Cold Spirit Riding Tours AY

Cold Spirit Riding Tours AY Finland

Introduction

In the Western part of Finnish Lapland, close by the Swedish border and about 35km under the pool circle , close to Portimojärvi (lake) and surrounded by the Finnish forest. Nature is here still as it should be. Animals like foxes, moose, reindeers are here quit normal. In the forest are several sources with cold and clean water and it’ s hard to avoid a dive in the cold lake!. Ylitornio en Overtornea (Sweden) are two villages with shops. 10 minutes driving by car will bring people to the highest mountain of this area, the Aavasaksavaara. It’ s a beautiful place with a wonderful view and in winter a popular skiing mountain. In Lapland, the winters are long and very cold, but also very special.

Rovaniemi is the place where Santa Claus lives. In the summer Lapland is also special, because the sun shines 24 hours a day. In this time it’ s possible to make trips in the night! In the autumn there a lot of berries and mushrooms and the nature is very beautiful with her colours.

We are :

We are Rob and Natascha Rijkens and we moved in May 2004 to Finnish Lapland. We wanted to change our lives totally after a few holidays and working holidays to this wonderful country. We worked many times at a husky farm and learned how to deal with the cold weather and how to survive in nature. When we arrived at our place, we started immediately to build up everything and went to the Southern part of Finland to look for trusted and experienced Icelandic horses. In August 2004, our Icelandic horses arrived in our places and we started our business ”Cold Spirit Riding Tours AY” officially at the 21st of August 2004.

Rob has a lot of experience with survival programs because of his hobby: scouting. He also know a lot about nature and history of this area.

Natascha has been riding horses from her 4th year and took part in many show jumping and dressage competitions in Holland. Because of the sickness of her horse, she quit and decided to learn to ride a new kind of horse: The Icelandic Horse! At the moment we have 5 Icelandic horses, 2 Finn horses, and 1 KWPN Dutch horse, which we took with us from Holland. Other animals we have are: A Lappish dog and 2 cats.

Feel welcome to visit our place and enjoy a wonderful time at a wonderful place with kind people....Tervetuloa!!! (Welcome)

Our Icelandic Horses are:

Ofeigur , Fifill , Litli-Mosi, Blaer, Lokkandi and Smjörvi

All our horses are very experienced. We think it’s important that our horses are trusted and that they have also fun during the tours. Our horses can handle the cold winters easily outside. Also the sometimes difficult tracks are no problem for them. We use normal forest roads to ride, but also tracks made by reindeers in the forest and swamp.

Icelandic horse offer more than just walk, trot and canter. Next to these so called basic gaits, an Icelandic can do something extra for his rider: Tölt and the lightening-fast pace. Icelandics can tölt in addition to walk, trot and canter. Horses with these four gaits are termed “four-gaited,” those who have the additional talent for flying pace are called “five-gaited.” Cold Spirit has only 4-gaited Icelandic horses.

Tölt

Speed Pace

The tölt can be seen, heard and felt. A tölting Icelandic carries his head and neck proudly elevated and a visible wave of energy flows through his tail. Even though it seems that the horse’s legs are moving wildly, the rider is sitting as quietly and happily as if on a sofa in front of the TV. So come and enjoy this wonderful horse!!

Icelandic horses are very strong, but anyway, we have to say that there is a maximum of weight of 90 kilo’s and for some horses 100 kilo

Icelandic horses are not typical horses for children to ride, but also specially for adults. In Iceland everybody rides Icelandic horse, whole families go for a ride all together!

Our Finnhorses (Suomen hevonen) are : Hilsun Jössi & Rokki Iitu

We are very proud to tell that we have found our first Finnhorse, his name is Hilsun Jössi, gelding and 9 years old. He is 1,55 high. He has to learn a lot, but we are planning to take him with us for the first longer tours with guests in 2008. Jössi is very friendly and like people very much.

Our second Finnhorse is Rokki Iitu, mare and 11 years old. She is 1,60 high. She has to learn a lot, but we are planning to take her with us for the first longer tours with guests in 2008. Iitu is very friendly and like people very much, she is also very pleased with our other male horses.

KWPN horse: Kentucky

At Cold Spirit place, we have also a Dutch horse which we brought with us from Holland. He is already part of our family for 10 years, so we decided to take him with us to Finland when we moved. Our Dutch KWPN horse which we don’t use for our guests, is Kentucky. He is very friendly and enjoy his relaxing life in Lapland. He has been a show jumping and dressage horse before, but is now enjoying his retirement at our place.

The accommodation

Cold Spirit Riding Tours is situated directly at the forest and there is a lake beach with sauna and grilli kota at about 500mtrs. In summer we can swim with the horses!

At our place, we have two bedrooms, 1 with double bed and 1 with 4 bunk-beds. Our clients share together a small bathroom and can shower and have sauna in the big bathroom in our house. We have also a grilli kota to drink and eat and enjoy the relaxed feeling of Lapland at the open fire. Other things we have at our place are meadows, stable, trainings circle and a paddock. In wintertime we have about 50/60 reindeers next to our house. During our trips, we use old Lappish cottages or tent in the forest to spend the nights. One of the cottages, is more luxury at a lake and with a wonderful sauna.

Dinners

We serve during the holidays typical Lappish food in combination with other food. For example, we serve reindeer meat, salmon, other kinds of fish, moose meat but also pasta, salads, normal meat and so on. The last evening before departure, the guests can choose their goodbye dinner.

Weather circumstances

Because the weather in Lapland can change very fast and because it can be really cold here, we must be able to decide not to go for riding. It can be too dangerous for riders and horses. It goes without saying that we offer an alternative program without extra costs.

Contact

Cold Spirit Riding Tours AY: Tanssilanssintie 16
95655 Etelä Portimojärvi: Finland
Phone +358 16 677414: Mobile +358 45 6315916
Mobile +358 45 6315926
coldspirit@co.inet.fi