Hestablog

Clinic with Trish

2008-05-29T11:42:02-04:00

Sarah on Pilatus, Becky on Landi, as they participated in a clinic for Icelandic horses at Shinto Farm at Cogi.

This is an excerpt of Sarah and Becky's experiences.

Then Trish gave Becky some pointers about the difference between the more traditional Icelandic seat and a correct dressage seat:

Click on Picture to Play Video

There is a HUGE amount of video coming! Stay tuned for some fun with Icelandic riders on big dressage horses....

Click to Play Video

A Horse of a Different Color

2007-12-29T16:56:48-05:00

I was talking with some friends the other day about odd colors that Icelandic horses sometimes acquire. The Icelander in the group and I were both familiar with this one particular horse in the town of Hvammstangi.

Come to think of it, this might be the most famous horse in Iceland. See for yourself:

Click to Play Video

What's With This Pig?

2007-12-27T00:26:16-05:00

Up on Hestakaup I put up a logo of a pig. It's pretty, well, piggish, isn't it?

For those who are not familiar with this pink pig, it is the logo of a chain of supermarkets in Iceland that are part of an even larger enterprise that owns businesses in Europe and, for all I know, in the States, too.

What does this have to do with me and my websites? Unfortunately, absolutely nothing.

So far I have paid all the costs of this project out of my own pocket. As the popularity of Hestakaup grew I added more video stories and, of course, the costs grew, too.

Now I need some help in footing the expenses of filming and traveling in Iceland if the project is going to continue to grow.

I responded when the Icelandic Trade Council solicited proposals for promoting the Icelandic horse abroad but Hestakaup.com was rejected. It's odd how Icelanders love to sell horses to foreigners but don't want to collaborate with them!

I now turn to the private sector. Being all too familiar with Icelandic culture and its business practices I am looking for a company outside of the horse sector that would like to express its interest in the people who ride and buy the Icelandic horse. As good a target market as any.

If anyone has any ideas or contacts, please oh please feel free to contribute them either by comment or email to me.

Thanks!

The Most Expensive Country in the World

2007-12-21T20:46:34-05:00

12/19/2007 | 11:47

Iceland Most Expensive Country in the World

Iceland is by far the most expensive country in the world, according to a recent study by the World Bank on pricing and quality of life (based on data from 2005), comparing economic systems in 146 countries around the globe.

The price of 1,000 products and services was compiled in each country and then compared between countries. The US, which ranked number 20, was used as a standard price index for comparison with 100 points, 24 Stundir reports.

Iceland had 154 points, with 54 percent higher prices than the US. Iceland was considerably higher than the next country below, Denmark, which had 142 points. The Nordic countries were all in the top ten.

Minister of Commerce Björgvin G. Sigurdsson said the World Bank’s study coincides with a number of similar studies. “The lack of competition and environment of oligopoly in this country is the primary cause of high pricing.”

Iceland Review Online

My problem with the above quote is that I could not find the World Bank report mentioned in this story even though I was helped in my search by an international economist. I would have liked to know how the World Bank itself interprets the results. I assume that the quote is from the Minister of Commerce.

If so, Minister of Commerce Björgvin G. Sigurdsson uttered the unspeakable, that the high prices in Iceland are caused by the Klíka.

Ef Hestar Væru Fiskar. (If Horses Were Fish.)

2007-11-18T10:34:20-05:00

We all know how important fish have been to the economy of Iceland. But it could have gone another way. Imagine, then, if, some 50 years ago, fishermen were like today’s horsemen.

Hæ Siggi, I have a great idea. Let´s sell fish to America.

Frábært!

There are millions of Americans. Hundreds of millions of Americans. They buy our fish, we make lots of money.

Frábært!

But we’ll have to go over there and show them how to cook our fish... we can charge them for that and make even more money.

Frábært!

Já, we go over there, cook a few fish, and we go shopping and pay for the whole trip.... Já, beer there is cheaper than Appelsínn here.

I have an even better idea. We go over and sell fish, we cook the fish, and then we eat the fish to show them how it´s done and they pay us for that, too! We would actually get paid for eating our own fish!

Jæja, but I don’t like fish...

You like money?

Frábært!

