Two years since our advertisement with a picture of Bergur and Katla were put on the wall in the riding hall of Sprettur. Tonight Bergur and Katla won the Gæðingafimi discipline in the masters league helt in the same ridinghall.

{gallery}MDFimi23Feb2017{/gallery}

First winter competition of the year in our club Sleipnir was helt yesterday, it was a tölt competition and in the open class Brynja was the winner. She was riding Goði frá Ketilsstöðum 7 years old, dam is Vænting frá Ketilsstöðum and sire Álfinnur frá Syðri Gegnishólum. Freyja was in third place riding Bylgja frá Ketilsstöðum 11 years old, dam is vakning frá Ketilsstöðum and sire is Álfasteinn frá Selfossi.

{gallery}Wintergames111Feb2017{/gallery}

Here are some pictures taken last thursday night at the first disciplin in the Masters League 2017. We had great results for our team,  Gangmyllan. All three horses got into the A finals. Elin and Frami won, Bergur and Katla got second place and Freyja and Álfastjarna got the fifth place.

Not to forget that we won the award given to team with best results in 4 gate.

{gallery}Meistaradeidlin 9.feb.2017{/gallery}

This great and promising young stallion left us a couple of days ago, he is now in his new home at Reithof Neckertal with his new owner's Sandra and Roger Scherrer. His total score in breeding is 8,38 from last spring when he was five years old. Dam is Vænting frá Ketilsstöðum and sire is Álfur frá Selfossi. His new rider is his owner Sandra Scherrer and we hope for good results in competitions in the future.

{gallery}Stefnir 19. januar 2017{/gallery}

This is Gormur from Selfoss, our first offspring of Sveinn-Hervar frá Þúfu. Gormur lives now in Gotland Sweden and is owned and trained by Sara Lundberg, who has worked here at Gangmyllan for few years. Gormur is 16 years old now and in good shape. He was breeding evaluated at 6 years old as a gelding with total score of 8,22, 9,0 for trot,spirit and expression and 8,5 for the rest except pace. 8 years old he was in the B group finals at Landsmót. This horse I bred before Sveinn-Hervar received his 1 price breeding evaluation. Since then he has given us a lot of great 4 gaters as for example Framtið, Frami, Spes, Fálmar and Gormur's full brother Gramur. We still breed with this great stallion, next year we are expecting two of his offsprings from the sisters Álfadís and Aðaldís.

{gallery}Gormur from Selfoss{/gallery}

While organizing some old photos I found those two good ones. They were taken at Landsmót 1990 in Vindheimamelar where me and Bergur go into the A finals with the exact same score, 8,70.

In the finals, Bergur and Hugmynd frá Ketilsstöðum did better with the sixth place while me and Sörli from Skjólbrekka ended in seventh place.

26 years have passed since then... 

{gallery}Gamlar myndir 5.des 2016{/gallery}

Huldumær frá Syðri Gegnishólum was the forth highest judged 4 years old mare in Iceland 2016. She got 8,01 for confirmation and 8,48 for ridden abilities, with 9,0 for tölt, spirit and expression and 9,5 for walk. Dam is Álfadís frá Selfossi and sire is Sær frá Bakkakoti.
This years she is expecting a foal with Frami frá Ketilsstöðum and the it is the plan to bring her back to training again 

{gallery}Huldumaer 10.jan 2017{/gallery}

Álffinnur and Olil were competing for Iceland on the Sweden international horse show this year. They got second place and the title "best five gaiter". It was just as nice as we had hoped. Thank you so much for inviting Olil to ride and compete Álffinnur for Iceland, on Sweden international horse show.

With the highest score from one of the three judges and a 9 for pace I'm more than happy. this was a perfect end of the competition year 2016, Ketilsstaðir/Syðri Gegnishólar.

