Sometimes on your trips, you meet people that just take care of you. They fix things for you, introduce you to fun activities, makes amazing stuff possible and over all contribute to radically improve your experience of a place.
I already introduced you to Gunnar, who invited me to motorised outdoor action with big tyres and water splashing in the "Monstertruck-episode", but Samuel Örn Erlingsson was no less of a door opener. He is into the other kind of horse power. The one that comes one by one, on four legs...
A classic pose. It is time to leave the high pasture.
The horse gathering is a social event.
Herd of Icelandic horses in Skagafjordur
Samuel Örn Erlingsson in his right element.
sun - snow - rain ... in one day
Samuel Örn Erlingsson
The days spent with Samuel were truly rewarding. Just by being himself he demonstrated the Icelandic culture of hospitality. It was an adventure from the first time we met, when Samuel was one of the drifters riding across Kjølur.
We had delicious, tender horse meat in his home with his wife Ásta (a famed athlete), we made traditional food - Slautur -with his mother and sisters and we travelled to the south and the north in order to ride and check out horses.
Wherever we came, Samuel had friends, and I slowly realised that he is some kind of a hotshot or celebrity on "The Rock", after serving many years as a sports commentator and "horse man" in Icelandic TV. It is said a book could be written about all his fun/erroneous statements when he was the "expert commentator" of all exercises in the winter Olympics, years ago, when they only could afford to send one reporter ...
They breed both for physical quality and looks, making a thousand shades of brown ...
Skagafjordur horse gathering
Going to Skagafjordur was special. You will see in the episode that the horses are driven down from the high mountains and gathered in the valley, before split between the farmers. There's singing og the great local tenors, drinking, competitions and an extremely social warmth. I was allowed to do pretty much whatever I wanted, and riding across Iceland some weeks before had made me rather comfortable on horseback, so this was pure fun.
Eating horse meat
Yes, I am a horse lover in double sense. The dinner in Samuels place was among the best. The cut is rough, but tells you a little story about the tradition of eating the horses:
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