Time went by and the fishermen had a great time shopping, drinking beer, hanging out with each other and speaking Icelandic. But they sold very little fish. So they built a large booth with beautiful pictures of fish to show people.

But not even that seemed to work. While the Americans said the Icelandic fish were great, they were not buying them.

So the brave fishermen came home, empty-handed. In fact, broke.

People asked what happened.

The Americans, they can’t eat a good fish.

They’re too old to eat our fish.

Bad fish-eaters.
_________________________________

Fortunately it didn’t happen like that and the fish industry thrived. And so, of course, did the Icelanders. They moved on from selling their fish to selling their environment.
_________________________________

Is there a lesson here about selling horses abroad?

If the Icelandic horse is so good, why aren’t Americans buying them?

They are not new in the States. They are known about in the horse community and have been for quite a few years. In fact, a fair-sized herd was brought over in the hold of a ship 1n 1960.

I write this because I have many friends in Iceland who raise and train horses. That should be very clear from my website. I would like to see them do well and, in fact, I want to help them. They can’t all come over to the States and show their horses. And I freely admit that the Icelandic horse is not for everyone.

But it sure as hell is for more people than ride them now!

The Right Word

2007-10-03T16:47:43-04:00

I have a joke for the Icelanders. I would write it in Icelandic if I could, but I only know the punchline in Icelandic, so I'll translate that into English...

Once upon a time, there was a salesman who traveled from farm to farm selling horse and farm supplies. But something happened and he could no longer make any sales.

His boss called him into his office and told him "Siggi, you're a great guy and everyone likes you very much. But for a while now, you have not sold a thing. Anything at all. We can't afford to keep you on your salary and we are going to have to let you go. But because we like you so much, and we have done well by you in the past, we are going to give you one month before you have to leave and go on your own."

The following week, the boss noticed that Siggi's sales were up. In fact, they matched the rest of his group. The second week, Siggi produced more sales than anyone else in the whole region. For the third week, he was the highest seller in all of Iceland. And finally, on the fourth week, he not only met record sales figures, but the warehouse people had to work overtime to keep up with him.

There was no way he could be fired now.

His boss called him in to tell him he should stay. But he had a question: how had he been able to change his sales?

Siggi shrugged. "It may be because I learned a new word." he said modestly.

"Oh. What word is that?"

"Frábært (fabulous)."

The boss frowned. "I don't understand..."

"Well, when a customer tells me his mare just got first prize, I say "frábært". And when a customer says that his son just got accepted into Hólar, I say "frábært". Or that his daughter just had a baby I say "frábært".

"What did you say before?"

"Kjaftæði (bullshit)."

In real life, we need to know when to say kjaftæði as well as frábært.

And in the case of the Icelandic horse, I think people have a tendency to over-use the frábært side. This is not to say that everything else is pure kjaftæði, but at times some reality needs to be dished out. For, if everything is so frábært with the horse, why isn't everyone in the rest of the world buying them? Particularly in my own country, America, where there are less than 3,000 among the millions in other breeds.

So we need to explore that question with a clear mind, look at it as objectively as we can. In the next few articles, I will address this issue: If the Icelandic horse is so great, why doesn't everyone (who rides) ride one?

And if I say kjaftæði from time to time, remember it's from a good friend of Iceland and the Icelandic horse!

Why Did I Choose Iceland?

2007-05-02T11:21:36-04:00

A good question... when I get frustrated by cross-cultural issues I ask it of myself. There are days when I have to ask it a lot. Why-oh-why?

I never had any real plans to go to Iceland. My first trip was almost accidental, certainly casual. Sarah was going for a long weekend of horse-shopping.

"You want to come along?"

"Sure, why not?"

Those few days ended up changing my life by getting me on a horse and which then made me wonder what it really meant to be on a horse, particularly an Icelandic horse. I made a few more trips and I became more aware of Iceland itself.

The landscape and the geology always get the attention in this "land of fire and ice". True, they are beautiful and to a geologist, fascinating.

But it is the history and culture of the Icelanders that I find most compelling.

Let me explain...

Until 873 there were only a few Irish monks in Iceland when the Vikings arrived. These same Vikings who had been plundering Europe now came over to an empty land and found themselves with no one to rape and pillage. What could they do?

