Changes...

We are excited for Willy and his new horse Þór frá Prestsbakka. Willy bought Þór here from us and will keep him here at Flying C for training and take lessons on him. They are a great match and we know they will have fun together.

Willy and Þór last weekend

At the same time Þór is changing ownership his offspring are doing very well in Iceland. First Freyþór was shown at the Breeding Show in Hella last week and now his son Ás frá Hvoli won 100 m pace at the Reykjavík Championships with Árni Björn. Ás is a very successful pace horse in Iceland.

Ás and Árni Björn, Isabell and Ragnar, Flosi and Diddi and Korði and Teitur - photo Hestafrettir.is

Kani's brother Villandi frá Feti also changed ownership. He is a 6 year old very promising five-gaiter located in Iceland.

Villandi and Bergur at Landsmót 2008

We are back...

We went to Iceland and Greenland in July for a visit and stopped for one night in Seattle on the way back. We had a great time in all 3 places.

On top of the Glacier in Greenland

Then we saw yesterday that the Þór frá Prestsbakka son Freyþór frá Hvoli was shown in Iceland and got some nice marks.

Freyþór frá Hvoli and Þorvaldur Árni at the Icelandic Championships 2009

Conformation: 7.5 - 8.5 - 8 - 8 - 8 - 8 - 9 - 8 = 8.24
Talent: 8.5 - 8.5 - 8 - 8.5 - 8.5 - 8.5 - 9 = 8.45
Slow Tölt 8.0 Canter 8.0 Total 8.37
Rider Þorvaldur Árni Þorvaldsson

We also got an update from Canada about another Þórson Bjartur from Flying C Ranch. He is now being started under saddle and they are very pleased with how it's going.

Bjartur is born here and is a son of Will's older competition mare Perla frá Rauðuskriðu. Bjartur is a stallion and standing at stud at Bonaventure Farms in Ontario.
Check out www.bonaventurefarms.net for more info on Bjartur and his friends.

Update...

Now the two babies we were expecting this year are both born.
They are both out of Hrafn frá Garðabæ.

Gola frá Höfðabrekku had a colt on June 9th.

And Perla frá Rauðuskriðu had a filly June 22nd.

Will has been riding Svarta Nótt and she is coming a long nicely.
She is daughter of Rák frá Akureyri and Þór frá Prestsbakka.

First Invitational Flying C Ranch Schooling Show...

We had a small invitational schooling show here at our ranch June 19-20.

Anne-Marie and Sörli pacing down the track - photo by Willy Ma

There were 12 rider/horse combinations signed up and we did riding in the morning and everyone was filmed.
Then after lunch we gathered in the barn to watch everyones performances and go over what could improve for a better performance.

Drift and Eileen - photo by Willy Ma

Rachel, Madison and Cait are all getting ready for Youth Cup and are leaving next week for Denmark.
They will all be representing the US and compete on horses they are borrowing in Denmark.

Rachel and Kaliber at the schooling show - photo by Willy Ma	Cait and Kani at the schooling show - photo by Willy Ma

We will be cheering for them from here!!

 

Grásteinn aka Snow Rabbit...

Caitlin bought Grásteinn thru us from Willy and Eileen back in end of April and she has been training him as a 3 day eventer.

Grásrteinn and Caitlin in Dressage - Day 1

Grásteinn and Caitlin on the cross country course - Day 2

Grásteinn adn Caitlin at the stadium jumping - Day 3

They entered their first show last weekend at Shepherd Ranch here in Santa Ynez and they came first in their division!!
We are super proud of both of them and we can't wait for their next event in the end of August!

Caitlinn and Grásteinn after receiving 1st place in their division!

Grásteinn has only been jumping since this spring under saddle when Jenny and Caitlin decided to try it. He seems to really enjoy it and Caitlin and him are a great pair!

 

CIA OPEN...

Dynjandi in the finals - Will Covert

We had the CIA Open here at Flying C Ranch last weekend. The show was a great success and everyone was really happy with Nicolai as our judge. We had over 30 horse and rider combinations including 10 horses from our farm.

Dynjandi did very well in open Tölt and Fourgait. We scored 9.0 in the T1 preliminaries including 9.5 for Slow Tölt, 8.5 for Speed changes and 9.0 for Fast tölt. And 7.80 in Fourgait.

Húni and Anne-Marie did very well too scoring 7.40 in T2.

Rachel and Kaliber and Dominic and Dreyr in T5i - Jenny Tommelstad

Rachel rode Kaliber for the first time in Intermediate Tölt and had some minor faults in the preliminaries but managed to fix them for the finals and took the gold. Her Dad Dominic came second on Dreyri frá Saurbæ. Rachel won the Youth Fourgait on Kaliber, she got 6.5 for Tölt, 6.5 for Trot, 8.5 for walk and 7.5 for canter and a total of 7.30 in the preliminaries. Rachel rode Þór in the Youth Tölt and got 7.0 and in Open group fourgait (V2) where she was 3rd in the final.

Rachel rode Erró frá Sléttubóli in T6 (intermediate loose rein Tölt) for the first time. They did very well in the final.

Anne-Marie also rode Sörli in F2 and pace race for the first time.

Will, Anne-Marie and I rode in the 100 m pace race. That is always a thrill.

Eileen rode Drift frá Ytra-Dalsgerði in the Novice Classes and did very well. She caught a cold so was unable to ride in the finals.

Other horses from our farm showed up like Kani frá Feti with Cait Nold riding in Youth Tölt and Fourgait. Also Ægir frá Byrgisskarði with his owner Alexandra Venable, they were second in both Youth Tölt and Fourgait. Lucy rode Andri and Christina rode Hroftur in the Open group classes.