 {gallery}Sweden international horse show- novermber 2016{/gallery}

Now that this breeding evaluation season has come to an end, it’s fun to look at the results.
This year 18 horses from our breed were breeding evaluated with good results. 17 of them 1st prized and one below. Exactly half of them were shown as four gaiters, with 5.0 for pace. It’s fun to mention that nine of these eighteen horses have both mothers and fathers bred by us.
16 were evaluated in Iceland and 2 in Germany. 9 of those who were shown in Iceland qualified for Landsmót, but we decided to show 7 of them there.
These 7 horses were shown at Landsmót and 4 of them were in the top 10 of their class. Álfarinn received 8.63 and the 7th place in the class of 7 years and older stallions, Álfastjarna received 8.43 and the 8th place in the class of 6 years old mares, Álfgrímur received 8.46 and the 6th place in the class of 5 years old stallions and Huldumær received 8.29 and the 4th place in the class of 4 years old mares.
We showed four 4 years old mares this year and all of them got 1st prize which we believe is very good.
It’s also worth mentioning the outstanding success of Álfadís frá Selfossi that achieved having offsprings in all 4 age groups in breeding classes at Landsmót. All of them were in top 10 in their class and two of them four gaited. Her son Álffinnur frá Syðri-Gegnishólum also received 1st prize for offspring and the second place at Landsmót.
Another thing that was very special is that 24% of horses in breeding classes qualified for Landsmót could be traced to Álfadís, only 16 years ago she herself was a star at Landsmót in Reykjavík four years old.
Her son Álfarinn frá Syðri-Gegnishólum was our highest judged horse this year and started off well as a breeding stallion when his oldest and only offspring born in 2012, Lygna received 8.02 in total 4 years old.
The average of our 18 horses for conformation is 8.21, for ridden abilities 8.30 and 8.27 in total. The average age is 5.5 years and 17 of 18 1st prized.

These are the evaluation results this year:

Álfarinn frá Syðri-Gegnishólum 7 years old 8,65
Katla frá Ketilsstöðum 8 years old 8,52
Stúdent frá Ketilsstöðum 6 years old 8,47
Álfgrímur frá Syðri-Gegnishólum 5 years old 8,46
Álfastjarna frá Syðri-Gegnishólum 6 years old 8,43
Fákur frá Ketilsstöðum 6 years old 8,41
Stefnir frá Ketilsstöðum 5 years old 8,38
Huldumær frá Syðri-Gegnishólum 4 years old 8,29
Tígur frá Ketilsstöðum 6 years old 8,23
Goði frá Ketilsstöðum 6 years old 8,23
Glampi frá Ketilsstöðum 5 years old 8,22
Pegasus frá Ketilsstöðum 7 years old 8,15
Meginn frá Ketilsstöðum 5 years old 8,11
Framsýn frá Ketilsstöðum 4 years old 8,10
Spurning frá Syðri-Gegnishólum 4 years old 8,08
Tesla frá Ketilsstöðum 6 years old 8,04
Lygna frá Syðri-Gegnishólum 4 years old 8,02
Heillastjarna frá Syðri-Gegnishólum 5 years old 7,98

{gallery}Breeding evaluation 2016{/gallery}

Now I am going to continue writing about the horses we showed in Landsmót and the first one I want to present for you is Mugga frá Syðri Gegnishólum. She recieved 8,18 in total score. 7,93 for confirmation, 8,35 for riding abilities and the 10th place in the 5 years old group of mares. The mother of Mugga is Mugga frá Kleifum who was the daughter og Lygna frá Kleifum and Hnokki frá Steðja. Lygna was a 4 gaited mare with 8,02 in total score and her father was Logi frá Kletti. Hnokki frá Steðja was 5 gaited with 7,88 as a total score, with 8,5 for pace and 8,07 for riding abilities.

