in a pinto mare that he bought from Gerðar in Austur-Landeyjar. At the time the mare was fiveyears-old and had had three foals already! I said yes to Sæli and got the mare to Reykjavík. In the beginning she showed no signs of being talented since she lacked muscles, only went around in a very pacy tölt and barely had any leg action. So I usually trained her early in the mornings so as few people as possible would see me riding her. This went on for weeks and I didn’t think she would grow at all. In March I am out riding Sæla and passing the riding hall in Víðidalur, which had newly been built. There were some kind of loud construction going on and it was like she suddenly woke up from a Sleeping Beauty sleep! She begins to stamp down in pure tölt with amazingly high leg action and it just gave me goosebumps to experience this change! I just sat there afraid to move and we kept on going for about two kilometers. Then I stopped, got off and walked back to the stables because I wanted to leave her happy and calm after this special experience of ours. This was a turning point in the training, and she started to show me all her amazing abilities from that point on. We had great times together, she is a huge part in my success as a rider and is unforgettable to me. Ársæll and I bred her son together, Sær frá Bakkakoti, sired by Orri frá Þúfu. Sær is quite the unique horse like his mother and has proven to be a successful stallion”.
The Horse School After a few good years in Víðidalur Hafliði decided to change things up and move his horse business out of the urban area. The winter from 1997-1998 he had a training center in Langholt í Flóa, near the town Hveragerði. The following winter he moved again and took a part in a new project. 72
„Örn Karlsson was building a great facility at Ingólfshvoll in Ölfus and following that people started to think about how that facilty could be used to make the equestrianism in Iceland better. It was then that the idea of a horse school came up, Hestaskólinn á Ingólfshvoli. We thought of The Horse School as an economic choice compared to Hólaskóli, Hólar University. The studies at Hólaskóli were certainly detailed but also time consuming and expensive. We had this idea of a three-month long course which we would compress the curriculum and give young people the chance to get to know all sides of equestrianism without having to commit to a school for many years. We had amazing professionals with great experience join our team. I can name a few like Atli Guðmundsson, Olil Amble, Þórður Þorgeirsson, Einar Öder Magnússon, advisor Ágúst Sigurðsson and veterinarian Páll Stefánsson. We had a lot of courage and registrations for the school exceeded our expectations.“ The winter from 1998-1999 was the first operating winter of The Horse School and Hafliði says that it went well despite having to deal with some difficulties in the beginning. In the fall of 1999 some students declared how dissatisfied they were with Hafliði‘s teaching strategies and harsh training of the young horses which were used for teaching. This got to the media and started up some pretty heated discussion. To sum it up a reconciliation was made in order for the school to be able to keep on operating. This reconciliation consisted of Hafliði withdrawing from day-to-day teaching for the most part. The School did unfortunately not manage to survive these accusations and was shut down in 2000. „If I had known beforehand how things would
