stallnorheim

[stallnorheim]

The morning started with me giving Roland some help with Slettir. The boy has been reluctant under his new rider, and he needed some help to see why. Apparently Slettir would either not want to pick up speed at all, or not want to slow down after a canter.

And as I am no vet I could only give some training advice. After seeing Slettir in the arena though, it was clear to me that we need to get the vet out and look at him. He is clearly unhappy with something related to riding.

Today Soffía brought Lewis out for a ride. He is a good boy, and they both seemed to enjoy the light training. I stood watch outside the arena, keeping an eye on Soffía as I do most days. She seemed at ease though. More at ease than she has been in months. I am glad this boy is doing her some good.

Then she called my name.

"Niko?" she said, calling me into the arena.

Entering the arena, I stood beside her and Lewis, her having put him into halt. Looking at me, she said:

"Do you have a carrot on you? Or some sugar?"

"Yeah?" I replied, actually having a single cube on me, not sugar though but a dried apple cube.

She held out her hand, and I put the cube in it. Then she leaned forward, giving Lewis the cube. He chewed on it a few times, then swallowed, having no problems doing so with a bit in his mouth.

"He likes it. He was being a good boy," was all the explanation I got.

"Do you want more cubes?" I then asked her, patting her on the leg lovingly.

"If you could go get some, then yes please," she replied, giving me a shadow of a smile, which was honestly more than I have gotten these past few months. It warmed my heart.

"Sure!"

Getting back to her after collecting some more apple cubes, I watched her as she trotted along on the stallion. He was indeed being a good boy today, but I suspect he mostly is, being very well-mannered overall.

They looked good together, and she kept having that very small smile on her face during the rest of the training. She had forgotten about the cubes, and so had I, when I saw the smile on her face.

[stallnorheim]

Nikolette's POV

So... Soffía's mood hasn't been good in awhile for reasons already mentioned in countless posts. I have to remind her to eat, and it has... honestly been hard to run everything, while Soffía just sits and can't motivate herself to do anything. Her mind is more or less consumed with the baby plans, and the fact that the eggs just don't wanna stick.

So a few days ago I told her that she needed a project. She needed something to work on BESIDES the baby and pregnancy. She needed something that could ground her, and calm her hormones a little. And she agreed. I didn't expect her to, but she did.

A few days later I showed her a picture of a horse. A horse I felt like she needed. He is no Icelandic, but he is a Canadian Horse, and will fight right in with our fluffy ponies. To begin with Soffía was against it. Said that she had lost her heart to Icelandics a long time ago, and that any other breed just wouldn't do. I still thought she needed the change and the feeling of newness, so I talked her into go see him.

When she met him and tried him she knew just as well as I that we had to take him home. He is small, barely 152 cm in height, and he just... well, he fits. His presence calms her right away, and bid her to focus on him. Just having such a calm energy about him, he is exactly what she needs right now.

He gets along well with the other boys, and well... he IS a stallion, but he also doesn't feel stallion-like being in the calm manner he is. Even Bear likes him, and she normally only likes Slettir.

He also gets along well with our Aegidienberger Solio (also here for scale, so we can show that Lewis is actually that small), and those two boys seem to be playing and running together a lot. Sometimes even Bear joins them in the pasture - even if I tell her she can't - and runs around with them, just being present.

Tomorrow will be her first ride on him at home, and I am sure that he will do her a lot of good. He just has that good of an energy.

[stallnorheim]

Nikolette's POV

Bottom line is, Frederic and Froya won't be at the stable for awhile. Neither will Floki and Gyllír who will be moving with them to a house nearby that has a stable. This will be retirement for the two horse boys. A life of luxury with Froya and Frederic is just what they deserve.

Whether or not Froya and Frederic will be back at some point is undecided. Thing is... Froya is pregnant, and want to full focus on the pregnancy and then her family afterwards. Frederic wants to focus on his family as well, and wants to get back into what he actually have an education for: Being an accountant, which honestly is a wise choice with a baby on the way, and a new house they have to pay off, alongside with two senior horses.

They have promised to come and visit though, and also invited Soffía and I to their new place.