Mugga frá Kleifum got 15 offsprings and the last one when she was 26 years old and Mugga is her next last offspring. By the age of 24 she had thirteen offsprings and hadn't had a foal in two years so we thought this was it. She was in Ketilsaðir at our farm in the east, where we raise our horses and we wanted her to stay there in her ritirement. Once we were there I saw Ljóni and I got the idea that she could spend her time there as well, one year later she had a foal that was given the name Mugga because we thought she would get white as her mother later and that she would be her last foal, both turned out to be wrong. Old Mugga has 7,56 as a total score abd 102 in blup and younger Mugga is her first offspring to recive a 1 price. This does not sound good, but her two daugthers that are in breed have boath been giving lots of first price horses, and old Mugga´s descendants are Landsmóts,Icelandic and Norwegian champions.

Yonger Mugga's father is Ljóni frá Ketilsstöðum that has 8,47 as a total score and Mugga is his oldest and first offspring to take part in a breeding judgement. Ljóni's father is Álfasteinn frá Selfossi who had 8,56 as a total score, and fulfilled the conditions for 1st prize og honor for offsprings at only 10 years old. Álfasteins mother is Álfadís frá Selfossi with 8,31 as a total score at four years old and 1st prize of honor for offsprings, his father is Keilir frá Miðsitju with a totalscore of 8,63 and 1st prize of honor for offsprings.

 Mugga is now to be bred with Glóðafeyki frá Halakoti.

Mugga from Syðri Gegnishólar  Pictures : Gangmyllan

This year we reached our goal when Álffinnur's offsprings convinced us that they were as quick, strong and promising as we thought. Our goal was to show 15 of his offsprings in evaluation, by that reaching the standards for 1st prize for offsprings at only eight years of age. 15 offsprings have been shown, two last year and thirteen new ones this year.
 One of the two shown horses last year, Vinátta, was evaluated again this year and with higher marks so there is only one valid judgment from last year that belongs to Goði frá Ketilsstöðum. Goði received 8.08 in total, including 9 for tölt and spirit.

 Three of his offsprings have been shown twice this summer, first Stúdent frá Ketilsstöðum. He is five years old and received 8.36 in total, then shown again at fjórðungsmót Stekkhólma receiving the same score and was the highest judged stallion at the show. 
The other two horses are Bjóla frá Ketilsstöðum and Ari frá Efri-Gegnishólum. Bjóla is 4 years old and started off with 7.91 and raised her score up to 7.99. Ari is 5 years old and was shown as a four gaiter at first and got 7.82 after a rather unsuccessful show. We kept on training, found the pace and showed him again receiving 8.18 where everything fell into place.

 In these 15 highest judgments are 7 five years old judgments and 8 four years old. His lowest four years old offspring is Ásbrá with 7.82 who was shown as a four gaiter this time, with 9 for slow tölt and 8,5 for tölt, spirit and form under rider.

Four of his offsprings were shown as four gaiters, five of them got from 5,5 to 6,5 for pace and six of them got from 7,5 to 8,5.

The offsprings' average score for confirmation is  8,13

                                               For ridden abilities    8,01

                                     And in average total of       8,06

Their mothers are all kinds of mares. From honorary prize mares to mares with a low judgment and mares that were never shown and have delivered little to nothing. Even though the mothers are not alike, the offsprings that we know have alot in common. They have been quick, positive, willing with good movements. The will is excelent, brave, energetic and relaxed. Their best gaites by nature are tölt and walk.

Álffinnur is a son of Orri frá Þúfu and Álfadís frá Selfossi, third of four full siblings that have all gotten good judgments at the age of four. At that age Álfur frá Selfossi got 8.26(8.06 the first time), Álffinnur got 8.24(8.04), Álfhildur frá Syðri-Gegnishólum got 8.14(7.98) and Álfgrímur got 8.11. But their highest judgments are Álfur 8,46, Álfhildur 8,52, Álffinnur 8,37 and Álfgrímur is 4 years old and has only been shown once. But the plan is to show him again next year.

Álffinnur's oldest full sibling, Álfur frá Selfossi received 1st prize for offsprings at 9 years old and honorary prize at 10 so Álffinnur's success in breeding is not a surprice to us. It's exactly what we expected because his bloodlines/pedigree have become so safe.

