Ice Tölt

Personally I’ve always thought of ice as something to be avoided (unless, of course, it is garnishing a gin & tonic) so when it was mooted that there was

going to be a UK based Tölt on Ice competition I was immediately reminded of a famous Disney cartoon character from the days of my youth – and no, I’m not talking about Goofy despite the similarities we both share. However, it was for real and, after a lot of to and fro, here and there, up and down, in and out and so on and so forth the organisers – Doris & Laura – managed to convince Planet Ice in Basingstoke that this was a serious suggestion and not something that they’d dreamt up over a wee noggin one dark, winter night.

Fiona and Jörð were invited and I was offered a ride on Vala – one of the horses provided for the competition by Mandy & Smári at Edda Hestar. We duly tripped off to Basingstoke on the Saturday morning not quite really sure what we were getting ourselves into.

Altogether just over twenty horses converged on the arena – there was a ridden display team of six Icelanders (on UK based horses) and sixteen competitors for the actual tölt competition. So, what fancy shoes, skates, crampons or snowshoes did we need for the big day?

Not a lot (surprisingly).

Normal shoes each tapped out in both heels to take a threaded stud – Fiona used standard UK road studs (half inch wide) with a tungsten tip – total height just 10mm. At the venue we were further equipped with two extended road nails in the toe of each shoe (these replaced the standard nails) and had maybe 5 – 7 mm raised heads. Together with the studs these provided the horses with a good grip on the ice.

So, kitted out with the ironmongery, we clattered off to the ice rink for our first, and only, practice. Fiona and I wandered onto the rink and had a breathless few minutes together (well, we are married) until we realised that the horses were actually pretty chilled about the whole thing (you just KNEW I was going to get that bit in!). All too soon it was off to get into the glad rags and line up for the event itself.

(I was quite chuffed to find out that I had scrubbed up so well that Trish mistook me for an Icelander - not my usual, scruffy self y'see).

The whole thing went quite swimmingly really. Vala was a little (hairy) peach and tootled along quite nicely for me – after a couple of rounds I sussed out that we could actually corner at a reasonable speed and I was just getting into the hang of it when we were all done, finished, back to the dressing room and my three minutes of glory were over (not bad for what ended up as an eighteen hour day). Early bath for us as we didn’t make the cut but it did give me a chance to watch some of the other riders after the interval.

There was an audience of a thousand plus which, when you were on the ice behind the perspex wall designed to stop ice hockey pucks entering a low orbit, was not immediately obvious as you could not hear very much of anything in there – sitting amongst them for the B Final I realised what a noisy lot they were.

Fiona had qualified for the B Final and I got a good view of her playing ‘tag’ with Mike in the speed changes – any doubts as to the sure – footedness of the tölt had gone and everybody was stepping out in a lively fashion. The winner of the B Final was Víðar Halldorsson from Iceland riding one of Mandy & Smári’s young horses – Dinni. Fiona and Jörð came in third.

I was only able to watch the first round of the A Final (slow tölt) and it was apparent that it was likely to be a close thing as there were six very capable riders on the ice. I later discovered that Smári had came first followed by Jemimah and then Fi.

Personally I would rate the event as a total blast (kind of a non-extreme, extreme sport if you know what I mean) – Robin Cousins, eat your heart out - prior to the day I heard some criticism of using the horses in this fashion on the ice as it could lead to injures – I think there is more chance of injuring a horse hacking out on the UK roads than there ever was at Planet Ice.

Thanks must go to all concerned – Laura & Doris for organising, Smári for providing lots of horses, all the volunteers for their unstinting help in getting things started and keeping them going (if you saw a wee, green blur zooming about it would have been one of those guys) and a big pat on the back for all the riders who all had to travel a fair distance to put on the show.

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