Raga’s Farm
Surprised I’m writing about horses again?? I’ve been really excited to write about this...
Today
we visited an Icelandic farm. The owner, Raga, had been communicating
with us (thanks goes to the American Embassy for introducing us) for a
couple months about visiting while we were here. So that’s where we
spent our morning-- at the most beautiful farm I’ve ever seen.
It
was a little bit difficult to find the farm though. We had to go past
this one town (that holds the only prison in Iceland) and then you end
up on a road with a bunch of farms branching off of it. We must have
gone up and down that road two or three times before we called Raga and
figured out that we passed her driveway multiple times. But no worries;
we finally found it.
We
drove up the mile-long driveway to find ourselves at this small little
farm house surrounded by acres upon acres of pastures. It was absolutely
gorgeous. Raga said that they had about 80 horses on the property at
that time. And beautiful horses they were... But anyways, the family
also had a small garden beside the house as well as a small stable with
four stalls and racks of saddles and bridles. There were also three
attention-craving sheep dogs always by our side. Katie absolutely adored
them, and everyone else followed suit. I’m pretty sure we all fell in
love with Raga’s adorable daughter too. She was so cute, and very
energetic, much like a seven-year-old should be. She didn’t seem to
speak English yet, but she still had fun with us and made a good effort
to communicate however she could.
The
horses are also part of their family. Raga has her favorite two, and
I’m sure her children have theirs. She let us go out in the field with
them!!! We got to see the foals that she had on the property, and we got
to see Raga’s favorite horse. The mare is 31 years old, which is quite
old for a horse. We got to see one of her prize stallions too. And my
goodness, that was a beautiful horse. A beautiful bay, only three years
old and not even broken yet. But Raga said that he bred some of her best
foals, and I’d believe it. He was one of the most beautiful horses I’d
ever seen.
And
then there’s Raga’s son. Eleven years older than his sister, Thor knew
English and was a little more involved with us. I very much envied him.
He was a horse trainer, lived on this beautiful farm, and owned seven
beautiful show horses. I was very grateful too because he allowed us to
ride his horses. It was amazing!! Since I had experience with horses, he
saddled up a horse, threw me on, and we just began riding up and down
the driveway. Then, once he knew I was comfortable, he started teaching
me how to get the horse to tolt (the special gait that is unique to
Icelandic horses). It took a while, but I finally got it down!! And it
was amazing!!! Unlike anything I’ve ever tried before.
Well,
this article is getting a bit long, and I’ve highlighted on what I want
to, so I’ll just give you a brief overview of what else we did. We
spent a lot of time with the dogs, and Raga was telling us about the
dogs she’d bred and where they are now. She also had the girls (not me
since I was riding horses) gather rhubarb from her garden and make
rhubarb pie.
It tasted absolutely amazing. As did lunch that they made
for us. Thor had made lasagna for us that was ready when we arrived, and
it was absolutely fabulous. Better than any lasagna I’d ever had. So,
that was basically it. Thanks to Raga’s and her family for allowing us
the opportunity and giving us a wonderful day!!! ~Brittany
Absolutely loved reading the posts :-)
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