We are of course happy for them, even if Soffía keeps mostly in the background of this. It hurts her a little that Froya got pregnant that easily, while her own pregnancy is a struggle. Both to hold into the egg, and the many fertility treatments on top of that. It's not that she is not happy for Froya, she just has a lot of hormones racing around in her body, making it difficult for her to be well... happy for anyone right now. I keep telling her that if she feels this hormone treatment isn't worth it, then we have other options. I can be the one getting pregnant, if that's what she wants. She of course has a hard time giving up the pregnancy and birthing her own child, but I leave it all up to her for now.

There is also the choice of adopting, if that's what she lands on. We will see. I can see and feel that she is tired. I can see that this drains her completely for energy and life, and it hurts me to see her that way. Hopefully we will succeed to, or we will retack that horse when we get to it.

[stallnorheim]

I bred this boy! I bred Hár!

STALLION SHOW OFF

Harry (Hár frá Norheim, an Icelandic bred by @stallnorheim) entered his first show! He was such a little gentleman🥰

Another young horse we were showing was Heatherhill's Atlas, a Georgian Grande (Friesian x Saddlebred) boy. He's got the moves like Jagger!

[stallnorheim]

WE HAVE BEEN QUIET BUT...

Nikolette's POV

These last few months have been hard for Soffía and I, and I can say much yet, so I will say what I CAN say. I have taken over the blog for awhile, AND we have gotten a new horse! Slettir fra Ísdalur is his name, and he is quite an escape artist. Good thing we have a loyal stable dog to herd him and keep him where he is, until someone comes and gets him back into his stall xD

[stallnorheim]

SADNESS

Nikolette's POV

TRIGGER WARNING FOR ABORTING!

Soffía and I have tried to "make" a baby with help from the local fertility clinic since... well, possible January or so. And very quickly an egg stuck, and we were relieved! Thing is though. It has stuck since mid January, and now in April it's... not stuck anymore. She is not pregnant anymore, and that took a lot out of my lovely wifey, who so wanted this child, even if it was barely a child at this point.

Still the egg didn't want to stay stuck, and aborting it was inevitable. So Soffía has craved hugs and closeness more than usual, and Peyton has been send to her grandma since the abortion, because Soffía didn't want her to see her this broken. And yeah, it was just the first of many tries, but it hit hard anyways.

So probably the next week or so, if not longer, will be a little quiet on the blog. Soffía isn't feeling up to interacting with anyone but me at the moment <3

[stallnorheim]

OMG LEGS! I HAVE LEGS!

Soffía's POV

So well... apparently Halla is a natural at Pacing. She just followed the leader here, when we put them in a pasture of their own this morning. Look how nicely she is pacing! So small yet able to follow mom Hofna's not that slow pace. She is a good egg this one <3

Also can someone spot the "hidden horse"? O.O

And of course a bonus picture from the arena! A picture Samantha and I like to call "Legs, what legs?!" xD

[stallnorheim]

BABY!

Soffía's POV

Today Hofna gave birth to the LOVELIEST little filly this evening! Luckily she had been in her stall all day, because it has been raining cats and dogs, so she gave birth inside. Otherwise baby Halla, as we have named her, would probably have gotten sick with all that rain.

She is literally TINY, but we will see how big she becomes! Her sire is ELFI Hrafn, and Froya is sooo happy to 'have' a Hrafn baby in the stable again. Halla is actually full sister to Hár frá Norheim, whom we sold to Rosa Koja some time ago.

[stallnorheim]

VISIT FROM SAM!

Soffía's POV

Today we got a visit from far off by Samantha Strasser from Ísdalur! The day of course began in the mares' barn, since they are in general the best horses with new people. The stallions can honestly be kind of vary of strangers, and do not like others than their usual riders to ride them.

We met up, Niko and I, with Sam there, and Visla was already tied to a tying post at this post, ready to be groomed and tacked up for a hack.

To make sure that Visla could handle a new rider, since she is young - I do not doubt Sam's abilities! - we began in the arena near the barn. Just to see if Visla was ok, or if I should 'pull out' another mare with more experience.

Visla handled it quite well though, and Sam handled the young mare nicely, so I brought out Hattie for me to ride on (which Sam of course said hello to, as she is in fact from her stable).

