Aloha dear Wanda and Shari……where to begin. As some of this story is quite painful !!!! And brings up some very sad memories, and as well as very fabulous, fantastic memories. AND, all of this began long before 1967 when I was quite young, and now I am even younger at 69 !!!!!
My family was from Greenwich, Connecticut, and my father was very involved with the Icelandic Government and many business projects with Iceland. I am getting ahead of the story, so the story really all began when I was in my teens and we had a foreign exchange student living with us from Iceland. We loved Haldora, and were delighted when she invited our family to Reykjavik to visit her family. We fell in love with the country and her people, and it began a “love story” for many, many years. We would often go up for weeks during the summer, when Iceland had 24 hours of daylight and we explored the entire island……..salmon fishing in the private rivers, hiking on the fjord’s and horseback riding on Icelandic horses all over the lava fields. We then began going up to Iceland 2 times a year and would spend Thanksgiving helping the women of Reykjavik with their annual craft fair to raise money for charity.
My family began importing Icelandic sheepskin rugs and Icelandic sweaters………….icelandic wool, Icelandic cheese, and especially Icelandic FISH…….fish made up approximately 85 % of the Iceland economy. It was during this time, that Iceland was almost exclusively selling all these items to Great Britain………and one day, the British fishing trollers began sneaking into the Iceland 12 mile “no trespassing zone” and fishing for the juiciest, most healthy fish………………..the Icelandic government warned and warned the British that their illegal “invasion” into the “no travel zone” was being violated………….without obeying and leaving, the British trollers were then captured by the 1 and only Icelandic navy ship…..and Iceland declared war on Great Britain.
That is when the big problem began……………….America had an air force base, Keflavik, right outside of Reykjavik, and America was concerned when our government found out that Iceland began selling all their exports to the USSR. Of course, at that time, we had the Cold War going with the USSR. The USSR could not pay cash to Iceland for the fish, so they agreed to “bater” in their trade…..iceland began receiving USSR cars and oil and other products.
We found out that Iceland had already sent a herd of their gorgeous horses to Germany, and the German people loved the horses for trekking. They loved the horses, because the practice was, that the Icelandic horses were allowed to run wild in herds until they reached about 3 years old…….they then would be introduced to a bridle and saddle. As we all know, the breed is very gentle, yet when they get a saddle and bridle on, they become more than feisty and spirited and were always sensitive and loyal…….the horse than LOVES to race. With their 5 gaits, especially with their 5th gait, the tolt. They are very sure footed and have very strong hind legs……………they can go for days and days of riding and seem to never tire.
We made an agreement with the Icelandic government to import 40 horses to America. They would NOT give us a stallion, as they wanted total control of the breed…….not wanting anyone to breed a pure breed……..so we accepted 35 geldings and 5 mares….they were put on a ship and 10 days later arrived in Clifton, New Jersey, where they had to go into quarantine. We hired a veterinarian to go onto the ship and take blood from each horse………the veterinarian was so impressed, that these horses that had traveled in rough seas for 10 days, and were so docile when he went to draw their blood. All were pronounced perfect to be transferred by horse vans to our home in Greenwich, Connecticut and to a farm we rented very near by in Bedford, New York. We had hired 4 Icelandic men, who cared for and groomed, rode, the 36 horses for us. My husband and I had our 4 personal horses at the stables at our home….2 for guests to ride, and I kept Grani as my own personal horse, and joe had Svetenga……..we had such a very strong bond with our beloved horses, our best friends. We lived with all 1000 of acres of Greenwich riding trails surrounding us, that we road for hours and hours…….our Icelandic’s always beat and raced the Hunters and Thoroughbreds along the trails.
Our plan, was to help the Icelandic government by importing and selling the horses to families in the northeast. We began by holding a weekend event where “horse” people from all over New England, plus a good turn out of the press, came to see our herd perform.joe was even written up in Sports Illustrated as President of the Icelandic Horse Association. It was very successful, and I remember that the Rockefellar family bought 2 of the horses, as well as many other of the horses going to other prominent horse families. At my age, I really can not remember the names, but they were all from New England.
It was during this time (sad part) that my mother became deathly ill, my father left her for another woman and our lives began to fall apart. My mother died, we sold the herd to a man (I will find out his name) and he brought the entire herd to Vermont. This was all about 40 years ago, I had lost a baby, had 2 tiny babies, was emotionally distressed with all that was happening to my family. My brother and his wife, and joe and I all moved out to Oregon……….that is when the herd went to Peter Strong. we totally lost track of them, as we began new lives away from the tragic time in our lives. We had all the files of each horse and what it cost, yet I really do not know after 40 years where the files ended up. I do remember that back then, the horses were VERY expensive. About $3000 dollars per horse.
If you have questions, please do not hesitate to let me know……also, we have some fun, fun, fun stories about many of the horses, with each having such incredible personalities…………fir instance, they loved beer……and on a hot day, we would bring many of them a can of beer……..the would lift their heads way up, smack their lips and guzzle, guzzle.
Thank you Gail Mitchell for allowing me to post your wonderful and sad story of your time with Icelandic Horses.
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