:

If you're buying a really expensive competition horse, even if it's a gelding or a mare, you would be like, I don't trust it that they could be... Yeah, maybe they kick off......loosed with four other horses in like a box, yeah, if they stack on each other or start to fight or something. But usually in all of these, like the horses, I think it's not common that something happens, even if they're loose altogether. It's like this or something that they are just...

Ariane:

I mean, they realize that they need to be like, they cannot move much, right? There is not much space for them. I always seen those socks kind of put on the horses and then taped. Do the horses have shoes? And what do you do with the socks?

Asta:

So, that's the VIP horses. If you have a VIP horse, you can export it with shoes on. For example, when the Icelandic national team goes with their horses out, of course, they don't want to remove their shoes. They just want to have the shoeing that they've been training on, you know, and for everything to be the same. So, if you have a VIP horse that's not going to be in contact with any other horse, you can leave its shoes on, and then you have to put it in like woolen socks or like diapers or tape or just to protect their hoofs.

Ariane:

Yes.

Asta:

But all other horses must be shoeless.

Ariane:

Okay. Yeah, makes sense.

Asta:

And then they're not taped or anything. They're just bare.

Ariane:

So then take off and then you fly with the horses.

Asta:

The boxes are loaded into the plane and then the plane takes off and flies for, I don't even remember, maybe two or three hours or something.

Ariane:

Yeah, probably something like this.

Asta:

Makes sense, yeah. And then they land and it's a really strict procedure when they land because of course the Icelandic horses are not vaccinated and they have to be kind of quarantined there. And Liess has just their own like really cool horse stable at the airport. So the horses are like all put on, the boxes are put on these wagons and the wagons are put, yeah, they're hooked onto a car that drives super slowly. It's like they drive super slowly because it's like they have to be really careful. They, so they drive only like 15 kilometers per hour or 20 kilometers per hour, just like, you know, and it's not a long way, but it takes like 20 minutes to get there. You would be like five minutes driving it if you were driving normally, but it's all for safety. And of course it makes sense. And then the horses are, they come to the stable and they just go in and there's a vet that is there at the inlies and he like scans the horse to see if it's definitely the correct horse. He looks all over them to see if they have been injured on the way. And then they are just moved into the stable, which is closed by there. And there's like a quarantine line there. So if you cross a line into the stable, how was it? It was like, when I was there, it was really like, am I gonna stay the night and follow the whole procedure? Like, am I gonna stay one night in Liæs and follow the whole procedure to see the horse go into the trailer to its owner? Or am I going back with that same plane? And we were like just deciding that on the spot. Like, am I staying here or am I going with you back to Iceland? And if I wanted to go into the stable, I couldn't have gone back to Iceland because of some like quarantine line or something. So I decided to stay and I was so happy about that because the guy who oversees everything there, he just gave me a personal tour of all the stable and told me its history and showed me everything and was so nice to me.

Ariane:

So we definitely recommend everybody. We will put the link for this episode in the notes of this episode of this podcast. Everybody should watch this episode with you on Eidfaxi.

Asta:

Yeah, I think this is something, or think this is something that hasn't been seen before. Like it's a procedure, no, not the procedure, but it's like even the exporters don't really know how it looks like.

Ariane:

I mean, they normally just ship the horse off, but they don't see how it is like in those stables at the airport. And then the next day the horses will be picked up by the owners or be transported by different companies into the countries that they are bought to.

Asta:

Exactly, either they come pick up themselves or they have them transported.

Ariane:

But then, so what else did you do? You had young horses as well, I remember that.

Asta:

I went to Skiipaskaji that year. They were nominated breeding farm of the year, that they hadn't won it when I visited them, but they won that award just soon after my visit. So that was really cool to get to see some of their young future superstars being just-

Ariane:

Maybe it's going to be the next superstar, like we have Elgjarn very close to us here with James Corkner. He's like an hour away from us. Okay. Elgjarn from Skiipaskaja is just around the corner.

Asta:

Okay.

Ariane:

Amazing.

Asta:

Skiipaskaja, yeah. They have so many amazing horses. And I think two of the horses that they were talking about in that episode and telling about how they are bringing them in, they just, they became first prize stallions that summer. So it's really cool to see them, like very cute, just like looking like pretty much every other horse. And then just months later, they're like these super cool four year old stallions.

Ariane:

Yeah. So what did you do there? Like, so you got a tour with the stable and you learn a bit about how they educate their young horses.