One of our goals in breeding is to breed horses that start of in advantage, that is to say they are mentally and  physically stronger as 4 year-old. Our way to that goal is to focus on using mainly stallions and mares that show off early, preferably 4 years old and not older than 5, because it says so much about their natural abilities. That kind of horses don't perform well without being strong by nature, most importantly strong torso, back and croup and that they are positive and enthusiastic.

I think most of us have the same goal for when they are older and more mature, simply that they at some point become great, e.g. become winners in a competition at 8-10 years old.

What we wonder about Álffinnur is wether or not this is a world record. As far as we know he is the youngest stallion to receive 1st prize for offsprings, 8 years old. At least compared to the new rules about this prize, but has it happened before compared to the old rules?

Here are all of his shown offsprings, from highest judged to lowest:

I found this nice picture of Alina and Seline from Swiss, with Júlíana frá Ketilsstöðum. They are wearing their jackets with our logo. The picture is taken last summer. Júlíana is owned by Alina and is in Swiss now. Dam is Júlía frá Ketilsstöðum and sire is Natan frá Ketilsstöðum.

{gallery}Juliana2015{/gallery}

2014 has in many ways been a great year for us, both in breedingshows and in competitions, much of what we wanted to do, our aims worked out. And I think that so far this is our best year on the breeding track. We showed 18 horses and 17 of them recieved 1. price, and half of the horsses, 9, were 4 gaters. Many of the horses got great judgements, and 9 of the showed horses got from 10,0 to 9,0 for tölt.The average score for all the horses was 8,7 for tölt. 8,4 for trot, 8,9 for spirit and 8,6 for form under rider. The average score for the 9 horses who showed pace was 8,0, but only one of our horses, Jörmuni, recieved 9,0 for pace.

Álfhildur 6 years old, got 10,0 for tölt, and three of our mares got 9,5 for slow tölt, Álfhildur and Katla 6 years old and Álfastjarna 4 years old. Frami 7 and Katla 6 years old got 9,0 for slow tölt. Eight of our horses recieved 9,0 for tölt, Álffinnur and Frami 7 years old , Katla 6, Tíbrá, Snekkja and Bóla 5 and Álfastjarna and Goði 4 years old.

Álfhildur 6 got 10,0 for spirit and her little sister Álfastjarna 4 years old got 9,5. Eight horses gor 9,0 for spirit, Álffinnur og Frami 7, Katla and Sylgja 6, Tíbrá og Bóla 5 and Goði 4 years old.

Álfhildur got 9,5 for form under rider and Frami 7,Katla and Sylgja 6, Álfarinn and Tíbrá 5 and Álfastjarna 4 years old got 9,0.

Two of our horses recieved 9,5 for walk, Frami 7 and Álfastjarna 4 years old. Jörmuni got 9,0. Three horses got 9,0 for canter, Katla and Sylgja 6 and Álfarinn 5 years old.

 Álffinnur got a good start as a breedinghorse, he is only 7 years old and two of his oldest offsprings Vinátta and Goði only four years old, got 1. price. With some great notes for gates, Goði got 9,0 fot tölt and spirit and Vinátta got 8,5 for tölt, 9,0 for canter and 9,5 for walk.

Our first price of honor mares did great as well, Álfadís had five offsprings and Ljónslöpp four offsprings participating at Landsmót, both in competitions and breeding classes.

At Landsmót three of our breedenghorses were in the top ten, Álfildur won the class of six years old mares with 8,52. Snekkja was in the forth place in the group og five years old mares and Álfastjarna was in the seventh position in the group of four years old mares.

 We also had our best year in competitions, horses from our breed managed to be eight times in the top 10 in the masters league(Meistaradeildin). We are very proud of that, the league is very tough and some of the best riders and horses came to compete.

