The last weeks have been a bit crazy. I’ve had a lot to do, and a lot of different things happened in my private life that I needed to take care of.
Three weeks ago, I went to Jutland to visit the three horses I have there. Grani is in Nykøbing Mors at Stutteri Legind covering mares, my former competition mare Gjóla is in Skjern, at Stutteri Debelmose which is owned by Søren Madsen, where she got a foal and Glódís my oldest friend was in Århus with a girl who was borrowing her. And just her, is whom this post will be about.
Glódís frá Tungu which is her full name, was one of my first competition horses I started to do well with. She was born in 1993 and was after the famous stallion Kolfinnur frá Kjarnholtum and a mare called Glóð frá Tungu. We bought her cheap from my uncle in 2004, who was also the one that exported her from Iceland. She had a good tölt with good movements and was judged with 8,5 for that. She was bad ridden, but at that time she was one of the best horses I had ever ridden. At the time, I tried her, I was only used to fivegaiters where the tölt came pretty easy, and Glódís, she was fourgaited and was not able to carry herself at all. She fell into trot all the time and was very heavy on the bit. I knew the moment I tried her, that she was supposed to be mine even though I was not able to ride her.
This is how a long adventure started.
Not a long time after we bought her, I got a riding teacher who could help me ‘re-educate’ her. I started some easy competitions on her and we became better and better together. She was a horse with a very big personality, and she showed that from the first day. When things took too long she would stand in the stable and bang her hoof against the floor until she got attention or food. If that didn’t work, she would try to untie herself or she would start to yawn heavily. She was the type of horse who had enough in herself. I tried many times to learn her tricks and other fun things, but Glódís was always clever enough to figure out what would benefit her most in the end, which almost always made her not doing what I wanted her to do. She was like that when I rode her as well. When there was something she knew for sure was going to kill her, she would turn around. Not once or twice, but sometimes five or six times. Once she got so scared of a snowman in the forest that she ended up turning around and ran into an area in the forest where the branches were hanging so low, that I ended up falling off, and Glódís, well she ran deep into the forest, leaving me alone with the murderous snowman (ha ha…) It was the same if she came by an electric fence that was clicking. She really had a huge personality, and she made everyone who met her fall in love with her, because she was so charming - sometimes in a really annoying way, making it impossible to get mad at her.
She was the first horse that really gave me a taste of riding competitions.
In the fall of 2005 it got serious when we won the Danish Championships in Unglingaflokkur (GDT). Right after the championships I found out that The Nordic Championships was going to be in Denmark the year after. In that moment, I decided I wanted to ride there. No one ever told me, it was hard to get selected for the Danish National Team, and I think that was just my luck.
Every second week I got riding lessons by my Riding Instructor, Lotte Fensmark Bentzen and Glódís and I developed a lot together. In most of the competition we went to, we went straight to the finals or got rewarded as best junior rider. When I look back now, I had a stubbornness and crazy drive to be just the best we could be. I wasn’t ever looking at how the other riders did, or what people were thinking about me (I know now, a lot of people never thought we would get that far) and I think that helped me ‘focusing on the target’. It ended out being a pretty good season and at my first Danish Championship in sport, Glódís and I went straight into two finals I V1 and T1 among some quite good and experienced riders, and no one really knew who I was. We ended up winning a shared Bronze-medal in T1 and a fourth place in V1. After the finals, we got selected for the Nordic Championships which was going to be in Herning. This might sound a bit arrogant, but I never doubted one second that we were going to get a spot on the team.
Sometimes when I think back, I envy that ability I had back then, to shut everyone else out and just believe that her and I were the very best and only our imagination could make boundaries for our success together.
She wasn’t by far a Nordic- or world champion and together we hadn’t a chance against all those amazing horses which participated at the Nordic championships, even in the Juniors class. But she taught me a lot and after the NC, I developed a lot as a rider and it made me work harder to do even better at the competitions.
Glódís was retired as a competition horse after the Danish championships in 2010 and we got three fine offsprings after her. Unfortunately, she was breeding very small offsprings, so after the second one she got, we decided to retire her as a breeding mare as well.
Suddenly last year my mom was asked by a colleague in Jutland if we knew someone who had a good beginners horse for her daughter. My mom immediately thought about Glódís. A lot of different people had tried her through the years and she was always sweet and easy – most of the time ;) haha. After haven’t been riding her for 7 years she got shoes on and I tried her in our ridinghall. She was better than ever. A few days after Lise and Lea came and tried her and I saw and instant connection between Lea and Glódís. After that it was settled. Glódís was going to enjoy her retirement with Lea, who I knew would love her as much as I did. I didn’t want to sell her though, so Lea ‘only’ got to borrow her.
One and a half year went by and as I said, I went to visit her in the beginning of August. As expected she did very well, and all the people at the new place she was staying at, had of course fallen in love with her. I took some time in silence where I just hugged her and cuddled her, because as I said to Signe who went with me, this could be the last time I saw her. Even though she was 25 it wasn’t a thought that had come to my mind before I went to Jutland to see her. It was a thought that just came to me while I was cuddling her. Like it was a message from her, that I had to say goodbye now. It sounds pretty silly I know. I looked back at her a couple of times when we went back to the car, and in my mind, I said goodbye to her when we drove away.
Only ten days after I went to Sweden to watch the Nordic Championships with two friends, while I got a text from my mother that Glódís was sick. Immediately I remembered the instant thought I got when I saw her in Århus. My mom though, she had a good feeling and was sure that she would get back on her feed fast. And she did. Hours later a new text popped up on my phone, telling that Glódís was doing okay again.
I had some great days watching the championship, thinking back on the three times I have had the honour to represent Denmark at the Nordic Championships with Glódís, Gjóla and Glæsir.
In the second the last final had ended, I got a phone call from my mother, who had come to Sweden only the last day to watch the finals. She was sitting on the other side of the oval track, and had apparently spend half of the amazing fivegait final, talking on the phone with the vet who had exanimated Glódís when she got sick. Glódís was dead.
It turned out that the vet had discovered an abnormality when he was making a rectal examination the first day she got sick, and told Lea and Lise that they had to let their own vet check her again the day after. He found the same abnormality. It was a tumour. And at the moment my mom got the phone call Glódís was so sick, that she had just shut down mentally. My mom had to give the vet the final words and let my best friend through 14 years have piece. So, when she called me, Glódís was already gone.
I watched the closing ceremony, crying and thinking back of how it all started. This was a beautiful way to memorialise my dear friend and think back on our amazing adventure together.
Even though she wasn’t home the last 18 months, I feel a complete emptiness. I will never ever forget that idiot. She was the funniest, most stubborn and amazing horse and I feel so grateful to have had her in my life. I will forever carry her and all our memories together in my heart, knowing that one day we will be reunited.
Thank you, Glódís <3
