Interview “He is my best friend”

Hulda Finnsdóttir hulda@eidfaxi.is

Viktoría Huld Hannesdóttir is a 10 year old horse girl, who is raised in the stable with her mom, dad and two siblings, Katla Dís and Brynjar Bjarmi.

Viktoría is a fan of all animals and knows nothing more fun than to go horseback riding.

Ihave been riding horses since I can remember. My first horse was named Spori and he was rather lazy. I now have two good mares that are named Snót and Agla. I have trained Agla since she was five years old and I want to show her myself in FIZO one day,” says Viktoría Huld who was lived in Skagafjörður until she was one year old, then she moved to Reykjavík for one year and back to Skagafjörður where she lived for three years, when her mother was learning at the University at Hólar.

“I started to go to riding seminars at Sauðárkrókur when I was five years old. I rode our stallion Steinar frá Stíghúsi, who was also just five years old. Noone noticed that he was a stallion because he was really calm. I train him a lot and maybe I can compete on him next year. When my mom had finished Hólar we moved again to Reykjavík but a year ago we moved to Ás 2 which is located in the south of Iceland, near Hella, and I am hoping we never move again. I love it here. There are a lot of kids here my age that are also interested in horses and animals. I was at a riding seminar this winter and tomorrow I’m going to Leirubakki for a horse riding summer camp with my friends.”

One of a kind Þinur

Viktoría Huld riding the stallion

Þinur frá Enni was on of the most memorable show at the Stóðhestaveislan that Eiðfaxi held last spring. Þinur is a first prize stallion and Viktoría’s favorite horse.

“He is my best friend, he is so sweet and always listens to me. This fall I got to ride him alone for the first time and I have been training him since. My mom has been helping me with him and I also took some riding lessons from Sigvaldi Lárus Guðmundsson, Flosi Ólafsson and Brynja Kristinsdóttir,” says Viktoría who enjoyed very much riding at the Stóðhestaveislan.

“My mom, dad and I decided to show three stallions at Stóðhestaveislan. That was really fun, I rode inside the riding hall ahead of them and the audience started clapping so much I got a little bit shy.

Þinur didn’t want to trot or show the spanish walk that we had practiced so I just decided to ride him in tölt.”

First year competing

Viktoría and Þinur have started their competition career together but Viktoría is finally old enough to start competing in childrens class.

“We won tölt T7 at the Reykjavíkur championship and then we competed at Fjórðungsmót which was a really fun road trip. We saw some reindeers and went swimming in the Lagarfljót. I made the finals and me and Þinur were doing great but then we accidentally took a turn on to the sports oval track so we had to leave the finals. I was very sad when it happened, it was not his fault he just misread my signals. I didn’t want Þinur to become sad so I picked up some carrots for him from the car and told him that everything would be okay, he did his best.”

Horse, fish and guinea pig breeder

Viktoría goes to school at Laugarland which she likes a lot but she has many friends there who share the same interest in horses. “When I come home I have something to eat and then go to the stable to train my horses, feed my guinea pigs and rabbits or I play with my friends. Then I eat dinner and go to sleep. Sometimes I do some chores to help out at home. We live on a farm and during the summer I sometimes wake up and go straight outside to herd the are running free. That’s always fun,” says Viktoría horses home. We often go on horse trips and me and my cousin Una Björt ride like cowboys in full speed gallop before or after the horses that

Viktoría has a lot of interest in breeding whether it’s guinea pigs, fishes or horses. “I own a mare that’s called Emelía Huld which I got when I was three years old and I picked out the name myself. I wanted one offspring after Þinur so I covered her with him this summer and I’m hoping to get a black mare with blaze, because then I’m going to try to exchange the foal for Þinur frá Enni but my mom owns him,” says Viktoría but her dream horse is a black mare with blaze, socks and blue eyes.

Viktoría has big dreams for the future but she wants to win Landsmót and make the national team to compete at a World Championship.

“I also want to become as good as or even better than Olil Amble in riding gæðingalist,” says Viktoría finally.