Asta:

Yeah. They had two guys that came in, just that come in every autumn, just for two weeks. And they have like a breaking in, I don't like the word breaking in a horse, but you know, like, yeah, training young horses. They come just for two weeks. And then the people at Skiiparsgaiði have already put a saddle on them. They've already taught them to lunge and done the basic work. So I came when these two guys were there and they've started riding the horses. And they have actually a really good system at Skiiparsgaiði where they take every horse in every, at least once a year until they're trained. So when they're foals, they take them in, they teach them how to wear a halter and how to walk, and then the next year they do the same and then they maybe teach them how to be lunged. So when they're three years old and the time comes to actually start riding them, they're like, I know how to wear a halter, I know how to wear a saddle, even though they've not been ridden. They're like, I know all of this and save so much time. And they're like, yeah, they told me this, that this truly does make a difference in training, starting to train young horses to do it gradually.

Ariane:

Yeah, I can imagine, because I know that for me, it's always something that I try with my horses, that I touch them everywhere. Because if something is happening, I want them as calm as possible and not be afraid that I, for example, touch the ears or touch like all the legs. So then I feel like as soon as you do this with a young horse, it becomes so much nicer. And again, it's a connection with your horse.

Asta:

So that was really interesting to see how well that's working for them.

Ariane:

But also, I guess, with two people coming as a team, that might be also they understand each other, they know what they're doing.

Asta:

And I really liked what they were doing. They're not putting that much pressure on the young horses. They're just like at the time when I was there, they're only, they were, they were at that point that they were starting to ride outside. And they're not asking the horse for anything rather than just to carry the rider and go from A to B, you know. I think that's really because I think sometimes we can get a little bit too caught up in like these finer details right away, you know, like bridal connection and stuff like that. But I think it's really natural for the horse just to find its, I don't know, forward thinking and independence and just like going outside and like, this is, that's no problem, we can just do this, you know. Yeah, so I really admire that with their technique.

Ariane:

And then you have another episode.

Asta:

Yeah, I recently released an episode, A Day with a Ferrier. And I spent a day with Erlendur Árgnasson, one of Iceland's best ferriers. He told me that he is at Landsmoot, for example. He is now in the breeding shows. He is shooing almost 20% of all shorn horses in Iceland. Yeah, so it was really fun to get to know him. He's just very nice to talk to and he's really fun. And he's really just himself, I don't know. And I have an interest in shooing. It was really fun for me to see like how much thought goes into shooing each horse because he's only shooing the best competition horses. And is really thinking about, yeah, okay, he's a little bit like stands a little bit narrow. So we must think about that. Or, okay, he's been doing a little bit like this. Okay, let's take that factor into the equation. So it's like really much thought that goes into it.

Ariane:

Will you be at Landsmoot?

Asta:

I think so. I hope so. I'm invited to a wedding at the day of the finals, which is kind of a bummer, but...

Ariane:

Clearly somebody that is not interested in horses.

Asta:

No, but yeah, I really want to be at Landsmoot. It's especially in Hólar. Oh my God. I went to the Icelandic Championship in Hólar, I don't know, a few, two or three years ago. I was working there. And just something about being in Hólar and have a big tournament, everyone on the campsite, everyone like packed together in this valley, this beautiful valley. And I think it's, yeah, I think it's going to be a Landsmoot to remember this year.

Ariane:

When we look in the future, do you have anything that you still, I mean, you said that you have a lot of projects that are in the pipeline, a lot of stuff to work on, but is there something that you, and you don't have to specify if it's still something secret, but is there something that you really want to do some like dream project, somebody that you would want to follow some, some idea that you want to bring out into the world?

Asta:

I don't know. I think just on the top of my mind right now, because we talked about Spain, I think that would be something that I would want to, I don't know, educate my fellow Icelanders more about, and the Icelandic horse world, because I think we can take so much knowledge from them. I think that would be something that I would be really interested in doing well, but at the moment, I don't know, I'm just, I'm kind of just living on project, from project to project, you know, and just enjoying my life here. I don't have some big end goal, I'm just riding this wave while I can and while I want to.

Ariane:

Yeah, cool. Thank you, Ásta, that was amazing. And thank you, everyone, for listening. We will come back very soon with a new episode. In the meantime, do not hesitate to share this episode on social media, comment, like, subscribe. Before leaving you, we would like to mention that you can follow us on Instagram and Facebook, The Tölt Tales, for more news and stories. And you can follow Ásta on Instagram and Eidfaxi. Of course, the app, of course, and we will put all the links in the description of this episode. And with this, say goodbye.

Asta:

Thank you.

Ariane:

Goodbye.

Podcasts we love

Check out these other fine podcasts recommended by us, not an algorithm.

Nattfari Podcast Artwork

Nattfari Podcast

Johan Häggberg & Elsa Andersson