Underskatta aldrig ...

... hästarna. De kan sina saker.

Det viktiga är att hålla dem glada, pigga och väl till mods.
                                                               ( Tobbe Larrson  )  

The mood, behavior and condition of a horse is mostly a picture of you and the horses environment.

In a nutshell this mean : You get what you give !

.

Victor ...

... my big friend.

To be honest, it wasn't 'love at first sight' when I met him app 10 years ago, a (for me more or less unknown) breed mix between American Saddlebred and Islandic horse. So it took some months before I rode him first time and some years before I decided to take him as my first own horse .. . my personal childhood dream.

As everybody who has a horse surly can confirm, even Victor and me had many ups and downs, discussions and different opinion of work input and fun. So we aged together in our riding experience and I proudly can say that we are a good team today.

As reason of Victors family background he is a gaited horse with a quiet natural pass, whereat the tölt comes only in highest concentration and exertion, but however ... yes, he can :-)

He has a great personality, is socially spirited and was (I believe he still is) the flock leader, and he is cute and makes me/us laugh ;-)

Morning!

I am so glad to have him now here in Purnuvaara, even if it is much more work and responsibility, but on the opposite I have plenty of rope in all decisions and last but not least the warm feelings when he waits and greets for me each day makes it good, thousand times!

Reunion of the flock ...

... we have still good grassland here in Purnuvaara. It seems so, that the horse feel much better when they can life out their social behavior in a bigger flock.
The reunion has happen a few days ago - without any problem - not a single kick or other aggression.

We have been already convinced from the beginning, that they can stay harmonic together.
Different characters, size, older, life experience - that should fit - and it did !
For several weeks now very good grassland and enough natural motion makes all horse relaxed and somehow happy including a friendly and respectful relationship to their human friends and "owners".

The first friendly contact between Ida and Victor ...  an exciting moment for all of us.

Järnvilja, she becomes now a horse ... even if much room for improvement still exists.

Ida ist Järnviljas adoptive mother, they are one heart and one soul.

:-) 

protection behind the horse ...

Ida is very photogenic - and a beautiful colored horse 

Victor has detected something.

 He was checking the situation carefully 

and acting during the reunion very sovereign. Good job boy !

The new round pen is also soon ready for use. A perfect size and we have already realized after some tests now ( Sara and Kerstin ) that it is much fun to use this corral - even if the inessential detail - the gate - is not yet in place :-)))

Roughly 16m in diameter
Excellent size , even for bigger  horses.

The camp slowly gets a face now ... good to see and good to know after a few weeks of hard but satisfying work.

The magnificent seven ...

from Niilivaara.

The riding tour in swedish lapland had a bit of everything, beauty, adventure, fun, relaxation.

Lotta, Linn, Pia, Petra, Yvonne, Kerstin and Andreas  joined the ride in the wild last weekend, together with the same passion for horses and nature.

Here a short film ... smiling people - happy horses  - great nature and excellent coffee break !

The ride took 17km through forest, uphill and downhill of cleared section area which allowed a great view and beside beautiful flower meadows. The difference in altitude was 284m and the calorie consumption was app 7900kcal/horse ...  not human ;-)

Lotta led the trail

Meeting point in the middle of nowhere

Silence, only the sound of hooves...

... and of course the laugh and voice of woman :-)

Prepared for the next speed?

First we take care of the horses (here Linn with Ida) ...

... than we enjoy and appreciate the coffee break and location.

Thx for this trip and see you soon... that's life we are living for!

She is truly a black beauty ...

... in our opinion. But look self .

We have made this pictures during the last sunny days in Purnuvaara, when the sunset began and the forest was captured in warm light.
Its the perfect time to make some great pictures - it´s called the "blue hours".
One of the best things here in North Scandinavia is, that this "blue hours" is at least 3 hours long.
Even for the slowest photographer enough time to make at least ONE good shot ;-)

Some pictures we made also during noon, the light is much harder and the difference is significant visible.

This beautiful lady was born June 2003 and is right now in a great shape.
We are riding between 4-6 times every week and the tours are between 1,5 and 3 hours up and down riding in different terrain. We have now around 30 km of groomed riding trails and endless trails in the forest around Purnuvaara.

She is really flexible .. and not like me ...
I have already big problems to tie my shoes ...

A sunbeam into her hair ... 

Her father is ...

Askur från Håkansgården and he  is one of the worlds greatest breeding- and competition stallions ... and the first swedish born Elite stallion.

http://www.askur.se/

Maybe she has much more potential than we know ... but important is that she has a good life - with or without competition. 

It is much fun to photograph Tinna, she looks sometimes a little bit absent - maybe she is chilling - but with the right light at the right place, a good background and some patience she is absolutely worth to be pictured. She is a very nice lady and has a strong herd bond, she can not stay alone. Good is, that she likes the dogs and feels also good when we are out 

together ( human, dogs and horses ) in the woods. 

