Húni – The Golden Wonder Horse
Now, just what is a Húni? A Húni is a mild mannered, Clark Kent sort of a horse; he’s very bendy; he drinks beer; he eats crisps; he goes fast; he goes slow; he does what he is asked; he’s always happy to oblige; he’s the perfect gelding; every family should have one. If he could only cook a decent fillet steak then my days as the number one hombre around here would certainly be numbered.
Húni came our way back in 2002 as Icelandic Riding Horse #2 – SWMBO had been enjoying Hetja for a while and figured that it may be an idea to have another one to play about with – little was I to know that this would be the start of a collection of equines kind of along the lines of Emelda Marcos’ penchant for things sized two and a half – but, still riding ‘big’ horses, I made a passing joke along the lines of ‘that’ll be nice dear, one for each foot’. Húni was one of a number of horses that we looked at and as soon as he batted his long lashes and did his little cute ears out at the side thing – Fiona was smitten. (Please note – I have tried to emulate the lash batting and ears out thing in a vain attempt to get into the good books of SWMBO at various times – it does not work).
On arrival Húni was being restarted after a lay off – so whilst he was six years old, he had not done too much and tölt was a strange gait as far as he was concerned. Fiona took things gently with him and concentrated on developing strength and suppleness – in late 2003 tölt began to take off – assisted by Andrea Addison at one of her courses held at Fillybook Farm – soon Húni was tölting merrily along the lanes at a fair rate of knots. He is Fiona’s first choice horse to take anywhere to do anything as his temperament is entirely unflappable and sweet – were it possible to clone any of our horses as a family horse – then he would be the candidate.
Recently, due to a rabid bout of hestakaup, a thrown shoe and pregnancy (equine – not human) I found myself horseless whilst SWMBO had three that were firing on all four – I was deeply honoured to be allowed to test drive Golden Wonder Boy for the first time since he had learned to tölt – he is, indeed, worthy of the moniker (but I think that Fiona’s coaching may also have an awful lot to do with it too)
In August 2005, Fiona returned from the 2005 World Championships in Sweden fired with enthusiasm and with her eye on Jorð. A few weeks previously a prospective buyer for Gæla had been over and fell in love with Húni – Fiona decided that maybe it was now time that Húni should be allowed to grow up and leave home. So he is now living in the lap of luxury with his very own human just on the other side of Dartmoor – he’s also only a few minutes away from his half brother Reifur and the two of them have already scheduled a meet on the moor.
