Meet Hetja - the pocket rocket aka the Ginja Ninja. She was our first Icelandic - prior to her I'd only heard of Iceland in terms of 'The Cod War' and the guy that used to compere Mastermind - so, when Fiona told me that we'd bought an Icelandic Horse - Steed of the Vikings; the Mount of Magni - Son of Thor; War Horse of Heroes - I had visions of a huge, black, fire breathing beast.

Shortly thereafter we picked up Hetja from Nick - as the ramp came down from Nick's lorry I spotted a bright chestnut foal "Goodness" I thought "two for the price of one" - happy Scotsman. However, as the foal was led down the ramp to beacoup cuddles from Fiona and I spotted the lack of 'mummy' , the light dawned - a 12.3hh war horse? Blimey! Those Vikings must have been tiny chappies.

The following six months were interesting to say the least. Most of them I spent trying to catch up Hetja from on board either a cob or a TB x . Then Húni arrived and I had even more catching up to do! Eventually I succumbed to The Evil Empire Of The Icelandics and I became Gæla's human.

Mid 2004 and I finally inherited Hetja - SWMBO moving on to start Elding. So - just what did I get my sticky mitts on? Hetja was the sort of horse that was quite happy to toddle along with anybody on her back - but when old electric pants here got on - what fun! She had plenty of tölt at slow/medium speeds but compensated for the lack of fast tölt with her trot - boy, did she move. Go up a gear and you got - more trot! Fantastic stuff until you discovered that she also had an elastic canter gallop.

Late 2006 and we parted company with Hetja who went off to live with Harry (the horse) and Charlie (her new human) in Dorset.

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