Round-Up

After work today I went with Gunna and Valgeir to Kolkuós, where they keep their horses. They planned to round up the herd so that they could transport six of the mares over to another farm where they will spend the next three weeks with a virile stallion. The hope is that next spring there will be six lovely new foals joining the herd, which already numbers about 18. I wasn't totally sure what to expect of this task. I guess I figured it would be a matter of gently encouraging the horses to move into the pen and then separating the 6 lucky lady horses and letting them clip-clop into the trailer. I knew this wasn't the first time the horses had done this, and figured they would know the routine well enough that it would be a quick project. Wrong. 

The horses were apparently not feeling particularly cooperative tonight, and gave us quite the run around. There is a lot of land at Kolkuós, and we walked and drove around a good portion of it tonight, as we tried to urge the horses toward the corral. Just when we thought they were going the right way the lead horse would break away and the whole damn group of them would gallop off.

"At least go in the right direction!" I'm begging them, but the horses just say, "Nei!" 

Ba-dum-CHA! Nei. Get it? Anyone? Because it's a horse...? Nei=No....Ok. If you weren't a fan of that one I've got a million others. 

The horses finally made their way to the corral, through a combination of Valgeir and Gunna's efforts (I'm not going to claim to have helped much, though I was out there waving my arms like a fool and trying to help where I could) and a neighboring farmer bringing over one of his horses, which caused the Kolkuós herd to be curious enough to sort of follow him toward the paddock. 

Once they were locked in, they milled around and looked at us humans with general displeasure. How dare we try to contain them?! The mares were eventually picked out and loaded into the trailers and the other horses released back into the immense pasture. I swear, the ones that didn't have to go into the trailers had expressions of such relief on their long, fuzzy faces. They watched the trailers with a mix of interest and pity. I'm pretty sure they were whispering to each other, "There goes Gladys, poor old thing. Glad I'm not the one in that box."

We delivered the mares to the neighboring farm where they will have their scandalous summer vacation. 

          "How many horses does this farmer have?" I ask.

          "Maybe... 40," Valgeir answers. 

          "More than that!" Gunna disagrees.

          "42," Valgeir jokes. 

I spent a few minutes befriending three fluffy dogs while Gunna and Valgeir chatted with the farmer. Dogs and horses in one evening. All while surrounded by the most beautiful landscape in the world. Am I lucky or what? 

Back in the car I reflected on my filthy state and the fun I'd had getting that way. Sure, I'd smelled better before, and I was tired, but I was also incredibly happy.  And happy beats clean any day. 

At the end of the day,

your feet should be dirty, 

your hair messy, 

and your eyes sparkling

                                              -Shanti