Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Tjaldur- moves with stiff legs (horse or oystercatcher)

In a previous post, LS showed a oystercatcher stamp. In the discussion we started wondering about the Icelandic/faroyan name of the bird Tjaldur. See more about the explanation in LS post. Here is a horse in pace with very stiff legs and a painted icelandic horse named Tjaldur frá Holum.


















PS I couldn´t resist to blog some more horserelated stuff...

EH

7 comments:

LS said...

We just broke the 400-post barrier on this blog!

In the first photo looks like the horse legs are made out of steel or something, incredible stiff legs. Is it a bumpy ride?

The horse in the second photo, no wonder he was named Tjaldur, his markings look just like an oyster catcher! Compare him with the stamp on the post below.

snitselfolald said...

Hi
this horse is showing flying pace. The ride is bumpier than toelt, but still not as bumpy as trot. Flying pace is breathtaking to ride, and the horse does not have stiff legs, but extends them very well.
Tjaldur fra Holum is a very good stallion who now lives in the USA. The names of Icelandic horses usually have a meaning relating to either the color of the horse, or circumstances under which it was born, or depicting its character, etc.
E.g. I have a horse called Alfur which means elf or sweet character. When he was little he was very ill and if you looked in the pasture you would not notice him, he was almost see-through. He is also a very very sweet, well-mannered horse. So this is why he was called Alfur. Another name that would have been appropriate would have been Ofeigur, which means "one who wants to survive"...after he survuved a severed illness. Or he could have been called Krummi, or Hrafn, both names meaning raven, since he is a black horse.

O.K. said...

One can really see why it is called flying pace/flygande pass.

IceRyder said...

It is very interesting to study the legs of Icelandic Horses; conformation, anatomy, and biomechanics.

Here's some information and a video:

http://community.eidfaxi.is/blogs/iceryder/

LS said...

I think the Icelandic have a smarter and more humane way of naming horses than the Americans. I have heard names similar to "Colorprint", "Hells' Flying Arrow", "Boisterous Superhero", and "Cutiepie" around here. I much prefer the tradition that leads to names like Krummi (except that sounds like the legs are crummy), Tjaldur or Alfur! Those are real things.

AREA, next time you go to Sweden you will have to ask EH if you can go and ride icelandic ponies. You have been riding for years and never done a toelt! Or a flying pace for that matter... Can all horses do the flying pace? Or only icelandic ponies?

EH said...

No, not all horses can pace, the military thought it was an "error" and bred it out of the horses. There are other horseraces that can tolt and pace though, some south-american, some american. One of the races is called Paso, this I know.

Not all icelandic horses pace either, their pace-gene is not strong enough. Because of this you speak of 4-gaited and 5-gaited icelandic horses. Tolt and pace is like "cream on the mash" or "grädde på moset", swedish expression for something extra that makes it better.

I like to see new people commenting om the blog, welcome.

EH

O.K. said...

How about these names? Hot Tub, Order By Fax, Born at last, Little Brown Jug, Questionmark, Jobbig Sand, Töjeksperten, Nisse Knife...
These are names of swedish race horses, the list of crazy names just goes on.