Álfhildur won Gæðingafimi(freestyle) with the highest score given, Fálmar got second place in V1 fourgate and Frami was second in T2, tölt on loose ranes.

Simbi won T2 in the masters league of north Iceland with Elvar Einarsson as a rider.

Elin won the adult class at Sleipnir's wintercup by winning all three competitions in tölt, riding Katla and Frami.

At the open World Ranking competition held by Sleipnir, Bergur won pacetest riding Minning, Elin won V1 riding Frami, I was in second place in T1 riding Sprengja, Bergur in second place in F1 fivegate riding Strokkur and Brynja in second place in young adults class in fourgate riding Spes.

Elin and Frami won Sleipnir's qualification for Landsmót in B flokkur with a great score, therefor leaving the Landsmót winner in second place, even tho things didn't really work out at Landsmót it looked very promising.
Brynja won young adults and both qualifications riding Sprengja at the same competition.

At Landsmót we had two representatives in finals, Brynja and Sprengja went straight to A finals in young adults class and got the fifth place and Ísólfur Líndal rode B finals on Gandálfur frá Selfossi in A flokkur.

At the Icelandic championship Elin and Frami came in third in V1 fourgate.

Suðurlandsmót(South Iceland competition) also went well, three wins. Two in masters class, Fálmar won V1 and Frami won T2. Sylgja the won opend class V1 in her first competition.

Our breed has also done well this year in other countries, Mara Staubli won F1 and came in third in T2 at the Swiss Campionship along with second place in F1 and B-finals in T2 at the Mid-European championship.

Our goals in 2014 were to get higher breeding show judgments and make our horses visible on the competition tracks, we are proud to say that we stood by our goals. As for next year we plan to do the same and better. By that I mean getting an even higher percentage of our horses to breeding shows and competitions.

Síðasta keppni sumarsins fyrir okkur, kom í beinu framhaldi af síðssumssýningunni, en þarsíðsta föstudag var síðasti dagur síðssumarssýningarinnar og jafnframt fyrsti dagur suðurlandsmóts. Ég byrjaði á því að fara með Fálmar í tölt og miðað við að þetta hafi verið hans fyrsta töltkeppni var ég bara mjög ánægð með 7,23 í aðaleinkunn og sæti í B-úrslitum í meistaraflokki. Fór svo með Álffinn í fimmgang þó svo að hann hafi verið langt frá sínu besta og uppskar einkunnina 6,53 sem var þokkalegt miðað við aðstæður, en hann er langt frá því að vera í sportgírnum eftir kynbótasýningar sumarsins. En nú erum við að minnsta kosti komin með punkta til að taka þátt í meistaraflokki þegar lágmarkseinkunn þarf til. Einnig tók ég þátt í fjórgangi í opnum flokki á Sylgju frá Ketilsstöðum, en hún er bara 6 vetra gömul og var að taka þátt í sinni fyrstu keppni, forkeppni 6,97, úrslit 7,33 og 1.sætið, flott byrjun það. Síðan reið ég á Fálmari í fjórgangi meistaraflokki, forkeppni 7,47, úrslit 7,57 og 1.sætið, til gamans má geta að Fálmar og Spes móðir Sylgju eru alsystkini undan Þernu frá Ketilsstöðum og Sveini Hervari frá Þúfu. Elin ákvað að riða Frama bara í T2 að þessu sinni eftir frábært gengi á Íslandsmóti, þar sem hún og Frami enduðu í 3.sæti í fjórgangi. Enda Frami ungur, aðeins 7 vetra gamall og þegar búinn að keppa mikið á þessu ári. Mjúkur endir á keppnisárinu hjá Elinu og Frama, enda slakataumatöltið mjög svo hestvæn keppni, þau stóðu sig með prýði, forkeppni 7,30 úrslit 7,92 og 1.sætið. Okkur finnst að takmarkið okkar fyrir þetta ár hafi tekist, en það er að gera okkar ræktun meira sýnilega á keppnisvellinum.