So they settled it!

Let's remember, Iceland was way out there in the cold and stormy North Atlantic. This was the in day before stopovers between Europe and America. For centuries Iceland was isolated from the rest of the world.

And these Vikings, isolated and tempered by hardship for centuries -- really until just before World War II -- evolved a culture.

They preserved a lot that remains today such as the ancient horse and in their language which still remains Old Norse.

And while I've never seen or heard of anyone running around in skins with battle axes, yet some old culture remains.

A Sample of Video Stories on Hestakaup.com

2007-04-18T11:35:00-04:00

PLEASE GO TO HESTAKAUP.COM FOR VIDEOS

THESE ARE ONLY A FEW SAMPLES

Hestablog has become a blog!

Click on the picture to go to the story

AN ICELANDIC TRAIL RIDE

It's all about trail riding. Let's go for a ride with some friends in Skagafjörður. This gives us the context for just about all that follows.

Click on the picture at the left and it will take you to a story. Once there, all the images lead to videos.

And Now a Word from Our Sponsor...

2007-04-17T14:39:00-04:00

....

.........

It's not that the sponsor is silent. It's that there is no sponsor.

This site has been paid for out of my own pocket. I don't particularly mind, but I can't keep paying for all those $15 burgers in Iceland forever. I would really like to go over to Iceland, different parts of it, more often and on a regular basis, but the meter is always running. I need modest underwriting for expenses. In order to solicit some sponsorship from sources that would not be a conflict of interest or threaten my credibility, I need some sign from Iceland that my video efforts are appreciated and welcome. Or even recognized. So far, I have not been able to get any response from the government or horse organizations in this effort.

Anyone have any ideas? Feel free to leave them as a comment!

A Geothermal Park

2007-04-17T12:26:00-04:00

We hear about all that clean clean energy that just flows from the ground in Iceland. So one day I had to see it for myself.

A short drive outside of Reykjavik is a kind of energy park called Nesjavellir (pronounced NESS-ya-vet-ler, just the way it is spelled, as the Icelanders will tell you). The only thing that gives it away as something unusual is that you can see clouds of steam leaking from earth in some places.

Spotted throughout the valley are white Buckminster Fuller geodesic domes which seem to be the nodes for steel pipes which collect the steam from individual wells. The pipes eventually come together at the power plant where electricity and hot water are co-generated.

Play Flash Video

I think my video captures the sights and sounds pretty well. But I have to leave it to your imagination to get the smell of the sulfur! Clean energy, yes. Odor-free? No! On the other hand, they get big bucks for it at the Blue Lagoon.

This really is a park with marked trails, view sites and tourist accommodations. You can find out more here.

We're Back!

2006-08-18T14:34:20-04:00

We went off to Landsmot 2006 and now we are back with hours and hours of fabulous video to edit. Please bear with us while we get it out to you. But in the meantime, here's a little behind-the-scenes peek at our trip!

Stills for quarterly

2006-07-10T15:04:00-04:00

shirson

Jared's View...

2006-04-10T13:48:00-04:00

The view from Jared's balcony. And his opinion of it...

Click here to see Jared in Iceland!

Take the Flash Test

2006-02-01T08:41:00-05:00

To play the videos, you need Flash 8. It's the latest version of Adobe Macromedia Flash, a very common plug-in. I am sure that you have the older version, Flash MX, in your computer now. You just need to update it.

Below, you can see two pictures that are almosgt identical. One is labeled Flash MX and the other is Flash 8.

When you click on a picture in hestablog, a pop-up window with a video player appears. Click on the PLAY button, and you will see a movie. Try it on the image on the left, FLASH MX. When you are done, close the window and click on the right image, FLASH 8. If you do not see the same movie, you need Flash 8.

It it is a free, safe, very useful upgrade from Adobe. Here is an automaic updater. Follow the instructions, and come back and enjoy the videos!

If you still need help, you can contact me through the comments field, but you can also take the advice I always give: Ask a kid!

I would really appreciate it if you could leave a comment below on your reactions to having to update your copy of Flash. I have the feeling, but no solid information, that people are hesitant to go to the Adobe site unless they are are pretty computer-literate. Some feedback would help me figure this out. Thanks.