Born in 2003 at the farm Garðsá, Náma came to Saltvík as a young horse, part of the group of young horses Bjarni bought from that farm to grow his herd a bit faster than by his own breeding. She was first trained, and then, because it was clear that she was a real good 5 gaiter, Bjarni decided to breed with her a bit, and she had 5 foals 2011-2015 before she started working at the long tours.
On the tours she right away became very popular by many of our guests. With her endless smooth and fast tölt, light in the hand, she is an absolute delight to ride. In the herd she got a bit more angry looks and shouts from the guides though, because she always was up front and most of the time just a bit next to the herd. Not really going anywhere, just being a bit out of the herd 😉
Quite a perfect horse, and if we would need to name 1 thing that wasn‘t as perfect, it would be that she wasn‘t always too easy to catch. But well… We can live with that, right?
As said before, she got 5 foals. 3 of them we still have at Saltvík; Óðinn, Frigg and Týr. Frigg and Týr both are grey (turning white) just like their mom. Óðinn has a very special palomino colour.
Óðinn being the oldest of the siblings already has most years of joining the tours on his name and has become an absolute favorite of many. He‘s super light in the hand and has endless tölt. He can be ridden in the front or the back of the herd. It doesn‘t matter. He is also quite known for being the ´kicker´. But in fact, he is not so bad. He actually only lifts a leg when he gets locked up between too many other riding horses and someone is too close behind him when he can´t go more forward or left/right. And we can´t blame him for that, really. In fact, it is a miracle most other horses never kick, as it simply is not very nice when the horses behind more or less step on your back legs!
Frigg, the next in the line, is our pretty princess. She is extremely beautiful inside and out. Bjarni took her to a trainer for a breeding judgement. She got high scores for confirmation, but just moderate scores for performance, and the trainer was pretty disappointed about that because she can do so much better! But the thing with Frigg is, that she is absolutely convinced black things might be dangerous and attack you. With all kinds of speakers (black) and so on next to the judgement track, she was therefore rather distracted (but never ever would act out or take off!!) and didn‘t perform as she does at home. But it really doesn‘t matter, because we know how good she is, and many of our guests know as well. She‘s always multiple times on the favorite list for the last day of every tour!
And because she is such an amazing horse, she got to go to the stallion in 2022, and gave birth to a beautiful mare foal in 2023; Hera.
Týr, the youngest of the Náma offspring, has already been on many tours, but has not been ridden too much yet by guests, as it is usually Sigrún Anna or Bjarni riding him. Yet, probably everybody who has been on the tours with us in the past years ´knows´ him, because he is still quite dark grey and super friendly, so he always stands out in the herd.
This year Bjarni rode with him on the Mývatn Open competition (on the ice), which was the first time on a competition for Týr! He did great and he is becoming more and more Bjarni‘s personal horse now.
Náma herself is doing some easier work at home now, riding the daytrips with experienced riders around Saltvík, and we really hope she can make our guests smile for some more years. We are of course very happy to have her offspring still with us on the big tours, also hopefully for many more years to come, and we are super excited to see how little Hera will become once she‘s ready to be a riding horse!