We are really excited to see how she will come along with Ida and Järnvilja - next week, when we have the big family reunification :-)

And more horses are coming in the near future - the future sounds good for all of them. 

It´s no horse ! Believe it or not ...

A dog - attacking a creepy wood stick in the water .
We have pictured also other animals ...

Sweden´s breathtaking National Parks ...

We spent  much time out in the wild, no only with friend or our horses but also with our dog.
Sweden´s nature above the arctic circle is really is marvelous. Especially the national parks  in swedish Lapland are stunning.

Easy to reach and in our opinion one of the most spectacular park is Stora Sjöfallet.  The park was created 1909 and  is 1278 km² and thereby the third largest in Sweden. 
This hug place is  dominated by the mountain Áhkká which is also called “ The queen of Lapland ”.
The big lake system in the park is the Lule River.

It is a great place for hikers, fisher men and photographers. 
If you need to be disconnected from our civilized madness - we can highly recommend to visit the park, climb up until you reach the treeless and mosquitoless plateau and enjoy a silent you have never noticed before.

Below some pictures from our trip we did last friday.

The only creature we met was ONE moose - nothing else.
Height was around 1200 Meter over sea level.
Middle of August and still some snow fields left. 

Mystic waterfall - could be a scene in the "Lord of the Ring" saga

The water is crystal clear and damned cold .... close to liquid ice.

We shot the 3 pictures above roughly here  : 

http://maps.google.de/maps?q=67.53364,18.330345&ll=67.533772,18.334036&spn=0.025419,0.12454&num=1&t=h&z=14

If you have access to a boat - take a trip and discover on of
the islands in the lake.
Many of those islands  have beautiful sand beaches.

Tour from last year - including barbecue of course :-)

Enjoying the stunning view.

The mountains were formed about 400 million years ago when two continents collided. The sea between them disappeared and the sediment of the seabed were pressed together to a mountain range. Today you can see traces form the ice age in the area, for example terminal moraines and outcrops polished by the ice.

The perfect sunset.

If you know the right spots in the park it becomes the right place for everybody to chill endless and and take some really great pictures. Don´t waste lifetime ;-) .... let´s go.

Riding tour at Caribou Rock ...

... it was a spontaneously idea to have a riding tour at Caribou Rock.

Said and done, on Wednesday arrived our friends Solveig and Göran from Yrtivaara and Yvonne from Leipojärvi with their horses Liv, Odde and Gormur in Purnuvaara.

The mixed horse herd (Norrsvensk, Islandic and Victor) started their ride into Purnuvaara's wildlife. We crossed a small creek (Hjärtabäcken), ride through a wonderful fir- and pine forest up on a little mountain range where we had a great view over the whole landscape.

constantly changing terrain demanded horses and our attention and trained the balance

forest paths allowed really fast gallop passages, unbelievable how fast
650kg can be ;-)

a coffee break let the horses breathe ...

... and we could enjoy the view and exchanged some riding experiences

our riding trail took app 5000kcal... for each horse...
by a daily demand of app 16-20000kcal/horse

The riding trip took 3 hours and ended with 5 tiered horses and 5 happy humans. The crowning end was grilled sausage, cake and coffee together with our friends Pia and Johan, Mikke, Emilia (and her friend) who hadn't the possibility to join the ride in the morning.

you don't need more to make life suitable ...

It was a fantastic day and nice to see the respectful behavior between different horse breeds and their human friends. We are sure to make such riding tour again!

.

The hungry horse ...

... seems so that fresh, green grass is not enough, no, it has to be a tasty compact camera she was trying to eat up this weekend.
Good to know that it wasn´t an inexpensive Hasselblad ;-)

This hungry lady is Ida and a very cute and nice girl ....

Beside our daily work - building the camp - we spent some time for riding, fishing and visiting the swedish firefighters with our french/german guests.

Our friends from France and Germany mentioned later on, that the firefighters above the arctic circle - in our case located in Gällivare - are by far the nicest guys you can meet.

Gällivare firefighter station July 2012

This guy made a 4 years old boy very, very happy for the rest of the week - even if the outfit did not fit  100% - but who cares ..... ?

And finally we can show the very brave grandchildren of our neighbors. Two 8 and 10 years old boys
very proud fishing during sunset pike and perch.

The two brave boys alone in a small boat,
they got some pikes and perch and
the evening was successful

Last weekend we were fishing in Stora Sjöfallet .

One of the most beautiful places in swedish Lapland. A great place to get great fighting graylings, big pikes and tasty trouts.

The clouds driver was not lazy :-)
and the atmosphere was breathtaking
during our casts ....

 And if you don´t like to fish - this is my statement - make a fire, enjoy the silent and atmosphere and take some great pictures ... life can be so good ... if you allow it.