A little piece of Meldgaard Heste

So this is a little bit out of order but anyway...
I found this little video clip of the horses at Meldgaard Heste (Denmark) being let out of their paddock to be fed in the barn. It was like a racetrack out there as they all tried to get pole position for the feeding...

Meldgaarde Heste and Icelandic horses

After being dropped off by a local bus at a sign by a crossroad (apparantly in the middle of nowhere), we have managed to find our way to our second help exchange - "Meldgaarde Heste", a riding and activity center near Farso, in northern Denmark.

The farm consists of ~100 acres of paddocks and woodland, and is home to Hans and Jeanette, sons Alexander and Daniel, Monty the massive (but cowardly) german shepard and sidekick Ain (who we've nicknamed shit-for-brains), 4 barn cats, chickens, a turkey, and most importantly, about 100 Icelandic horses. We're the only helpers here, but there's also another girl who works and lives on the farm (Janni).

Work wise, our days normally start around 7:30 with breakfast, then I'm off to help Janni with the morning feeding of the horses. The horses are paddocked in 4 herds - smaller horses, bigger horses, mares and skinny horses - at least that's my best guestimate from observations anyway! One by one the herds are herded into the long stable, and get their breakfast of oats (which are crushed/rolled here), chaff and pellets. The skinny herd also gets fed in the afternoon. Horse breakfast normally takes just under 2 hours, and then it's time for people smoko :-)




Lecky and I have been busy whitewashing the outside walls of the barns - this basically means we mix up buckets of lime and water, and then "paint" it on with brooms. At first it just looks like the walls are getting wet and not white at all, but once it's dried, it comes up pretty nice. We've also painted a couple of inside rooms in the barn and boiler room (where the farm heating is generated by burning woodchips). All good practice for when we actually have our own house to paint :-)

Icelandic horses have very different gaits from the horses I've ridden previously. The walk is the short and bouncy walk of a pony (not long striding like my thoroughbred Mick), the trot is even bouncier and super fast (no rising trot here!), and then they don't seem to do a slow canter - it's just up to straight out gallop.


On the weekend we tagged along on a trail ride, which was great fun despite the sore muscles that emerged in the following days. The ride took us through pretty forests with mossy floors, over molehill-studded hills and along rolling fields. We got to one such rolling field, where Hans suggested a gallop, and Lecky said, "Sure, looks like nice soft ground!" This turned out to be a case where he should have touched wood - just as we hit top speed, Hans' horse spooked sideways (at nothing, in true horse fashion), and the rest of the horses thought it would be a great idea to follow suit. I lost my stirrups but stayed on, but Lecky's horse threw in a pigroot, and off he went onto the aforementioned nice soft ground (luckily no injuries!). After we caught his horse (which had decided to bolt for the road), we were off again and made it home without any more incidents.



We also did a bit of riding on some less unpredictable vehicles - some scenic cycling to Hvalpsund, which is a little town on the coast. It was mostly uphill all the way there, so by the time we got there we were pretty stuffed and couldn't be arsed doing more than taking a few photos and looking at some realestate ads in the window. And to our great disappointment, we headed into a headwind on the way home, nullifying all the downhill action we'd been hoping for. But one positive of the ride was counting how many aluminium cans are lying on the side of the roads - you get decent money for returning them, so we might make another more purposeful trip later on to clean us up some cash....

Kobenhavn

Firstly, I have no idea why we spell it Copenhagen....surely Cobenhaven would be closer if anything! Anyway, we had a sudden rush of excitement when we realised that the Danish (from the bakery!) actually came from...you guessed it...Denmark! Although there were pastries everywhere, we didn't manage to find the exact variety we're used to in Australia. Oh well, we had to settle for those pictured below:

There is also a Carlsberg brewery here, however the less than confidence instilling slogan pursueded us not to bother visiting...

We also managed to go on a canal tour in a boat with a glass roof. We saw the sights of Kobenhavn and a bit of an explanation of things we saw. We saw the little mermaid (think Hans Christian Anderson), who has had her head stolen twice...actually the first time the police treated the act as murder! We also saw the Opera house on the water, which has 1000 seats below water level! And saw the brewery which was once used for water storage. When Denmark was invaded (by the Swedes) the university students sucessfully defended the building. It was later turned into a brewery and owing to the fact that clean water was in very short supply, army personnel were permitted 10 litres of beer each, per day!!! We also managed to say g'day to princess Mary...or at least see her pad (she wasn't home....the one on the right in the bottom photo).

We also managed to have a brief look around Christiana although it didn't feel like a particularly safe place to be so we didn't stay long. Anyone who hasn't heard of this place should look it up on the net. Basically in the 70's a heap of hippies, artists and activists broke into abandoned barracks with the idea of creating a 'free' society run for the community, with no rent, taxes etc, and stayed despite police raids. It became famous for 'pusher street', where people could freely go and buy hash, and other bits and pieces...however it later degenerated into harder drugs. After violent police confrontations in 2004, the government agreed to leave this self-declared 'independent state' stand as a social experiement...minus the drugs. Although, you can still get drugs there apparently....only its not so open in there, and no photos are permitted down pusher street. Judging by the artwork in there, you can definitely see the hippie influence!

We managed to bump into Kim and went to a beautiful all-you-can-eat Greek buffet (the second night in a row for Anita and I!). Was great to see a familiar face for the first time in months and hear the news from home.

We've now moved on to an Icelandic Horse Farm in Gronnerup, in northern Jutland....there are about 100 horses here, so Anita is going crazy! I'll leave you with a great idea that I saw in Kobenhavn, hopefully we'll have these in Australia soon...