Farm visit for horse selfies
Hrafnhildur Guðmundsdóttir along with two four year old mares. Photo: Hrafnhildur Guðmundsdóttir
“We always have a “selfie horse”, that loves all attention and to be petted,” says horse breeder Hrafnhildur Guðmundsdóttir. She and her husband will be open up their farm this summer, where tourists can come by and see the Icelandic horse in its natural environment, on the farm.
They have been involved in the tourist industry for over 20 years, offering horse tours and renting out horses, but decided to change things up a bit.
Focus on their own horses
“Visitors can come by at the stable or take a walk around the hall. The main focus will be not be on the Icelandic horse in general, but on our own horses, their name character. We’ve been so lucky to own and get to know great horses and have been doing well in competitions.” The aim is for visitors to get a personal experience of a working horse breeding farm, to get to know about life of men and horse on the farm.
Konráð Axel, Guðmundsdóttir's son competing on his horse Fengur. Photo: Hrafnhildur Guðmundsdóttir
The project is called Visiting Horse-Farm. There won’t be a horse show per se, this is more of an entertainment. Where tourists can come by, have a look at the horses, perhaps take a selfie, and use the bathroom. According to Guðmundsdóttir they won’t sell anything, but there will be a small entrance fee. “This shouldn’t take long, everyone is in a hurry anyway. I don’t want to sell anything, or try to foist anything on people. This should just be simple, the horses themselves are quite enough.”
Located in Borgarfjörður
The farm is called Sturlu-Reykir and is located in Borgarfjörður. Its located midway between Deildartunguhver, the most powerful hot spring in Europe, and Reykholt, the home of Snorri Sturluson, a famous poet that wrote down most of what we know today about Nordic pagan beliefs.
One of the inspiration for the project was news of tourists creating danger in traffic by stopping at the middle of the road, to leave the car and pet horses. “I simply thought this was missing. Some people talk about some tourists being a bother when they do something like this, but we just have to react.”