Ægir and Alexandra - Jenny Tommelstad

Click here for full results from the show

Mark your calendar for October 16-17, 2010 for our next show and hopefully it will be a WorldRanking event!

LA SHOW...

We took 5 horses to the LA show last weekend. Rachel rode Kaliber frá Lækjarbotnum in Youth Tölt and Fourgait and Þór frá Litlu-Sandvík in Intermediate Tölt and Fourgait, Anne-Marie rode Húni frá Torfunesi in T2 and Sörli frá Dalbæ II in Intermediate fivegait and I rode Dynjandi frá Dalvík in Open Tölt and Fourgait.

Dynjandi in Tölt - photo by Will Covert

Dynjandi and I won Tölt and Fourgait. We scored 8.30 in T1 and 7.0 in Fourgait preliminaries. We got 8.30 in the T1 finals and 7.40 in Fourgait finals.

Húni and Anne-Marie - photo by Will Covert

Anne-Marie scored 7.4 in the T2 preliminary on Húni and 7.75 in the finals. Anne-Marie rode Sörli in Fivegait and she got 6.4 in Fivegait including 6.5 for Tölt and Pace. Very good start for them in their first fivegait competition.

Rachel and Kaliber - Photo by Will Covert

Rachel rode Kaliber in the Youth classes and scored 7 in both Tölt and fourgait preliminaries. In the finals she scored 7.5 in Tölt and 7.13 in fourgait finals. She also rode Þór in intermediate tölt and fourgait and scored 5.8 in the T5 finals and 6.3 in V3 finals.

Overall a very successful show for the Flying C Horses. We brought home 7 golds and 1 silver.

Our other students did very well as well. Cait rode Kani in Youth Tölt and Fourgait and was second after Rachel in both. Lucy rode Andri in T3 and V2 and scored over 7 in T3 including an 8 for fast tölt! Christina rode Hroftur in V2 and improved her scores in the finals. Doug rode Rán in T5 and Lind in F2 and Gayle was tied for 1st in Novice Fourgait on Flygill and ended second and she won the Pleasure Tölt class on Flygill!

Now we are looking forward seeing everyone again soon at our show May 1st and 2nd. For more info on our show check out the CIA Website.

Spring is in the air..

Kaliber and Rachel at the CIA Open Fall 2009 - Photo by Jasmine Grace

The three girls who tried out for the Youth Cup have gotten their results and Rachel and Madison are on the team along with Kevin from Minnesota and Cait is the first reserved rider. We hope FEIF gives the US an extra spot so all 3 of them get to go together and enjoy their experience.

For more info on the Youth Cup check out the official website www.feifyouthcup2010.dk

Madison and Rán at the CIA Open Fall 2009 - photo by Heather Skopik

Cait and Kani at the CIA Open Fall 2009 - photo borrowed from Cait's Facebook

Caitlin and Jenny have been playing with Grásteinn and teaching him to jump. He seems to really enjoy it and so does Caitlin. She rides big horses in 3 day eventing. See more about Grásteinn on our sales page.

Caitlin jumping Grásteinn frá Æsustöðum

Anne-Marie's young stallion Brunnur frá Feti (s. Skrúður frá Litlalandi d. Gola frá Höfðabrekku) is coming along nicely in Iceland. Olil sent us photos of him in Tolt. He is born 2006 so he is only 4 years old.

Brunnur frá Feti in Iceland - Photo by Olil Amble

Now with show season around the corner Dynjandi and Húni have been going swimming again at Sharf here in Santa Ynez. They really enjoy their once a week treat and now with the warmer weather it is very nice for them to get into to the cool pool and work on their stamina.

Dynjandi swimming at Sharf in Santa Ynez

Our next show is in LA in April 10-11 at Valhalla Icelandics. And our show is coming up May 1st and 2nd. For more info on our show check out the CIA Website. We hope to see you here at our show!

February update..

Rachel and Kaliber frá Lækjarbotnum

February has been a busy month. We had 3 girls here trying out for this years Youth Cup. Rachel rode Kaliber frá Lækjarbotnum, Cait Nold rode Kani frá Feti and Madison Prestine tried out on Rán frá Hofi. They all did a very good job riding their first individual Tölt and Four-gait programs. The applications and DVD's were due February 15th and they should know how they did and if they made the team by March 15th.

Click here to See Rachel's Tryout video.

For more info on the Youth Cup check out the official website www.feifyouthcup2010.dk

Cait and Kani at home together - photo borrowed from Cait's Facebook

Kani also went home with his new owner Cait and they are doing so good together and we can't wait to see how they progress now that they get to spend a lot more time together and get to know each other better.

Our May show is aproaching and the information has been posted on the CIA website.

Svarta Nott from Dalalif is for sale - photo by Will Covert

Few new sales horse have been added to our sales page.

USIHC Annual Meeting...

The USIHC Annual Meeting was held in Reston, VA mid January. Rich Moore and friends did a great job organizing the meeting and finding the venue. We had a great time meeting so many members and friends again.

At the dinner Hjálmar Hannesson the ambassador of Iceland presented the National Ranking system for Sanctioned Shows and gave out the awards. Anne-Marie won the T2 for the year and I won T1 and V1. Lucy won the Youth Classes T8 and V6 and also T3 and V2.
And Rachel won V3 the Intermediate Fourgait.

There were few of us from last summers US team and we honored Doug as our team leader.

Kari, Guðmar, me and Anne-Marie presented Doug with the Team Leder award

Click here to see the full results for 2009 National Ranking
http://www.icelandics.org/showresults/pdf/2009_national_ranking.pdf

We also made time for some sightseeing on Friday before the meeting since Will and I had never been to the capital before.

Doug, Will, me, Anne-Marie, Kari and Stu

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
FROM US HERE AT FLYING C RANCH

Fireworks in Iceland