When you visit Stall Norheim, you will get the classic hack experience including tölt of course. We have Icelandic Horses after all. It was a beautiful ride, we didn't have any snow today (disappeared mearly two days ago, lucky Sam!) and the sun was shining warmly, even if it was still very cold, and I had to lend Sam both warmer jacket and warmer gloves for the ride xD

I wanted Sam to be able to bring a memory home with her, so before bringing the mares back to the pasture - after a lovely ride - I asked Niko to take a picture of the two of us and the mares. Bear of course wanted to join in on the fun, though she was slightly vary, yet curious!, about our guest. Soon after she ran off to some other part of the facility though, not brave enough to say hello to Sam.

At last I wanted a picture for the blog, and of course Gulliver had to photobomb the picture. Peyton wasn't really in the mood for pictures today - kids, baah xD -, so she just sat down for the picture.

Have a good trip home, Sam!

[stallnorheim]

SNOW? NO SNOW!

Soffía's POV

Snow is a bit on and off these days. Today we woke up to none, so training with our newest member of the herd began! His name is Gullver, and Roland (Higgs) will be riding him. He has a very nice trot for a gaited horse, especially one that also tölts and paces.

Roland has not worked a lot with gaited horses, before he ended up at our farm, actually none, so working with more gaits than "normal" horses was difficult to begin with. But we take him as the gift he is, as he knows a lot about refining trot and canter. Which we put to good use with young horses, who needs to find their trot, if the tölt is very dominating.

[stallnorheim]

WE HAVE ARRIVED!

Soffía's POV

The other day I posted about the new facility, and how it has now been finished. Today the first part of our horses arrived: The stallions! We are so happy to be here. Some staff stayed behind with the rest of the horses, to make sure they were being taken care of, while Nikolette and I take care of the many, many stallions (7 of them right now).

Alongside us has also arrived our new family dog. She had been with us for about a month before the move, but mostly on short visits to get to know us, since we knew we would have to move soon, and didn't wanna put her through settling at our now old place, to have to go to the new one after a month.

Her name is Legendary's Brown Eyed Bear Cub, a almost 1 year old Aussie (Australian Sheperd) female, but we affectionally call her Bear. We got her from the breeder, as she was a leftover pup who had come back to the breeder after what was supposed to be her new family developed dog allergy (the youngest kid did), and they realized that they couldn't keep her.

Bear already loves going to the stables with me, and she just does her own stuff, while I groom or do whatever I need to do.

It's very clear Bear is used to horses. She often seek out especially Woopie, whom she has 'deep conversations' with in his stall as often as possible. We don't know much about her old owners, other than they have trained her well and she has been around horses (which was honestly a must, because of Niko and I's stable and daily work.

She even seems to enjoy riding along, when I train the horses. Horses like for example Fákur even allows her on his hind, when I am riding, and she sits very carefully and still, very mindful of not digging her claws into his butt.

Otherwise she will run around the arena and play. All in all she is a very good dog, and we are very happy to have her! We hope to add another dog to our family, when Bear is around 2 years old, but we are literally in no rush. It could be lovely for her to have a friend though that isn't a hay-eater xD

[stallnorheim]

NEW YEAR, NEW PLACE

Soffía's POV

So basically we spend all that time on renovating our facility - painting walls, replacing stalls and all that - to figure out that the facility didn't feel like home anymore. Not to me, and definitely not to Niko or Peyton either, as my house didn't exactly have enough space for our family, after they both moved in at the beginning of October last year. And it would be strange for some strangers to buy my current house, for us to move far away from from the facility and the horses. I did not like that at all.

So what to do now? Well, we basically began looking for a new place. It had to be in Norway, but we were actually looking a little less North than where we are living right now. It has been in the cards for awhile, since I knew Niko and Peyton would move in for a while now, and I wanted to be able to accommodate them. It had to feel like a home for all of us, you know?

Finding a new place definitely wasn't easy. We found many areas we liked, but somehow the facilities were always lacking. There weren't enough space, the stalls weren't fit for our horses, the inside was old and many other problems much worse than what was already mentioned. It became clear to me that if I wanted something done right, I had to do it myself. So with the help from Niko and some architects we got a barn drawn up.

We had found the place we wanted to buy. It was located around Hamar, and it had the space we needed in regards of building space and space for pastures. On the lots were some old buildings that had to be taken down first of course.

Anyway, fast forward some time, and it was build (magic right? xD). Stalls were the same as at the old place, because we liked them, but the outside of the barns and buildings are much more modern than what we are used to.

