As usually news here are far between, but that can both be a sign of how busy the summer has been and how little the computer need has been. But that does not mean that the summer has been quiet, quite the contrary.
It has always been the plan that Vista would be bred this spring and have the puppies with her breeder, Lone Summer at kennel Asasara. The male chosen was Beautiful Borders Energi Star Brown - Cookie.
It has always been the plan that Vista would be bred this spring and have the puppies with her breeder, Lone Summer at kennel Asasara. The male chosen was Beautiful Borders Energi Star Brown - Cookie.
picture borrowed from asasara.dk
Vista and Cookie were mated last Easter and her stomach soon showed that the mating was successful and puppies were on the way.
In June our mare Sólarorka got her breeding evaluation, but we had been waiting for that quite anxiously for some time. Sólarorka has been in training with Valdi's cousin Sara at Álfhólar and she has had everything to say about when she was ready. As usual she was right and the mare got a first prize with 8,00 in total score, she got 8,08 for conformation and 7,95 for riding abilities with 8,5 on the line except 9 for gallop and off course 5 for pace as she was shown as a four gater.
In June our mare Sólarorka got her breeding evaluation, but we had been waiting for that quite anxiously for some time. Sólarorka has been in training with Valdi's cousin Sara at Álfhólar and she has had everything to say about when she was ready. As usual she was right and the mare got a first prize with 8,00 in total score, she got 8,08 for conformation and 7,95 for riding abilities with 8,5 on the line except 9 for gallop and off course 5 for pace as she was shown as a four gater.
Sólarorka and Sara on the track, picture from alfholar.is
On June 18th Vista was due, and in the morning the first puppy came, and then within a few hours the next seven showed up. All in all she had 8 puppies, four males and four females.
Vista and the puppy pile
Asleep, fed and happy
It was possible to watch the birth live over the internet and quite a few persons sat glued to their screens when the little ones came to the world. The whole thing was exceptionally easy for her and we had our hands full just to watch her for the slightest sign of contractions because that was enough for the puppy to come rolling out. Vista's breeder is very good with having her web cam connected so people can watch the puppies grow and play and that way puppy buyers from far away can still watch them through their screen. That was an excellent way for us to watch the puppies grow as soon after the puppies were born I flew to Iceland where I worked for over a month as a vet at Sandhólaferja. That experience was invaluable and the experience bank got quite a big deposit.
We did manage to have a little summer vacation in Iceland too, work a little on the summer house, do some original young horse training, do some riding and cuddling with the dogs who are enjoying their retirement back home. Good old Fluga is in a surprisingly good shape but she turned 15 this summer. She is still almost deaf but doesn't let that stop her enjoying taking care of "her" horses in the country.
This time sadly the camera was never taken out so not very many picture were taken. In the beginning of August we were back to DK and Dís came home from the dog sitter. With all this travel we tend to do it is not possible except because we have excellent people who can help us with the dogs and if we didn't know that they were being perfectly taken care of. But our travels weren't completely over as the Icelandic horse world championships were held in Berlin in the first week of August and again we took off again with our stuff and Dís and rolled down to Germany. Dís took it all in her stride and didn't find it at all difficult to ride ferries, stay in a hotel, ride the trains, going shopping and the enormous amount of tourists.
Berlin is quite an amazing city that contains a lot of history and recent history at that. When we were walking around the city and looking at war monuments and mass graves it was rather obvious how little we actually know about what precisely happened there just a few decades ago.
But the competition was very interesting with a lot of good and interesting horses. The planing and other things could easily have been better and we did expect something different from them, but all in all the competitions results were good and Iceland took the tolt horn and team cup back home to Iceland. Hnokki's amazing performance in the T1 test is something that we will not forget. It was also great to see Kraftur frá Efri-Þvera, Sólarorka's father, show his quality in T2 and F1 and he made it to the finals in both events.
We did manage to have a little summer vacation in Iceland too, work a little on the summer house, do some original young horse training, do some riding and cuddling with the dogs who are enjoying their retirement back home. Good old Fluga is in a surprisingly good shape but she turned 15 this summer. She is still almost deaf but doesn't let that stop her enjoying taking care of "her" horses in the country.
This time sadly the camera was never taken out so not very many picture were taken. In the beginning of August we were back to DK and Dís came home from the dog sitter. With all this travel we tend to do it is not possible except because we have excellent people who can help us with the dogs and if we didn't know that they were being perfectly taken care of. But our travels weren't completely over as the Icelandic horse world championships were held in Berlin in the first week of August and again we took off again with our stuff and Dís and rolled down to Germany. Dís took it all in her stride and didn't find it at all difficult to ride ferries, stay in a hotel, ride the trains, going shopping and the enormous amount of tourists.
Berlin is quite an amazing city that contains a lot of history and recent history at that. When we were walking around the city and looking at war monuments and mass graves it was rather obvious how little we actually know about what precisely happened there just a few decades ago.
But the competition was very interesting with a lot of good and interesting horses. The planing and other things could easily have been better and we did expect something different from them, but all in all the competitions results were good and Iceland took the tolt horn and team cup back home to Iceland. Hnokki's amazing performance in the T1 test is something that we will not forget. It was also great to see Kraftur frá Efri-Þvera, Sólarorka's father, show his quality in T2 and F1 and he made it to the finals in both events.
Eyjó and Kraftur at WM - picture from eidfaxi.is
Even though it is always great to see great horses showing up at the world championships it is quite sad to see good horses exported, but the good ones have to go somewhere i guess.
But now the summer is almost over and school and work starting up again and our little family is finally all gathered together, but on our way back from Berlin we picked up Vista. Her puppies are now 8 weeks old and have turned into proper little terrorist like such perfect puppies should be.
But now the summer is almost over and school and work starting up again and our little family is finally all gathered together, but on our way back from Berlin we picked up Vista. Her puppies are now 8 weeks old and have turned into proper little terrorist like such perfect puppies should be.
The puppies have grown quite a bit - asasara.dk
Four generations on a female side, Panik, Kizz Me, Vista and Pink - asasara.dk