One of the horses that have been closest to my heart was Sindri. We bought
him in Iceland from Reynir Adelssteinson in 1972 for our newborn daughter
Pernille. He was about 15 at the time and only 13:1 tall.
Reynir had found him on a remote farm where he had been used for the hardest
work of all--gathering sheep in the fall. He color was deep red like a fox.
The name Sindri means a dwarf wizard, and I found it very befitting. There
was talk of changing his name to Undri which means the miracle.
Reynir wanted to introduce Sindri to the European show scene before he gave
him up. Sindri had five great gaits, but because of his small size the
expectations of him placing high were not so great. The whole idea was more
to make him a mascot.
The long and the short of the story is that Sindri did exceedingly well and
everybody fell in love with him.
He was very goey, but still easy to ride. His greatest forte was flying
pace. His best racing times were somewhere around 20 seconds. Since the race
length was 200 meters then as opposed to 250 meters now. That would
correspond to a time of about 25 seconds. Which is pretty good.
He came with us on the plane when we came to California, and over the years
he participated in many exhibitions including the Rose Parade and won many
hearts because he was so cute and animated.
One time when Reynir had come over to California to do exhibitions with us,
the announcer made the mistake of saying we would do five gaits with a
beermug filled with beer without spilling a drop.
Neither Reynir nor I flinched. He was riding Ljoensloepp another very smooth
five-gaited mare. (At 37 she is still alive and being ridden regularly). We
did as we were told and neither of us spilled a drop.
Sindri died some years ago when he was in his late twenties. It was a very
sad day for us. He could race up a storm until the very last.
I have included a picture of Sindri in a flying pace race. It's almost an
antique. It's taken 25 years + ago
Love,
Elisabeth (and Gletta)
P.S. Sindri was definitely as strong as any other Icelandic Horse I've ever
known. I think the closer the horse's center of gravity is to the ground,
the more stable his (and as a result the rider's) balance will be. And yes,
Sindri was great at team penning too. On his second attempt he did a one on
one (one cow, one horse and rider) in 14 seconds--At the same event Gletta
did it in 8.)