Just look at the main barn(!), also called the stallions' barn. It has stalls for every stallion, and a smaller, open tackroom and some grooming space as well.

Then we have the mares' barn. It's for mares and broodmares, and they all live in shared stalls, about five of so together in each. Then we have a foaling stall (probably need to split it into two though) where the pregnant mare can give birth to her baby.

This barn has space for grooming as well, along with some open system tack and feedroom.

Then we have an extra stable with a few extra stalls (5 or so), for well... literally anything. Like... If we have a sick horse, it can be isolated there. If "too many" mares are pregnant, then they can be put there. If a stable is flooded due to bad weather, or a broken pipe, then the horses can go there. It's basically for anything

Pastures and stuff is obviosly quickly finished (we have two reeeally big ones and multiple smaller ones).

And then we have the house! We have a larger pasture almost outside the front door, which is nice, because then we can watch the horses play in the snow from the living room window. The house consists of living room, kitchen, eating space (just beside the kitchen), Peyton's room, three bathrooms (only showing two here), mine and Niko's bedroom and a huge, fun backyard!

[stallnorheim]

BELATED VALENTINE'S DAY

Nikolette's POV

So Soffía seeked me out late in the evening. We have both been in the house for awhile - the NEW house might I add! - after Soffía said goodnight to the staff and the horses. Looked like we would have an early night with no horses, which is honestly rare, when you work with horses for a living.

So we basically moved to the couch with a cup of hot chocolate each. I know Soffía doesn't like it when I make a big deal out of Valentine's Day, so we did literally nothing that day, other than actually moving into the new house, moving van and all.

Sitting there, with a rare night off - since Peyton was very much into her new desktop and probably wouldn't bother us - Soffía sat in front of me, leaning towards me, touching my cheek.

"You know what?" she told me softly, caressing my hand.

"No, what?" my heart was beating hard in my chest, even if I didn't actually know why.

"I want..." she said, leaning into me closely, invading my space - which was very welcome to be honest.

"... to have a baby with you," she whispered against my lips.

All I could do was nod, I had actually been thinking about that as well, but didn't think she would want that, as she was already busy enough as it is, but apparently she did want it as well? Great!

"Then kiss me..." she whispered against my lips against, barely a hair from mine.

Oh and apparently love is also blooming in other places. Froya and Frederic is getting serious, or so Frederic told me at least. I am sure Soffía and my baby is apparently not the only baby in the future! Because Froya is actually already pregnant, or so Froya herself said when telling me she would probably need pregnancy leave in the future.

[stallnorheim]

ALL THE YOUNG MARES (EXCEPT ONE)

Soffía's POV

Since Hamradis is currently walking on three legs after falling on the ice at the pasture (she hurt her right shoulder, don't worry, no more ice!), the training of the young mares has been kind of sparce, since we like for them to follow each other in learning. But since Hamradis will be out for at least a few days more than the week she has already been out, we decided that the training of Sibba and Muska could wait no longer!

Peyton has been excited to get back in the saddle again, since she has only been on hacks, as she needs an instructor for gait training (which is either Niko or I). And Niko has been training Sibba a lot, so I took over the instructing today. Sibba is technically also Peyton's horse, but a little too young and spunky (Muska is much calmer and sweeter with more manners) for Peyton to ride her just yet.

But tölting around in the snow seemed like a good way for both of them to train and bond. Niko eventually took over the instructing, as she could actually show Peyton what she wanted her to do. And if Sibba gave her trouble, I would take over for her again.

[stallnorheim]

CHANGING NAME

Upkeep Tölters has always been kind of a placeholder name. I never liked it a whole lot, and I knew it wouldn't be that name forever. Finally Niko and I have settled on a new name, we are now Stall Norheim! This also means that every horse with the name "frá Upkeep" should change to "frá Norheim".

[stallnorheim]

BEFORE AND AFTER!

Soffía's POV

Upkeep's Updated facilities are almost done. The outside has been painted and updated, and the inside the same. Some of the tack rooms are not completely done yet, but most of it is! I feel really good about this update, since I never liked the red painted walls of the old version - even if everything was like that, when we bought the place - so I am very happy to get everything updated, repainted and looking shiny and fresh!

To those who don't think they have seen enough of the old facility: Here is what it looked like!

[stallnorheim]

JANUARY SNAPSHOT SHOW